Mitch Joel's Blog: Six Pixels of Separation, page 376

December 24, 2010

The Myth Of Work Life Balance

This is the time of year when individuals (people like you and I) start thinking more about work/life balance.



Don't do it. There is no such thing as work/life balance. By even saying there is such balance, you're making an internal agreement that work is not a part of a healthy life, and I just don't buy it. Like you, I put a good chunk of my waking hours against the work I do. I can't accept that it doesn't constitute an important and real part of my life. In the end, I'm not looking for work/life balance... I'm looking for life balance.



What does life balance look like?



Balance in your life falls into three main categories:




Personal. Making time to build solid relationships with your family friends and peers. Think of The Beatles: "The love you take is equal to the love you make" (hat-tip to Yosi for reminding of that lyric yesterday). Without a healthy family and friend social structure there will be nothing but loneliness. Human beings don't thrive on loneliness... no matter what someone who is lonely tries to tell/sell you. Your personal health also falls into this category (and I'm not just talking about grabbing a workout a couple of times a week). Think about what you're doing to develop and nurture your mind, body and spirit (even if it sounds hokey to you).

Business. Ensuring that you're doing the work you were meant to do. That the work you do (day in and day out) is your art. So, when someone says, "it's nothing personal, it's just business," you can proudly respond, "I spend a good chunk of my life doing business and I take it very personally!" I just saw this tweet via Rahaf Harfoush on Twitter: " @brandcowboy : You'll always do better work for people you care about, and you'll lose your soul taking money from people you don't." If you're struggling with this, please read Seth Godin's book, Linchpin, over your holiday break and make some hard decisions about your future.

Community. Simply put: you can't have a wealthy business and a healthy family if you're in a weak community. The only way your community will be strong is if you contribute to it actively and regularly. A strong business and a strong social life comes from a strong community. Helping others who are less fortunate or by contributing to groups and associations who are making change in your community is critical to life balance.


Life balance is a three-legged stool.



Just like a stool, if you remove one of the legs or when one is shorter than another, everything comes crashing down. Figure out ways to find true balance without sacrificing where you're at, where you're looking to go and your plans to get there. Make sure that your goals (short-term and long-term) include tactics around personal, business and community.



Make rules.



If you don't have rules about your life balance, all is (and will be) lost. Don't have guidelines. Make rules... and don't break them. Here are just some of my life balance rules (in no particular order):




Family first. Period. No exceptions. Friends next. Everything else after that.

Go to bed when I'm tired.

Wake up without an alarm.

Don't stress over sleep. My body will sleep when it needs to.

Constantly be reading (more on that here: The Most Important Thing You Can Do...).

Creativity and great ideas do not keep office hours. Write as much as possible - especially when the mood hits.

I manage my technology. I do not let technology manage me. An example of this? I check email when I want to - not when it comes in. I turn off all email notifications (both online and mobile).

Don't focus on the money. Focus on building wealth and what I'll do to change the world once I get there (or along the way).

Never eat alone. It's something I was doing long before I read the great book by Keith Ferrazzi.


Sometimes you break your own rules.



There are always exceptions to these rules and sometimes these rules have to be broken. If I'm breaking the rule, I acknowledge it and will often apologize to those in advance by explaining the situation as an exception and helping those who are impacted by it to know that I am doing so (and that it's an uncommon occurrence). Another exception is when breaking a rule will help me to grow and expand. Rules can limit our personal growth and we have to be aware of that.



Work/life balance is a myth.





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Published on December 24, 2010 14:30

The Myth Of Work Life Balance

This is the time of year when individuals (people like you and I) start thinking more about work/life balance.



Don't do it. There is no such thing as work/life balance. By even saying there is such balance, you're making an internal agreement that work is not a part of a healthy life, and I just don't buy it. Like you, I put a good chunk of my waking hours against the work I do. I can't accept that it doesn't constitute an important and real part of my life. In the end, I'm not looking for work/life balance... I'm looking for life balance.



What does life balance look like?



Balance in your life falls into three main categories:




Personal. Making time to build solid relationships with your family friends and peers. Think of The Beatles: "The love you take is equal to the love you make" (hat-tip to Yosi for reminding of that lyric yesterday). Without a healthy family and friend social structure there will be nothing but loneliness. Human beings don't thrive on loneliness... no matter what someone who is lonely tries to tell/sell you. Your personal health also falls into this category (and I'm not just talking about grabbing a workout a couple of times a week). Think about what you're doing to develop and nurture your mind, body and spirit (even if it sounds hokey to you).

Business. Ensuring that you're doing the work you were meant to do. That the work you do (day in and day out) is your art. So, when someone says, "it's nothing personal, it's just business," you can proudly respond, "I spend a good chunk of my life doing business and I take it very personally!" I just saw this tweet via Rahaf Harfoush on Twitter: " @brandcowboy : You'll always do better work for people you care about, and you'll lose your soul taking money from people you don't." If you're struggling with this, please read Seth Godin's book, Linchpin, over your holiday break and make some hard decisions about your future.

Community. Simply put: you can't have a wealthy business and a healthy family if you're in a weak community. The only way your community will be strong is if you contribute to it actively and regularly. A strong business and a strong social life comes from a strong community. Helping others who are less fortunate or by contributing to groups and associations who are making change in your community is critical to life balance.


Life balance is a three-legged stool.



Just like a stool, if you remove one of the legs or when one is shorter than another, everything comes crashing down. Figure out ways to find true balance without sacrificing where you're at, where you're looking to go and your plans to get there. Make sure that your goals (short-term and long-term) include tactics around personal, business and community.



Make rules.



If you don't have rules about your life balance, all is (and will be) lost. Don't have guidelines. Make rules... and don't break them. Here are just some of my life balance rules (in no particular order):




Family first. Period. No exceptions. Friends next. Everything else after that.

Go to bed when I'm tired.

Wake up without an alarm.

Don't stress over sleep. My body will sleep when it needs to.

Constantly be reading (more on that here: The Most Important Thing You Can Do...).

Creativity and great ideas do not keep office hours. Write as much as possible - especially when the mood hits.

I manage my technology. I do not let technology manage me. An example of this? I check email when I want to - not when it comes in. I turn off all email notifications (both online and mobile).

Don't focus on the money. Focus on building wealth and what I'll do to change the world once I get there (or along the way).

Never eat alone. It's something I was doing long before I read the great book by Keith Ferrazzi.


Sometimes you break your own rules.



There are always exceptions to these rules and sometimes these rules have to be broken. If I'm breaking the rule, I acknowledge it and will often apologize to those in advance by explaining the situation as an exception and helping those who are impacted by it to know that I am doing so (and that it's an uncommon occurrence). Another exception is when breaking a rule will help me to grow and expand. Rules can limit our personal growth and we have to be aware of that.



Work/life balance is a myth.





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Published on December 24, 2010 06:31

December 23, 2010

The Social Element Is Everywhere

There's a saying that likes to dance around the Internet. It goes something like this: "all media is social media."



That's not entirely true. Media (or anything) only becomes social when there is an opportunity for those who are consuming it to react back at it with some kind of interaction. You can still use the Internet (or even the telephone) as a broadcasting channel. The thing is, by doing so in a world where people are getting more and more used to having an interaction back and forth with their digital media channels, the more anti-social a brand can look.



What does that really mean?




If people can leave comments, rate and share anything and everything on a website and your website does not allow that kind of interaction, what does that say?

If people can tweet about a brand (positive, negative or neutral) and get a response, but all you're doing is broadcasting your specials and discounts, what does that say?

If your competitors have an iPhone app making it easier for their consumers to connect and get information and you don't, what does that say?

If people see that brands are on Facebook and interacting with their consumers and you're not, what does that say?

If people are posting video testimonials, reviews and unboxing of products and services, but there are none of yours, what does that say?

If people are talking about brands on Blogs and getting feedback in those comments from those brands, but you're not listening or engaging on Blogs, what does that say?


Always remember...



When people can speak back, the social engagement is implicit.



What does that really mean?



You can avoid it. You can assume that it's not important to your consumers. You can assume that your consumers are different. They're not. Everything online and in the mobile space is social... even the broadcasting part (you can comment, rate, share and embed videos from YouTube, in case you haven't been over there in the past little while). If you don't offer that same type of functionality as people have come to expect in their day to day digital interactions, it's not that you will be perceived as old or traditional, it's that you are not meeting the bare expectations.



Doing it to just do it is not the answer either.



We're closing out 2010. 2011 is going to be a big year for brands. It's also going to be a very challenging year as more and more viable competitors enter the fray. Figuring out your online and digital marketing strategy going forward is critical. How your brand interacts with your consumers and meets (or how about exceeds!) their expectations is also going to be critical.



It's going to be interesting to see which brands are really up for it.





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Published on December 23, 2010 02:59

December 22, 2010

The Social Element Is Everywhere

There's a saying that likes to dance around the Internet. It goes something like this: "all media is social media."



That's not entirely true. Media (or anything) only becomes social when there is an opportunity for those who are consuming it to react back at it with some kind of interaction. You can still use the Internet (or even the telephone) as a broadcasting channel. The thing is, by doing so in a world where people are getting more and more used to having an interaction back and forth with their digital media channels, the more anti-social a brand can look.



What does that really mean?




If people can leave comments, rate and share anything and everything on a website and your website does not allow that kind of interaction, what does that say?

If people can tweet about a brand (positive, negative or neutral) and get a response, but all you're doing is broadcasting your specials and discounts, what does that say?

If your competitors have an iPhone app making it easier for their consumers to connect and get information and you don't, what does that say?

If people see that brands are on Facebook and interacting with their consumers and you're not, what does that say?

If people are posting video testimonials, reviews and unboxing of products and services, but there are none of yours, what does that say?

If people are talking about brands on Blogs and getting feedback in those comments from those brands, but you're not listening or engaging on Blogs, what does that say?


Always remember...



When people can speak back, the social engagement is implicit.



What does that really mean?



You can avoid it. You can assume that it's not important to your consumers. You can assume that your consumers are different. They're not. Everything online and in the mobile space is social... even the broadcasting part (you can comment, rate, share and embed videos from YouTube, in case you haven't been over there in the past little while). If you don't offer that same type of functionality as people have come to expect in their day to day digital interactions, it's not that you will be perceived as old or traditional, it's that you are not meeting the bare expectations.



Doing it to just do it is not the answer either.



We're closing out 2010. 2011 is going to be a big year for brands. It's also going to be a very challenging year as more and more viable competitors enter the fray. Figuring out your online and digital marketing strategy going forward is critical. How your brand interacts with your consumers and meets (or how about exceeds!) their expectations is also going to be critical.



It's going to be interesting to see which brands are really up for it.





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Published on December 22, 2010 19:00

December 21, 2010

The Pillars Of Killer Content

Brands (and individuals) often struggle with how to create killer content.



Since the mid-eighties, I have been looking at all types of content from a professional perspective. Beyond being salacious (more on that here: The Secret To Getting Attention) and using headlines to bait the reader into your world, the core of the content has to resonate with your audience. Talent is a huge component of being able to create and publish killer content. Along with a deep passion for the content you are creating and a knack for getting it done, some of the best content creators out there also focus a lot of time and energy on both their relevancy and consistency.



There is a whole lot more to making great content.



Beneath all of that must lie a certain type of persona. In fact, there are three core personas that really bring out the best content. The good news is that you don't have to have all of them running at one hundred percent to get quality results (that being said, the ones that do are, typically, the ones who can constantly and consistently release best-selling content). For the sake of this Blog post, we'll be focusing on writing, but these types of personas can also apply to content created in images, audio and video.



The 3 Core Personas For Killer Content:




Journalism. Usually, the best writers think like a Journalist. They tend to have a "nose for news." They're able to see and define trends and turn that into some kind of story. They enjoy the process of research, interviewing subjects and proofing their theories. The story is like a big puzzle and it's up to them to piece it together and turn it into something memorable for the reader. Prototypes include people like Malcolm Gladwell (The Tipping Point, Blink, etc...), Dan Ariely (Predictably Irrational and The Upside of Irrationality), Clay Shirky (Here Comes Everybody and Cognitive Surplus) and Charlene Li (Groundswell and Open Leadership).

Experience. The people who have been able to live to tell the tale. They've done it. They've mastered it. They're able to walk people through their thinking - both the strategic and the creative. They're interesting people who have done interesting things and have the ability to explain it. Prototypes include people like Sir Richard Branson (Virgin, Business Stripped Bare, Screw It, Let's Do It), Tony Hsieh (Delivering Happiness), Donald Trump (Trump: The Art of the Deal, Never Give Up) and Michael Eisner (Working Together, Work In Progress).

Opinion. There are countless people with countless great opinions and ideas. They may not have actually done everything they talk about, but their insights are spot-on, intelligent, well thought-out and they add a different perspective to everything. Prototypes include people like Seth Godin (Purple Cow, Tribes, Linchpin), Tom Peters (Re-Imagine) and Joseph Jaffe (Life After The 30-Second Spot).


There are also a myriad of combinations.



Someone with amazing opinions may also have experience and some journalism qualities. The same can be said about someone with tremendous experience and additional opinions. The idea here is that you need to have one of these three personas, or you have to have some type of combination. As an example, there are countless great pieces of content out in the world by people who have tremendous experience, but they are paired with a writer so that the quality of the final product does wander into the "killer content" zone. In the end, great content tells an amazing story with the facts to back it up. It is then augmented by a unique opinion and perspective.



A great exercise is to look at your content and the people creating it, and figure out how these personas play into it... and if there are ways to improve on that.





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Published on December 21, 2010 12:59

December 19, 2010

Wake Up! Everything Is Mobile

Episode #233 of Six Pixels of Separation - The Twist Image Podcast is now live and ready for you to listen to. This is also episode #11.20 of Across The Sound with Joseph Jaffe.



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). Along with that, he is currently one of the chiefs over at the Social Media Marketing agency, Powered. 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 eleventh conversation (or, as I like to affectionately call it, Across The Sound 11.20), and this one focuses on mobile, mobile marketing and the new consumer. Is mobile just about texting people to win or about placing smaller banners in iPhone apps? It's much bigger than that. In fact, it might be much bigger than the entire Internet. 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 #233.





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Published on December 19, 2010 12:25

Getting To The Work

How often do you go about your work day and then realize that you have to get out of there to get the real work done?



It's interesting, isn't it? For the most part, many of us need to "get away" from our day-to-day work lives to get the real work done. It doesn't make any sense, does it?



There is help (sort of).



Jason Fried has been looking at productivity and collaboration since before the creation of his very edgy and popular company, 37 Signals. He also recently co-authored the best-selling business book, Rework, with his partner at 37 Signals, David Heinemeier Hansson (who also created the powerful programming framework, Ruby On Rails). His TED Talk, Why work doesn't happen at work, is both enlightening and heartbreaking. It shows us all this new and obvious path to productivity (the enlightening part) while highlighting the stupid things that many of us do (my hand is raised) to sabotage the great work (the heartbreaking part).



Take 15 minutes out of your constantly interrupted day to watch this...






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Published on December 19, 2010 10:26

December 18, 2010

Has Search Replaced Bookmarking?

Is there really a need for online social bookmarking services anymore?



There's no denying that I'm a fan of Delicious - the online social bookmarking service (I Blogged about my love for Delicious back in 2007, right here: Why del.icio.us Is Becoming My Default Search Engine For Research). I was really sad to hear that Yahoo (who bought the company in 2005) may be ditching the service (more that here: Leaked Slide Shows Yahoo Is Killing Delicious & Other Web Apps and here: Yahoo Claims It's Not Killing Delicious), but not all that surprised.



Search has changed. Bookmarking has changed.



Most people used bookmarking as a way to remember where a piece of content was (or to make it more findable to others). We have to remember a couple of things:




Search keeps getting better and better, but there was a time when finding a piece of content took some digging.

Content used to come and go. Before the importance of SEO (Search Engine Optimization), it was not uncommon for people/companies to remove content. It was also not uncommon for them to move it (and break the link).

We didn't have online social networks like Twitter and Facebook to ask our "friends" questions. We left that up to the search engines, and if we didn't have the right word phrasing, we would often come up empty for our queries.


Do we really need an online social bookmarking platform anymore?



It's a question worth asking. Search has come to a point where if I'm looking for something on this Blog, I tend to use Google for the query and simply add the words "six pixels" to the search string (it's usually better than site search). I'll often ask my connections on Twitter and Facebook if I need something specific (i.e.: "anyone have the latest stats on YouTube's growth?"), beyond that, I save the articles and Blog posts that I don't have time to read on Instapaper (more on that here: Instapaper Is A Must), but that's about it.



If it's always there and online, is there a point in bookmarking it?



Things are findable. There are more people online who share and answer questions. Information is tagged and indexed better. It's rare that you have to go beyond the second page of any major search engine to find anything. Knowing what people are bookmarking and tagging is still interesting, but not that much more interesting than seeing what they are now sharing on Twitter, Facebook and beyond.



Is there still a need for social bookmarking? Has search (and this includes social search) usurped it? What do you think?





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Published on December 18, 2010 18:26

The One Thing About Social Media That Most People Don't Think About

How much do you enjoy walking in on the middle of a movie? Right. Figured as much. Well, welcome to Social Media.



Yesterday, someone recommended that I connect to a specific individual on Twitter. Their exact comment was, "this person is one of the smartest people I know... and they're brilliant on Twitter. I have been following them forever." High praise. I hopped over, checked out who else this individual was following, who was following them and then looked at their Twitter stream. I could not make heads or tails of it. A lot of @ replies that were one to three words long, the occasional tweet to a link without out much context, some random tweets about how their day at the agency was going and a handful of retweets.



That's when it hit me...



It feels like I'm in the middle of a conversation. It feels like I'm walking into the theater in the middle of a movie. Not only do I have to keep pace with the action as it unfolds, I need to figure out the characters and the back-story as well. I quickly hopped over to my own Twitter feed, this Blog and even the Podcast page. Same feeling. If someone told you to check out my content today, they're basically parachuting you into the middle of a jungle... and I hope you can figure your own way around/out of it.



It's an ongoing evolution.



As we evolve and create content, it changes. This is normal. I don't think anybody would want to come back to this Blog if the content was repetitive. But, we have to also imagine that many people are discovering our content for the first time, and it's incumbent on us to ensure that those people feel welcome. This doesn't mean that we have to change much, but it might be wise to leave some breadcrumbs for the newbies.



What could that look like?




First time here? You could ask that question and then link it over to a brief bio about your space, yourself and maybe even point those people to some valuable content you've created.

Interrupt your broadcast. Every once in a while, it might be wise to tweet/Blog something like: "if you've just connected to me in the past little while, you may find this interesting..." with a link to something that truly exemplifies what you're all about.

Featured posts. You'll notice that on the left-hand navigation of this Blog. It's just a handful of older Blog posts that seem to have resonated with this audience and also best reflect the type of content you will find here.

The "about" page. Make your "about" page and your "bio" page that much more prominent. You can even start off with a warm and welcoming line to everyone who is connecting to you for the first and what they can expect from following you. Maybe even record a short video so they can see and hear you.


All of this is going to affect adoption.



Not a day goes by that I don't receive an email with a question that stops me dead in my tracks, because it validates that the majority of people do not understand how Twitter works or the way a Blog is set-up. Most people are not used to content being published and flowing in near-real-time. Most people are used to an environment that treats everyone as if it is their first time visiting (like the majority of websites). Social Media is not like this. And, much like the social circles we have when we connect in person, they can be complex, challenging to navigate and difficult to understand at first.



Think about the content you publish. Now, think about how someone visiting you for the first time might feel. Is it working for you?





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Published on December 18, 2010 10:42

Six Links Worthy Of Your Attention #26

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, Rednod, 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:




America's dish detergent wars - Guardian UK . "This piece in The Atlantic looks at how government bans on phosphate detergent - which we know choke waterways and destroy ecosystems - have become a lightning rod for stubborn libertarians, who see the ban on them as simply another freedom destroyed. As author Amanda Marcotte points out, it's an object lesson in bipartisan politics and the influence paranoia has on political discourse". (Alistair for Hugh).

Flash Ad: BMW Burns Logo onto Cinema-Goers' Eyes - Wired . "I considered a bunch of heavy links this week, including a great discussion of why Assange is doing what he is, or a tirade about Zuckerberg being the man of the year . In the end, I decided for something a bit lighter: BMW pushed the envelope (and ethics) of advertising with this unconventional movie trailer that literally burned its logo into the unsuspecting audience's retinas. It's an interesting technique - but it made me step back and think about the ways NLP , targeted messages, and a life lived in front of a screen makes us easy to manipulate." (Alistair for Mitch).

Zebra Imaging Creates 3-D Holographic Maps, Glasses Not Required [Video] - Fast Company Design . "Oh, Hi there Future! I didn't realize you'd arrived already. Now, where's that darned droid?" (Hugh for Alistair).

Locksmiths - Dan Ariely . " Dan Ariely reports on a locksmith who, when an apprentice, took a long time to do his work, broke lots of locks, so he had to charge extra. Results: tips and no complaints. Now that he's more skilled, he fixes locks quicker, and doesn't break them. Result: no tips, and lots of complaints. Ariely speculates that we are often more willing to pay for people's effort, than for results. So: should we give worse service and charge more? Probably not, but especially on the internet - it's worth thinking about how we do or don't charge for things, and why." (Hugh for Mitch).

Predictive Modeling Isn't Magic - Technology Review . "Some people think that predictive modeling can't possibly work, but what if there was science, mathematics and logic behind it? So, the bigger question becomes: can we predict the future. This article says we can... and already are." (Mitch for Alistair).

Marketers Test Ads In E-Books - The Wall Street Journal . "I suspect that if we can ever pull another episode of Media Hacks together (it's like herding cats) that this would be a worthwhile topic to discuss and debate. Ads in books. Imagine that. On one hand, us Marketers are constantly looking for another place to shove an ad in front of a mass and captive audience. On the other hand, there is a sanctity in books that has never really been broached by ads. So what happens when Marketers shove those ads into e-books... a new format?" (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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guardian uk

hugh mcguire

human 20

julian assange

librivox

link

linkbait

managing bandwidth

mark zuckerberg

media hacks

nlp

predictive modeling

rednod

technology review

the atlantic

the book oven

the wall street journal

time magazine

wired

zebra imaging



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Published on December 18, 2010 05:16

Six Pixels of Separation

Mitch Joel
Insights on brands, consumers and technology. A focus on business books and non-fiction authors.
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