Mitch Joel's Blog: Six Pixels of Separation, page 359

Six Links Worthy Of Your Attention #49

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:

A movie lover's plea: Let there be light - Boston.com . "It's not enough that movie theatres and TV vendors, desperate for differentiation, are foisting 3D on an unwilling and largely uninterested market. Now those technologies are making regular movies worse too. Turns out those 3D projectors have to be manually switched to show regular films in a complicated process made worse by DRM protections. Here's why your movies don't look as good any more." (Alistair for Hugh).

Layers - Jo Walton . "This piece by Jo Walton reflects on the situations that force us to hang out with people who are different from us: doctors' offices, shunned slices of the population, schoolyards, public transit. It reminds me of Lenny Rachitsky's piece on serendipity, something we're all afraid of losing in a world that increasingly solves for similarity." (Alistair for Mitch).

Open science: a future shaped by shared experience - Guardian UK . "More on 'open source science.' Science will always operate better with an open exchange of information, because the scientific methods depend on many people testing and proving or disproving a particular hypothesis. The Internet accelerates the flow of information, and never before has it been easier to share information. That radical openness - one well-known in blogging and parts of the tech world - is starting to bear interesting fruit as it is embraced by scientists." (Hugh for Alistair).

Why Privacy Matters Even if You Have 'Nothing to Hide' - The Chronicle of Higher Education . "If you don't have anything to hide, then you shouldn't be worried about the government knowing every little thing about you. Right?" (Hugh for Mitch).

Destination: Laptopistan - The New York Times . "Ever wonder how a cafe owner who offers free wi-fi can make a living when a handful of start-up entrepreneurs clog their tables and chairs for seven hours a day? While co-working seems like an affordable solution to renting an office, how about spending ten bucks on a few coffees and milking the cafe owners for free connectivity and electricity every day?" (Mitch for Alistair).

Sharp Growth in Ereader Penetration - eMarketer . "'I could never type with my thumbs.' 'I can't type on glass.' 'I could never read a book on a screen.' Human beings say all kinds of funny things... in hindsight. The argument for the smell, feel and touch of a book is quickly dissipating (as this data shows). We used to think there was no point in listening to music unless we could sit in bed and read the liner notes or examine the album cover art. Let's face it, our world is changing and while some may still want to hold a book, it's becoming more of an artifact with each passing day." (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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alistair croll

bitcurrent

bite-sized edits

chronicle of higher education

complete web monitoring

emarketer

ereader

gigaom

great links

guardian uk

hugh mcguire

human 20

jo walton

laptopistan

lenny rachitsky

librivox

link

linkbait

managing bandwidth

media hacks

movie

open science

pressbooks

privacy

rednod

serendipity

the book oven

the new york times

year one labs

Tension As Motivation

If we're not creating tension as a Marketing Professional, then what are we doing?

Jeffrey Hayzlett (the former CMO of Kodak, the author of the best-selling business book, The Mirror Test, and celebrity CMO) said this today at the CMA National Convention (Day Two). As the Chief Marketing Officer for Kodak during a dramatic business model realignment (when was the last time you bought a roll of film for a camera?), he realized that his role was about creating tension in not only the marketing department (which employed hundreds of people) but in the creative output as well. It's a pretty dramatic concept, if you think about it. It's also something he seems to have done with a smile on his face ("Come on folks," he pleaded with the audience of marketing professionals, "we're doing Marketing here... nobody is going to die!").

Tension takes a certain kind of character.

Marketers are not as brave as people may think. While a lot of the creative output may come off as edgy and innovative, Marketers (much like other business professionals) play it safe. They're scared to lose their jobs, they're scared to screw something up, they're scared to make mistakes and they're overly worried about their reputation (professional advancement, salary bonuses, etc...). I'd love to admit that I don't fall into this camp, but as an agency owner, it's hard. My mistakes (and those of my business partners and senior management team) don't just have personal ramifications. With over a hundred employees at Twist Image, my mistakes can affect thousands of people (team members, their family, the client's team and maybe even the client's consumers). I'm cognizant of that, so while I have a little more leeway to create tension in places like this Blog, on the Podcast, in one of my newspaper columns, it's more challenging and intimidating in other aspects of the business.

Get over it. We need more tension.

Tension is critical. If you're not creating tension and pushing your thinking (and people)  to the edge, then you're playing it safe. Tension in your marketing makes sense too - especially when the people engaging and consuming your marketing messaging feel the energy. We're not talking about tension to the point of it making people uncomfortable (there's a wide chasm between tension and negative tension), but to the point of it making them recognize that your brand is different and pushing buttons.

Tension can...

Create new thinking around a brand.

Inspire people to dig a little deeper.

Get people to think more.

Push people to take action.

Get people to talk about what you're doing to others.

Initiate a story that gets people to share your content.

The good tension.

When does your best work happen as a Marketer? Does it happen when you have all of the time in the world or does it happen when something drops and needs your attention and resolution in a short period of time? When your team comes together, when the war room needs to be mobilized and when there's an immediate demand for your services, the tension is what brings out the best in people... whether we like to admit it or not. Tension does bring a unique and powerful result.

How much tension do you bring to your work and to your art?

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canadian marketing association

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kodak

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newspaper column

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the mirror test

twist image

The Creative Imperative

How important is creativity in Marketing?

It's not a loaded question. Some may say that the creativity can't stand on its own as it needs the strategy behind it that will drive the creative output. I think that's a mistake. If the strategy isn't developed using creativity, all is lost. My point? Creativity is not just the visual part of it. Creativity needs to be expressed at every part of the marketing food chain.

This isn't just about how smart you are as a Marketer.

Arianna Huffington gave the opening keynote address today at the CMA National Convention. Optically, you may not be impressed by the design and usability of The Huffington Post. How you feel about it creativity doesn't matter. The editors at HuffPo know it works. They test it, they leverage analytics and they watch how their linking strategy moves across the Web like a hawk. They iterate, tweak and fix the experience on the fly. It's everything that traditional newspapers and magazines don't do. Putting that aside as a creative act (both strategically and visually), you have to be impressed with everything that Arianna and her team did prior to launching this new form of journalism, news and cultural expression in 2005. The Huffington Post got creative with how they thought about everything from publishing and journalism to pushing the medium into newer forms of sharing and collaborating.

"Self-expression is the new entertainment." 

That was only one of the very tweetable things that Arianna told the audience of Marketers today. She's right. It's much more fun for people to tweet or update their Facebook status than it is to watch a TV show. It's also more creative when people can create things in text, images, audio and video and share it instantly for free to the world. That initial spark of content then becomes something that other people can add on top of (creating their own layer of creativity).

Many people think they're not creative. They are wrong.

When you Blog, you're being creative.

When you're problem solving at work, you're being creative.

When you have the urge to tweet on Twitter, you're being creative.

When you leave an original comment on a Blog post, you're being creative.

When you structure your Facebook page, you're being creative.

When you develop your LinkedIn profile, you're being creative.

When you take a picture with Instagram, you're being creative.

Being creative is imperative to your personal and professional development.

Marketing is all about how many people from many different disciplines come together to creatively solve a brand challenge. This is the reason why so many marketing agencies use words like "creativity," "ideas" and "inspiration" in their vision and mission statements. Marketing is all about the creative imperative. Pushing this idea even further, business is also about the creative imperative too.

I'd argue that creativity is core to everything in Marketing. How do you think this plays out?

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LinkedIn, Social Media And Bubbles

Late last week, LinkedIn became the biggest U.S. Internet IPO since Google back in 2004.

Everyone from investors to start-up entrepreneurs and media pundits have looked at this deal sideways. The commentary mostly revolves around this being either a sign of the new apocalypse or what is to be the next great Internet stock market bubble (in some business circles, these are the same thing). Beyond the hype (the stock doubled in price on its first day of trading) to confusion (The Atlantic ran a Blog post titled, Did Bankers Scam LinkedIn Out of Over $130 Million?) to speculation (the International Business Times published an article titled, LinkedIn IPO: What Does This Mean For Facebook?), there is no doubt (just take a look at the market) that LinkedIn's IPO continues to rally tech stocks. It's just hard to imagine that an online social network specifically targeted to the business professional suddenly has a valuation that rivals brands like Tiffany & Co., Hormel Foods, Electronic Arts, Hyatt Hotels and Hertz Global Holdings. It's even harder to imagine when our media is filled with brands like Facebook, Twitter and Zynga (all of which get much more media attention than LinkedIn, and all of which are still not public companies) and we've rarely heard much public excitement about LinkedIn and their growth.

The big question is: is LinkedIn just hype or is this the real deal? The lesser-hyped question is: is this the sign of a second dot com bubble.

I joined LinkedIn very early on. In fact, I am member #23,540 according to my profile information (as of March 2011, LinkedIn has more than 100 million members in over 200 countries and territories, according to their website). For years, I've Blogged about the merits and quality of LinkedIn over other online social networks. It was (and still is) a fairly private experience (you have to approve every person who would like to see your profile, and only a limited amount of information is made public prior to that approval of a LinkedIn connection). On top of that, if you would like to connect with an individual, you have to either know that person's professional email address (that person is then asked if they would like to allow you to connect back to them) or you have to be introduced to that person through someone who is a direct contact (one degree of separation). Beyond that, LinkedIn boasts a premium service that members can pay for (the premium service offers features like the ability to message anyone on LinkedIn - whether you're a direct connection or not and the ability to see who has been snooping on your profile). Their advertising model may not be any more unique than other online spaces (display and text advertising solutions), but the information and targeting capabilities are second-to-none as members of LinkedIn tend to spend a lot of time ensuring that their business profiles are up-to-date (this information includes the type of specific data that advertisers drool over). The company has other revenue channels as well (recruiting solutions, etc...), and it has been focused on monetizing the platform since it first launched in 2003.

So, while it's easy to see and follow what any one individual is tweeting about over on Twitter, LinkedIn connections don't come so easy.

As people add friends on Facebook as if they're collecting baseball cards, LinkedIn always focused and catered to those who were looking for the quality over the quantity in their business-focused online social networking needs (many people ignore other people's invitations to connect). On top of that, LinkedIn is a business... a real business with multiple revenue models that is sadly being confused and clumped in with other Social Media darlings who haven't yet figured out how to make money or where that money is going to come from. And, while the platform has many people who are still trying to game it and spam it with nonsense, the average LinkedIn user takes this online social network seriously. Investors, journalists and media critics should do the same.

The dot com bubble and crash (1995 - 2000) happened primarily because investors were speculating on the potential of businesses that few of them truly understood.

In all fairness, the technology and connectivity wasn't even advanced enough for anyone to really know how this would pan out. That being said, for every sock puppet selling pet food, there were still companies like eBay and Amazon who had a clear vision of how commerce and business would change in the not-so-distant future. Sadly, the serious businesses got lumped in together with those who presented a business model that was nothing more than a beautifully wrapped gift that had nothing inside of it. Times have changed. Serious money is being exchanged in these digital channels and consumer usage is off charts if you look at Web, mobile and touch experiences. And, while we still have certain geographic regions that do not have blazing connectivity speeds, it's getting better as we move towards a hyper-connected society. Beyond all of that, the Internet has now been commercialized for over twenty years and Social Media is over a decade old. LinkedIn could well be validating something that many of us have been saying for a very long time: this is not a fad. This stuff works and people are using it (it's also getting easier and easier to use with a lowering barrier to entry for newbies).

The businesses that are still ignoring this digitization of everything - from how we buy and consume our media to how we network - may well be the ones who will have their bubbles burst first.

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 - This Is Not A Fad .

Vancouver Sun - not yet published.

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advertising model

amazon

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business column

business model

business professional

business profile

column

display advertising

ebay

electronic arts

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google

hertz global holdings

hormel foods

hyatt hotels

international business times

internet bubble

ipo

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media

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montreal gazette

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postmedia

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the atlantic

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twitter

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zynga

The Infovore

Human beings have an unquenchable thirst for information... not just knowledge.

Why are we like this? It was my understanding that David Weinberger (The Cluetrain Manifesto, Small Pieces Loosely Joined and Everything Is Miscellaneous) was working on this concept for his next business book. When he first introduced the notion to me (during this Podcast episode: SPOS #179 - The Cluetrain Manifesto At 10 Years+ With David Weinberger), it was a kernel of an idea that never quite left my brain. Whenever I add another RSS feed to Google Reader or follow someone interesting on Twitter, I stop to realize that it's another bite in my voracious appetite for more and more information.

I'm an Infovore.

I laughed out loud when I heard Clay Shirky (Here Comes Everybody and Cognitive Surplus) describe himself as an Infovore during a conversation with Jay Rosen (PressThink) - you can watch the full video interview here: The Newest Thinking On New Media. The truth is, there is no excuse not to self-educate at this point in history. Whether it's through the Web, mobile or a touch device, the freshest and newest thinking is closer than a click away and whatever piece of content you're consuming is now three-dimensional. It's not flat. It's not just stuck to a page. This information links out to other pieces of media (or is surrounded by supporting links). It has multimedia embedded within it - images, audio and video - and you can grab it from nearly any connected device.

There's a reason why passive media seems even more boring.

Personally, I have a hard time watching a dance competition on TV knowing full-well that iTunes U is stuffed to the digital rafters with audio and video Podcasts from some of the leading universities and given by the best professors... and that's just one, small channel. The other side of the challenge is that there is simply not enough time to follow, consume and deeply ingest everything. You will never be able to read every e-newsletter, Blog post, tweet or listen/watch every Podcast or interesting YouTube video. As an Infovore, I've become quite comfortable with a diet that consists of both grazing and then taking the time to really enjoy a full and hearty meal (I tried to read one book every week). The mightiest of Infovore's embrace the "mark all as read" button and take refuge in knowing that it's not about consuming everything.

The other side of the Infovore. 

What makes being an Infovore ever-more exciting is not just the many new, free and easy to access pieces of content, but it's the sharing of this content. Whether it's via Twitter or Facebook or working through ideas in a Blog post, being an Infovore in 2011 is as much about creating unique content as it is about consuming and sharing it. Many people are overwhelmed by all of this new and fast-paced access to information. I'm not. I'm loving it. I don't stress out about not consuming everything, I'm just happy to be alive during this amazing revolution of information.

I hope you are too.

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business book

clay shirky

cognitive surplus

content

david weinberger

everything is miscellaneous

facebook

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here comes everybody

information

infovore

itunes u

jay rosen

knowledge

media

multimedia

new media

podcast

preethink

publishing

rss

small pieces loosely joined

the cluetrain manifesto

twitter

youtube

The Revival Of TV Advertising

Episode #254 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 14th conversation (or, as I like to affectionately call it, Across The Sound 14.20), and this one focuses on life after the 30-second spot (not to be confused with the death of the 30-second spot). Reality television, specialty television, cable TV, TV on demand, etc... may well be driving a whole new revival for television advertising (whether the new media folk like it or not). For those keeping score at home, this episode also marks five years of Six Pixels of Separation Podcasts. 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 #254.

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

Six Links Worthy Of Your Attention #48

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 Destruction of Economic Facts - Bloomberg Businessweek . " Hernando De Soto argues pretty convincingly that because Western economies have 'crossed the line from the rule-bound system of property rights... into an anarchic legal space, where arbitrary interests can trump facts and paper swirls out of control.' Because of this, he says, we can never get to the bottom of an economic fallout -- our only option is to keep propping it up. Yikes." (Alistair for Hugh).

1947 Mystery That Matters Now - The New York Times . "It seems like video games are finally getting their due. This week, Rockstar Games released L.A. Noire, a digital opus and an homage to film noir detective stories. What I find fascinating is how game reviews are slowly becoming indistinguishable from film reviews. Finally, video games are getting their due." (Alistair for Mitch).

Edit This Page - Dave Winer . "I love reading old bits from the Web about the Web. Here's Dave Winer, the inventor of RSS and one of the inventors of blogging and podcasting, writing in 1999 about his ideas for the kinds of simple publishing tools that make the world Robert Krulwich describes as 'above possible'." (Hugh for Alistair).

"There are some people who don't wait." Robert Krulwich on the future of journalism - Discover . "Robert Krulwich makes the best radio show in the world, Radiolab, with Jad Abumrad. Here is one of the most moving and inspirational piece you'll ever read about what it means to be a journalist, and how exciting it is to be a journalist - especially a young one - today." (Hugh for Mitch).

Do Facebook and Google Control Too Much Personal Information? - The Atlantic . "I recently Blogged about the social contract that people have when they sign up for an online social network (more on that here: The Other Side of Privacy ). As we pump more and more of our lives into this channel (and into one or two, specifically), we have to understand (and be prepared) for what that means. Here's an interesting and not-often-discussed result that we should all be thinking about. People are obviously concerned with how much personal information they're forking over, but not enough to stop them from doing it - the benefits seem to be outweighing the divulging. These types of pieces make a strong case for data and avatar portability." (Mitch for Alistair).

Breathing new life into books with official hashtags - Dare To Comment . "Can a Twitter hashtag build a community? The other day Seth Godin Blogged about this Blog post over at The Domino Project . It's such a basic and smart idea that it's somewhat shocking how few authors and publishers have tried it. The premise is simple: create a permanent hashtag for your book and promote it everywhere. This way, anyone starting to read your book at any given point in time can either work backwards to see what others have thought/discussed or they can jump right into the warm waters of a current conversation. Let's face it, Twitter is much simpler to use for most than Blogging or building a forum, so this also helps authors and publishers by getting their ideas to spread through networks in a simple and effective manner. +1 Like." (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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alistair croll

author

bitcurrent

bite-sized edits

blog

bloomberg businessweek

book publishing

complete web monitoring

dare to comment

data portability

dave winer

economics

facebook

film noire

gigaom

google

great links

hashtag

hernando de soto

hugh mcguire

human 20

jad abumrad

journalism

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la noire

librivox

link

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managing bandwidth

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privacy

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radiolab

rednod

robert krulwich

rockstar games

rss

seth godin

the atlantic

the book oven

the domino project

the new york times

twitter

video games

year one labs

The Truth Behind A Massive Audience

The numbers are important.

This may come as a shock to many people who have been playing along at home with this Blog for over half a decade, but it's true. Having a massive audience is important. This is coming from the person who continually insists that it's not about "how many" people you connect your brand to, but rather "who." There is still a semblance of truth in that concept: having a massive amount of people connected to you, but with little engagement is of little value when compared to a smaller more active and caring audience. But, if you push that concept further: great ideas spread (as Seth Godin always says). Great ideas get traction and people tell other people about whatever it is that you are doing to the point where there is a massive audience for your thoughts and ideas. Pushing that further, it's not so easy to find the right "who" if you're not getting your message out to as many people as you can (unless all of those people are truly self-identifying themselves in a way that makes them easy to find and connect to).

What's with the sudden change?

I was recently watching an episode of Spectacle with Elvis Costello featuring James Taylor. Taylor was regaling the audience with stories from the days of Jimi Hendrix and Carole King as he talked about how lucky he was to have made it through, been successful and still be around to create music. A lot of his reflection seemed to deal with the fact that the life of musician can go in many directions (some positive, but most negative) primarily because of their drive and passion to get their music heard by as many people as possible. That was (and still is) the main purpose in Taylor's life: get many more people to listen to his words and music.

It's an important lesson.

Do I want more followers on Twitter? Do I want more friends on Facebook? Do I wish that more people would buy my book, Six Pixels of Separation? Do I wish that more people would listen to my weekly Podcast? Do I want more comments and readership on this Blog? The answer is yes. Not to compare myself to James Taylor, but that is the main (and primary) reason that I Blog, Podcast, tweet, communicate and connect. I want as many people as possible to read, hear and share the thoughts that I am trying so desperately to share.

There's no shame in that.

Back when I was in the music industry, Metallica used to joke around and say, "are we sell-outs?" when people would ask them if it's at all strange that this band with such street cred grew to such popular heights, "yes, we sell-out every single night that we play!" While that might have been a tongue in cheek deflection of a question, it was the perfect answer. We tend to throw rocks at those who gain mass acceptance as if it's an indicator that they are no longer authentic or credible. I'm just not buying it anymore. James Taylor is authentic (he's looking for a bigger audience). I'm trying to be authentic here (I'm looking for a bigger audience), and your brand or the brands you work for should be trying to do the same.

Don't you think that you're trying to do the same thing?

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spectacle with elvis costello

twitter

It's A Great Icebreaker

How useful is Twitter, Facebook and other Social Media platforms when it comes to actual relationships?

Well, if Malcolm Gladwell didn't get this conversation all riled up last October (see: Small Change - why the revolution will not be tweeted), the value of Twitter, Facebook and other Social Media platforms in building true relationships is brewing up all over again. While, in this instance, it's not as important as toppling regimes, it seems like The New York Times has a slew of commentary from different writers on the depth and value that comes from our social graphs online and how it can't be compared to pressing the flesh in-person. Take these three different perspectives from the newspaper on the topic:

Best Wishes Turn Middling.

The Twitter Trap.

Does Facebook Help or Hinder Offline Friendships?

It's not that big of a deal.

Prior to the Internet, parents spent their time complaining in newspapers and magazines and on TV and radio about how their kids were loosing touch with reality because they were spending too much time talking on the phone to their friends rather than meeting up with them in person. I'm sure there were plenty of people who figured that publishing books would make us spend too much time alone as well. The problem with all of these silly comparisons is that these statements are based on a world when these newer forms of communication and content didn't exist. Old values rarely understand newer innovations.

Social Media is an amazing icebreaker.

This is where Gladwell got it right: Social Media is an amazing enabler of weak connections. What we - as human beings - do with those connections (either strengthening them or keeping them at arm's length) is our own doing. Where Gladwell (and many of the other people who think that it's the end of humanity because we now wish our friends a Happy Birthday via Facebook instead of ringing their doorbells) got it wrong is: all strong ties begin as weak ties. Social Media is not only a great icebreaker, but it enables us to have (and manage) many more weak ties. While some people are just looking to up their numbers in a Machiavellian game of self-esteem, others focus on a small few and build tangible relationships that transcend the pixels. It's fair to say that the more people you meet, the better the opportunity may be to meet people you can really (truly and deeply) connect with.

Think about it this way...

You're a shy person and your boss tells you that you have to attend an industry conference. Not only are you a little introverted, but you don't know one single person who is attending this event. For decades, this was a common occurrence. People would register for the conference and awkwardly stand in the hallway next to the coffee machine hoping to make eye contact with another lonely soul. I've been there. You've been there, too. Now, you can hop on Twitter and tweet: "Hey, anybody going to the conference in Chicago next week? Wanna meet-up?" Not only are you now meeting a whole bunch of people who are going to the same conference as you (and if you don't have a significant following on Twitter, you can do a Twitter Search for the conference and see who else is talking about it and start following/connecting with them), but you now have new people to look forward to meeting and - if you're following and paying attention to what they're tweeting about - you'll actually know something about them too. On countless occasions, this tactic has not only made me feel more confident about attending an event, but I was actually looking forward to meeting all of these new connections to see where they could lead.

Treat it like an icebreaker but take it further.

If Twitter were nothing more than a tool to help you meet new people, it would be awesome enough. The truth is that what you do with it beyond that point is where the true value lies. When people complain that wishing someone a Happy Birthday on Facebook takes a little bit of our soul away, what they fail to focus on is that without Facebook or Twitter even the smallest "Happy Birthday" wish may never happen... and sometimes, just those nice, little pings in life can be more than enough. Most of us could all use a little more time to nurture those weaker connections. I, for one, love the fact that Social Media facilitates those special kinds of real interactions between real people. It's amazing how those real interaction can often lead to lifelong ties that have strength beyond strength.

What do you think?

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It's Not About The Technology

Always remember: it's not about the technology. It's about access.

People worry too much about the technology. Forget about the technology (sorry to those of you in IT). Instead, think about the access that the Internet has brought to our world. Beyond that, think about how mobile and touch is now giving even more people access. This very short TED Talk (under 6 minutes) demonstrates what happens when you use technology not to replicate an experience, but to supplement it (as Amit Sood - the head of Art Project at Google says) and to make it accessible to anyone, everywhere regardless of socio-economic class.

It's not what you think.

Too many people today think that technology is about how many friends and followers you have. It's not. Technology is (and will always be) about imagination, creativity and inspiration. Think about what this one project from Google may do to inspire the next generation of innovators. Think about what it means when you can access and have an experience like this, anywhere in the world.

It is inspiring.

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access to information

amit sood

creativity

google

google art project

imagination

innovation

inspiration

internet

mobile

technology

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touch