Mitch Joel's Blog: Six Pixels of Separation, page 357

Fast Change

Reading Fast Company magazine when it debuted in 1995 changed me forever.

I don't think I've ever missed reading an issue from cover to cover. The speed, pace and writing of the articles was (and still is) unlike any other business magazine writing that came before it. While you may find some of the style now shows up in the pages of BusinessWeek, Wired, Harvard Business Review, Inc. and other business publications, Fast Company really did break new ground in terms of the topics covered, businesses featured and style of writing... and that's why their competitors are trying to tap into that kind of energy and flare.

What we learn from Fast Company Magazine is that businesses are moving fast and things are ever-changing.

Yes, you can hear about a lot of the content that you now see in the printed version in many online spaces first. There's no denying that the Web has forever changed the speed of information, but the magazine still touts impressive stories. The co-founder of Fast Company is Bill Taylor. Taylor (who no longer works at Fast Company) has authored two best-selling business book (Mavericks At Work and Practically Radical), is a professor at Babson College and a columnist for The Guardian newspaper. I had the pleasure of sharing the stage with Taylor last week at The Art of Marketing (which also featured Avinash Kaushik, Gary Vaynerchuk and Guy Kawasaki). While I had heard that Taylor was an amazing presenter, I was not prepared for just how good he truly is. No slides. No podium. Just him on stage, casually sharing stories about the rapid pace of business and the change that comes with it. Not only is his content eye-opening, but his presentation skills are flawless.

Watch this video...

Here's Bill Taylor from March of this year talking about everything new business at an event called, Powering The People, put on by The Edison Foundation (he comes in about 3:55):

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A Philosophy Of Tenacity

Success in Marketing doesn't happen by doing something halfway. You have to be dedicated to the cause.

Today, I took part in a webinar for MarketingProfs called, How To Become A Content Juggernaut. The crux of my presentation was this: in a world where anyone can have a thought and then publish it in text, images, audio and video instantly and for free to the world, we (marketers) have to rethink how we publish. There is media fragmentation everywhere and it's not just because of the Internet and all of this new content. There is fragmentation within the Internet as well.

People have a lot of choices and a lot less time.

If they're going to be multi-platforming - using multiple media channels at the same time (more on that here: Estimated 33% of Viewers Multitask While Watching TV) or engaging with content via mobile devices (smartphones, iPads, etc...), a brand's ability to capture their attention and be able to convert that into something that is worth sharing is very complex... it's not easy to do. If you're an individual or small organization trying to make an impact, it becomes evermore complex. You probably don't have the time and/or the resources that your bigger competitors have.

The truth is that if you have the skills, it's really the tenacity that you have to focus on.

Regardless of the readership of this Blog, I believe in the words that I write. I believe that the words that I write is my art. I believe that the words that I write is the work that I was meant to do. I don't say this lightly and it took me over a decade to come to this realization and to be comfortable/confident in saying them aloud. It's not ego (I'm actually a very humble and shy individual)... it's probably just a part of me getting more comfortable as I get older (but who knows). The truth is that beyond my belief, I am tenacious in my dedication to it.

How many brands (or individuals) do you know that are truly tenacious?

Persistent, stubborn and holding fast. That's being tenacious. Dedicating yourself to the work you were meant to do. If more brands were tenacious in how they approached their marketing, the results would be much more different. If more brands were tenacious in how they approached Social Media, the results would be much more different.

It's easy to quit when no one reads your Blog after six months.

It's easy to complain about Twitter's efficacy when you're having a hard time getting people to follow you.

It's easy to take a dig at Facebook when you have tons of people who "like" your brand but you don't notice an increase in sales.

It's easy to post videos to YouTube and think you're actively engaging in Social Media.

Ask yourself this: are you really bringing a philosophy of tenacity to your work?

I am tenacious. It's a combination of dedication and persistence that is underwritten by a notion that what I have to share is important. Not self-important, but important. And, the only way to break through the clutter, the only way to get attention and the only way to get people talking about it and sharing it is to be tenacious in my plan of attack.

If you're going to be doing something, why not do it with tenacity?

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What The World Needs Now Is More Media Hackers

Do you think that traditional mass media companies are really going to invent the future of media?

It doesn't look good for them. You can say that it's somewhat ironic that a column like this might appear in The Huffington Post. While this site is often cited as one of the great disrupters of traditional journalism and media, it's more ideologically aligned with the culture of hacking than it is with the evolution of journalism. No, we're not talking about the the type of hacking that caused cyber attacks on Sony's PlayStation Network or the mythical characters Anthony Weiner blamed when he tweeted out pictures of his own wiener. If you look at the true definition of a hacker, what you'll uncover is that there is one pejorative and one complimentary description of the term. The more complimentary description from Wikipedia states: "someone messing about with something in a positive sense, that is, using playful cleverness to achieve a goal." 

Hacking away at something in small chunks or reprogramming bits and pieces of the media is what will define the future of media.

On May 23rd, 2011 a Blog post titled, Reporting live from the scene of breaking news...on an iPhone, from the Nieman Journalism Lab Blog went mostly unnoticed. It's too bad. It turns out that a company called, TieLine Technology, released an iPhone app called, Report-It Live, that enables reporters, announcers or anyone else for that matter to record, broadcast and manage field reporting. While that might not sound like a big deal, head over to the Nieman Journalism Lab Blog post to hear a sample of what the sound quality difference is like from a standard phone connection being broadcasted over the radio to what their app can produce. It will not only stop you in your tracks - in terms of audio quality - but you'll wonder why the traditional telecommunications companies never thought of an app this clever.

Quality can come from Hackers too. 

The mistake most media companies make is in thinking that hackers are great for brainstorming and creating crude versions of things, but anything of quality needs a more professional level of finesse and tender loving care to be viable in the modern world. Tell it to the Drudge Report, Craigslist, eBay and yes, even The Huffington Post. All of these initiatives started off with a handful (or less) of people with an idea, a crude mock-up and a hacker's mindset of tinkering with the media until it becomes something. In some instances, that "something" still looks and feels crude to the traditional mass media professionals (too bad for them).

Rise Media Hacker. Rise.

Every second Tuesday, Media Hacker is going to look at the people, strategies and tactics that are changing the media as we know it today. While many media professionals still grapple with the Web, the revolution in media continues to march forward. From mobile and tablets to cloud computing and newer publishing business models, the media is not only forever changed, it is forever changing. The traditional journalist saw the last period of the last sentence of their piece as the end of the story. The modern journalist sees the last period of the last sentence of their piece as the beginning of the conversation.

Let the conversation begin.

The above posting is my just-launched/twice-monthly column for The Huffington Post called, Media Hacker . I cross-post it here with all the links and tags for your reading pleasure, but you can check out the original version online here:

The Huffington Post - What The World Needs Now Is More Media Hackers .

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QR Codes And The Great Lunchbag Letdown

Mobile Marketing professionals are very excited about QR codes and their marketing prowess. I'm a little less excited.

In theory, QR Codes sound awesome. Your consumer sees an advertisement that engages them, they whip out their mobile device, snap a picture of the QR code that sits on the advertisement and they're suddenly catapulted into an immersive brand experience that can live beyond the physical limitations of a print ad. This is what advertising integration has promised for over a decade. We're finally at a unique moment in time where capturing a QR code is becoming much more commonplace as people not only what it is (and how to get it), but it's no longer a really geeky thing to do. On top of that, mobile technology is solid. You can do some pretty amazing things in the palm of your hand.

Too bad we're mucking it up (again).

Shill, pitch or give up data. Is that the best we can do? I've been biting my tongue for months on this (and yes, there are always a handful of exceptions to the rule), but we're really missing the boat (err... opportunity) here (again). Every time I make the effort to launch my QR code reader and stick it in front of an ad, I'm confronted with either a pretty lame mobile version of a website (which is full of random calls to action that have no bearing on me and where I physically am) or it's some kind of loyalty scheme where I can sign up to get an e-blast or some such.

You have me. Create an experience.

Having a QR code on an ad simply to pander to the clients and checkbox the "mobile marketing" portion of your integrated advertising campaign is not only a bad advertising experience it's a really negative brand experience that lingers. Think of the additional effort and permission that a customer is giving you to take out their mobile and spend the time to access your additional goodness... and that's what you give them? Marketers have to up their game. A link to a YouTube video is simply not enough. Mobile - in and of itself - is a unique experience, so if you can't take the time to creatively think about how a QR code component to your campaign can really be something special for those who walk the extra mile with your brand - especially taking into account where they are when they access it - you may as well drop it from your marketing mix.

It's not too late.

As more and more people download QR code readers and tinker with the technology, it still has not been adopted by the masses. It's not as big/vital as text messaging and it's not nearly as popular as other mobile apps (yet). That's the good news. Let's chalk all of this really bad QR code marketing up to "experimentation", but it's time to move on. Let's start getting both strategic and creative in doing something that matters when people grab on to your brand from the palm of their hand. Think about utilitarian marketing, think about something unique, think about something captivating and think about giving them something exclusive (something just for them). The idea here is to capture them and make them want to share your QR code experience. Get them to talk about it and - ultimately - turn to everyone around them and say, "you gotta check this out!" The bar is currently set pretty low, so there's some good ground for some smart marketers to gain.

Mobile marketing needs to scream, "you gotta check this out!" Right?

(blog note: just saw this article on a flight: MobileInsider - How Not to Dig a QR Rabbit Hole... there must be something in the air).

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utilitarian marketing

youtube

The Extinction Of The Marketing Dinosaur Professional Is Imminent

Episode #257 of Six Pixels of Separation - The Twist Image Podcast is now live and ready for you to listen to.

When will the Marketing Dinosaurs die? When will those who hold the keys to marketing power truly start shifting their ways to not only embrace these new Digital Marketing channels, but to use them to unleash the most power form of Marketing that has ever been created? This was the question that Avinash Kaushik and I discussed this passed week while we were both speaking at The Art of Marketing event in Vancouver (which also featured Gary Vaynerchuk, Guy Kawasaki, Bill Taylor and Ron Tite). Avinash - the Digital Marketing Evangelist for Google and bestselling business book author of Web Analytics - An Hour A Day and Web Analytics 2.0 is a regular on this show (and a close friend). His perspectives are always fresh and direct. As usual, he holds no punches. 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 #257.

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Six Links Worthy Of Your Attention #51

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:

Tourist Fakes: The Quest - Part I, Foreword - CoinTalk. "My friend, Shane Simmons , is a screenwriter, aviation buff, and film critic. Until recently, I didn't know he was also into coin collecting. When Shane was in Europe this year, he set upon a quest to buy fake coins. Which, it turns out, is difficult since the vendors insist that they're real. What's it like to buy something that both buyer and seller know is a fake? Funny, as it turns out, and Shane chronicles the experience in a series of five posts on the CoinTalk forum. The URLs for the other posts are http://www.cointalk.com/t171490/ , http://www.cointalk.com/t172980/ , http://www.cointalk.com/t174346/ , and http://www.cointalk.com/t175779/ , since it's a bit hard to follow the threading on the forum." (Alistair for Hugh).

The Ansognosic's Dilemma - Opinionator - The New York Times . "In a recent Vanity Fair Proust questionnaire, Tina Fey said the trait she most deplored in orders is people who are proud of their ignorance. This piece by filmmaker Errol Morris offers a possible explanation for our preference of what Stephen Colbert dubbed 'truthiness', instead of actual facts and debate. The nut of Morris' piece is this: Smart people know they're not as smart as they could be; but incompetent people lack the ability to understand their own incompetence. It'll make you feel smart for reading it -- but maybe you're kidding yourself." (Alistair for Mitch).

Jeff Bezos With A Super Awesome Explanation Of Why He's Not Scared Of Failure At Amazon - Business Insider . "How Amazon approaches risk, and doesn't fear failure." (Hugh for Alistair).

Why GM Couldn't Be Apple, According to a Former GM Exec - The Atlantic . "How businesses driven by cost estimates and savings (the American auto industry) will drive itself into the ground; while businesses focused on customer joy (Apple) will prevail." (Hugh for Mitch).

Groupon is Effectively Insolvent - Minyanville . "I'm not much of a finance guy, but this was a fascinating read as both a business owner and an entrepreneur. It's easy to get caught up in the mass media financial news hype about a company. It's equally fascinating to read how individuals dissect and analyze a story as interesting as Groupon 's IPO. It makes you think twice (and want to dig a little deeper) when something is presented to the masses as 'the next big thing'." (Mitch for Alistair).

Bulb In, Bulb Out - The New York Times Magazine . "What would the world be like if the lightbulb - as we know it - went the way of the dodo bird or the eight-track tape player? There are so many technologies that haven't really had any major breakthroughs in almost a century. The light bulb is one of them. We live in a world where we transition from desktop PCs to smartphones like we're buying fresh underwear. It's easy to forget and not marvel at so many things that haven't changed or had a level of innovation... until now." (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.

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bitcurrent

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hugh mcguire

human 20

jeff bezos

librivox

link

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vanity fair

year one labs

60 Minutes To Become A Smarter Marketer

When do you find the time?

This is the question that I am most often asked about these new media channels. When do I find the time? The truth is that it doesn't take that much time at all. In fact, if you're looking to get up to speed, here's what you can do in 60 minutes to jumpstart your Social Media engagement...

60 Minutes to become a smarter Marketer:

News Reader (15 minutes). Head over to Google Reader, sign up and grab five Blogs from my "Check out these Blogs" column on the left-hand side that look interesting and read the last Blog post from each of the Bloggers.

Add interesting people on Twitter (5 minutes). Send out a tweet to your Twitter followers asking them for the 5 most interesting people that they follow who are not considered a "Twitter Celebrity." Start following those people... start engaging with those people.

Update your LinkedIn profile (10 minutes). LinkedIn is an amazing way to connect to like-minded business professionals. Most people's LinkedIn profiles are either not completed 100% or are out-of-date. Update your profile! If it is up-to-date, link LinkedIn with your email addresses and add/connect to more people who you know.

Watch a TED Talk (20 minutes). There are tons of Marketing related TED Talks. You can watch 18 minutes of glory from people like Seth Godin, Malcolm Gladwell, Clay Shirky and many more.

Order some Marketing books on Amazon (10 minutes). Blogs, Twitter and Facebook are great, but there's nothing like deep diving into a topic, and nothing can beat a great book. If you're not sure where to start, simply type "business book" into the search box above and you'll find countless Blog posts about business and marketing books that continue to inspire me. Another option is to head over to Amazon and look at the Marketing and Sales section (under Business and Investing) for some inspiration.

You can do it.

These were just three, random thoughts on how anyone can get smarter in 60 minutes. The truth is that by applying yourself and doing these five things, it won't just make you smarter in one hour, it has a compounding effect. The more you tinker with these channels, the more you'll uncover and the more you will learn and grown. The truth is that you can do one or two of the steps listed above and get moving in 30 minutes.

One hour to grow and learn seems reasonable... doesn't it? 

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The Age Of Accountability

How well is your Marketing performing?

It's amazing to think that in the mass media age, this was not an easy question to answer. Marketers would (for the most part) blow a budget on television, radio, print, out-of-home and promotion and wait for the quarterly sales reports to roll in... finger's crossed. We would hope that our creative struck a chord with an audience and converted people from bums on the couch to foot traffic at the retail level. If we did everything right, we still wouldn't be sure how well the Marketing engine was rolling along.

Welcome to the age of accountability.

Banner advertising (now known as display advertising) ruined everything. Yes, that's a dramatic statement, but it's true. When banner advertising first came out, it was attached with a very unique promise: now, all advertising could be placed in an environment that was relevant (contextual), the messages could be targeted (and clicked on) and every action taken surrounding the banner ad could be measured (from views to clicks to conversion). The dream was real... but the dream died. There are countless reasons for this (from technical and creative to the more philosophical debate about whether or not banner advertising was ever the right solution for the Internet as a media channel). Banner advertising also ruined traditional mass advertising. Those metrics now placed an incredible burden on marketers and media professionals. We could tell (down to the last pixel) what was working and what was not working... in near-real-time.

Marketing should always be about accountability.

Fast forward to our present day and it's amazing to see the analytics and information marketers are given about what's happening online. From website analytics to click paths to email marketing analytics to the types of insights that companies like Google and Facebook give their advertisers. There really isn't any excuse for Marketers to not be held accountable for every media spend and every creative execution.

Sounds scary? 

As my sixteen year-old niece would say, "whatever." Get over it. It's done. The toothpaste is out of the proverbial tube. The data and the analytics are here... and they're right at your fingertips. If you're not working in a constant state of testing and learning (optimizing every campaign for maximum impact), the only one to blame for the success (or failure) of your campaigns is you... and you alone. Yes, the right budget has to be in play for this type of execution. Yes, you have to have faith that running multiple variances on a campaign will bring you to a better spot. And, yes, you have to be able to speak and respond to your consumers in a real human voice.

Marketers, you have to be willing to do whatever it takes to be accountable to the brand.

Imagine a day when you could have all of the data and analytics you have ever wanted. Imagine being able to track and analyze the journey of your consumers. Imagine being able to be a fly on the wall for all of their conversations with family and friends about what they love and hate about your brand, the competitors and the other brands that impact their lives. Imagine being able to speak directly to them and get their feedback. Imagine being able to test your creative in a live environment and see which of your messages actually resonates with an audience. Imagine being able to create as many layers of engagement with those consumers that you have ever wanted to.

It's here. No need to imagine. You can do it all right now. What are you waiting for?

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Humility And Having Something To Say

You have a voice.

Having a voice or an opinion or an idea is nothing new. What's new is your ability to publish that voice, opinion or idea in text, images, audio and video, instantly (and for free) for the world to see and hear. It's not complicated to do (in fact, it's simple) and if you're not one for one-long form content, the better news is that you can publish this voice, opinion or idea of yours in as little as 140 characters of text.

What are you going to say?

Don't waste it. The hard thing for Marketers to wrap their heads (and hands) around is that last sentence. What they (usually) wind up sharing isn't really a voice, opinion or idea. More often than note it's a perception of what they think will be a buying trigger for their consumers. It's marketing material thinly veiled as a voice, opinion or an idea. The main question that brands want answered is: "having spent x amount of dollars over six months ago on a Social Media strategy and executing on it, why isn't our output converting into more sales?" On a B2B Blog that I was recently following, the answer was obvious. One post was about a webinar they were hosting, another was about a new product feature that they were launching and the one after that was an announcement about a senior executive appointment from within their organization. No offense to their highly successful company, but...

Who cares?

David Weinberger (co-author of The Cluetrain Manifesto and author of Small Pieces Loosely Joined and Everything Is Miscellaneous) brings a unique perspective to this new publishing platform: publish everything... put it out there. He's right. If you want to tweet about the pizza you're eating, go for it. If you want to Blog about the conference you're attending, type away. If you want to publish a video on YouTube about your corporate picnic, knock yourself out. But, have the humility to know that the feedback you get from the world is a good indication of if your voice, opinion or idea is something that people will share and be excited about. Social Media is a great humility check. If people don't follow you on Twitter, retweet your content, encourage others to follow, that's saying something. If your Blog doesn't get shared, talked about or commented on, that's saying something. If people don't view, embed and rate your videos on YouTube, that's saying something too. And, while the amount of views, comments and retweets isn't what's critical... it's crucial that whatever amount of people do connect with the content feel like it was valuable and worth sharing within their social graph.

A challenge.

If you really think that you have a unique voice, opinion or an idea to share, why not test it out? Instead of publishing your ideas on your own corporate Blog, why not get it published on The Huffington Post (or another big Blog publishing platform)? If your content can stand up in a forum like HuffPo (and yes, this includes the comments and how people then share it in places like Twitter and Facebook), your content can stand up anywhere.

Why do this?

Do this to to test yourself.

Do this to see if your content resonates.

Do this to push yourself to think about the people you're connecting to

Do this to see if you can do it without trying to sell another widget of your product.

Do this as an exercise to see how well you can critically think about a topic.

Do this to add humility to your business.

Do this to move beyond trying to leverage Social Media as a direct-response selling engine (it can be so much more).

Why don't more businesses and marketers do this?

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140 characters

b2b

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david weinberger

everything is miscellaneous

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small pieces loosely joined

social media

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the huffington post

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youtube

5 Ways To Survive Your Inbox

I love email. I hate email.

Most people probably have a similar love/hate relationship with email as they grapple daily with their inbox. In fact, I hate email... I just hate not getting email more. And, that's the dilemma that most professionals face when it comes to their inbox. It's gotten worse over time. Now, it's not just emails. We get messages from Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and beyond. Most of us are managing multiple inboxes across multiple platforms and it doesn't seem to be getting any better or easier to manage. My inbox has become a never-ending game of Tetris, where emails continue to flow in and stack up to the breaking point. Many professionals have declared email bankruptcy (where they simply delete every single email from their inbox with the hopes that if the contents were truly critical, the sender will reach out them or call as a follow-up).

Most of us rely on email for critical business communications and email bankruptcy is not a legitimate option, so let's look at five ways to master the inbox.

Create folders. Some of the newer Web-based email clients do not have folders (like Gmail), but they do have "tags" (words you can use to associate multiple messages to), either way creating tags or folders are critical to getting organized. My general strategy is to create a folder for every client or project. On top of that, I create folders for each member of our team at Twist Image (in case it's a conversation related to an individual instead of a specific project). I also have folders for HR, business development, interesting news items that may wind up becoming content fodder for my newspaper columns, Blog post, or an idea for a book. I also track trends using my inbox. If something interesting happens with Facebook, I email the link to myself and file it under Facebook in my trends folder. Using sub-folders is another way to keep your emails organized.

Create rules. I set-up a lot of email alerts from places like Google Alerts or when somebody new is following me on Twitter or requesting to connect on Facebook or LinkedIn. With a couple of simple clicks on the "rules" button, you can have emails sent from a specific email address or emails that have a similar piece of content in the body of the message to redirect automatically to a pre-defined folder. This avoids inbox clutter and clog-ups. This tactic works great if you subscribe to a lot of e-newsletters as well.

Get it done. In 2001, David Allen wrote the groundbreaking business book, Getting Things Done - The Art of Stress-Free Productivity. While I'm not a sworn devotee of Allen and his techniques (I've managed to develop my own coping mechanisms over time), one gem of productivity insight is culled from this masterful tome: if you can get it done in 60 seconds or less, do it right away. Emails that don't require more than a few sentences to respond to get done as soon as possible and then get filed in their specific folders (or deleted). The longer emails are attended to in-between meetings, but I will set aside one hour - every day - to deal with the emails that require more writing/thinking. Lastly, I don't beat myself up if every email doesn't get responded to on the same day that it was received. The non-critical messages get dealt with in due process, but I do respond to every email that requires a response.

Create a hierarchy of response. During the day, clients or potential new business get responded to first, then staff, then requests for media or writing, and then family and friends (unless it's an obvious emergency). It doesn't matter if that rule gets broken from time to time, but it's the spirit of: clients first, team second and everything else after that, which allows me to look at my inbox with a different perspective. Create a hierarchy of who gets responded to and in what order.

Tell people - in your emails - how to work better with you. Most people have no idea how to use email. They respond to everyone on an email with a bunch of people who were only cc'd and they'll do things like send back an email that says, "ok," as if that adds any value to the chain of communication. You can set the ground rules by putting some insights into your signature file. I've seen people with signature files that not only have their contact information, but say things like, "please only respond back to me, the other people who are listed on this email are just there to be kept in the loop," or, "there's no need to respond to back me, I just wanted you to see this so that you are kept in the loop." A little clarity on how you like to interact via email will help keep your inbox clutter down to a dull roar and it will also teach other people new ways that they can use their email with more efficacy.

Most people are in email hell.

It's on their smartphones and it's on their screens for most of their waking moments. Many people look at their email before going to the bathroom as their first act of the day and many people look at their email right before they close their eyes for the night. Some may see this as an indictment on our society's inability to find a peaceful balance in our work-centric lives. Ultimately, the only way to really survive your inbox is to make a personal promise that you are going to better manage your technology, instead of letting your technology manage you. 

What are your best strategies for overcoming your inbox?

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 - Five ways to master your email inbox and manage your technology .

Vancouver Sun - not yet published.

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