Mitch Joel's Blog: Six Pixels of Separation, page 346
October 3, 2011
Online Advertising's Greatest Trick
The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist.
The greatest trick online advertising ever pulled was convincing the world that a direct response didn't exist. Do you remember when we called them "banner ads"? You don't hear them called that anymore. Most new media professionals call them "display advertising." Why? When people think of banner advertising, they think of the early days of online advertising and the promise that people like me (and many of my peers) brought to the media mix. That promise? Finally, we have an ad unit that we can truly measure. We can measure it in terms of impressions served, people who clicked on them and then what they did (the point of conversion). We can also target those ads to the exact spaces that the brand wanted... as niche as we could go (even down to a keyword!). In essence, we had a true advertising unit. One we could measure from the cradle to the grave and it was going to change the world.
Whoops.
It turned out that the general public didn't necessarily fall in love with banner advertising. Yes, we can blame things like technology and the limitations of both serving and delivering a message with impact. Yes, we can blame the online publisher's for cluttering pages with way too many of these messages in way too many different formats. Yes, we can blame the creatives for pushing banners that asked us to punch a monkey or the ones that were blinking to the point of inducing spasms. Whoever you blame, banner advertising stiffed. And yet, in all of that, banner advertising is still one of the leading online marketing opportunities for Marketers to this day. With billions of eyeballs online, why not just prop up a banner ad on a page to get noticed? Who cares if it generates a click or an action? In fact, maybe a banner ad is all about the branding effect? It was this line of thinking that propelled the industry to pull a PR spin and change the name from "banner advertising" to "display advertising."
Does online advertising deliver a true branding effect?
It seems like the clicks and conversations that we typically used to measure online advertising efficacy aren't as important as the more basic metric of impressions served. This is an interesting shift/trend. Late last week, MediaPost, ran the news item, Display Advertising Shifts From Direct Response To Branding Media. The title alone is enough to terrify the more traditional online marketers (and yes, I include myself in this lot). If the impetus for advertising online is branding instead of a direct response, where does this leave us? According to the news item: "The Digital Advertising 2011: A Portrait of Conflict study released by Collective finds that 57% of agencies believe the majority of their display objectives are to build the brand, yet only 11% cite ad creative as critical to the campaign's success. Still, 60% of agencies cite brand recall and intent to purchase as the most important measures of online success. However, clicks and conversions remain the key criteria agencies say they use to evaluate media, according to the Collective study."
Are the brands just kidding themselves?
If the brands only care about building brand through brand recall and intent to purchase, why even care about metrics like the clickthrough rate and/or conversions? Why not stand up and say, "online advertising is all about blasting a message in front of people's eyeballs!" Much in the same way a billboard, magazine ad or TV ad interrupts the media experience? The challenge and sorrow that I feel is that it can be used for something so much more. Look at Google AdWords as an example: the advertising compliments, is valuable and doesn't interfere with the overall content experience. While I understand that display advertising has both underperformed and was then been pushed to the point where bigger and bigger takeover ads completely interfered with the user experience, I'm not sure that consumers have to accept this as a gateway to free content.
We can do better.
This is an amazing time to be a marketing professional. We have a tremendous opportunity. Right here. Right now. We can decide that display advertising can be better. It's up to us. If we don't, we let the traditional marketers win. We let mass media win. We allow them to simply blast messages in every nook and cranny of the Web as if it just another mass media channel. In fact, the greatest trick that online advertising could ever pull is to convince the world that great advertising can exist.
...And it should.
Tags:
ad creative
ad unit
advertising measurement
banner advertising
brand recall
branding effect
branding media
collective
content experience
digital advertising
direct response
display advertising
free content
google adwords
impressions
intent to purchase
keyword
marketer
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mass media
media mix
mediapost
new media
new media professional
online advertising
online creative
online publisher
pr spin
technology
October 2, 2011
Seth Godin Is Weird
Episode #273 of Six Pixels of Separation - The Twist Image Podcast is now live and ready for you to listen to.
Seth Godin is more than a Marketer's Marketer, he's quickly becoming a major book publisher that is making the other major book publisher's nervous. He threatened to re-invent the book publishing business earlier this year with The Domino Project (powered by Amazon) and, with close to ten titles already released (all of the best-sellers), he has yet to disappoint. It turns out, that publishing other business book authors has also inspired him to write even more. His latest book, We Are All Weird, is a blunt look at the end of mass media and what this all means to marketers still scrambling to save traditional advertising (hint: it ain't pretty). As usual, Seth is insightful, funny and always provocative (part of the reason each and every one of his own books are consistent best-sellers). Enjoy the conversation...
You can grab the latest episode of Six Pixels of Separation here (or feel free to subscribe via iTunes): Six Pixels of Separation - The Twist Image Podcast #273.
Tags:
advertising
all marketers are liars
amazon
bite size edits
blog
blogging
blue sky factory
book oven
cast of dads
cc chapman
chris brogan
christopher s penn
david usher
digital dads
digital marketing
facebook
free prize inside
hugh mcguire
in over your head
itunes
julien smith
librivox
linchpin
managing the gray
marketing
marketing over coffee
meatball sundae
media hacks
new marketing labs
online social network
permission marketing
podcast
podcasting
poke the box
pressbooks
purple cow
seth godin
six pixels of separation
small is the new big
social media 101
social media marketing
strategy
survival is not enough
the big moo
the big red fez
the bootstrappers bible
the dip
the domino project
tribes
trust agents
twist image
unleashing the ideavirus
we are all weird
October 1, 2011
Six Links Worthy Of Your Attention #67
Is there one link, story, picture or thought that you saw online this week that you think somebody you know must see?
My friends: Alistair Croll (BitCurrent, Year One Labs, GigaOM, Human 2.0, the author of Complete Web Monitoring and Managing Bandwidth: Deploying QOS in Enterprise Networks), Hugh McGuire (The Book Oven, LibriVox, iambik, PressBooks, Media Hacks) and I decided that every week or so the three of us are going to share one link for one another (for a total of six links) that each individual feels the other person "must see".
Check out these six links that we're recommending to one another:
Strata New York 2011: John Rauser, "What is a Career in Big Data?" "Amazon's John Rauser gives a thought-provoking presentation (and he was only one of the great presenters, along with Mark Madsen, Panos Ipeirotis, Mike Nelson, Simon Wardley, and plenty of others; it's hard to choose). In the end, I picked John's session because it reminded me of James Burke's amazing Connections series, weaving history, humor, and nerd chic into one superb speech." (Alistair for Hugh).
Strata Summit 2011: Cory Doctorow, "Designing for Human Sensors, Not Human Barcodes" . "The speakers at last week's Strata conference were astonishingly good. Speaking for humanity, is Cory Doctorow. I'd never met him in person; he's intimidatingly technical, surprisingly human, and refreshingly approachable despite these. He did a great job of grounding otherwise esoteric discussions of data privacy in very personal terms. Well worth watching." (Alistair for Mitch).
What Do Organisms Mean? - The New Atlantis . "A lovely and challenging essay about the meaning of life, sort of." (Hugh for Alistair).
The Convictions of Conrad Black - Vanity Fair . "Love him or hate him, disgraced ex-Canadian ex-press baron Conrad Black is one hell of a character. He's going back to jail." (Hugh for Mitch).
Spirit of the Time - Ray Kurzweil at Zeitgeist Americas 2011 . "While Alistair was at the Strata conference, I spent the early part of my week at Google Zeitgeist Americas 2011 which took place in Phoenix (more on that here: Google Zeitgeist 2011 ). One of the highlights was being able to see Ray Kurzweil speak. The two key take-aways from this amazing thirteen-minute presentation? 1. Finally, we can look at our own biology as information technology. 2. why we need to stop thinking in linear ways and why we need to start thinking about things as they should be: exponentially. This one is a mind-blower. Promise." (Mitch for Alistair).
Beyond words: the Kindle Fire and the book's future - Rough Type . "This week, Amazon launched their own tablet into the market ( Kindle Fire ). In this Blog post, Nicholas Carr (author of The Shallows , The Big Switch and Does IT Matter? ) takes a stab at what the Kindle meant and what this new tablet, Kindle Fire, means to the book reading world. Take note of this quote: 'With the Fire, as with its its whizzy-gizmo predecessors, the iPad and the Nook Color , we are seeing the e-book begin to assume its true aesthetic, which would seem to be far closer to the aesthetic of the web than to that of the printed page.' Have we arrived at the point in time where we no longer know what the difference is between a book, an app or a website?" (Mitch for Hugh).
Now it's your turn: in the comment section below pick one thing that you saw this week that inspired you and share it.
Tags:
alistair croll
amazon
big data
biology
bitcurrent
complete web monitoring
connections series
conrad black
cory doctorow
does it matter
ebook
gigaom
google zeitgeist americas 2011
hugh mcguire
human 20
iambik
information technology
ipad
james burke
john rauser
kindle book reading
kindle fire
librivox
link
link exchange
linkbait
managing bandwidth
mark madsen
media hacks
mike nelson
nicholas carr
nook color
panos ipeirotis
presentation
pressbooks
publishing
ray kurzweil
rough type
simon wardley
story
strata conference
strata new york
tablet
the big switch
the book over
the new atlantis
the shallows
vanity fair
year one labs
September 30, 2011
A Basic PR Blunder That Most PR Professionals Make... Constantly
Public Relation professionals do the darndest things.
Some background first: I practiced journalism, worked in communications and did a stint in a PR agency before shifting full boar into marketing and communications. My journey (which includes this Blog) has also brought me back to journalism part-time (I do a bi-weekly column for the Montreal Gazette and Vancouver Sun along with a column, Media Hacker, for The Huffington Post). Because of those columns, I've found myself on the hit list for a whackload of PR professionals who pitch an array of endless and useless press releases (more on how I feel about that here: Attention PR People: Here's How To Pitch A Writer).
There's something very wrong happening here.
PR professionals are making a big mistake in assuming that every person who is published in a newspaper or magazine (print or online) is a professional journalist with a regular and consistent beat. It's not easy to know if a writer has a specific beat or if they're just riffing on something they find interesting unless you spend a handful of minutes actually looking through their work and trying to notice if there are any trends, rhymes or reasons. While all of this is basic stuff, it's the kind of stuff that is still often forgotten in an attempt to "spray and pray" a media list in hopes of a few extra hits. The latest blunder is when a PR professional hits you up with a "story idea" that is an exact duplicate of a story that you just published.
I can't tell you how often this happens.
I'll have a story published about crowdfunding and the next day, there will be ten pitches on crowdfunding. I know the drill: PR professionals are using tools like Google Alerts (or something more sophisticated) to track the main keywords for their own clients, and the minute anything hits the radar, they spray that author, journalist or writer with some new opportunity. I'm sure there are a lot of PR professionals that are nodding their heads in agreement with this tactic, but it is severely flawed. Here's why: if I just published an article on crowdfunding, do you really think an editor (or my audience) is going to want another article on that exact same topic only about your company now? More often than not, writers do not have beats. They write one piece about something new and interesting and then it's done and on to something else. Those same PR professionals are probably reading this and saying, "fine, but because you did write about crowdfunding, should that topic come up again... now you know about my client." Maybe I am now aware of your client, but you're actually harming their chances of getting into a future column on the exact same topic, because all I'm thinking as the writer is: "why would they pitch me a story about something that I just wrote about... it's more than a little after the fact."
Build relationships.
Yes, the PR world is extremely cut-throat. Yes, the PR world is full of challenges - especially when it comes to media relations and getting "ink," but wise up. These traditional blitzkrieg tactics are not only getting old, but they're getting tired. Build relationships (the kind that take time and effort to build... the real kind). Yes, technology makes it easy to blast every writer with a pitch, but remember that technology makes it even easier to mark your company's domain as spam and have everything you ever send (from anyone in your organization) to a permanent spam folder. That's what I do. And, in talking to many of my writer friends, they all do the same thing. In the end, your clients who may be worthy of ink may be getting relegated to a spam folder for the prior sins of your colleagues and other clients. You may think that it's the writer's loss then, but it's not. In a hyper-connected world, the real cream does rise to the top and we're often informed by our peers and community who is interesting to cover.
Furthermore...
This blunder seems like something so simple to fix. Instead of emailing the writer with a story pitch that is exact/similar to the one they just published, why not leverage the moment to send them a thank you note? Something like, "Hey Mitch, I work for PR Company XYZ and I saw your article yesterday on crowdfunding. We have a crowdfunding client to, so I wish I had known that this was an area of interest for you. In the future, would you mind if I connected to you when I have similar clients with a relevant story to tell?" It's basic, it's simple and who knows, you just might get a response. And, if you don't? Simply read this and move on to your next possible opportunity. Ultimately, you don't look smart pitching a story on a topic that was just published. You look desperate... and somewhat amateurish.
Or am I being too harsh?
Tags:
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blog
communications
crowdfunding
editor
getting ink
google alerts
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montreal gazette
newspaper column
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spam
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the huffington post
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September 29, 2011
Google Zeitgeist 2011
This is the one event that I hope I never have to miss.
Last year, I was fortunate enough (re: I have no idea how it happened!) to get invited to Google Zeitgeist in Arizona. Zeitgeist 2011 took place from last Sunday night until the end of Tuesday and I was thrilled to be invited back. It is a very exclusive event (meaning: it is a closed event that is organized by Google as a way to thank their clients and friends. It is by invitation only and, by the looks of it, only 400 people attend). Thankfully, Google shares what takes place between those four walls with the entire world.
What you need to see.
Much like the TED conference, everything is worth watching over at the Google Zeitgeist YouTube channel, but if you have only 45 minutes, my recommendation is that you watch Dr. Eric Schmidt's (Executive Chairman of Google) opening commentary about taking a longer view of things. Then, head over and watch the lively debate about media, journalism and Social Media between Arianna Huffington (The Huffington Post) and Ted Koppel (NPR and formerly ABC's Nightline). Their session was moderated by Nicholas Thompson (Senior Editor of The New Yorker) and it was the highlight session of the two days.
Watch it all right here:
Tags:
abc
arianna huffington
dr eric schmidt
event
google
google zeitgeist
google zeitgeist 2011
journalism
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nicholas thompson
nightline
npr
online video
social media
ted conference
ted koppel
the huffington post
the new yorker
youtube channel
What Does Eight Years Of Blogging Get You?
Eight years ago on this day in 2003, I started Blogging.
Here's some basic info about what has transpired in eight years here at the Six Pixels of Separation Blog: over 2700 Blog entries, over 20,000 comments and over 270 audio Podcasts. If you have read or listened to only one percent of all of that content, you'll know that both acknowledging this milestone or speaking about the numbers (how big/how many) is not my style. But, when I woke up this morning and saw the date notification in my Outlook, it gave me pause. It wasn't a sense of pride or accomplishment, either. The only question that continually popped into my brain was: was all of this Blogging worth it? And, the answer is obvious: yes.
Yes it is.
Starting this Blog was (and still is) without the question the single most important thing I have done in my professional life. It has changed me. It has changed the way I learn and grow and it has changed how I think about the world (and business and marketing and media and beyond). In spending some serious time soaking in this anniversary, I listed out why Blogging was (and still is) the smartest thing I have ever done.
8 Reasons Why Blogging Still Rules:
It's slow. I'm in no rush. Most brand are. They think that Social Media is cheap, fast and easy. Blogging has taught me that nothing could be further from the truth. In 2008, I wrote a Blog post called, In Praise Of Slow, that evolved into a much longer and important piece of my first business book, Six Pixels of Separation and the idea still rings true. Blogging has taught me the merits of building true relationships between an audience and content... and that takes time. Lots of time and effort. As fast and simple as it is to publish content with a Blog, success with a Blog as an engine of Marketing is a slow process. And, like a great cup of tea, the process is worth it if you have the intestinal fortitude to see it through.
Critical thinking. People like to think that Blogging is about the discourse (the comments, trackbacks, links, likes and tweets). While this makes up an important piece of the Blogging puzzle, the main reason I Blog is to publicly think about New Media and my media hacking ways. To be blunt: it's a selfish act. The only part that isn't selfish is that I publish it for the world to see, comment on and criticize. But (to be blunt again), that is selfish too, because everything that everyone tacks on to my Blog posts make me think more (and even rethink my initial positions). The simple act of Blogging forces me to think in a more critical way and to get that thinking down in writing. The writing part is (obviously) the hardest part of critical thinking. Putting your thoughts into words is not easy.
The people you meet. People often talk about stepping away from the computer to enjoy the conversation and meeting of people in the real world (more on that here: The Real World). My Blog has allowed me to not only meet, but become very close friends with people I would have never met otherwise. When I was a kid, I often wished that someone at my school liked comics or martial arts as much as I did. Now, we take for granted how easy it is to meet and connect with fellow, like-minded individuals. I don't take our connectivity for granted. Ever. Blogging has allowed me to meet and connect with people by removing the challenge of geography. While I don't often get to press the flesh with certain individuals often enough, I enjoy waking up and hanging out online with friends like Seth Godin, Amber Naslund, Julien Smith, Hugh McGuire, Liz Strauss, Christopher S. Penn, Mark W. Schaefer, Hugh McGuire, Tamar Weinberg, C.C. Chapman, Arjun Basu, Joseph Jaffe, Tom Peters, Jeff Jarvis, Jay Rosen and countless other (just look at my Blogroll on the left for more or who I follow on Twitter or Facebook:) I have coffee with all of these people each and every morning - whether they know it or not.
Writing (and reading) as art. This concept was really driven home to me after reading the book, Linchpin, by Seth Godin. Some people paint, some people scrapbook and others twiddle on a guitar in their basements. I write about business, marketing and media hacking. That is my art. For years, I thought it would sound either pretentious or ridiculous to say that writing about business is an art form. Well, this is my art. Take it or leave it.
Personal branding. Really, it's about reputation. It's easy to say something. It's easy to do something. It's hard to build a real reputation that is based on who you truly are for the world to see. This Blog is as real as it gets. It has been a tool, platform and space for me to demonstrate how I think. I believe the results are reflected in how Twist Image (my marketing agency that I own with my three other business partners) has grown over the years. I also believe that there is no better resume than this Blog to define me. I wish more people understood the power of having a living and breathing ongoing publishing platform that allows you to demonstrate how you think, that anyone can access from anywhere.
My place to go. I'm hooked on Arianna Huffington's line: "Self expression is the new entertainment." People often ask, "when do you find the time to Blog?" All I can think to myself is, "when do you find the time to watch half of the television shows and movies that you've watched?" By definition, I'm much more interested in active media than passive media. So, while you're relaxing and watching a sitcom, I'm relaxing and writing a Blog post. This is my place to go. My Blog is my treehouse. This is where I go for fun.
It keeps me regular. I made a commitment to publish six pieces of text-based content and one audio piece each and every week. You can use all the Metamucil you want, my Blog keeps me regular. Knowing that I am committed to creating and publishing this amount of content makes my ears perk up. It keeps me open to uncover new and interesting topics to discuss. The regularity and consistency of the Blog has forced me to keep that "nose for news" that I first developed when I started off in professional journalism during my late teens.
It connects me to you. Think about life before Blogging. You would be waiting for a new book to come out or for a published piece in a newspaper of magazine. No more. Blogging connects me to you. You don't need to read it every day and you don't even need to leave a comment, and yet it still connects us (some more than others). I Blog in the hopes my thoughts resonate. I Blog in the hopes that it creates a level of discourse. I Blog because I'm tired of "top 10 reasons"-types of Blog posts. I Blog in an attempt to raise the bar. I Blog because it connects me to people like you... the exact kind of people I have been waiting my whole life to meet.
Why do you Blog? Better yet, why don't you Blog?
Tags:
active media
amber naslund
arianna huffington
arjun basu
art
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blog anniversary
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cc champan
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comic books
content
critical thinking
discourse
facebook
hugh mcguire
jay rosen
jeff jarvis
joseph jaffe
journalism
julien smith
linchpin
liz strauss
magazine
mark w schaefer
marketing
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martial arts
media
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passive media
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seth godin
social media
tamar weinberg
tom peters
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writing
September 28, 2011
It's Not Marketing
Confession time.
A few months ago I found myself on a long flight with nothing to watch. I had already seen the many Hollywood blockbusters along with the documentaries and news specials that were being shown on-board. In a moment of weakness, I decided to watch the Justin Bieber documentary, Never Say Never. I thought Never Say Never was a live "concert" film mingled with some backstage footage of the teen heartthrob blow drying his hair, playing Xbox with Usher or clips of young girls professing their love to The Bieb. I put the word "concert" in quote marks earlier, because I wondered how much of the live footage would truly be live. I know nothing about Justin Bieber other than he was discovered on YouTube by his now-manager Scooter Braun. With over a decade of music industry experience, I've had my own fair share of interviewing these types of teen sensations. Many of them don't last more than five years in the music industry (and the majority of them flame out sooner). It's not cynicism. It's a matter of fact that the music industry (and mass populous) have a short attention span for this genre. Today's Justin Bieber is yesterday's New Kids On The Block (or Backstreet Boys... or...). And, there's always something new and different right around the corner.
Crying.
The movie captivated me. Justin is not only portrayed as a very smart and focused young man, he is a musician. A true musician. He cares about playing, writing and performing. Yes, the glitz is there and there are plenty of scenes with Bieber horsing around and clips of young girls professing their love to him, but it's a touching and personal story. A key figure in Bieber's success is his manager, Scooter Braun. After seeing some videos on YouTube, Scooter moved Justin and his mom from his home in Stratford, Ontario into a townhouse in Atlanta where they struggled to get Justin a record deal. It's a very touching and real story. In a few scenes I found myself holding back tears and in other scenes, the tears were flowing. Laugh all you want, but his story is both impressive and inspiring, it almost seems like it's impossible that it's a work of non-fiction.
This is where you come in.
Scooter Braun shared the stage with pro-skateboarder and entrepreneur, Tony Hawk, at this year's Google Zeitgeist event. During their panel discussion on music, entertainment and new media, the host, Sal Masekela (ESPN X Games) asked Scooter about his use of Social Media to build Justin's audience. Scooter re-iterated a key point from my recent Blog post on direct relationships (more on that here: What The Next Five Years Will Be About): when Justin was turned down by the music industry, it only fueled them more to use Social Media to create that direct and tangible relationship with the fans. Their strategy worked so well, that Justin, Scooter and the entire Bieber Fever crew truly do control the relationship between Justin and his fans. When further pressed about using Social Media as a marketing channel, Scooter said something that fascinated me:
"It's not marketing. It's real."
It's true and it's powerful and it's the number one reason why corporations are not all that successful with these platforms. Instead of using Social Media to be real, they're using it as another engine of advertising. I often say that Social Media is the most exciting form of marketing because it allows for real interactions between real human beings. It's so basic. Justin could just communicate and connect to his fans. He could (virtually) touch them, share with them, play with them, inform them and ask them. Scooter used five words to describe the new realities of business: those who think that they can simply advertise and not balance it out with being real (creating connections and developing direct relationships) are going to struggle - deeply - with loyalty and long term success. While Justin may have a long, hard fight ahead of him to prove his mettle in the music industry as something more than a teen sensation, brands could learn a lot from him and Scooter about the power of being real by creating real relationships.
Being "real" - it seems so basic and simple. Then again, we all know what they say about common sense... it's not all that common.
Tags:
advertising
backstreet boys
common sense
direct relationships
documentary
espn
google zeitgeist
justin bieber
live concert
marketing
marketing channel
music industry
never say never
new kids on the block
online video
record deal
sal masekela
scooter braun
social media
tony hawk
usher
x games
xbox
youtube
September 27, 2011
The New Business Traveler
While it's nice to think that Skype, WebEx or Facetime removes the need for business travel, nothing could be further from the truth.
Granted, if all you're having is a status meeting, those can easily be replaced by technology, but whether it's a conference, presentation or pitch, no business professional will argue that there is tremendous value in pressing the flesh. The thing is, that technology can now enhance the business travel experience. As brutal as travel is (and, as a Super Elite member, I can tell you that the road is hard, cold and miserable), it has changed dramatically over the years. Yes, the post 9/11 travel experience is tougher - longer lines, rules and limitations, etc, but for most businesses, it is a necessity.
One of the easiest ways to enhance your business travel experience is to heed the words of The Boy Scouts: be prepared.
If you do many trips within North America, do yourself a favor and get a Nexus card. The pre-screening process is a simple meeting and once you are accepted, you will never have to wait in line at customs again. The advent of the retinal scan machines makes clearing customs a complete pleasure (can you imagine that?). Currently, Nexus cardholders also have a priority line for security on domestic Canadian flights as well. For those who travel frequently, getting to the front of the line at both security and customs removes almost fifty-percent of the travel stress. If you have a smartphone, make sure to download the app for the airlines you fly with. Most of these airline apps allow you to not only be notified of flight delays and airline schedules, but they also allow you to check-in and receive your digital boarding pass. This can usually be done up to twenty-four hours before your flight. The magic here is that you can also choose the most ideal seat on the plane (to help with that process, make sure to check out SeatGuru). Being checked-in also means that you do not have to deal with lines at the airline counter (another massive frustration for travelers).
Never check baggage.
I know what you're thinking: "it's impossible not to check luggage if you're travelling for more than one or two nights." It's not true. My old carry-on bag was a Tumi that I loved dearly. The problem with the Tumi was that it was twelve pounds empty (which is standard for most carry-on luggage). Through new technology and lighter/more durable plastics, companies like Eagle Creek have introduced a line of ultra-lightweight carry-ons. I swear by my Eagle Creek Traverse Pro 22. This carry-on roller is only six pounds empty and when combined with Eagle Creek's amazing Pack-It travel folders, it's actually easy to carry up to five days of clothes in this carry-on. The Traverse Pro also has a detachable backpack, which acts as my briefcase for meetings. This feature is enhanced by the fact that I can detach the backpack and still place the luggage in the overhead bin of smaller planes (and yes, this includes the planes where passengers are asked to gate-check their carry-ons). If I have to travel for more than five nights for business? I still use the carry-on and pay for laundry services at the hotel. From experience, lost luggage while travelling on business is a nightmare.
Meet-up. Connect.
If you're interested in meeting up with fellow business travelers along the way, be sure to check out TripIt. This online social network for travelers is a great way to connect with colleagues who may be in and around the same cities as you. While I don't publicly share my travel schedule, many business professionals find value in this functionality. Think about it this way: it's much nicer to catch up with colleagues in a different city than ordering room service or eating alone at the hotel bar. TripIt also allows you to email your travel information to the system (flights, car rentals, hotels, etc...), and it automatically organizes your trip information in a highly valuable and visually appealing way. As a bonus, it also keeps your historical travel information stored in one area that allows you can see how many miles you have travelled as it ties into Google Maps to show pinpoints for all of your excursions.
Great travel apps.
Another great app is FlightTrack Pro (for iPhone, iPad and Android). FlightTrack Pro grabs the information from TripIt (or you can input your flight info directly) and spits out tons of useful information (like, where the flight you are about to board is coming from and if it is on time). The combination of both TripIt and FlightTrack Pro on your smartphone gives you access to a lot of flight information. This comes in handy when flights get delayed or cancelled (and they often do).
Embrace technology.
Technology will make your business travel that much more pleasant. Amazon's Kindle (and the Kindle app) makes it easy to carry hundreds of books and newspapers without adding any weight or bulk to your travels. The alarm feature on your smartphone will always be much more reliable than the hotel's wake-up service (if you travel enough, you know how often that fails), and iTunes is the biggest game-changer for the business traveler. From being able to rent or buy movies, TV shows (now's your chance to finally watch all five seasons of The Wire!) to music, books and more, it's great to be in control of your own entertainment. Prior to leaving, download a handful of great documentaries or the latest Hollywood blockbusters, just don't forget a good set of noise-cancelling headphones. From there, business travel becomes nothing but blue skies with thanks to modern technology.
What is your best business travel advice?
The above posting is my twice-monthly column for the Montreal Gazette and Vancouver Sun newspapers called, New Business - Six Pixels of Separation . I cross-post it here with all the links and tags for your reading pleasure, but you can check out the original versions online here:
Montreal Gazette - Embrace tech, travel light .
Vancouver Sun - not yet published.
Tags:
airline
airline app
amazon
android
business book
business column
business professional
business travel
carryon luggage
conference
eagle creek
eagle creek traverse pro 22
facetime
flighttrack pro
frequent flyer
google maps
ipad
iphone
itunes
kindle
kindle app
mobile app
montreal gazette
new business
newspaper columns
newspapers
nexus card
noise cancelling headphones
online social network
packit travel folder
postmedia
presentation
seatguru
skype
smartphone
super elite
technology
the boy scouts
the wire
travel app
travel schedule
tripit
tumi
vancouver sun
webex
September 25, 2011
What Happens After The Conversation Online?
Episode #272 of Six Pixels of Separation - The Twist Image Podcast is now live and ready for you to listen to.
Joseph Jaffe is widely regarded as one of the top Marketing Bloggers (Jaffe Juice) and Podcasters (both Jaffe Juice in audio and Jaffe Juice TV in video). He is the author of three excellent books (Life After The 30-Second Spot, Join The Conversation and Flip The Funnel). A long-time friend (and one of the main inspirations behind the Six Pixels of Separation Blog and Podcast), we've decided to hold monthly conversations, debates and back-and-forths that will dive a little deeper into the Digital Marketing and Social Media landscape. This is our 17th conversation (or, as I like to affectionately call it, Across The Sound 17.20). As fate would have it, we were both speaking in Huntington Beach, CA, so the night before our presentations we sat by the hotel bar overlooking the pacific ocean and recorded this rambling chat about the next phase of marketing and communications (as we see it). Enjoy the conversation...
You can grab the latest episode of Six Pixels of Separation here (or feel free to subscribe via iTunes): Six Pixels of Separation - The Twist Image Podcast #272.
Tags:
across the sound
advertising
bite size edits
blog
blogging
blue sky factory
book oven
cast of dads
cc chapman
chris brogan
christopher s penn
digital dads
digital marketing
facebook
facebook group
flip the funnel
hugh mcguire
in over your head
itunes
jaffe juice
jaffe juice tv
join the conversation
joseph jaffe
julien smith
librivox
life after the 30-second spot
managing the gray
marketing
marketing over coffee
media hacks
new marketing labs
online social network
podcast
podcasting
pressbooks
six pixels of separation
social media 101
social media marketing
strategy
trust agents
twist image
September 23, 2011
Six Links Worthy Of Your Attention #66
Is there one link, story, picture or thought that you saw online this week that you think somebody you know must see?
My friends: Alistair Croll (BitCurrent, Year One Labs, GigaOM, Human 2.0, the author of Complete Web Monitoring and Managing Bandwidth: Deploying QOS in Enterprise Networks), Hugh McGuire (The Book Oven, LibriVox, iambik, PressBooks, Media Hacks) and I decided that every week or so the three of us are going to share one link for one another (for a total of six links) that each individual feels the other person "must see".
Check out these six links that we're recommending to one another:
The special trick that helps identify dodgy stats - The Guardian . "I'm at O'Reilly's Strata conference this week, which looks at the advent of Big Data , new interfaces, and ubiquitous computing. Plenty of speakers talk about the utopian possibilities of data transparency. But if tomorrow runs on data, how do we know when it's wrong? Turns out that statisticians have a few tricks up their sleeves; one is Benford's Law ." (Alistair for Hugh).
Seven Little Men Help A Girl - Letters of Note . "Feel like Hollywood is sucking the life out of movies? That's nothing new, as this 1986 Disney memo prank shows. While it's important to make things clear and self-explanatory, sometimes we sacrifice inspiration in the pursuit of parsimony." (Alistair for Mitch).
Scientists on trial: At fault? - Nature News . "When, in 2009, scientists were asked of the risk of a catastrophic earthquake in the Italian city of L'Aquila, they said the tremors were not likely signs of significant risk. On April 5, 2009 an earthquake struck the city, killing 300 people. Local citizens were outraged, and six government scientists and one government official will go to trial for manslaughter. While the case has drawn global condemnation from scientists, the case is more complex than it appears from the outside, and it brings into question how governments and scientists go about communicating risk to their populations." (Hugh for Alistair).
The Ghost Sport - City Journal . "My father was a sports writer in his younger days, and grew up when boxing was a still a sport that mattered. When I was little, I used to watch boxing with him on TV. I remember watching, on our little black & white Zenith TV (we had a color TV but it was upstairs), Sugar Ray Leonard boxing against Roberto Duran. Whenever there was sports on television, I asked where the teams (or in this case men) were from, and whoever's city was closer to Montreal was the one I cheered for. (Sugar Ray became my favorite of course). Boxing - from that era and before - has a mythical black & white aura about it, a nostalgic and literary history, inflected with the hovering ghosts of Hemmingway, Mailer, Plimpton and other manly men of letters from the pre and post war eras. Boxing has lost its sheen and its relevance, but there is something about its black & white past I still find compelling." (Hugh for Mitch).
What if the Secret to Success Is Failure? - The New York Times . "When you think about education and the school system, we tend to think about marks and how we - as individuals - ranked against our peers. Do we actually teach kids about failure? I don't know about you, but my most important life lessons never came out of the successes that I've had. They've come out of my failures. When I was into boxing, I would be able to deconstruct an entire person's personality just by seeing how they reacted to getting either knocked down or knocked out. True success comes after lots of failure (some big, some small). It makes you wonder why we don't spend more time teaching kids about failure... and what comes after it." (Mitch for Alistair).
Now it's illegal to write down prices in a Tesco supermarket - The Guardian . "Price comparison, consumer reviews and being able to get competitive pricing via your mobile device at retail is not only the new reality of the new consumer, but it's a fact of life. As more and more brands and companies start opening up and leveraging technology to empower their consumers, there are still those who live with their heads in the collective sand. Imagine getting booted out of a store because you were writing down prices with a pencil and a notebook? Seriously? WTF?" (Mitch for Hugh).
Now it's your turn: in the comment section below pick one thing that you saw this week that inspired you and share it.
Tags:
alistair croll
benfords law
big data
bitcurrent
boxing
city journal
complete web monitoring
consumer
consumer review
data transparency
disney
education
ernest hemmingway
failure
george plimpton
gigaom
hugh mcguire
human 20
iambik
letters of note
librivox
link
link exchange
linkbait
managing bandwidth
media hacks
mobile device
nature news
norman mailer
oreilly
pressbooks
price comparison
retail
roberto duran
story
strata conference
sugar ray leonard
the book over
the guardian
the new york times
year one labs
Six Pixels of Separation
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