Mitch Joel's Blog: Six Pixels of Separation, page 372

The New Mass Media Is The iPad

The iPad had a good week.

No, I'm not talking about the swirling rumors of the iPad 2. Apple let the world know that beyond posting a record profit of six billion dollars in the last three months of 2010 (that's $26.74 billion in revenue for those keeping score at home), they also shipped 7.33 million iPads. This brings them close to 15 million iPads sold in 2010 (which blew away many industry analysts estimated). IDC (the research firm) says that approximately 17 million tablets were shipped in 2010 and that the iPad represented nearly ninety percent of tablets shipped in the third quarter of 2010 (more on that here: Apple Posts Record Profit; iPad Sales Surpass Projections).

When something becomes mass, it begins to act like mass media .

Many people see modern technology and the content that plays on it, and think that it will all look and act like Social Media. It may... it may not. Some will act this way, while others many not. There's no doubt that in its current format, the iPad is a device driven by consumption. In it's current form and function, creating content (beyond simple text) is not that easy. That being said, reading (Blogs, newspapers, books, magazines), general Web surfing, watching movies, looking at pictures and listening to audio content is pure joy. Heavy consumption like this coupled with the number of tablets being gobbled up by consumers is creating an entirely new kind of mass media consumption.

The iPad is also driven by advertising.

As much as I would (personally) like to see a new form of Marketing emerge as these new media channels get created, it seems like old habits do, indeed, die hard (as the saying goes). On Monday, MediaPost had a news item titled, iPad Owners Prefer Ad-Supported Content To Paid. Here's the gist of it:

"A large majority of iPad owners would prefer free, ad-supported media to content they have to pay for, according to a new survey by Knowledge Networks , first reported on the Ad Age Web site. But by the same token, they're not exactly happy about advertising. Specifically, Knowledge Networks found that 86% of iPad owners would be willing to see an ad in return for free access to content, including TV shows and articles from magazines and newspapers. That compares with just 13% who said they would be willing to pay for this type of content, if they already have access to it elsewhere. At the same time, 78% said advertising 'takes away from their enjoyment of their iPad.' Assuming this group includes all 13% who said they prefer paid content, this would seem to suggest that about 65% of iPad owners would grudgingly accept advertising - even though they don't actually like it - rather than reach for their wallets."

So, we hate advertising, but we hate paying for content more?

Things have to change. Marketers often talk about mobile as the "third screen" (the first being TV and the second being the computer screen)... and it turns out they (and I include myself in this bunch) got it all wrong. The iPad (and tablets like it) are the new mass media because it makes everything one screen. While we currently get different kinds of enjoyment out of out sixty-inch plasma TVs than we do from our smartphone screens, it's not a far stretch to see how the iPad can quickly become the hub for all of our screen activity. The size, the weight, the clarity, the portability and the connectivity. Much like you flick to see the next picture on your iPad today, you'll probably be making a similar gesture to flick a movie or TV show on to some other kind of screen on your home wall in the not-to-distant future. All of this innovation, portability and content-on-demand will need to find a new kind of revenue model.

It's not going to be free... and it can't only be ad-supported. I don't know what the answer will be, but I'm willing to hack away at this with you in the hopes of figuring it out.

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What You Always Need To Remember About The Internet

Your information is not (really) yours... and it's everywhere.

The news last week was littered (once again) with WikiLeaks. In an attempt to figure out exactly what Julian Assange and his team knows (and where they are getting their leaks from), the U.S. Department of Justice has been asking for information from places like Twitter, Facebook and Google (more on that here: Mashable - Social Media and Subpoenas: A Broken System That Puts Journalistic Sources at Risk and here Fast Company - Why Twitter Was the Only Company to Challenge the Secret WikiLeaks Subpoena). While the mass media outcry is focused on journalism and their ability to keep their sources secret, these issues also highlight the challenge that faces many individuals and brands when it comes to the online channels.

What you need to always remember about the Internet...

It's a business. Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, etc. are not social organizations created to help the better good. They are businesses and they are corporations. Their main focus is all the same: they are here to make money. While they may have other lofty goals (connecting all human beings or helping people to share ideas), they are not charitable groups. On top of that, there is a reason why they are all free. There are no free lunches. By giving you the service for free, they need to make money somewhere (and, more often than not, it's from capitalizing on your information).

Terms of service. Before signing up to any service, you have to sign and agree to their terms of services. Simply put, this is a legal document created so that the company can't be sued... for anything. It's a document to protect the company (and in doing so, it does not provide that much protection to the consumer - that's you and the brands you represent). While some of these terms and services agreement have a more fair and balanced approach (for instance, Twitter will notify you if government or police have asked for your data) many companies are simply looking to ensure their own assets. On top of that, because these channels are ever-changing and evolving, so too are the terms or service. This is a "buyer beware" scenario.

Your content is (probably) yours. While you retain the rights to the text, images, audio and video that you post online, always consider that the content is now public and shareable forever. We've seen this evolution in platforms like Facebook. As Facebook continues to grow in popularity, they are opening up the information of their users to more and more people. Originally, only the people you were connected to (and agreed to connect to) could see everything you posted, but as Facebook attempts to gain more members (which equates to more money and advertising opportunities), they will continue to "open up" people's profiles. Contrast that with Twitter, where everything you tweet (from day one) is available for all to see regardless of who you are following (and who follows you).

Money. Money. Money. While there are many tactics to how online social networks can make money, there are really only two overall strategies. Strategy number one: they sell the value of the network (the size and reach) along with the personalized data (geographic, psychographic, etc...) to advertisers who can then send those users more targeted messages. Strategy number two: they are looking to grow the company to the point where it becomes a valuable acquisition property, and then sell the company (and all of the data that comes with it) to another company. In both instances, you have to be well-aware that you data is never in the hands of one group, and that their intent is always to share this data to make money.

It's out of your hands. There are countless groups of people trying to fight everything I've Blogged about above. These people feel like they have rights to the data and information and should have choices in terms of what their data is being used for. In a perfect world, I'd love to agree, but if you go back to point number one above, this is about business. Users and brands have to know and always remember that these services are free and opt-in because they are looking to make money from the information that comes from the usage. While complaining and petitioning the companies can change certain aspects of the business, it will never sway away from making money or growing the data sets.

There are no "copies". Thinking about your pictures and videos in terms of someone else having a "copy" is a mistake. This is the same mistake that many traditional organizations have when looking at WikiLeaks. There are no copies. The picture you have on your camera that you then post to Facebookares not copies... it's another place where an original version of that picture now exists. The same can be said of everything digital - from you text messages and emails to your tweets on Twitter.

You can't have privacy. If you want privacy in any digital channels (and this includes your own email!), don't be in a online social network. It's just that simple. Even if you're comfortable with the current privacy settings in places like Twitter and Facebook, be very aware that they can change at any given moment in time.

This shouldn't scare you. It simply is what it is.

In my book, Six Pixels of Separation, I have a section called, Resign Your Privacy. The fact remains: there are tremendous business and professional development opportunities by engaging in these digital channels, but you have to be aware that it does come at a price. That price is that your information is now public, shareable and being used by other companies to better understand how you're using it and who you are connecting with to better segment your data so that it can be used to be monetized.

Welcome to the new business. How are you feeling about it?

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 - Joining social media revolution comes at a price - your privacy .

Vancouver Sun - not published yet.

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The True Histories Of Social Media

Episode #236 of Six Pixels of Separation - The Twist Image Podcast is now live and ready for you to listen to.

There are few global branding strategist who are like Jonathan Salem Baskin. He's had one of those careers that any Marketer would be jealous of. Having spent close to three decades in the branding and advertising world, Jonathan's resume is a who's who of the top brands in the world. Along with that, he is a prolific writer and thinker. We first connected in 2008 when his book, Branding Only Works On Cattle, came out because we share the same editor and publisher (Grand Central Publishing - Hachette Book Group). He then went on to write the book, Bright Lights & Dim Bulbs. Most recently, he has published a fascinating new book titled, Histories Of Social Media (which is a must-read). Along with that, Jonathan is a Blogger over at Dim Bulb and a bi-weekly columnist for Advertising Age. His opinions on Marketing, Social Media and the new world of branding will get you thinking. 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 #236.

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advertising age

bite size edits

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blogging

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branding only works on cattle

bright lights and dim bulbs

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cc chapman

chris brogan

christopher s penn

david usher

digital dads

digital marketing

dim bulb

facebook

facebook group

histories of social media

hugh mcguire

in over your head

itunes

jonathan salem baskin

julien smith

librivox

managing the gray

marie mai

marketing

marketing over coffee

media hacks

new marketing labs

online social network

podcast

podcasting

six pixels of separation

social media 101

social media marketing

strategy

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twist image

Ten Years Of Wikipedia

Wikipedia is ten years old today.

I love Wikipedia. I don't care that the online encyclopedia is wrong sometimes. I don't care about the controversy that often surrounds it when it comes to accuracy and how articles get edited. I love the concept. I love the idea that over a decade ago a couple of people (like Jimmy Wales and Larry Sanger) looked at the Internet and realized it could well be the best place to start the documentation and democratization of human knowledge and information... and do so in an open, transparent and collaborative fashion.

And, ten years later, look at how the knowledge of the world is shared.

As a professional businessperson, the spirit of Social Media and platforms like Wikipedia runs counterintuitive to the rules of business. We used to keep our intellectual property private. We used to not share with our peers. We used to work in very closed environments. We used to shun the idea of mass collaboration. One of the main reasons I've personally (and professionally) started thinking differently about the Marketing industry was because of what Wikipedia stands for. I realize that many of my professional peers have still not managed to make this significant transition (it's too bad).

Mass collaboration is no joke... and it's no easy feat.

If you are at all curious about the wisdom Wikipedia or if you are still grappling with Social Media and mass collaboration, please stop everything and read this article: The Charms of Wikipedia. It was originally published in the The New York Review of Books (Volume 55, Number 4) on March 20th, 2008. To this day, it remains one of my favorite reads on Internet culture (it was first pointed out to me by Hugh McGuire). The article was written by Nicholson Baker as a review for the book, Wikipedia - The Missing Manual, by John Broughton (published by Pogue Press - O'Reilly).

Read this snippet:

"They weren't called, 'Wikipedia's little helpers,' they were called 'editors'. It was like a giant community leaf-raking project in which everyone was called a groundskeeper. Some brought very fancy professional metal rakes, or even back-mounted leaf-blowing systems, and some were just kids thrashing away with the sides of their feet or stuffing handfuls in the pockets of their sweatshirts, but all the leaves they  brought to the pile were appreciated. And the pile grew and everyone jumped up and down in it having a wonderful time. And it grew some more, and it became the biggest leaf-pile anyone had ever seen anywhere, a world wonder. And then self-promoted leaf-pile guards appeared, doubters and deprecators who would look askance at your proffered handful and shake their heads, saying that your leaves were too crumpled or too slimy or too common, throwing them to the side. And that too was bad. The people who guarded the leaf pile this way were called 'deletionists... it worked and grew because it tapped into the heretofore unmarshaled energies of the uncredentialed."

It gets even better...

"Without the kooks and the insulters and the spray-can taggers, Wikipedia would just be the most useful encyclopedia ever made. Instead it's a fast-paced game of paintball. Not only does Wikipedia need its vandals--up to a point--the vandals need an orderly Wikipedia, too. Without order, their culture-jamming lacks a context. If Wikipedia were rendered entirely chaotic and obscene, there would be no joy..."

Happy Birthday, Wikipedia... and thank you for everything you share and the spirit of goodness that you bring to the world.

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john broughton

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open

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rules of business

social media

the charms of wikipedia

the new york review of books

transparency

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wikipedia the missing manual

Six Pixels Of Separation Is A New York Times Bestseller

If only that were true (but it sort of is)...

Seth Godin is very busy with his new publishing venture called, The Domino Project (in conjunction with Amazon). Yesterday, he published a Blog post titled, Strategy Memo: Rejecting The New York Times Bestseller List, in which he debunks the reality of hitting The New York Times all-important book list.

The positive:

"It's not just an indicator (the proverbial canary, indicating what's going on in the mine) but it's also an amplifier, a spark that can lead to ever more sales, conversations and credibility. The list became truly important a few decades ago when the superstores started discounting bestsellers to near cost. That meant that if a book made the list it would certainly cost a lot less and be displayed far more prominently. Which of course kept it on the list for weeks or months. While this effect has faded, the prestige and attention that the list brings has only grown."

The negative:

"It turns out that where your book is sold makes a difference as well. The Times is notorious for counting sales at certain stores (usually independent booksellers) more than others, and until recently ignoring some stores altogether. Selling books at a conference? Well, if you get them straight from the publisher you can offer them at a lower price, serving your readers better. Of course, those sales won't count for the list. Instead, contact a bookstore, route the sales through them (though they never touch the books) and you'll get credit for the list. Want to sell a five pack of your books? You can't easily do that if you care about the list, because the Times counts each pack as one book, not five. It goes on and on."

It has become a complex world.

You would think that a book sold is a book sold - regardless of it being an individual copy, a bulk buy, an electronic version or where it is purchased. You would be wrong. As an author, I can tell you that this is a constant source of frustration. The truth is that I am a New York Times' bestselling author, but I've never made the list. As just one example: One week a major US corporation chose my book to gift to a segment of their customers. This resulted in 20,000+ copies of my book being bought in just one week. That's no small number, and coupled with the regular weekly sales it would have placed the book at the top of the non-fiction list - without question. But, as Seth pointed out, this type of bulk purchase wound up not being counted to the list. Incidents like that happened a couple of times during this past year. To prove my point, 800-CEO-Read handles the majority of the bulk sales for my business book and it ranked at #13 in their The Bestsellers of 2010. I've been told on countless occasions that my book routinely outsells other books that sit atop lists like the New York Times Bestsellers.

There is a reason for this.

The other side of the coin, is that there are people who are constantly trying to game the system. I'm sure lists like the New York Times have rules like this in place because authors have purchased a mass amount of their own books simply to make the list (whether those books ever wound up in the hands of a reader or in a landfill somewhere is not the point). A bestselling book enables you to charge more for whatever services you offer. To that point, there are a handful of book publishing industry businesspeople who still know how to maneuver the system, so that every book bought does count towards a bestseller list. They charge a flat fee for their formula as well as bonuses based on how many lists and how highly an author ranks on it.

So, what does matter? 

Seth says, "Readers have plenty of other lists (online and off) if we're curious what's popular. Smart people are realizing the list is easily gamed, and word of mouth ends up being more important anyway." As usual, he's spot on. If you really want to know which business book is best, all you have to do is ask. You can do this in your own networks in places like LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook. You can even try posting a question like this in a newer platform like Quora. Beyond that, there are Blog postings and other spaces (even 800-CEO-Read) who focus on specific niches of books, and the content in those spaces are filled to the brim with great recommendations.

What's your take on this? Do the lists still matter or is it more relevant to get a recommendation from someone you know and trust?

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Six Links Worthy Of Your Attention #30

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, Media Hacks) and I decided that every week or so the three of us are going to share one link for each other (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:

Dancing Plague of 1518 - Wikipedia. "Definitely the weirdest thing I've seen this week, and I'm sharing it for no other reason. What it says about how I spend my time is another matter entirely. Did you know that there was a plague of fatal dancing in Strasbourg in the 1500s? While this wasn't a medieval rave, it does seem to be a case of mass hysteria. Makes modern political decisions pale by comparison." (Alistair for Hugh).

College Students Are Less Empathic Than Generations Past - Scientific American . "As we get older, we all start to believe we're part of a kinder, gentler, vanishing generation. And when the news shows us twelve-year-olds attacking commuters , while their friends look on and strangers record it on cameras, it's easy to believe. But are we really? Turns out, yes. This piece from Scientific American looks at research into how we empathize with others." (Alistair for Mitch).

Universe captured in mind-boggling detail by Sloan Digital Sky Survey - The Guardian . "There's a new trillion-pixel image of the universe. I guess the earth is a pixel. Kinda puts your problems in context, doesn't it?" (Hugh for Alistair).

Flood - City Of Sound . "This past week there were massive floods in Queensland, Australia. Dan Hill, of the fabulous blog City of Sound published this moving and intense reportage. This is why blogs still matter, and always will." (Hugh for Mitch).

The science of the hashtag - Twitter Media . "The other week a meme exploded on Twitter around the hashtag #LessAmbitiousMovies (for the record, I thought my contribution of A Clockwork Beige was pristine). It begs the question: what makes a hashtag go viral?... and what do the analytics looks like?" (Mitch for Alistair).

Celebs, They're Geeks Like Us: Libraries of the Rich and Famous - flavorwire . "This is an iteration on the infamous MTV show, Cribs, that I think both Hugh and I could definitely wrap our heads around. Who wouldn't want to see what the home libraries of the rich and famous look like? How do they chill with a fine book and what does the space look like? Karl Lagerfeld 's book space really blew my mind." (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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human 20

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sloan digital sky survey

the book oven

the guardian

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viral

web analytics

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year one labs

Program Or Be Programmed

Interested in some black belt new media thinking?

I've been a fan of Douglas Rushkoff for some time now. His bio/resume is super-impressive. Here's a snippet of it from his Blog:

"Winner of the first Neil Postman award for Career Achievement in Public Intellectual Activity , Douglas Rushkoff is an author, teacher, and documentarian who focuses on the ways people, cultures, and institutions create, share, and influence each other's values. He teaches media studies at NYU and the New School University , serves as technology columnist for The Daily Beast , and lectures around the world. His new book, Program or Be Programmed: Ten Commands for a Digital Age , a follow-up to his Frontline documentary, Digital Nation , is just out from OR Books . His last book, an analysis of the corporate spectacle called, Life Inc. , was also made into a short, award-winning film . His ten best-selling books on new media and popular culture have been translated to over thirty languages. They include Cyberia , Media Virus , Playing the Future , Nothing Sacred: The Truth about Judaism , Get Back in the Box: Innovation from the Inside Out and Coercion , winner of the Media Ecology Association's Marshall Mcluhan Award for best media book. Rushkoff also wrote the acclaimed novels Ecstasy Club and Exit Strategy and graphic novel, Club Zero-G . He wrote a series of graphic novels for Vertigo called Testament , and is currently working on another book for Vertigo. He has written and hosted three award-winning Frontline documentaries - The Merchants of Cool looked at the influence of corporations on youth culture, The Persuaders , about the cluttered landscape of marketing, and new efforts to overcome consumer resistance, and most recently, Digital Nation, about life on the virtual frontier."

Follow everything Douglas Rushkoff has to say.

I recently came across this lecture that Rushkoff gave surrounding his latest book, Program or Be Programmed, from the Computers & Society Speaker Series at the Courant Institute NYU (from November 2010). It's amazing... and an hour of your time well-spent:

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new media

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nothing sacred

nyu

or books

playing the future

program or be programmed

teacher

testament

the daily beast

the merchants of cool

the persuaders

vertigo

The Power Of Comments

It's not easy to create a platform that truly engenders comments.

That's true whether we're talking about a Blog, Podcast, Twitter feed or Facebook page. Getting people interested in what you're about is one thing. Getting those people to share your content is slightly more complex (in terms of work). Getting those same people to actually create any form of content for you (like a comment) is even tougher. You can blame it on time, too much content being published, too many elements pulling people in too many different directions or you can even blame it on the fact that the content (in and of itself) just might not be exciting enough to elicit a response. Whatever the case may be, when someone does take the time to comment, it really does speak to the power of the content because human beings have been trained for decades to consume content... not to be an active participant in its development.

Not all comments are created equal.

There's a trend happening online. For some reason, the majority of comments found on newspaper websites and on YouTube are brutal. For the most part they are unintelligent and downright nasty. They tend to be heavy handed in terms of taking one side over another, and they're much less about a conversation than they are about a shouting match. In my work with the publishing industry, I am frequently asked why journalists should even bother being active in the comment section if they're simply being attacked and insulted? It's not an unfair question. The comment threads on many of the major mass media websites tend to filled with open-mouth breathers from Darwin's waiting room.

It's fascinating, isn't it?

If you compare the standard comment fare from a major newspaper website to the stuff you'll find in the comment section on this Blog, there's a staggering difference. Would it be reasonable to assume that the quality of the content dictates the quality of the comments? That's a hard "no" from me. There's no doubt that some of the in-depth reporting found in your daily newspaper will trump the quality of my random brain droppings, so it must be something else.

Sometimes we feel that we can hide.

For some reason, people like to hide behind usernames in places like newspaper websites and YouTube, and yet it's as if they know that anonymity like that dismantles all credibility when used in places like a personal Blog, Twitter and the like. So, here's a thought: we can't take anything that is said from an anonymous comment as credible until they prove themselves (which takes time and consistency). We also know that nonsensical comments can devalue the content that it surrounds. Meaning, if the bulk of comments below were juvenile or lacked credibility, it would affect your desire to come back and stay engaged with the content.

In the end, we do judge the content based on comments as well, don't we? Think about what that means in the changing world of content.

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youtube

Blogging And Podcasting As A Business Model

The question is not if you can make money from Blogging and Podcasting, the question is how.

There are many people (and media entities) that make money from Blogging and Podcasting. The challenge is that there are also multiple ways of making money indirectly from Blogging and Podcasting that seem to be most attractive to the content producers.

What do the revenue models look like?

Paid content (direct). The content is valuable and people are willing to pay for it. The price will vary based on the value as defined by your consumer base. This can be super-cheap (making it a veritable "no-brainer") or premium priced. Getting people to pay for content will be based on the perceived exclusivity and quality.

Advertising supported (direct). The content is freely distributed, but it is packaged with advertising. The content producer is typically paid on an impression basis (usually a flat fee for every one thousand impressions delivered), cost per click (if someone clicks on the ad) or cost per acquisition (when someone not only clicks on the ad, but takes a desired action - like buying something). Advertising can also be charged on a sponsorship basis (giving space on a monthly basis). On top of that, many Bloggers and Podcasters use affiliate marketing as well (they are paid a percentage of the total sales that are generated through the advertising that appears within their content).

Thought leadership (indirect). There is no advertising or "sales pitch" in the content, but the hopes are that the content creates the desire to want to work with the content producer. This can be hiring them as a consultant or as a speaker or engaging in their company for the services they offer.

The challenge with the direct approach to making money.

Because many of these Social Media channels are relatively new, there are not that many new business models (when comparing it to traditional media). Because they have the same/similar looking business models as these more traditional mass media channels (radio, print, TV, etc...), their content is compared to the media buying opportunities that currently exist. This becomes a numbers game. Advertisers will only pay if there is enough visibility for their message (a mass audience) or if the quality of the people consuming your new media is valuable enough to them (you have a strong and loyal niche).

It is a "who" and a "how many" game.

While Social Media fascinates because of the varied niches and conversational-like engagement that takes place between the content producer and the audience, the only real way to make direct money is to have a significant audience. The definition of "significant" is loose because it either has to be a big audience (the "how many") or a hyper-concentrated audience driven by a topic of interest (the "who").

The direction you choose will dictate the type of money you can make.

Evan Pedersen from Fancy Pants Gangsters emailed me. He gets the feeling that Podcasting seems to be another link in the online marketing chain. He feels that there hasn't been much discussion about how to make podcasting a business unto itself (which includes more thoughts on how to actually grow an audience)... and he's right. The truth is that if your podcast (or blog)  is your product, making money comes in two forms:

You're a celebrity or known entity.

You have a strong database and have converted it into paying customers.

What's your take on how to actually grow an audience to the point of being able to make money from Blogging and Podcasting?

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evan pederson

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What Moved You In 2010

Every year, I fall more in love with writing, the written word and Blogging.

From discovering new Bloggers who are discovering their own voices to the minutia of niches that people are driven to write about. As a former magazine publisher, there's just nothing like opening up a browser and entering into a world of insightful pieces of content written by people who are truly passionate about a topic that gets published the second their idea is complete. Couple that with the subsequent comments, commentary and sharing in places like Twitter and Facebook, and it's mind-boggling how anyone can think that this publishing platform isn't as transformative as the Gutenberg Press.

What moved you here.

Part of becoming a better writer, journalist, Blogger and Media Hacker comes from understanding what content worked for your community. I spent a couple of minutes looking at my Blog posts over the past year. I looked at comments, engagement and the PageRank score that each Blog post received. Using a minimum PageRank score of 8/10, these are the Blogs posts on Six Pixels of Separation that moved you the most (in alphabetical order)...

The Agency Of The Future.

Being A Twitter Snob Is A Good Thing.

The Best Piece Of Management Advice I Ever Received.

Blogging Still Matters... Now More Than Ever.

The Business Of Kindness.

The End Of Conversation In Social Media.

The Followship Of Twitter.

Five Reasons Why This Blog Is A Failure.

Is Twitter Killing You?

The Most Important Thing You Can Do...

The Myth Of Work Life Balance.

9 Ways To Elevate Your Speaking To Black Belt Level.

No More Websites. Only Publishers.

Personal Branding R.I.P.

Product Is The New Marketing.

7 Lessons That WikiLeaks Teaches Us.

The 10 Core Values Of A Winning Personal Brand.

The Truth And Lies Of Networking.

Web 3.0 And The Future Of The Internet - The Movie.

Thank you.

Personally, professionally and communally, 2010 was an incredible year. Along with a healthy and happy family, amazing friends and my community service, we (my three incredible business partners and I) managed to grow Twist Image to nearly 130 Digital Marketing professionals in our two offices (Montreal and Toronto) working for some of the best clients and coolest brands. I travelled to over thirty cities in five countries, evangelizing the Digital Marketing industry, my agency and the book, Six Pixels of Separation (which 800-CEO-Read and Inc. Magazine just listed at #13 on their Bestsellers of 2010 list - thank you!) at over 70 events, and met/worked with the best of the best. People often see my mug on all things Twist Image and Six Pixels of Separation, but the real work and heavy lifting is a team effort. Those 130 Digital Marketing professionals are not employees... they're teammates. Nothing I do happens without them... and you can see them all in action right here: Twist Image Facebook Page.

So, while the Blog posts above moved you, working with the amazing team at Twist Image (and my extended business families at Speaker's Spotlight, Greater Talent Network, Levine Greenberg Literary Agency, Grand Central Publishing - Hachette Book Group, Montreal Gazette, Vancouver Sun and the Canadian Marketing Association) is really what moves me.

Happy New Year.

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