Mitch Joel's Blog: Six Pixels of Separation, page 380

Video Must Become More Social

Make no mistake about it, you can do many social things with online video, but we have to change our mindset about it first.

I was excited to be asked to give the luncheon keynote presentation at this past week's DigiDay: On Video in New York City. While I spend a lot of time and energy thinking about online video and the future of video, it's still one of those areas within the digital platforms that puzzles me. While there are many new and interesting companies experimenting with ways to make video more social, the bulk of presenters, speakers and case studies were showing amazing and different types of online video campaigns, but they were using very traditional and very mass media-like analytics and metrics to validate either the success or failure of the campaigns.

It's still about the eyeballs.

One of the distinct parts of the Web is how it enables and empowers brands to not focus on "how many" people are connecting and following them, but to "who" they are connected to. And, in a world of micro-content and micro-niches of interest, you would think that the metrics have to look somewhat different from GRPs, total views, and the ability to put a commercial in at the front, middle or end of the video. Is it just me, or does that sound boring and uninspired from a Marketing perspective?

Where is the innovation in making videos more social?

It's a tall order. Video - in and of itself - is a passive action. You click the button and then you sit back and watch. You consume it. That's sort of true, but not really. YouTube - arguably the defacto brand when you think of online video - is also known to be the second largest search engine on the Internet. When people look for information about anything, they're looking to see if there's a video about it. YouTube  announced this week that over 35 hours of video is being uploaded to YouTube every sixty seconds (and that's just YouTube). The consumer's appetite for online video is voracious - both in the watching and creation of it. And, while it is still not comparable to that of television, you can look at the speed of adoption, and quickly extrapolate that as soon as we can get video to stream the way television broadcasting does, the game could change in a blink of the eye. What YouTube also proves is that adding in social functionality makes a huge difference. Google bought YouTube for $1.68 billion dollars in 2006 not because they didn't have any video technology (Google Video was doing just fine). They bought YouTube because they had a community.

Social features are just the beginning.

If you take a look at any YouTube video, you'll note that you can rate it, comment on it, share it (by email, on your favorite online social network, etc...), embed it (on any other website) and you can see information about it (views, likes, etc...) which does make a person consider if they'll spend time with it. While these functionalities have evolved over the years, the actual content (the video itself) is still a very traditional broadcast. The odds of someone figuring out how to make the actual video more "social media-like" is challenging. I've seen videos that allow people to drop comments in it or links within the video to others videos where people are responding to the comments, but those have not received a ton of traction from the mass audience.

There are two paths we go down...

The first path is accepting that online video is (and will be) just like any other type of video format. If that is the case, we have to use the exact same forms of measurement and analytics, and sell advertising in a similar fashion (which is kind of where we're at today). The second path is to see online video (and let's lump in videos you're dragging down on your smartphones and tablets in this lot) as something different. It's not a mass broadcast, they have social-like features built into them and they don't bend to the same types of rules and regulations as traditional video, movies and TV broadcasts do. We can also make a bolder statement that online video will evolve. It will become more social as more people create, respond and engage with one another in this medium. It will become less of a passive media and much more active and creational. If we agree that path number two seems more interesting and likely, we now have a huge challenge ahead of us. We can no longer use the traditional measurement and advertising platforms as an indicator of success. We now need new models and a new vision for this new media.

In essence, I'm looking at you and wondering: what do you think online video can/should look like? And, can we ever move away from the pre-rolls and post-rolls?

Tags:

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digiday on video

digital platform

eyeballs

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google video

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mass media

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metrics

online video

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publishing

search engine

smartphone

social media

tablet

television

tv broadcasting

tv commercial

video technology

web analytics

youtube

Six Links Worthy Of Your Attention #21

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:

Stephen Fry Kinetic Typography - Language . "Stephen Fry makes words like 'verbal freshness' sound delicious. He can mint 'sound-sex' and make swearing at once trenchant and deft. The only thing that can improve on his oratory is some good typography. So designer Matthew Rogers did just that, creating this beautiful animation of words about words, from a master of them." (Alistair for Hugh).

Risk Reduction Strategies on Facebook - Danah Boyd . "As Facebook becomes the de facto communications medium for many teens, users are finding new strategies to maintain control over their online personas. This piece by Danah Boyd provides two examples of unintended privacy controls that two users - in strained social situations - are applying to their virtual presence." (Alistair for Mitch).

What a Hundred Million Calls to 311 Reveal About New York - Wired . "The City of New York has been compiling data about what all the calls to their information line - NYC311 - are about, resulting in some wonderful data and visualizations about what's on the minds of New Yorkers." (Hugh for Alistair).

Is this evidence that we can see the future? - New Scientist . "Psychologist Daryl Bem spent eight years working on curious research: reversing the sequence of common psychological experiments, so that 'the event generally interpreted as the cause happened after the tested behaviour rather than before it.' Turns out, maybe, that we are predicting the future all the time. Bem's paper - peer reviewed, and standing up, so far, to scrutiny - will be published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology before the end of the year." (Hugh for Mitch).

Great Scott! Over 35 Hours of Video Uploaded Every Minute to YouTube - Broadcasting Ourselves - The Official YouTube Blog . "You would think that people have begun to tire of creating videos and posting them online. You would be wrong. Just this week, YouTube released some new numbers. It turns out that over 35 hours of video is being uploaded to YouTube every sixty seconds... and that's just YouTube. The numbers are even more staggering if you consider the fact that the technology is still fairly limited. Just wait until we're all getting video live streaming in HD and real-time (it's coming). As cool and advanced as we think the Web is, it's still early days - especially when it comes to video. And yet, the usage is still growing and mind-boggling." (Mitch for Alistair).

Videos of Japan's 3D Hologram Rock Star Hatsune Miku in HD! - Singularity Hub . "Why go to a concert when you can watch it professionally shot and recorded in HD on your sixty-inch LCD TV with surround sound in the comfort of your own home? We go for the live experience, that's why. Well then, ask yourself this: would you go to a live concert if the performer was a hologram? David Usher sent me this link, and all I could think to myself is, 'this is both the most frightening thing I have ever seen and yet it makes complete sense to me as well.' You have to read the Blog post and watch the videos to better understand how Hatsune Miku sells out live concerts all of the time, even though she is just a hologram. Welcome to the real-life version of Who Framed Roger Rabbit? '" (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.

Stephen Fry Kinetic Typography - Language from Matthew Rogers on Vimeo.

Tags:

alistair croll

bitcurrent

bite-sized edits

complete web monitoring

danah boyd

daryl bern

data visualization

david usher

facebook

gigaom

great links

hatsune miku

hugh mcguire

human 20

journal of personality and social psychology

librivox

link

linkbait

managing bandwidth

matthew rogers

media hacks

new scientist

new york city

online persona

online privacy

online video

rednod

singularity hub

stephen fry

the book oven

who frames roger rabbit

wired

youtube

The Big(ger) Marketing Shift

If there are a few things that are certain in Marketing, it is that we are seeing a ton of new tactics enter the fray, we have more data on these new tactics than ever before, and it's fairly difficult to pull back and see the bigger picture.

In this past week, there were three significant pieces of news that - when pulled together - paint a fairly dramatic picture of the changing Marketing landscape. First, Marketing Charts reported on November 8th, 2010 in the news item, 9 In 10 Young Adults Trust Advertising, that "nine in ten young adults aged 18-34 say they trust that advertising is honest in its claims at least sometimes (90%), fewer older adults agree: 86% of those 35-44 say this, as do 84% of those 45-54, and 81% of those 55 years and older. Conversely, almost one in five adults 55 and older say that they never trust that advertising is honest (18%), compared to less than one in ten 18-34 year olds who say the same (8%)." While the news item doesn't delve into guessing why this is happening, Social Media and the digital platforms are key to this. The more astute you are to the online channels (and tactics like consumer reviews), the more you begin to realize that brands can't hide. Bazaarvoice says that between 75% - 80% of all online shoppers read online customer reviews (or peer reviews). Before buying anything, consumers know what they're getting into and because this content exists, it's increasingly more difficult for a brand to sell a sub-par product or service.

Trust is happening in advertising, but it's hard to make people loyal (and to keep them that way).

For a while, I've been Blogging about trust and how that seems to be table stakes for brands today. They have to be trustworthy to even have a purchase consideration happen. Leveraging Social Media, some brands are getting a semblance of engagement, but community (real community) is not happening all that often. If I Blog, then you comment and I respond, that's not community. That's engagement. If I Blog, then you comment and them someone else responds to you, those are the first indicators that a community may actually be forming. MediaPost's Research Brief had a news item on November 9th, 2010, titled, A Loyal Follower Is Hard To Find (And Keep), that stated: "According to the 2010 Cone Consumer New Media Study, loyal followers can be hard to come by for companies trying to reach consumers online. New media users still choose to demonstrate affinity ('like' or 'follow' or subscribe to RSS feed) for an average of only 4.6 companies online, making this an exclusive club. Consumers are more open than ever to engaging with companies via new media (86% vs. 78% in 2009), but it still takes a big effort on the part of the company to reach the upper echelons of the consideration set. To stand out, companies need to incentivize new followers." Yes, loyalty and keeping people around is as simple as it was in the early days of Marketing: give them free stuff and/or incentivize them, otherwise they are gone. It takes a strong, strong brand to build true engagement and it takes an even stronger brand to build long-term loyalty and evangelism.

On top of that, consumers are now everywhere and anywhere.

The last new item comes from eMarketer. On November 9th, 2010, they released the article, For College Students, Mobile Web Is The Norm. This should come as little-to-no surprise that, "according to the ECAR Study of Undergraduate Students and Information Technology by Shannon D. Smith and Judith Borreson Caruso for the EDUCAUSE Center for Applied Research, 62.7% of US undergraduates surveyed had an internet-capable handheld device. That number fell about halfway between the 83.8% who had a laptop and the 45.9% with a desktop PC. Ownership of internet-enabled handheld devices increased by more than 11 percentage points between 2009 and spring 2010, with the number of students planning to purchase such a device in the next year holding steady. The study was fielded before the release of the iPad, which many students expressed a specific interest in purchasing." And, let's face it, it's not just college students. More and more people are untethering from their desktop and laptop computers. They are constantly connected to the digital channels and have access to information (yes, this includes brands, products and services) at their fingertips.

The consumers have changed. Marketing must change.

Too many brands are focused on the wrong things. They're spending their days worrying about their Twitter and/or Facebook strategy when they need to be re-analyzing how the consumer now considers their products/services for purchase. Think about this new world: consumers trust advertising (just a little bit more than they used to). They're constantly sourcing reviews that have been written by their peers. With all of that information, it still takes a great deal to make consumers love a brand - so much that they will become (and remain) and loyal. Brand evangelism isn't cheap, easy or sustainable. Couple all of that information with the fact that they're not just sitting idly by and waiting for your messages, but they're active and on the go as well.

Now, ask yourself this question: is your overall Marketing and Communications strategy really speaking to this kind of consumer? What are you going to do about it?

Tags:

bazaarvoice

blogging

brand

brand evangelist

brand loyalty

cone consumer new media study

consumer reviews

digital channel

digital marketing

ecar tsudy

educase

emarketer

facebook

handheld device

information technology

ipad

judith borreson caruso

marketing

marketing charts

marketing landscape

mediapost

mobile

new media

online channel

online community

online customer reviews

online trust

peer reviews

research brief

shannon d smith

social media

trust in advertising

twitter

web analytics

London Calling - Tweet-Up - Meet-Up Next Week

I'll be in London, England for one night only next week. I'd love to meet-up!

I get to Europe only a few times each year, but I am hardly ever in London. I'll be there next week on Wednesday, November 17th, 2010. Lise Lauritzen from Poke and Jamie Coomber from Bacardi helped organize a tweet-up (or meet-up) at The Endurance (90 Berwick Street). We'll start at 6:30 pm on Wednesday and see how it flows from there (jet-lag permitting).

I hope you can come by, grab a drink, say "hi" and chat all things Marketing, Advertising, Communications, New Media and Media Hacking.

See you there!

Tags:

advertising

bacardi

communications

england

jamie coomber

lise lauritzen

london

marketing

media hacking

meet-up

new media

poke

the endurance

tweet-up

9 Ways To Elevate Your Speaking To Black Belt Level

Let's say you know the standard speaking tips, tricks and fare. You're good... you can get by. How do you elevate things to the next level?

Over the past few years, I've spoken at a lot of events. Beyond just speaking (and getting better at it by practicing), I am sharing the stage with many different types of speakers and speaking styles. It's in the nuances that you learn how the masters do it. So, if you're just getting started with presenting to audiences or if you're looking to really up your game, here are some of the bigger nuances that will take you from being an everyday speaker to being star that people want to see.

Limit the technology. All too often I see people with laptops, PowerPoint, DVDs, cued CDs, props and more. Kill it. You don't need it. If you use slides that can augment what you're saying, great, but you don't need it and you should not rely on it. People are coming to learn from you. Know your content to the point that even if your slides don't load or the video doesn't play, it should not matter. Expecting the AV to get/know all of your cues and the intricacies of your presentation is putting way to much reliance on the audio/visual (and the AV guy). On top of that, asking for videos to play or music to play from the stage kills your story and flow. It's like when an actor calls for a line. Also, having a lot of gear makes the organizers nervous (something could go wrong!) and can also make the speaker look like they're high maintenance.

Kill the Internet. Whether it's a hard-line connection or wireless connection, going live to an Internet connection is a bad move. Don't do it. If you really need to play something from the Web (like a video), use an online video downloading program and embed the video into your presentation. If you want to show a website, do a screen capture prior and embed it into your presentation.

Don't switch screens. A lot of speakers download the videos but wind up toggling between their presentation and the media player. Don't do this either. It kills the momentum. If your presentation software does not allow you to embed video, switch to one that does.

Invest in a remote. Too many speakers rely on advancing their slides from the keyboard or they rely on the AV team to either supply a remote or advance the slides for them. Invest in your own remote presenter. I'm a big, big fan of the Logitech Professional Presenter R800. This one gives you up to 100 feet distance (which is a lot), but it also has built-in digital timer that gives you a silent vibration when you have 5 minutes left and when your time is up (which is helpful if you present for different lengths of time). If you want something a little less discreet, try the Honeywell Power Presenter. This one has the basic buttons and is very small. The key to owning your own remote is that you will be comfortable with it. When this happens, your slide transitions become that much more seamless and professional.

Don't point. Many people who use a remote presenter (their own or someone else's) tend to point it at either their laptops, the screen or the confidence monitor on the floor. Pointing the remote at anything is useless. It not only looks silly, but it draws the audiences' attention away from you and towards the technology. Pressing the buttons harder doesn't help either. The remote is not a gun. Don't point it.

No inside baseball. Don't talk about your technical challenges. Don't talk about the bad audio from the mic. Don't talk about anything that has to do with the production or presentation of your talk. Focus on two things: the audience and the content. Talking about anything else is a distraction and it's not important to the audience.

Stand your ground. It's fine to pace. It's fine to stand still. Whatever you do, make sure to stand your ground. Don't close up. Be open. One of the best ways to "stand your ground," is to go to the middle and front of the stage as soon as you are introduced and do (at least) your first five minutes just standing there. Much like a comedian, actor or musician, come out of the gates, be strong and own your content.

No notes. No reading. The best tip I have? Know your content. Having notes and reading a speech is... well, it's boring and it's a little inauthentic. I'm sure many people will comment that some of the greatest Presidents read their speeches from teleprompters... I get it, but I wouldn't do that if I could avoid it. Do your best to know your content. If you can't, just remember your who, what, when, where, why and how questions, and ask yourself each question in your mind and then answer aloud to the audience. Here's how this can work. Your topic is Twitter for business. Here's how you can speak about it without notes and reading. Ask yourself these questions in your mind, and then answer them aloud: Who should care about Twitter for business? What do I need to know about Twitter before jumping in for my business? When is it best for a business to use Twitter? Where is the best place to learn more about Twitter for business? Why should any business care about being on Twitter? How can my business get started? If all else fails, use those questions as your framework or model. Whatever you say will be better (and more interesting) than reading something your wrote a few days ago. Remember, speaking is not reading.

Clip-on mic. Holding a mic in your hand is an art form. I've never been able to master it and have rarely seen someone pull it off well. It's better to have your hands free. Get a clip-on microphone (also known as a lavalier microphone). If you don't own your own, ask the event organizer to arrange one for you a couple of weeks prior to your presentation.

Now, it's your turn. What are some of your best advanced presentation tips?

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content

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logitech professional presenter r800

media player

powerpoint

presentation framework

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presentation slides

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screen capture

speaking

speaking style

speaking tip

technology

teleprompter

twitter

Social Media Should Drop Dead

You can't kill a good online social network.

The music industry cheered a very small (and mostly unheard) victory a few weeks ago when a court ruling ordered a complete shutdown of the peer-to-peer file-sharing network called Limewire. If you've had your head in the sand for the past few years, you may not have known that since Napster closed its doors to the illegal trade of file sharing and went legit, the elicit world of leveraging everyone's hard drive to create a connected network that allows people to grab parcels of similar files and pull them together to deliver everything from music and movies to TV shows and e-books has (obviously) continued to flourish. People have a strong appetite to share (or steal - depending on where you stand with this controversial issue) music, movies, books and much more -much to the chagrin of the big entertainment companies and the struggling artists.

Plus ca change.

While the core concept of peer-to-peer sharing hasn't changed all that much since Napster was first introduced by Sean Fanning in 1999 while he was attending Northeastern University in Boston, the connectivity speed and file compression technology has advanced. This makes it increasingly as easy to grab a HD bluray version of Avatar as is it to grab a copy of Lady Gaga's latest single. The software has also become ubiquitous and simple to use, which has also added to the mass adoption of these platforms. If grabbing a file is as simple as doing a search for it (as you would on Google, Bing or Yahoo!), there's not much of a barrier for the average user to begin grabbing any and all files. I remember asking a close colleague who uses peer-to-peer networks if he felt bad for the artists and producers who were not being paid for their work? The response back was, "if it's online, they're giving it to me." As cold as that sounds, it is the reality behind why most people do grab files for free vs. paying.

It changes. It evolves.

With the shutdown of Limewire, you can rest assured that newer alternatives will grow in popularity and be used just as quickly. It is very complex and challenging for a centralized organization (like government and the authorities) to attack and shut down these decentralized organizations that have no physical space, and that are usually a construct of many individuals who are connected through these virtual channels. Pushing peer-to-peer networking to a whole other new and interesting level is a new form of real world peer-to-peer sharing that is happening in different parts of the world through publicly assessable USB memory sticks.

Drop dead, Internet.

Dead Drop is an anonymous physical file-sharing network that is the brainchild of Aram Bartholl (a resident artist at Eyebeam Art + Technology Center in New York City). While he is describing this more as a creative project, Bartholl is actually inserting USB flash drives into cracks in walls and other public places. People, literally, sidle up to the USB key, plug in their laptops and then share or copy files much in the same way they would on the Internet. These "secret" ports are currently available in five locations throughout the greater New York City area, and each drive also contains a readme.txt file (which was written by Bartholl) explaining the project.

Dead Drop to deadSwap.

Another play on this theme is deadSwap, which bills itself as "a game of cloak and data." DeadSwap removes the need to go to a fixed location and turns the off-line file sharing system into a real-world social network where individuals secretly pass USB sticks from one person to another (in a very James Bond-ish kind of way). The passing of the data is centralized and controlled by local, independently operated SMS (text message) gateways. Leveraging a wiki disguised as a message board to figure out what is on the USB stick (or what you would like to have on it), individuals text message this centralized numbers which keeps everyone's mobile device number secret, and then the participants are notified of the rendezvous.

Why the move offline?

This all sounds like a lot of work to get the latest Taylor Swift album. But, that's not the point. The deadSwap "artistic statement" on their website explains the new phenomena of physical file sharing networks: "The new 'Social Web' has fundamentally replaced the peer-to-peer Internet, and remaining peer communications technology has become marginal or even contraband as participants on peer networks face increasing legal attack and active sabotage from groups representing the interests of Capital. The Internet is dead. In order to evade the flying monkeys of capitalist control, peer communication can only abandon the Internet for the dark alleys of covert operations. Peer-to-peer is now driven off-line and can only survive in clandestine cells."

Is it the red pill or the blue pill?

If you're having flashbacks to the movie, The Matrix, you're not alone. Perhaps the only way that we'll derive true value from data in the future is when that data is no longer available so readily and easily to anyone and everyone who is connected to both the Internet and the mobile platforms. In the meantime, before we all decide if we're going to pop the red pill or the blue pill, you can't help but be curious about how projects like Dead Drop and deadSwap are helping us to rethink how we're connected, who we're connected to, and what value we derive from one another's data and information.

How cool is that?

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 - A new, physical way to share your files with memory sticks .

Vancouver Sun - not yet published.

Tags:

aram bartholl

avatar

bing

business column

connected network

data

dead drop

deadswap

decentralized organization

entertainment

eyebeam

file sharing

google

james bond

lady gaga

limewire

message board

montreal gazette

music industry

napster

newspaper column

online social network

peer communication

peer-to-peer file-sharing

postmedia

sean fanning

sms

social media

social web

taylor swift

technology

the matrix

usb memory stick

vancouver sun

wiki

yahoo

Pop Culture Meets Nerd Culture With Chris Hardwick

Episode #227 of Six Pixels of Separation - The Twist Image Podcast is now live and ready for you to listen to.

This past summer, Andy Nulman reclaimed his past and went back to running the world famous Just For Laughs comedy festival. In looking at the line-up, I was pleasantly surprised to see that Chris Hardwick was coming to do some stand-up. Hardwick is a regular host on G4 TV's Attack of the Show, he is also the host of Wired Science TV and has his own awesome Podcast titled, Nerdist (which you should definitely listen to and subscribe to).  We recorded a conversation during the festival, and then my digital recorder broke. I thought all of the recordings were lost, but was pleasantly surprised to have recovered it this afternoon. Hardwick is at the bleeding edge of where pop culture now meets nerd culture and his take on media, advertising and entertainment is well-worth the listen. 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 #227 .

Tags:

advertising

attack of the show

bite size edits

blog

blogging

blue sky factory

book oven

cast of dads

cc chapman

chris brogan

chris hardwick

christopher s penn

david usher

digital dads

digital marketing

facebook

facebook group

g4 tv

hugh mcguire

in over your head

itunes

julien smith

librivox

managing the gray

marie mai

marketing

marketing over coffee

media hacks

nerdist

new marketing labs

online social network

podcast

podcasting

six pixels of separation

social media 101

social media marketing

strategy

trust agents

twist image

wired science tv

The Best Piece Of Management Advice I Ever Received

What is the best piece of management advice you have ever received or heard?

The Art of Management is coming to Toronto on November 15th, 2010 for a full-day of speakers on management and innovation. I am honored to have been chosen to speak at this event and share the stage with Malcolm Gladwell (Tipping Point, Blink, Outliers, etc...), Michael Eisner (former CEO, Walt Disney Company and best-selling author of, Working Together and Work In Progress), Simon Sinek (Start With Why) and Nilofer Merchant (The New How). It's going to be an incredible day (you can view the full agenda here: The Art of Management - Agenda). I'll be kicking off the day with a session called, Managing In A Connected World, that will look at the new consumer, how they buy, how they think and what this means to management and running a viable business in 2010.

You can join us at The Art of Management for free if you win my contest...

I have two pairs of VIP tickets (valued at $599 per ticket) that I am going to give away. Along with that, I will personally sign a copy of my first business book, Six Pixels of Separation, for the winners and their guests at the event. Here's how it will work: in the comments section below, share with everyone the best piece of management advice you ever received or heard. On Wednesday, November 10th, 2010 at 5:00 pm, the contest will be closed and I'll pick two winners (each winner will get two tickets). As a bonus, I'm also going to choose two more winners who will each get a pair of tickets to see famed-chef and food advocate, Jamie Oliver, speak live and in-person at The Art of Cooking on November 18th, 2010 in Toronto.

If you don't want to chance it...

This is going to be an amazing event. I half-jokingly told the organizers that I'm thrilled to be going first, so that I can spend the rest of the day in the audience learning, growing and networking. You do not want to miss The Art of Management. The organizers have also created a discounted ticket price for those in the Twist Image and Six Pixels of Separation community. You get $50 off per person/per ticket or $100 off when purchasing 3 or more tickets to The Art of Management. All you have to do is use promo "TWIST" at this link: The Art of Management Promo Code Ticket Purchase. You can also call them at: 1-866-992-7863.

So, what are you waiting for? what is the best piece of management advice you have ever received?

Tags:

blink

business book

innovation

jamie oliver

malcolm gladwell

management advice

managing in a connected world

michael eisner

networking

nilofer merchant

outliers

simon sinek

speaking

start with why

the art of cooking

the art of management

the new how

tipping point

walt disney company

work in progress

working together

Six Links Worthy Of Your Attention #20

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:

Revisiting Donald Appleyard's Livable Streets - StreetFilms.org . "This film from streetfilms.org looks at the impact that cars have on social interactions within communities. It's a part of the Streetfilms series, 'Fixing the great mistake' that looks at the effects of the automobile and other changes in early 20th century." (Alistair for Hugh).

Small Change - The New Yorker . "I was in DC during the elections this week. This piece by Malcolm Gladwell resonated with me. 'Fifty years after one of the most extraordinary episodes of social upheaval in American history, we seem to have forgotten what activism is,' he says. Consider three facts: First, voter turnout was much higher among older voters. Second, Republican voters and Tea Party supporters in the US are significantly older. Third, older people are less likely to be online or using social networks. Did social networks act as pressure valves for democratic indignation? Does Facebook take the edge off so we don't rise up? Is Twitter the opiate of the angry mob?  Revolution, indeed." (Alistair for Mitch).

The Dick Flash Interview - Brian Eno . "Hilarious interview with musical pioneer Brian Eno. I've never heard of Dick Flash before... off to Google." (Hugh for Alistair).

Google To Facebook: You Can't Import Our User Data Without Reciprocity - TechCrunch . "There are many fascinating battle lines being drawn in the world of the web: Google vs Apple. Amazon vs Apple. And Google vs Facebook. In the end it's all about the data, and Google's just put a line in the sand about approaches to user data usage." (Hugh for Mitch).

David Blaine: How I held my breath for 17 min - TED . "I'm a closet magic lover (who isn't?). But, I readily admit that I do like to know how the tricks are done (hence my love of the movie, The Prestige). I used to do magic as kid (I had a trunk full of the standard magic tricks). To me, it's more about watching how a magician 'sells' the trick than the actual trick itself. I've probably learned more about how to be a better public speaker from reading and watching magicians than anything else. In this recently released TED Talk , David Blaine deconstructs how he blends magic, stunts and demonstrations to wow audiences... and himself." (Mitch for Alistair).

Is "Undesigned" the Next Great Web Trend? Fat Chance - Fast Company's Co.Design . "Do people like less design or more design for their content? It's clear that in the overly saturated world of web design, things went a little crazy for a while. Now, as mobile devices and tablets flood the market, there is a movement towards the classic, 'less is more,' when it comes to design. It's something that you can see if you're a fan of Instapaper , Readability , and Flipboard . Hugh is big on cleaning up the clutter of bad design online and the mess that usually surrounds content. I think he'll get a kick out of this perspective..." (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:

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Is Twitter Killing You?

Sometimes the worst thing that can happen to you is becoming wildly successful...

Many people fail to realize the time, energy and effort it takes to be successful in Social Media. It's true that you can definitely reap the rewards of that success, but it's also true that sometimes being too successful can become overbearing and unmanageable. The truth is that you would much rather get to the point of being wildly successful and figuring out how to manage it all than having the Social Media equivalent of crickets when you try to connect online.

The personal brand and the corporate brand are heading towards a head-on collision.

Todd Defren over at PR Squared had a great Blog titled, Our Corporate Brand Is Cramping My Personal Brand, in which he states: "...star employees will carefully evaluate the reputation and socialstreams of their would-be employers, to determine whether they want to associate their personal brand with that of the corporation." And, while it's hard to imagine that a young person just out of University might turn down a decent wage because of what it might do to their personal brand, there's another interesting twist to that scenario...

Brands may not hire individuals with significant digital footprints.

Sure, many corporations would kill to have a mini-Chris Brogan or a micro-Gary Vaynerchuk on staff, but who amongst us is not constantly in awe of their content output? Whether it's Blogging, Podcasting, tweeting, checking-in, status updates and beyond, more often than not, the first question I am asked by those in the corporate world is, "when do these people find the time?" (the real answer to that question is: this stuff is - for the most part - a huge chunk of their job). Will a company really want to hire someone after they evaluate this person's online presence and can see (minute-by-minute) how much time and effort it takes? At the end of the day, there is a job to do. I'm reminded of the many corporate Social Media policies and guidelines I've seen that have the line: "remember: work first, Social Media after."

Most companies are looking for a team player... not someone out for their own glory.

The other component is that the perception (right or wrong) of a strong online presence could also lead the company to think that this individual is not a team player. That it's all about their personal brand and their own positioning instead of putting the corporate needs first. That they are a one-person army. Whether or not that makes us cringe, it's a fair corporate statement to make. Most individuals with significant digital footprints can be perceived that way. Personally, I've heard this about myself in the Marketing industry (if people only knew how much of my day and night is spent working on growing the business of our clients at Twist Image).

Too much of a good thing.

In the end, I'm not sure that an individual would refuse to take a position with a company because they're not active/smart in Social Media. I'm also not sold that a company would not hire an individual who has a significant digital footprint because they may be worried that the individual will spend too much time working on their personal brand instead of the business at hand. But, it's interesting to think about a world where individuals do have a personal brand that has as much (or equal) to significance as those of corporate brands and how that plays out in the corporate world and the Social Web... because we are at that unique moment in time.

Do you think Twitter can kill a great job opportunity? What's your take?

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