Mitch Joel's Blog: Six Pixels of Separation, page 361

The Next Generation Of Listening And Marketing

Episode #252 of Six Pixels of Separation - The Twist Image Podcast is now live and ready for you to listen to.

 Stephen Rappaport works as the Knowledge Solutions Director for the ARF (Advertising Research Foundation). I first heard about Steve when he co-authored the 2007 business book, The Online Advertising Playbook - Proven Strategies and Tested Tactics from the Advertising Research Foundation. He's back with his latest book, Listen First! - Turning Social Media Conversations Into Business Advantage. This is not just another Social Media book. From, Steve's bio: "Listen First! draws upon my decades of experience in listening for market research and for creating listening-based business strategy, services and companies. Listening grabbed me in academia, where I had the good fortune to train under a number of distinguished professors who pioneered media content analysis, and then brought that to business to include in my toolkit for consumer and B2B research, strategy and planning." We often tell brands that they have to listen first, but Steve breaks it down into a much more functional and strategic imperative. Enjoy the conversation... (oh... Happy Mother's Day! to the hardest working professionals in the business!).

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 #252.

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advertising

advertising research foundation

arf

bite size edits

blog

blogging

blue sky factory

book oven

business book

cast of dads

cc chapman

chris brogan

christopher s penn

digital dads

digital marketing

facebook

facebook group

hugh mcguire

in over your head

itunes

julien smith

librivox

listen first

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

stephen rappaport

strategy

the online advertising playbook

trust agents

twist image

Six Links Worthy Of Your Attention #46

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:

What's Left of the Left - New York Magazine . "After last week's extraordinary events in the US -- the shame of Obama being forced to prove the country of his birth, the shaming of Donald Trump , and the killing of Bin Laden with an immediate froth of blame, credit-taking, and hand-wringing -- this New York Magazine article is timely. It's a look at Economist, Paul Krugman , meaty, but well worth it." (Alistair for Hugh).

The Wave - Ron Jones Website . "In 1991, a high school teacher turned a social experiment into a complete melt-down of the Palo Alto school where he taught. This should be read alongside Zimbardo' s Stanford Prison Experiment , Milgram 's tests of authority, and other examples of just how easily otherwise balanced societies can turn feral and corrupt. Now try to imagine a teacher pulling this off today, and the public outcry that would ensue." (Alistair for Mitch).

. "I've long been fascinated by the difference between how 'conservatives/right' and 'liberals/left' see the world. There are few issues where this is more obvious than global warming: generally the left is worried about climate change and the right is not. Who's right? Well, if you believe generally in the scientific method, and prudent risk management, you're likely to be worried about global warming. But what do you believe if you don't believe in global warming?" (Hugh for Alistair). 

What are some of the most mind-blowing facts? - Quora . "A mind-blowing list of mind-blowing facts (from users of Quora )." (Hugh for Mitch).

Trying to Game Google on 'Mother's Day Flowers' - The New York Times . "You would think that it's pretty obvious where to buy flowers for your mother this coming Sunday, but it's still a hyper-competitive bidding war for those who sell flowers to make sure they're at the top of the search engines should someone be looking for them. This fascinating article could have been written over a decade ago. The point? Being in pole position at the top of a Google search page is still key for business... and it's big business... and Happy Mother's Day to all of the mothers out there." (Mitch for Alistair).

Jay Rosen: What I Think I Know About Journalism - Boing Boing . "I love the way Jay Rosen thinks about Journalism. He's not some bright-eyed and bushy-tailed recent graduate of Journalism. He's been teaching and looking critically at the field for a long time. What technology has brought is many new definitions of Journalism and Rosen's admission that we may not even know what Journalism is - in this day and age - paints a wonderful picture of news and how it gets transmitted to the world in our hyper-connected society." (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

bitcurrent

bite-sized edits

boing boing

complete web monitoring

donald trump

economist

game

gigaom

global warming

google

great links

hugh mcguire

human 20

jay rosen

journalism

librivox

link

linkbait

managing bandwidth

media hacks

mothers day

new york magazine

paul krugman

philip zimbardo

pressbooks

quora

rednod

ron jones

search engine marketing

stanford prison experiment

stanley milgram

technology

the book oven

the economist

the new york times

the wave

year one labs

Become Digitally Literate

A better world is a place where more and more people are digitally literate.

People often ask me who I turn to for the most forward-thinking perspectives on new media and new thinking. One of my main sources of inspiration for new thinking is Douglas Rushkoff. Rushkoff's bio is intense. His latest book, Program or be Programmed, is a rich read. Here he is speaking at Google. Watch this for an hour... but keep a notebook handy...

Tags:

digital literacy

douglas rushkoff

google

new media

program or be programmed

Wanting Something

How badly do you want something?

It's very interesting to think about the things we want and lay them against the things we have. Take a long hard look at what you have. How did you get it? Did you get it because it just showed up? Was it given to you? Odds are it was neither of those things. You did something about it. You committed yourself to it. You didn't stop until you had it. You wanted it bad enough to truly (and deeply) commit yourself to the tasks that needed to happen for the stars to align.

We want more followers on Twitter . We want our Blog to be more popular. We want our videos to go viral on YouTube . We want people to like us on Facebook .

Even if we tossed aside asking "why" a brand would want any of these things (let's assume it fits perfectly into their marketing strategy), the truth is that wanting any of those things are nice and easy to say. What's hard is committing to making it happen. After a recent speaking engagement, one of the audience members approached me and asked for my opinion about their Blog. They had been Blogging for a few years but didn't feel like the Blog was getting the attention and recognition that it deserved. My first question was: "why do you Blog?" Their answer back was (and I'm paraphrasing here): "Because if I Blog and my posts get picked up, people will know who I am and... if everything goes well... they will buy from me." I then asked them how often they Blog? The answer: "it's not a huge priority for me and stuff always gets in the way - from my work to family life, but it's important to me and I try to get to it as often as I can."

Are you feeling this?

I did a quick audit of this person's Blog. Here are my top-level notes:

Erratic posting schedule. Sometimes the Blog is updated multiple times during one day, then there are weeks of nothing and then the odd post here and there.

Random topics. While there is a thread of context that lines the post, the majority of content is random thoughts that brain-dumped into a post.

Lack of flow. The Blog posts feel rushed and not all that thought-out.

So...

The truth? This person is not committed to making their Blog successful. They may be trying in earnest, but if they really wanted it to be successful, they would do everything they could (post more regularly, choose a line of thinking and attack it, spend the time with each post to construct a salient point, etc...) to make it happen. The same is true about Twitter, Facebook, YouTube or whatever. For the most part, brands want to be successful in these channels but they lack the commitment. A lot of this happens because they see the channels as either trends or campaigns (things that will have a beginning, middle and end... in a timely fashion), but the truth is a little different.

It's a platform. Not a campaign.

This Blog (and my Twitter feed, Facebook page, etc...) is a continually humbling experience. I can easily look at my web analytics and know exactly what is resonating (and what is not). On top of that, I'm able to benchmark my work (or my commitment) against others. I know where I stand. I can walk the streets shaking my head, not understanding why more people are following me on Twitter, or I can take a cold hard look at the screen and admit that I don't tweet often and when I do, it's mostly a prompt for people to come and see what I'm up to here, on this Blog. See, if I really wanted more followers on Twitter, I know exactly what to do. Clearly, it's just not as important to me as other opportunities.

Humility and wanting.

Marketers aren't known for their humility. I'm doing my best to be humble. To be honest. To be open to thinking about (and sharing) why some stuff works and why other stuff does not. In the end, the majority of the answer is not about the talent or the ability to pull a thought together, it's about the commitment. The blank screen does not care... it's agnostic. If you write, good for you. If you don't, good for you. That being said, if you keep at it... If you use these platforms to think deeply about what you're about and why you think your industry is the way it is, then slowly over time you'll find your groove and your talent will shine.

Sadly, most people want it fast and easy. That's good news for those who are truly committed to it, because they're the ones who actually get what they want.

Tags:

advertising campaign

blog

blogging

brand

content

creativity

facebook

humility

marketing strategy

online video

publishing

speaking engagement

talent

twitter

viral video

web analytics

youtube

Stories Die When There Is No Experience With It

Transmedia is all the rage these days. So too is Digital Storytelling.

The idea seems both plausible and realistic: extend your brand into as many different media channels and platforms that the public can bear. Don't pound one message down into every channel in a repetitive fashion, but create different stories for each channel and have everything link back to the brand that gives it a closer and more interesting experience for the consumer. In best case scenarios, include the consumer in the creation and/or collaboration of these activities. What the brand will net out with is: multiple and original stories in multiple places that are customized for each experience, and that brings people closer to the brand.

Does it work?

A better question may be: "how can it not work?" One of the best executions on the concept of Transmedia is the movie, The Matrix. From comic books to billboards in Time Square to animated shorts and video games, the launch of that movie brought people into the brand from many different corners. Consumers didn't need to take part in every adventure, but if they did, it created a much more engaged experience. The challenge is this: Transmedia and Digital Storytelling clearly works if what you're selling is a story in and of itself (like launching a movie or a television series). Do you think a toilet manufacturer is going to get the same kind of returns?

Stories are important but they're not everything.

Twitter fascinates me. Each day, I can watch the stream of my limited amount of people that I am following, and whether or not I click on every link this trusted group serves up to me becomes somewhat irrelevant against the bigger picture: trying to create stories is not enough. It's not even close. The story is the starting point. What works is how the stories moves people and - ultimately - the experience it creates for them. Stories are created. Stories are published. Stories die. The best stories can transcend this loop, but it's not easy. The best stories really do create experiences, but it's not easy.

Start with what the experience should be.

This is brand new thinking for brands. In a world where success is defined by how well you can publish relevant content and get it to connect, the next generation of true engagement is not going to be about these stories, but the experiences that come from it. So few brands working in the Social Media channels understand and embrace this. They publish Blog posts, they create videos on YouTube, they tweet and push people to "like" them on Facebook in hopes that something "viral" happens. Ultimately, it about how these people spread this one gem (or germ) through their networks and how that causes more people to buy from them. Ultimately, it's not about the true brand experience but about capturing a second of attention that will (hopefully) extract the money from a consumer's wallet and deposit it in the brand's bank account.

True experiences aren't simple and they're much harder to make work.

Brands are going to have to face themselves in the mirror some time very soon. They're going to have to ask themselves if "likes" or views on YouTube really mean anything. They're also going to have to think long and hard about whether or not all of that time and effort would have been better spent planting seeds of content that tell stories that actually do create a true and meaningful experience. Something a consumer not only latches on to, but actively seeks out and shares because it - like an great experience - the more you engage, the deeper and more meaningful the relationship becomes. While I hate to constantly use Apple as an example, they are one. All of the stories people tell about Apple means nothing unless the experience not only matches, but surpasses the story... because that's how experiences take hold. What does that mean? The experience has to be better (much better) than the story that created it.

I'm not sure that brands are ready for this. What do you think?

Tags:

apple

brand experiences

brand. media channel

collaboration

content

digital storytelling

engagement

facebook

publishing

social media

stories

story

the matrix

transmedia

twitter

viral

youtube

The Mutterings Of Twitter

Brands that are leveraging Twitter to connect with their consumers may be in for a surprise.

That feeling of frustration that we have all experienced as consumers of a brand is not a constant or lingering feeling that turns someone from a consumer (or even a brand advocate) into a non-consumer (or a brand terrorist). We can't forget that Twitter - in its purest form - is the ultimate exhaust valve for many individuals to let some immediate steam loose. How many instances has there been when someone waiting for a plane is delayed, and they dump all over the airline in a moment of frustration? While in some instances the airline is at fault, more often than not it's an issue that has to do with weather or security (some of the many things that are beyond an airline's control). Airlines aren't perfect and they mess things up in spectacular fashion from time to time, but that's not the point: what's important to note is that the frustrated traveler is not writing an obituary for their relationship with the airline and that those tweets or Facebook status updates are more like mutterings and "moments in time" rather than a greater issue of customer loyalty and brand advocacy.

In a world of Twitter mutterings, not all tweets are created equal.

The evolving landscape of brands, Twitter, customer service and meaningful connections is something to behold. Have you even been in a situation where you stub your toe and in the throes of agony, your spouse asks if everything is ok and you wind up responding in an angry tone? That's Twitter. People tweet whatever internal mutterings are frustrating them at one, specific moment in time. The platform acts like a mythical sea able to wash away your random mutterings as if the act of typing and publishing the thought to the your social graph cleanses your soul (it's not always a request for customer service). It's a much more common practice than brands understand. Now, brands have to ensure that they're suddenly not in a constant state of being the spouse that's asking if everything is ok.

Respond... not quickly but in time.

What does all of this mean? Perhaps these evolutions of engagement are teaching us that responding right away may not be as beneficial as responding in time. While that may read like semantics, it can be a very powerful concept: don't let your consumers stew over something, but also don't jump in just as they've stubbed their toe (if that's all it really is). This delicate balance may give a brand (and the consumer) some time to figure out if this is just a moment of externalized mutterings or something that requires true action.

Dynamics at play.

Understanding people is both an art and science. Understanding people as they begin to tweet the things that normally resided between their two ears is a completely new type of psychology, engagement and challenge for a brand (hence all of the missteps and call-outs). Getting it right will not be solely driven by the corporate structure that is put in place. Getting it right may well be about taking the proper time to understand the people you're connected to. Picking at consumers who are muttering simply because they have a platform to mutter through could open up a can worms that truly didn't require any level of engagement.

The adaptation of brands to this new reality is a fascinating thing to watch.

Tags:

brand

brand advocate

connectivity

consumer

corporate structure

customer service

engagement

facebook

psychology

publishing

social graph

tweet

twitter

twitter muttering

One More Important Thing About Presenting...

Being memorable is one thing. Being authentic is another.

The other day, someone directed me to a public speaking coach who is said to be an "expert amongst experts." I watched their YouTube video demo reel with interest, but it left me with a very bad taste in my mouth. Was the content strong? Yes. Were they discussing important aspects of what makes a presentation connect with an audience? Yes. Were they a powerful presenter? Meh.

Remember, you're presenting, not performing, but the best presentations are also authentic performances.

If you need to concentrate on one thing to take your presentations to the next level (once you have hammered home the basics), let it be this: don't overtly perform. Be natural. Be authentic. The best presentations shouldn't feel like something you would see in a b movie. A public presentation should never be a platform that becomes an over-acted monologue. It's not authentic and it leaves the audience feeling uncomfortable.

Over-acted monologues happen when you memorize your content and over-practice it.

I can see the eyes rolling right now: "Mitch thinks that if you memorize your speech and practice it too much, it's the wrong way to get it right!" No, that's not what I'm saying. You have to know, live and breathe your content. You have to be able to deliver that content in a powerful and memorable way, but you have to know when you have crossed the line. You have to know when you're no longer presenting with passion, but regurgitating memorized lines and trying to perform each line out instead of delivering the content with what I'll call a "quiet confidence."

Quiet confidence will take you far.

You may be thinking that true motivational speakers like Anthony Robbins, Gary Vaynerchuk, Jeffrey Gitomer, Les Brown and other are anything but quiet, but you would be wrong. They are practiced, well-rehearsed, know their content inside and out and deliver it in a very authentic way that is reflective of their individual personalities. I've had the pleasure of both sharing the stage and watching these speakers command the platform like no others. They are not different people when you meet them on the street. In fact, I would argue that they're not really performing in as much as they are amping up who they are by about 20% to create more energy and passion from the stage.

Every line is delivered with mastery.

The reason the public speaking coach mentioned at the beginning of this Blog post failed to "wow" his audience is because they have probably spent too much time in front of a full-length mirror. They're busy practicing each syllable and hand gesture to the point where the intent and the spirit of the content is all but lost in what has morphed from a public presentation into an over-acted monologue. Dave Matthews Band had a big hit called, 'The Space Between'. That's the space you have to focus on. Extremes rarely work in a public address because people are looking for content from someone they can relate to... and that finding the right performance in that kind of moment of delivery is all about the space between knowing your content cold and over-acting it. When you're practicing, practice working on that space between what's real and what's fake.

What's your take?

Tags:

anthony robbins

authenticity

content

dave matthew bands

gary vaynerchuk

jeffrey gitomer

les brown

performance

personality

presentation

presenting

public address

public speaking

public speaking coach

quiet confidence

the space between

youtube

How To Get Serious About Your Creativity

Episode #251 of Six Pixels of Separation - The Twist Image Podcast is now live and ready for you to listen to.

Here's a confession: I'm a procrastinator. My favorite saying used to be: "if it weren't for the last minute, nothing would get done." But that all changed back in 2003 when I read Steven Pressfield's book, The War Of Art. I had known Pressfield as a fiction writer (his best-known work, The Legend Of Bagger Vance, was also a huge Hollywood hit), but as the buzz began surrounding The War Of Art, I not only found myself devouring that book, but being able to look at how I create content in a very different light. People often ask me where I find the time to write books, Blog posts, articles, etc... while still growing Twist Image and having time for a personal life. Well, here's another confession: I internalized and acted on many of things Pressfield talks about in The War of Art. Last week, Pressfield dug deeper into what holds us back from the work we were meant to do by releasing a new business book, Do The Work! (which also happens to be the second release on Seth Godin's new publishing company, The Domino Project). Do The Work! is a quick read and it's more like a manifesto than a work of non-fiction. I was thrilled that Pressfield agree to spend some time talking about creativity and conquering whatever it is that is holding us back. 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 #251.

Tags:

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

do the work

facebook

facebook group

gates of fire

hugh mcguire

in over your head

itunes

julien smith

killing rommel

kindle

last of the amazons

librivox

managing the gray

marketing

marketing over coffee

media hacks

new marketing labs

online social network

podcast

podcasting

pressbooks

seth godin

six pixels of separation

social media 101

social media marketing

steven pressfield

strategy

the afghan campaign

the domino project

the legend of bagger vance

the virtues of war

the war of art

tides of war

trust agents

twist image

twitter

Six Links Worthy Of Your Attention #45

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 Predator Tracking Algorithm - TLD. "A student in the UK may have beaten Microsoft's Kinect tracking system. As the videos on this site show, it's amazing what you can do with a webcam these days -- from haptic interfaces to facial recognition. Cheap, ubiquitous tracking can help the disabled, provide better security, and much more." (Alistair for Hugh).

The Management Myth - The Atlantic . "Think a management degree makes you smarter? Matthew Stewart says study philosophy instead. 'They were supposed to save the business,' said one client manager, rolling his eyes. 'Actually,' he corrected himself, 'they were supposed to keep the illusion going long enough for the boss to find a new job.' Ouch. (Alistair for Mitch).

The Science of Why We Don't Believe Science - Mother Jones . "Why it's so hard to change people's minds: 'We apply fight-or-flight reflexes not only to predators, but to data itself.'" (Hugh for Alistair).

Inside Apple's Q2 Numbers - Monday Note . "An analysis of the continuing extraordinary financial performance of Apple." (Hugh for Mitch).

Techcrunch Editor Discloses Investments, Admits To Conflicts Of Interests - Silicon Valley Watcher . " Techcrunch editor, Michael Arrington , is never one to shy away from controversy. This week was no exception. The Twitter feeds lit up with news that Arrington is an investor in many start-ups - the exact same type of companies that he is writing news items about. The question is one of ethics: can the editor of a well-respected publication (owned by AOL - a public company) give fair and balanced coverage if he, himself, is an investor? Tom Foremski weighs in with one of the more salient pieces on the topic." (Mitch for Alistair).

NYT Tool Visualizes the Life of a News Article - AdWeek . "I love links. I love linking to other types of digital content and I believe that linking makes text three-dimensional and way more interesting. This story fascinated me: ' The New York Times ' R&D team introduced a new tool that can track the lifespan of a news story. Project Cascade visualizes the way a Times story spreads through the different layers of social networking sites to pinpoint why stories gain traction or fall flat.' How the NYT will monetize this is beyond me, but it's webby and it's cool." (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:

adweek

alistair croll

aol

apple

bitcurrent

bite-sized edits

complete web monitoring

data

digital content

facial recognition

gigaom

great links

haptic interfaces

hugh mcguire

human 20

librivox

link

linkbait

management

managing bandwidth

matthew stewart

media hacks

michael arrington

microsoft kinect

monday note

mother jones

new york times

news

nyt

online social networking

philosophy

pressbooks

project cascade

rednod

science

silicon valley watcher

start-up

techcrunch

the atlantic

the book oven

tld

tom foremski

twitter

webcam

year one labs

What The Next Five Years Will Be About

The next five years will be about direct relationships.

Several years ago a leading brand contacted us (Twist Image) about a new business opportunity in the digital space. The brand's reality was this: as the years wane on, the amount of retailers that they sell to were diminishing. As the major big box outlets continue to grow and as consolidation rifles through the retail sector, the bigger brands only have a handful of outlets to sell their wares. With these retailers' size and growth comes another reality: they begin to dictate everything from quantity and terms to acceptable margins. For some businesses, this is a dream come true because it secures significant sales, but for others (like this brand), their business was becoming a game of diminishing returns. It gets ugly fast when you run the numbers: eventually this brand will only have their product on the shelves of one or two retailers who are constantly dictating and changing the terms of sale... and the brand has no direct relationship with the consumer.

How do you win?

The brand's idea was to create a new e-commerce brand online that housed only their own brand name products. This was the last chance. This was the hope and prayer to save the business: start a direct relationship with the consumer... today. Notwithstanding how the major retailers might feel about this project, it was a smart and wise play. For a brand to truly shape its own destiny, it must lead the relationship with the consumer as well. This must have been a huge factor in Apple's decision to build out retail stores and not work exclusively with the major consumer electronic retailers.

How are your direct relationships?

Some brands do this well... most fail at it with spectacular fashion. Is it possible to be so judgmental? It is. One of the reasons I still enjoy the conversation and debate about the efficacy of Social Media marketing is that the majority of brands that struggle with ROI are comparing it to traditional push advertising instead of treating it as an opportunity to have real interactions between real people. A consumer that hits a "like" or "follow" button is opening up the opportunity to have a direct relationship with a brand. If all the brand does is blast back offers and specials, we're not pushing towards direct relationships... we're pushing towards broadcast advertising (in a new channel).

The opportunity is now. 

I'm often reminded of an event I took part in called, The Art Of Marketing (sidebar: I'll be speaking at an upcoming Art of Marketing event in Vancouver on June 9th, 2011 - it will also feature Gary Vaynerchuk, Guy Kawasaki, Avinash Kaushik and William Taylor). Also speaking on the bill was Seth Godin (Poke The Box, Linchpin, Purple Cow). Seth doesn't hold any punches and made it very clear to the 1500 marketing professionals in attendance that this unique moment in time is not only a revolution in marketing - one that we will probably never again see in our lifetime - but that it was ours to either capitalize on or squander. The next fives years are going to be about these direct relationships. The next five years are going to about how well a brand can actually change the relationship from one that looks at how many people are in their database to who these individuals are and how the brand can make the connections and loyalty stronger.

The stars are aligned.

We have the technology. We have the data. We have the new media channels and platforms. We have the opportunity to publish whatever we want - in text, images, audio and video - instantly (and for free) to the world. What we do with this moment will be telling. It will also set the pace for everything that flows out of our marketing departments for the next decade. That big brand I talked about earlier? They never pulled the trigger on their e-commerce project and wouldn't you guess it: they're busy scrambling for "likes" on Facebook and are selling their products through the handful of big box retailers left.

No direct relationships. No future.

Tags:

advertising

apple

avinash kaushik

big box outlet

brand

consumer electronics

data

digital marketing

direct relationships

ecommerce

facebook

gary vaynerchuk

guy kawasaki

linchpin

marketing professional

new media

poke the box

publishing

purple cow

retail

retailer

roi

seth godin

social media

social media marketing

technology

the art of marketing

william taylor