Selected by mikesansone

• Most Topular Stories

• Permission To Fail

  Logic+Emotion

  David Armano

  9 Feb 2012 | 10:15 am

  I love my job. Seriously. The skeptical among you may read this as shameless corporate cheer-leading, or a PR ploy (given I work at a PR firm). It's not. You have to understand that I work for a very unique company—in fact, it's been the most unique career experience in my life. A sixty year old company—technically family owned (not public) with over four thousand employees globally and the CEO of the company wears the last name of the founder, his father. Which brings me to the video above. I had the opportunity to interview our CEO, Richard Edelman on the topic of trust as it relates to…

• Being in Control of the Interaction

  Conversation Agent

  Valeria Maltoni

  9 Feb 2012 | 3:00 am

  I don't know about you. I wasn't terribly impressed by the Super Bowl ads this year. With the exception of the seducing commercial of the FIAT Abarth, where they are clearly in control of the interaction, most ads seemed to have sacrificed newer creative executions for safer ones. At the per second dollar spend, it was an understandable move. Disappointing because of the high expectations created through social media ahead of the big day. I got many ad preview offeres from the PR Agencies working with brands this year. A few days ahead of the game I saw that FIAT was making the rounds on…

• Google+ Has a Perception Problem

  Web Strategy by Jeremiah Owyang | Social Media, Web Marketing

  jeremiah_owyang

  9 Feb 2012 | 5:36 am

  Remember that smart kid who sat in the front of the class, but was ignored by the cool kids? That’s a good metaphor for what Google+ is going through. I’ve heard from corporate social strategists I should be cautious about how much time and how frequently I discuss this nascent social newtork, and I spoke to media from a Tier 1 this week who said “does anyone even go there anymore? It seems like a wasteland”. Furthermore take this damning image which has been viewed 11k times suggests Google+ is filled with Google employees –and that’s about it. In fact, in our data on Super bowl…

• How to Recover From a Social Media Hangover

  Copyblogger

  Cori Padgett

  9 Feb 2012 | 3:00 am

  “Hello. My name is Cori and I’m a social media addict. “Today is day 1 of my commitment to give myself a regular break from technology and the foggy, uncreative haze it can unwittingly lead to.” I was reading a post the other day by blogger Michael Brenner at B2B Marketing Insider, talking about getting your social media game on. Of course, being the skimmer that I am, the first thing that caught my attention and made me go back and read the whole thing was his mention of having a Social Media Hangover. His hangover was induced by sometimes (as we all do) forgetting to…

• The 5 things that will derail your marketing in 2012

  Drew's Marketing Minute

  Drew McLellan

  8 Feb 2012 | 6:37 am

  I don’t want to rain on anyone’s parade but the truth is — most organizations’ marketing efforts stink.  And they stink for reasons well within the marketing department’s control. If you’re worried that your own efforts might fall short — beware of these five danger zones that can derail you in a blink! Inconsistency:  Does your monthly newsletter go out 5 times a year?  Does your copy tone/style fluctuate between somber and casual?  Are your weekly sales calls happening every week? Inconsistency not only waters down your results but it also…

• 

  Logic+Emotion

• Permission To Fail

  David Armano

  9 Feb 2012 | 10:15 am

  I love my job. Seriously. The skeptical among you may read this as shameless corporate cheer-leading, or a PR ploy (given I work at a PR firm). It's not. You have to understand that I work for a very unique company—in fact, it's been the most unique career experience in my life. A sixty year old company—technically family owned (not public) with over four thousand employees globally and the CEO of the company wears the last name of the founder, his father. Which brings me to the video above. I had the opportunity to interview our CEO, Richard Edelman on the topic of trust as it relates to…

• Will The Real Social Business Experts Please Stand Up?

  David Armano

  7 Feb 2012 | 10:23 am

  Stop what you're doing and check out this thread (on Google Plus of all places) started by Francine Hardaway. She started it off with a simple question. "Who are the best experts in social business?"What followed was a robust discussion on what social business is, isn't and who's driving the agenda forward in the space both in thought and action. If you're interested in the emerging definition of social business (aka the convergence of enterprise 2.0 and social media) I highly recommend you taking a look. Some of my favorite thoughts:"the thread that social business is not the same as social…

• People, Places & Events

  David Armano

  3 Feb 2012 | 11:01 am

  A few significant events happening over the next few months—here's where I'll be: Chicago: February 6th, Social Media Club, An Interview With Richard EdelmanOur I'll be interviewing Richard Edelman our CEO in our new office space as we host the Chicago Social Media Club. We will be discussing this Year's Trust Barometer findings. If you can't make it to Chicago, we will be live streaming video the interview at 5:00 CST. London & New York: February 13-16, Social Media Week Our London office is hosting a panel titled "Social Business In Action". A topic I'm very passionate about—then…

• How To Be A Social Media Self-Righteous Jerk

  David Armano

  1 Feb 2012 | 4:28 pm

  The scale above shows the many stages one has to go through in order to become a bona fide self-righteous jerk in social media. Still, there are many people who aspire to reach this peak, but fall short in executing against it. Given this observation, I thought it would be worthwhile to piece together a few best practices which will ensure your status as a social media self-righteous jerk (or SMSRJ). In no particular order: 1. Join The Klout GestapoAll social media SMSRJ's know that Klout is simply evil incarnate and requires a organized force to take on this evil axis of influence wherever…

• Launching a Social Command Center (Without The Center)

  David Armano

  27 Jan 2012 | 8:05 am

  "Social command centers" are all the rage today and it's not without some merit. Many organizations now find themselves in a real-time business environment where news travels faster than sound, and information is set free. As a result, some forward thinking companies have put "monitoring" in place either in-house or in combination with partners. This isn't enough. And to make matters worse, I've seen companies make the classic mistake of buying a tool BEFORE putting any thought into the design that goes into effective monitoring and response, forgetting the 3P's (People, Process, Platforms).

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  Conversation Agent

• Being in Control of the Interaction

  Valeria Maltoni

  9 Feb 2012 | 3:00 am

  I don't know about you. I wasn't terribly impressed by the Super Bowl ads this year. With the exception of the seducing commercial of the FIAT Abarth, where they are clearly in control of the interaction, most ads seemed to have sacrificed newer creative executions for safer ones. At the per second dollar spend, it was an understandable move. Disappointing because of the high expectations created through social media ahead of the big day. I got many ad preview offeres from the PR Agencies working with brands this year. A few days ahead of the game I saw that FIAT was making the rounds on…

• Collaboration? You Must be Joking!

  Valeria Maltoni

  8 Feb 2012 | 3:00 am

  I read this post by Chris Saad the other morning in response to Robert Scoble 's mention in a recent post and I keep thinking about the applicability of its concepts not just for Silicon Valley and the tech community. It applies to marketers and communicators as well. [Posted originally on Google+]<rant>1. lead not just cheerlead - how many times do we copy the same concept over and over, or look at short term payoffs when the opportunities are on the making better promises side of the conversation?2. add to the business DNA - nothing dies, not media companies, not blogging, not…

• What a Difference Five Years Make

  Valeria Maltoni

  7 Feb 2012 | 3:00 am

  Here I am. Writing from my heart more than my head where all the good ideas are and I get the zinger -- yeah, a personality would be great. Seriously? Kidding. I'm sure it would. And I have one. I can go from Zero to Italian in no time. When appropriate. Why do you care? Because that's just it -- online content should have a style and point of view, to get more personality it needs to have guts, and it needs to have time. Guts don't come from charts and stats, they come from people. Time as in face time, as in skin in the game, as in relationships. Or you're just making the seagull move --…

• How Would You Redesign the Sears Customer Experience?

  Valeria Maltoni

  6 Feb 2012 | 3:00 am

  As a regular at Brand Autopsy, I remember the "would you miss" series of posts about brands John Moore wrote a couple of years back. The brands discussed ranged from Denny's, Costco, Ace Hardware, Dairy Queen, Crate & Barrell, BusinessWeek, UPS, Pizza Hut, to Walgreens, Polaroid Instant Film, Advertising Age, The Cheesecake Factory, Chili's, Wells Fargo, and more. One of the brands was Sears -- if Sears went out of business tomorrow, would any of us care? Does Sears provide such a unique product and customer experience that we would be saddened if it didn’t exist? How did Sears do on…

• ... then I Discovered I am Actually Funny

  Valeria Maltoni

  5 Feb 2012 | 4:00 am

  So, I've been thinking. What I'm doing here with this blog is not working. It's not you, it's me. Somehow I manage to scare you off to some site with LOL cats whenever you open your feed. I'm not inspiring you. Or maybe I am, and you're not telling me. I've tried a couple of things to justify keeping up with producing researched and useful content. That only makes the scraping and copying and rewriting gremlins happy and me poor. They don't link anymore in the sphere, those bastards. This is a departure from my usual writing style, I know. I've been slaving on figuring out an angle for the…

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  Web Strategy by Jeremiah Owyang | Social Media, Web Marketing

• Google+ Has a Perception Problem

  jeremiah_owyang

  9 Feb 2012 | 5:36 am

  Remember that smart kid who sat in the front of the class, but was ignored by the cool kids? That’s a good metaphor for what Google+ is going through. I’ve heard from corporate social strategists I should be cautious about how much time and how frequently I discuss this nascent social newtork, and I spoke to media from a Tier 1 this week who said “does anyone even go there anymore? It seems like a wasteland”. Furthermore take this damning image which has been viewed 11k times suggests Google+ is filled with Google employees –and that’s about it. In fact, in our data on Super bowl…

• Altimeter Webinar Recording: State of Social Media Management Industry

  jeremiah_owyang

  8 Feb 2012 | 10:08 am

  This week, Altimeter (myself and Andrew Jones, researcher) hosted a webinar stemming from the the recent report on Social Media Proliferation, which you can download the full report on this blog post. In the embedded slides and video below, you’ll be able to get additional insights on how we perceive how this market will change in the coming years: We’ll see a vendor shakeout, although expect pure play vendors of each of the five uses cases to remain Consolidation will occur from market forces of email marketing, web analytics, CMS, marketing automation, brand monitoring, support…

• Hey Retailers! Refine That Mobile Marketing Strategy (Altimeter Report)

  jeremiah_owyang

  7 Feb 2012 | 10:01 am

  This latest Altimeter Report, by my colleague Industry Analyst Chris Silva, focuses on how companies must develop a mobile marketing strategy. It sources research from 26 ecosystem contributors including brands, agencies, and technology providers. To learn more about this report, please register for the webinar in which Chris will provide deeper knowledge from the report. This report is powerful in a few ways, it indicates the growth the in space, referencing that 45% of all mobile phone users are carrying a smart phone, and the growth rate for tablets is 23% annually. The report also…

• Five Trends: How Brands Integrated Social, Mobile, and Web into 2012 Super Bowl Advertisements

  jeremiah_owyang

  6 Feb 2012 | 8:39 am

  By Altimeter’s Jeremiah Owyang, Brian Solis, and Zak Kirchner Findings: Five Trends Indicate Cross Channel Integration a Mainstay. Super Bowl ads, while only representing the nation’s largest consumer facing ads are a bellwether for advertising trends for the remainder of the year. To best understand these trends, Altimeter Group’s research team analyzed each Ad in real time, and conducted analysis to best understand the advertising trends for 2012.  Using Chicago as a middle ground, we reviewed all ads from kickoff till the game clock expired and found that trends out of 87…

• P&G Layoffs Signal Focus on Digital Industry

  jeremiah_owyang

  4 Feb 2012 | 10:49 am

  Last week was a tremendous change, giant marketer P&G announces 1600 layoffs as they reduce jobs in various roles, and instead shifting budget to digital marketing. The CEO, when pressed, indicates a strong focus on digital marketing, citing: “In the digital space, with things like Facebook and Google and others, we find that return on investment of the advertising when properly designed, when the big idea is there, can be much more efficient” -Bob McDonald, Chairman-CEO, P&G Yet this is a trend, as P&G had previously cut advertising spend on soap operas on traditional TV,…

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  Copyblogger

• How to Recover From a Social Media Hangover

  Cori Padgett

  9 Feb 2012 | 3:00 am

  “Hello. My name is Cori and I’m a social media addict. “Today is day 1 of my commitment to give myself a regular break from technology and the foggy, uncreative haze it can unwittingly lead to.” I was reading a post the other day by blogger Michael Brenner at B2B Marketing Insider, talking about getting your social media game on. Of course, being the skimmer that I am, the first thing that caught my attention and made me go back and read the whole thing was his mention of having a Social Media Hangover. His hangover was induced by sometimes (as we all do) forgetting to…

• The “New” SEO Secret Weapon

  Sonia Simone

  8 Feb 2012 | 3:00 am

  If you have a web site, you may have noticed one of two things about the traffic you get from search engines. Your search traffic may have dried up overnight, with once-healthy streams turning into a sad little trickle. Or you may have noticed a nice, steady improvement as you’ve climbed higher in the SERPs (search engine results pages), while other sites that used to outrank you suddenly evaporated. There’s a super-secret new ingredient in SEO. It was always a factor, but it’s become even more important recently, as the Google team relentlessly declares war on what they see…

• 8 Quick Tips for Writing Bullet Points People Actually Want to Read

  Robert Bruce

  7 Feb 2012 | 3:00 am

  It’s a Twitterized world, we’re just living in it. Blog posts, Tweets, quick videos, Google+, the Facebook Timeline, and tens of thousands of images pinned to digital boards are flying past us faster than we can read them. Faster than we can even scan them, depending on the time of day. What does this mean for writers trying to cut through it all? At least two things that I can think of: You’d better know how to write a compelling headline You’d better know how to write bullet points that grab (and keep) your reader We’re not telling you to keep your copy short.

• 7 Crucial Tactics for Writing a Wildly Successful Guest Post

  The Blog Tyrant

  6 Feb 2012 | 3:00 am

  We all know that guest posts grow blogs. But not many people realize that tactical guest posting grows careers. Most bloggers I see pump out these articles while reciting the mantra “quantity over quality”; there’s no real strategy and there are no real long-term benefits. In this post I am going to show you the seven crucial tactics for writing a radically successful guest post. Done right, these strategies will get you more email subscribers, coveted Google ranking positions, and a big head-start on your content marketing goals. Who am I to teach you about guest blogging?

• 7 Smashing Social Media Marketing Links

  Robert Bruce

  4 Feb 2012 | 3:00 am

  This week on The Lede … What really works on Twitter One thing social media copywriters should never do 9 productive social media hacks A reminder of the power of the original social media If you just can’t wait for The Lede every Saturday, and you want even more practical, useable links than the seven we highlight here every week, follow @copyblogger on Twitter. It’s painless. Really. // 9 Social Media Hacks You Need to Embrace Now Mr. Baer makes a good case that though social media is inexpensive in monetary terms, it can get good and costly when it comes to spending your…

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  Drew's Marketing Minute

• The 5 things that will derail your marketing in 2012

  Drew McLellan

  8 Feb 2012 | 6:37 am

  I don’t want to rain on anyone’s parade but the truth is — most organizations’ marketing efforts stink.  And they stink for reasons well within the marketing department’s control. If you’re worried that your own efforts might fall short — beware of these five danger zones that can derail you in a blink! Inconsistency:  Does your monthly newsletter go out 5 times a year?  Does your copy tone/style fluctuate between somber and casual?  Are your weekly sales calls happening every week? Inconsistency not only waters down your results but it also…

• Crisis communications – don’t wait to create a plan

  Drew McLellan

  6 Feb 2012 | 6:10 am

  Does your organization have a crisis communications plan that you could actually put into action at this very moment? All of the hubub surrounding the Susan G. Komen decision to stop funding Planned Parenthood and then their reversal of that decision following a 72+ hour firestorm of public outrage should have scared the bejesus out of you. If an organization as large, powerful and well respected as Komen can get into that much hot water — and is that ill-prepared to handle it then what in the world would happen to you if there was an accident on your job site, if your CFO embezzled…

• Don’t add frill until your core is rock solid

  Drew McLellan

  2 Feb 2012 | 6:15 am

  A couple times a month a cleaning company comes into our house and does a deep clean. Every time I walk into the house after they’ve cleaned… the toilet paper rolls and tissues sticking out of the boxes are folded in some sort of origami art.  Sometimes, they leave a truffle on the kitchen counter. I get what they’re trying to do.  And it’s a lovely little extra.  Unfortunately, I also find things like: Every waste basket in the wrong spot (they’ve been cleaning the house for over a year) The back door unlocked or a window left open A few lights left on…

• What you don’t know about your sales funnel

  Drew McLellan

  30 Jan 2012 | 5:56 am

  We all think and talk about our sales funnel a lot.  We’re always saying things like: We need to keep it full. We need to stay active with the prospects that have been in it for awhile. On average, it takes a prospect X months to move through it. And so on…. But consider the statistic to the right.  60% of your sales efforts are what happens before you have actively put someone into the funnel.  In other words — it’s not you who is doing the selling. Who is? Your existing customers The customer who left and is working with your competitors Your vendors Your website…

• What’s your purple goldfish?

  Drew McLellan

  11 Jan 2012 | 11:30 am

  Get your free copy of Stan Phelp’s book! A few years ago, I met Stan Phelps, another marketing guy, online (I think he commented on my blog and we started chatting via email) and before I knew it — we were friends.  He was just dipping his toe into the blogging waters and I tried to be helpful along the way. Fast forward to today, January 11, 2012. Stan’s first book, What’s Your Purple Goldfish*, is being released today.  I’ve read it and know you’re going to love it.  Really love it. I’m also very humbled to say that Stan asked me to write the…

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  Dangerously Irrelevant

• We need to stop arguing over which factory-age solutions we should try

  dr.scott.mcleod@gmail.com (Scott McLeod)

  6 Feb 2012 | 4:13 am

  Trace Pickering recently sent me a slide deck that's definitely worth viewing. Trace is a wonderful systems thinker. His slides do a nice job of describing historical shifts in American society and the concurrent changes that were necessary in American education. As he notes about our current era, We seem to be stuck … arguing over which factory-age solutions we should try without fully understanding the implications of the context we are in and the new functions we need education to perform. Trace's slides are embedded below. He's kindly made them available with a Creative Commons license.

• Digital Learning Day: The aftermath

  dr.scott.mcleod@gmail.com (Scott McLeod)

  2 Feb 2012 | 5:51 am

  Well, yesterday was Digital Learning Day. By all accounts, it was a busy day across the country. Lots of conversation and high-profile events and demonstrations of students doing cool stuff with technology... Should every school day be Digital Learning Day? Nope. We still need down time from these electronic and virtual spaces of ours, times when we experience the joy of human connection, nature, solitude, reflection (and all of those other things that people say I should be experiencing!). But, nonetheless, we definitely need 'more digital, more often' in most of our primarily-analog…

• Announcing our new School Technology Leadership courses: Get a graduate certificate, Master’s, or Ph.D.

  dr.scott.mcleod@gmail.com (Scott McLeod)

  1 Feb 2012 | 10:48 am

  Short version We're relaunching our online School Technology Leadership courses and programs today! Woo hoo! (This is all pending final approval by Faculty Senate) Long version It's Digital Learning Day here in the U.S. As I said in my guest post for the event: We ... need school leaders who can begin envisioning the implications of these [new technology-suffused, globally-interconnected] environmental characteristics for learning, teaching, and schooling. We need administrators who can design and operationalize our learning environments to reflect these new affordances. I also said: If…

• Keeping Students Engaged in a 1:1 Project-Based Classroom [guest post]

  dr.scott.mcleod@gmail.com (Scott McLeod)

  29 Jan 2012 | 3:55 pm

  Image approved for copy by Creative Commons. Source: http://bit.ly/vYUkXB When laptops first arrived in my classroom, I worried about classroom management. How could I create an environment where students used their computers as tools rather than toys? I was worried for nothing. The following are suggestions for keeping students engaged in a project and accountable for their time with computers: Students make a plan.  Students are most tempted to open widgets, games, and social chats when they are faced with a blank screen and have no plan. Much of the time, students think they have…

• Flawed, ideological, non-peer-reviewed studies should not rebut decades of anti-retention research

  dr.scott.mcleod@gmail.com (Scott McLeod)

  29 Jan 2012 | 8:41 am

  Iowa Governor Terry Branstad's recent remarks about retaining 3rd graders confirm both the potential positives and the many negatives of in-grade retention in elementary school. First, the potential positives: in-grade retention sometimes leads to short-term (1 to 2 years out) - and maybe even mid-term (3 to 5 years out) - academic gains. The peer-reviewed research shows that these test score gains occasionally occur when you force kids to repeat 3rd grade, partly because 4th grade test scores look better when low-achievers have been removed from the grade cohort and partly because retained…

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  How to Change the World

• Raising Money: What Not to Say and What Not to Believe #OfficeandGuyK

  GuyKawasaki

  20 Jan 2012 | 10:46 am

  Over the past two weeks via my partnership with Microsoft and Office Web Apps, I’ve provided templates of models for you to create enchanting PowerPoint pitches, Word business plans, and Excel financial models. They are all available for you to download from my SkyDrive account. I hope these documents and blog posts help you save a boatload of time and increase the quality of your efforts.I leave you with two sets of top ten lies: one of entrepreneurs and one of investors so that you know what not to say and what not to believe. Top Ten Lies of Entrepreneurs “Our projections are…

• Design a Sam Adams beer

  GuyKawasaki

  20 Jan 2012 | 8:24 am

  Now this is a fun project. I’m helping Sam Adams “tap” the knowledge of beer drinkers and crowd source its next brew. Join the party by getting the app and designing your beer: The final brew will be released in Austin in the first week of March. #sponsored

• How to Create an Enchanting Financial Forecast #OfficeandGuyK

  GuyKawasaki

  17 Jan 2012 | 1:52 pm

  This is the third post in my Microsoft partnership, and it’s all about numbers. The topic is crafting your financial forecast to include in your pitch. Bill Reichert, my partner at Garage Technology Ventures, created an Excel model and wrote this blog post. There’s a lesson in this too: Get the best person for the job. His grasp of financial models and how to present them exceeds mine by two orders of magnitude. The Purpose of Financial Projections When it comes to financial projections, there are two types of entrepreneurs: first, the “visionary entrepreneur” who…

• How to Create an Enchanting Business Plan #OfficeandGuyK

  GuyKawasaki

  12 Jan 2012 | 8:16 am

  Here is the second post in my series about planning, pitching, and launching a new business venture. In partnership with Microsoft and Office Web Apps, I’ve created a Word document that outlines a good business plan. It’s saved to my SkyDrive folder here. Feel free to download it and use it as inspiration. And if you’re working with a partner, you can use the free Word Web App to stay in sync. I provided the PowerPoint document before the Word document because a good business plan is an elaboration of a good pitch as opposed to a good pitch being a distillation of good business plan.

• How to Create an Enchanting Pitch #OfficeandGuyK

  GuyKawasaki

  9 Jan 2012 | 8:01 am

  Welcome to the first in a series of blog posts I’ll be doing as part of a partnership with Microsoft and Office Web Apps. Over the next two weeks, I’ll cover everything a budding entrepreneur needs to turn an idea into an enchanting investment opportunity—from the perfect pitch to a killer business plan to financial forecasts. I’m going to start with a little dissertation on creating effective PowerPoint pitches for your company. I embedded the sample deck for you to click through by using the PowerPoint Web App. When you’re ready to get started, you can download the…

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  Presentation Zen

• Hans Rosling: The Jedi Master of data visualization

  Garr

  26 Jan 2012 | 11:31 pm

  Dr. Hans Rosling is one of my presentation heroes; he's been featured or mentioned in all my books and several times on presentationzen.com over the years. If there is a Jedi Master of presenting data clearly, visually, and simply, then it is Hans. He proves time and time again, that data are not dull—and when you are trying to change the world, there is no excuse for boring presentations. Most people are aware of Dr. Rosling through his popular TED Talks, but just in case you've never seen him present, below is a nice 5-minute piece he did on CNN's Fareed Zakaria GPS. At TED.com you'll…

• New: Presentation Zen (2nd Edition)

  Garr

  18 Jan 2012 | 10:36 pm

  Four years ago my first book Presentation Zen was published by Peachpit Press. Since then I wrote two other presentation books and a sketchbook/storyboard book and a DVD (plus an additional DVD/Book just for Japan). Although a lot of time had passed, I was still happy with the original Presentation Zen. And yet, the original Presentation Zen book could benefit from a little freshening up in the form of a 2nd edition for 2012. This 2nd edition of Presentation Zen has the same look and feel as the original book and I still did all the design and layout myself. The biggest difference is the book…

• 10 great books to help you think, create, & communicate better in 2012

  Garr

  10 Jan 2012 | 4:54 am

  In the spirit of personal kaizen, I have listed below a few books that I read (or reread) over the past year that you may want to read as part of your own continuous improvement journey. (Clicking on the book's icon takes you to Amazon.com.) (1) Your Brain at Work: Strategies for Overcoming Distraction, Regaining Focus, and Working Smarter All Day Long. Over the last 10-20 years scientists have made many remarkable discoveries concerning the brain and how it works. David Rock is not a neuroscientist but he is a good "neurotranslator" of the scientific evidence and does a good job of…

• Progress and the intentional selection of less

  Garr

  30 Dec 2011 | 5:26 pm

  Many people today talk about presentation technology as if it were a panacea for boring lectures and ineffective presentations. Technologies such as our laptops, iPads, and cool software packages are wonderful tools that can, when used well, increase the quality of communication and engagement. This is especially true when we need to engage with people live on the other side of the planet via tools like video conferencing, webinars, Skype, and so on. However, while technology has evolved in dramatic ways over the last generation, our deep human need for visceral connections, and personal…

• Steve Jobs: "People who know what they’re talking about don’t need PowerPoint"

  Garr

  20 Dec 2011 | 5:12 am

  One thing we need to constantly remind ourselves is that slides and other forms of projected visualization—no matter how "cool" they may be—are not appropriate for every context. Multimedia is great for presentations before large groups such as keynote addresses or conference presentations, but in meetings where you want to actively discuss issues or go over details in depth, slides—especially the snooze-inducing bulletpoint variety, which are never a good idea—are almost always counter productive. I stressed early on in the first version of Presentation Zen four years ago—and ad…

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  Meryl's Notes Blog at meryl.net by Writer Meryl K. Evans

• RSVPs and Following up

  meryl

  31 Jan 2012 | 7:20 am

  Image from sxc.hu user miamiamia As the deadline for the RSVP approached, I grew disappointed each day after checking the mailbox. By the time the RSVP due date came and went, 50% of the replies from one list and 60% from the other came in. So I did the uncomfortable thing of emailing folks who hadn’t replied. Good thing I did. Some said they never received the invitation, or maybe it got lost with the holiday season mail. By the time I emailed everyone whose email I had and weren’t obvious nos (out of towers, recently widowed, etc.), the replies went up to 65% and 85%. Not bad…

• The Joy of a Good Verb

  meryl

  24 Jan 2012 | 7:50 am

  Welcome to meryl’s notes blog (this here place you’re lookin’ at) in Plano, Texas. We’re honored to be a stop in Pesi Dinnerstein’s WOW! Women On Writing Blog tour. We’re giving away a copy of A Cluttered Life: Searching for God, Serenity, and My Missing Keys! [affiliate] Read on to see how you can win. About Pesi Dinnerstein: Pesi Dinnerstein (a.k.a. Paulette Plonchak) has written selections for the best-selling series Small Miracles, by Yitta Halberstam and Judith Leventhal, and has contributed to several textbooks and an anthology of short stories.

• Assumptions

  meryl

  19 Jan 2012 | 7:39 am

  One Halloween while helping my mom pass out candy, I saw a kid in a cute Bugs Bunny costume. The costume was made out of nice material instead of the weird smelling plastic mask and the stiff vinyl bodysuit. See Exhibit A for an lovely example of a vinyl Darth Vader costume. What’s up with my reaction in the photo? I wasn’t happy someone took my picture before I could get my mask on. I can’t recall exactly how the cute Bugs Bunny costume looked except that it wasn’t the vinyl most of us wore those days unless we were lucky enough to have a parent who could sew or pull…

• Is a Blog Right for Your Business Update

  meryl

  11 Jan 2012 | 6:50 am

  Image from sxc.hu user typofi Although I wrote Is a Blog Right for Your Business? in 2007, people still mention the article or contact me with questions after reading it. Blogging has changed a lot since then, but one paragraph remains true. Some people like to read blogs, others like to read newsletters, still others like to rely on feeds and some read a few or all of them. No matter the method the information is distributed, each medium has one thing in common: content. Having a blog connects your newsletter, your website and your business with all of these readers. More people probably ask…

• One Wrong Way to Get Business

  meryl

  3 Jan 2012 | 1:44 pm

  Michelle Rafter posted a letter of introduction (LOI) from a writer who took an ego trip. Instead of an ego trip, I heard from an accountant who must be taking a trip to find blockhead clients. The email introduction implies she thinks writers don’t have business sense. The email makes a bad first impression coming from a free email service provider using “free_lancer01″ in the address and “abc efg” in the display name. (Maybe the “D” key didn’t work.) Not only that, but she sent it to two others, one of which was someone I knew. Here’s…

• 

  chrisbrogan.com

• Throw Away the Maps

  ceb

  6 Feb 2012 | 1:30 am

  People judge us by the path they’ve seen us walk before. They can’t anticipate our future steps. We, ourselves, look to how things have been, what seems to be the lay of the land, without realizing that the maps are not the territory. Want to succeed at work? Then don’t try to do your job. Instead, work towards something larger, more meaningful, and something that blends your convictions internally with your best ability to help others externally. Want to create something new? Then throw away the old, or maybe join two disparate old things together into something new. The…

• The Next Social Networks

  ceb

  5 Feb 2012 | 1:30 am

  The rage in social networks right now is Pinterest, partly because it’s probably the first social network that has a much higher adoption rate by females than males, and partly because it’s an interesting concept: somewhere between visual social bookmarking and scrapbooking. What also might not be immediately obvious is that it’s just “easier” to interact there. In that way, Pinterest has something in common with Instagram, which is community around photos. What I’m interested in, though, is Gentlemint, which I keep calling “Pinterest for…

• Learn From Adele – Build Your Platform

  ceb

  3 Feb 2012 | 1:30 am

  Jacq and I just watched Adele Live At The Royal Albert Hall (amazon affiliate link), and though every song was just wonderfully done, I found myself fascinated by what Adele was doing in between each song. Because even though most people would be interested in hearing her belt out her amazing repertoire of hits, what I took away from the performance was Adele’s real magical ability: the ability to resonate with her audience. What Adele Could Teach You About Impact I’m writing something about this right now for my upcoming book with Julien Smith, but I had to share some of the…

• Rob Gokee is a Musical Wizard

  ceb

  2 Feb 2012 | 8:05 am

  I had such a great experience working with award winning musical composer Rob Gokee. We did some musical work together, and the process was so amazing. Rob helped me create my theme song for Shhh! The Secret Show. So anyhow, he and I sat down to do an interview, and it’s a bit long, but it’s totally worth it. We talk about what collaboration feels like at a distance, what it takes to get music like this made for your own show, and a lot more. Rob’s a hero to me, and has been part of the community for a while. I was so fortunate to have worked with him. Can’t see the…

• Build Your Platform – Start

  ceb

  30 Jan 2012 | 1:30 am

  The following is part ONE of a series called Build Your Platform. If you find it interesting, please consider subscribing for free to get the rest of the series. This post is long. You might want to bookmark it for later. The age of social media oversaturation is upon us. People are declaring Twitter bankruptcy to go along with their email bankruptcy. They cite not wanting to start on yet another social network as their reason for not getting more involved with Google+. And just as soon as you start getting into Pinterest, you hear about Path, but wait: there’s Gentlemint, which is…

• 

  Seth's Blog

• Inaccurate labels and why we need them (and need to improve them)

  Seth Godin

  9 Feb 2012 | 2:46 am

  If I tell you, "I'm going to the baseball game," it seems as though you're likely to understand what I mean. Of course, you won't. When George Will goes to a baseball game, it's a religious experience. Me, I don't even like baseball. Or maybe it's my nephew's ball game (the playoffs), or maybe going to the game causes me to miss an important event, and on and on. We label the experience with just two words, and two words can't possibly capture the emotions and circumstance surrounding an event. The same thing is true with brands. If I tell you that a new business was funded by USV, that might…

• How do they know you're not a flake?

  Seth Godin

  8 Feb 2012 | 2:43 am

  Before your link gets clicked or your proposal gets read, a busy person is going to triage it to find out if it's even worth glancing at. Since everyone is now connected, the new permeability has created a deluge of noise, and just about everyone worth contacting is taking defensive measures. Do I know this person? Did someone I trust send them over? Where does she work? (Ideo? the FDA? The New York Times?) Has she won an award? Is she famous? Are there typos and is the design sloppy? Are they pestering me? Do I already follow this person online? Does music play when I visit the website? Will…

• Horizontal marketing isn't a new idea

  Seth Godin

  7 Feb 2012 | 2:09 am

  But it is the new reality for just about every organization. Vertical marketing means the marketer (the one with money) is in charge. Vertical marketing starts at the top and involves running ads, sending out direct mail and pushing hype through the media. Your money, your plans, your control. It might not work, but generally the worst outcome is that you will be ignored and need to spend more money. Horizonal marketing, on the other hand, means creating a remarkable product and story and setting it up to spread from person to person. It's out of your control, because all the interactions are…

• Who is your customer?

  Seth Godin

  6 Feb 2012 | 2:26 am

  Rule one: You can build a business on the foundation of great customer service. Rule two: The only way to do great customer service is to treat different customers differently. The question: Who is your customer? It's not obvious. Zappos is a classic customer service company, and their customer is the person who buys the shoes. Nike, on the other hand, doesn't care very much at all about the people who buy the shoes, or even the retailers. They care about the athletes (often famous) that wear the shoes, sometimes for money. They name buildings after these athletes, court them, erect…

• In search of a timid trapeze artist

  Seth Godin

  5 Feb 2012 | 2:01 am

  Good luck with that, there aren't any. If you hesitate when leaping from rope to another, you're not going to last very long. And this is at the heart of what makes innovation work in organizations, why industries die, and how painful it is to try to maintain the status quo while also participating in a revolution. Gather up as much speed as you can, find a path and let go. You can't get to the next rope if you're still holding on to this one.

• 

  ReadWriteWeb

• Fabled Google Drive Won't Be Another Dropbox

  9 Feb 2012 | 11:00 am

  The Wall Street Journal has revived rumors about Google launching a cloud storage service called Drive. The comparison everybody wants to make is to Dropbox. The thinking is that Google will challenge everyone's favorite start-up by releasing a native desktop and mobile Drive app with the same syncing features Dropbox users know and love. Google Drive rumors have been around for many years, and they've always conformed to the understanding of "The Cloud" that has prevailed at the time. If it's not like Apple's iCloud, which is integrated into Apple's devices, then it must be like Dropbox,…

• [STUDY] 61% of Social Media Users Feel So Close To You

  9 Feb 2012 | 10:30 am

  Sometimes little things like a sweet comment on Facebook or a Twitter friend calling your tweet a "favorite" can really make a social networker bee's day. A new study from Pew finds that for the most part, adults are kind to each other on social media sites. In fact, 85% of adults say that most of the people they come across on social media are rather kind; only 5% say that people are "mostly unkind," which would imply rude or mean. An additional 5% say that it's all situational. On the whole, adults have positive experiences on social networking sites. A total 68% of SNS users had an…

• [Infographic] Mapping the Tools in the Mobile Development Ecosystem

  9 Feb 2012 | 10:00 am

  The mobile development ecosystem is a large, complicated space. There are innovative startups making tools for native and mobile Web apps along with large enterprise-grade companies that offer solutions from cloud support to frameworks and developer environments. For a mobile developer, it can be confusing to know where to turn and what to use to make the best app possible. Mobile "backend-as-a-service" startup Kinvey created a map for ReadWriteMobile to help developers understand the ecosystem. Kinvey brackets the mobile ecosystem between two primary pillars: the service providers and the…

• Harry Reid Wants a Bigger, Badder Version of SOPA/PIPA

  9 Feb 2012 | 9:30 am

  Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., still licking wounds from last week's defeat of the Protect IP Act and its House counterpart the Stop Online Piracy Act, is reportedly working on an even more sinister, Internet-regulating bill. Few details have been publicly disclosed about the latest push by legislative Democrats to expand executive-branch authority over the Internet, but the Daily Caller has pieced together publicly-available clues suggesting that Reid's newest bill is even broader than President Barack Obama's cybersecurity proposal. Sponsor Released last May, Obama's proposal…

• Keep Track of your AWS Expenses With Cloudyn

  9 Feb 2012 | 9:02 am

  With the number of individual Amazon Web Services now seemingly approaching infinity, it makes sense for third parties to get into the act of trying to keep track of what you are actually spending and whether you have over-provisioned your services. Enter Cloudyn.com, an Israeli based company that announced its services this week. Sponsor The idea is to have a dashboard similar to what you see below (mine isn't very interesting, sorry, I have taken down all of my machines at the moment) where you can track your projected annual costs, which accounts you have on AWS and what your running…

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  A VC

• The Black Hole Of Email

  Fred

  9 Feb 2012 | 3:40 am

  I have never ever been so behind on email as I am right now. I believe I am seeing about one third of all email that is sent to me. If you have sent me an email that I haven't replied to, don't be offended. You are not alone. You are in the majority. I write these posts occasionally to let people know. The result is hundreds of comments about how I can make email work better for me. Please don't leave those comments. I don't want to make email work better for me. I don't want to hire an assistant to do email for me. I don't want to try some new magical app that will make email better for me.

• Payments Day

  Fred

  8 Feb 2012 | 3:27 am

  Yesterday was payments day at USV. Two pretty big things that our firm has been involved in for a while now were coincidentally announced on the same day. First, our newest portfolio company Dwolla announced the closing of a round we led on their blog. Dwolla is building a large network of engaged users via a radically lower cost payment system. How much lower? Zero for transactions below $10 and a $0.25 flat fee for transactions over $10. If you move $10,000 over the Dwolla network, you or the recipient (your choice) will be charged $0.25. That's it. Dwolla does this by avoiding credit…

• Building The Ecosystem

  Fred

  7 Feb 2012 | 7:35 am

  I've always seen the work that my colleauges and I do as more than venture capital investing. That is our main job and we need to do it very well. But we also need to work to make sure the macro environment for our investing activities remains attractive. There are two primary activities that Union Square Ventures focuses on in addition to our core venture capital activities of backing and then working closely with entrepreneurs and their teams. They are policy advocacy around protecting the freedom to innovate and efforts to build the ecosystem for startups and entrepreneurship. Longtime…

• The Management Team - Guest Post From Phil Sugar

  Fred

  6 Feb 2012 | 2:44 am

  Continuing our MBA Mondays series on The Managemet Team, we are deep into the guest post phase. This guest post comes from AVC regular Phil Sugar. I've never met Phil, but his comments here at AVC tell me that he's a very experienced entrepreneurial manager. And so I reached out to him to ask for a guest post. And he responded with this post below. There are so mant great lines in here, I'm tempted to reblog a bunch of them. Best Friends, Buddies, and Co-WorkersSince there is no way I am going to be more insightful than Matt or JLM about management process, I am going to go through three…

• Women Entrepreneurs

  Fred

  5 Feb 2012 | 6:05 am

  A few weeks ago, I spent the day at NYU ITP at the Womens Entrepreneurs Festival. This is a one day event put on by The Gotham Gal and her friend Nancy Hechinger who is on the faculty at NYU ITP. In its second year, the WE Festival features a day of panels and talks featuring women entrepreneurs. Men can attend and do, but the stage is filled with women all day long. It's a very different experience from the typical startup/tech event and I highly recommend it to anyone who is eager to see more women doing startups. My favorite panel was called Makers and featured five women who love to…

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  Free Technology for Teachers

• Piazza - Not Just Another Message Board System

  9 Feb 2012 | 10:30 am

  Over the years I've reviewed quite a few services that offer teachers the ability to create private message boards for use in their courses. Here's a handful of those services. Today, I learned about one that tops all of those services. Piazza is a free service that teachers can use to create message boards for their courses. Piazza message boards offer more than just the standard question and answer format found in the old free Ning packages, but not quite as many features as a paid service like Blackboard. Some of the highlights of Piazza are tracking of student use, options…

• Infogr.am - Create Interactive Charts and Infographics

  9 Feb 2012 | 9:00 am

  Infogr.am is an online tool for creating interactive charts and graphs. Soon you will be able to create interactive infographic posters on Infogr.am too. There are four basic chart types that you can create on Infogr.am; bar, pie, line, and matrix. Each chart type can be edited to use any spreadsheet information that you want to upload to your Infogr.am account. The information in that spreadsheet will be displayed in your customized chart. When you place your cursor over your completed chart the spreadsheet information will appear in small pop-up window. Your Infogr.am charts can be embedded…

• Videos - How Candidates Raise and Spend Money

  8 Feb 2012 | 2:00 pm

  The amount of money that Presidential candidates spend on their campaigns is just mind boggling to me. Chances are good that it's mind boggling to your students too. CNN's Explain It To Me series has a couple of videos explaining how candidates raise money and what they spend that money on. Here is How Candidates Raise Money. Here is Campaign Spending. One of the statistics in this video that might help your students understand how much money is spent on campaigns is that Kobe Bryant would have to play for 29 years to earn as much money as President Obama spent in 2008. On a much lighter…

• Applications are Still Being Accepted for Google Teacher Academy UK

  8 Feb 2012 | 1:30 pm

  The Google Teacher Academy is held periodically at various locations throughout the world. I had the privilege of attending GTA when it was held in Washington, D.C. in 2009. This spring there will be a Google Teacher Academy in London on April 4th. If you're interested in becoming a Google Certified Teacher, applications are being accepted until February 16th. On a few previous occasions I have written about applying to GTA and the experience. If you're interested in my advice about GTA, here are some of my thoughts: Overcoming the Video Hurdle of Applying to GTA Advice for Applicants Why…

• Free Bike Tours for Teachers

  8 Feb 2012 | 12:21 pm

  Image Credit: Ian Britton Free Foto My lifelong friend Steve Thompson runs a company called Crate Works that builds travel cases for bicycles. This morning he sent me an email about a free travel opportunity for teachers. Experience Plus Bicycle Tours gives away bicycle tour packages to teachers every summer. The tours are in Europe, South America, and Central America. If you're a cycling enthusiast, teaching at least half-time in the United States you're eligible to apply. Applications are due by March 30, 2012. This post originally appeared on Free Technology for Teachers. Follow on…

• 

  Connection Agent

• Passion Matters

  Steve Woodruff

  7 Feb 2012 | 4:30 am

  When I think of Angela Maiers, I think of one word. Passion. She’s a passionate educator. A passionate blogger. And, this Tuesday night (Feb 7th) on LeadershipChat, Angela will be talking about a core passion of hers. #YouMatter. Simply put, YouMatter is Angela’s summary of a conviction deep in her DNA – that a sense of significance is central to our well-being and growth. Since it’s really not possible to replicate Angela’s passion in a second-hand blog post, I’d urge you to watch this video – or if you can’t afford the 20 minutes to watch,…

• Caribbean Connections

  Steve Woodruff

  6 Feb 2012 | 7:21 am

  Ever heard of Digicel? Yeah, me neither – until a few weeks ago. When my eyeballs were saturated with their branding. Upon landing in Haiti, I was surrounded, not only by a sea of people, but by an ocean of red Digicel signs. They are a company run by an Irish entrepreneur, who targeted Jamaica and other Caribbean islands (and has now expanded outward). You will look in vain to find much reference to AT&T, Verizon, and Sprint in Haiti. But you can hardly look anywhere without seeing Digicel branding. Day or night. Digicel painted on walls. Digicel T-shirts. Digicel sun-umbrellas…

• Out of my Comfort Zone: Haiti

  Steve Woodruff

  3 Feb 2012 | 3:47 am

  As many of you know, I recently went on a mission trip to Haiti (small team from my local church). My role was to help one of my long-time friends with a building project – topping off the walls of a partially-constructed church building and putting up a roof on it. The trip was an amazing privilege, and the whole adventure was WAY outside my comfort zone! Nonetheless, it was a fulfilling and eye-opening experience. I thought I’d share some of the pictures I took of the country, its people, and the project. Here is the photo set on Flickr. If you scroll through, you’ll see…

• Are You Getting Ahead?

  Steve Woodruff

  30 Jan 2012 | 5:14 pm

  This week on LeadershipChat (on Twitter, 8 pm ET Tuesday nights), we welcome Joel Garfinkle, author of the recent book Getting Ahead: three steps to take your career to the next level (Amazon link). This book introduces Joel’s PVI-model of advancing your career; (1) Actively promote yourself as an asset and valuable person inside the organization (perception), (2) Increase your visibility to gain others’ recognition and appreciation for your efforts and (3) Become a person of influence who makes key decisions inside the organization. Our focus during Tuesday’s chat will be on…

• Search My World with Google – so what?

  Steve Woodruff

  13 Jan 2012 | 4:39 am

  So, Google has now introduced a new feature in search, whereby you not only search the public web, but can view results from your Google+ network. Good on ‘em. I hope they keep experimenting, keep evolving. Some stuff Google has tried has failed; other approaches have taken off. Google’s DNA has this feature: no status quo. Push forward. This new feature  will stick if it provides long-term value. If not, they can just turn it off (and you do have a show/hide switch to toggle if you wish). People may be tempted to moan that Google is monkeying with their main “search”…

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  The Name Inspector

• Achieve life goals and odd spellings beyond your wildest dreams!

  The Name Inspector

  30 Jan 2012 | 4:17 pm

  The Name Inspector was amused–and appalled–to read in the New York Times about a website called Noomii. It’s a directory to help you find a life coach or business coach, and yes, it’s supposed to evoke the phrase “new me”. From one point of view, the name is appropriate. New you, new spelling! But The Name Inspector would like to tell you about the other point of view. One of the main points of the NY Times article is that the coaching field is booming, and a bunch of newish university programs are cranking out coaches who are a bit…unseasoned. Like,…

• Microstyle in Korean!

  The Name Inspector

  21 Nov 2011 | 10:42 am

  The Name Inspector received a mysterious package of books today from Norton, publisher of his book Microstyle: The Art of Writing Little. The paperback version already? No, too early for that. Inside he was delighted to find four copies of the Korean translation of Microstyle, with the distinctive exclamation point graphic on the cover replaced by a leaping rabbit! The rabbit also makes several appearances inside the book, which has a lovely interior design. The section headings, for example, appear inside little thought bubbles coming out of the bunny’s brain. The text is printed in…

• Seattle Interactive Conference!

  The Name Inspector

  6 Oct 2011 | 11:56 am

  Come meet this cute, colorful little owl at the very first Seattle Interactive Conference next month! Actually, The Name Inspector isn’t sure the owl will be there. But the conference is sure to be colorful anyway. Seattle Interactive is about the sweet spot where “technology, creativity, and emergent trends” intersect. That means entrepreneurs will be chatting with UX designers, and advertising creatives will be rubbing shoulders with crack Ruby coders. Interactive indeed! You’ve heard of SXSW? Well, this is like a nascent NXNW, but with no homicidal crop duster.

• The name Kindle Fire: Hot or not?

  The Name Inspector

  29 Sep 2011 | 2:41 pm

  At first glance, Kindle Fire seems like a pretty good name. It uses a thematically coherent naming strategy, similar to the one that Apple used when it named the Macintosh, presumably inspired by the apple variety McIntosh. What’s more, the word fire, like the word apple, is simple and familiar, and has lots of metaphorical significance and emotional oomph. But the name Kindle Fire doesn’t work the way the name Apple Macintosh did. The name Macintosh applied part of the taxonomy of apples, in a witty analogy, to the world of Apple products: just as a McIntosh is a type of apple, a…

• Six letters, but at what price?

  The Name Inspector

  26 Sep 2011 | 4:09 pm

  The Name Inspector was going to write a post about Qwikster, the terrible new name that Netflix has given to the movie-by-mail arm of its business. But really, what is there to say that Fritinancy hasn’t already said? So The Name Inspector has turned to a lesser-known tacky misspelled name, Egnyte, which belongs to a Silicon Alley “Cloud File Server” startup. This is a name with a very clear rationale: based on the word ignite, easy to pronounce, short (it meets the persistent six-letters-max expectation for domain names), and available or acquirable as a .com domain…

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  Visual Business Intelligence

• Should Data Visualizations Be Beautiful?

  Stephen Few

  1 Feb 2012 | 1:55 pm

  Data visualizations can be designed to look beautiful, if you possess the required visual design skills. The question is, “Should data visualizations be beautiful?” For years a battle has raged between infographic designers who emphasize the importance of aesthetics and data visualizers with a more practical bent who focus on the degree and quality of understanding that results. Those in the aesthetics camp argue that if an infographic is not eye-catching, no one will look at it, and that compromises in the quality of communication are justified as a means to capture the…

• Boris, speak only of what you know

  Stephen Few

  31 Jan 2012 | 10:49 am

  Boris Evelson of Forrester Research has been singing off-key about data visualization recently and he doesn’t seem to realize that he’s tone deaf on this topic. Have you ever noticed that when people become recognized as experts in a particular field, they sometimes think this magically grants them expertise in other fields as well? Expertise requires study and years of practice, practice, practice. I’m particularly sensitive to this tendency when BI generalists give opinions about data visualization without taking time to understand it. This bothers me because people put…

• Alberto Cairo and Functional Art

  Stephen Few

  24 Jan 2012 | 4:29 pm

  When I participated as a judge and speaker at last year’s Malofiej conference in Spain—the Oscars of journalistic infographics—I had a chance to become acquainted with Alberto Cairo, who has since become a trusted friend and colleague. I discovered while at the conference that it was a result of Alberto’s suggestion that I was invited to attend. Alberto is one of the few infographic designers that I know who has a mature understanding of the work. Beginning as a journalist in Spain, Alberto approached the work first as a communicator, and second as a graphic designer. He has…

• Data Visualization and the Placebo Effect

  Stephen Few

  9 Jan 2012 | 2:16 pm

  I was listening to “Science Friday” on NPR last week and heard about the work of Ted Kaptchuk, Director of Harvard University’s Program in Placebo Studies and the Therapeutic Encounter. I was particularly interested in one of his studies that investigated placebo effects on asthma. This study tested physical effects of real medication vs. placebos as well as patients’ perceptions of the effects. Over the course of 12 sessions, subjects were given the following three different treatments and a non-treatment session three times each: 1) an albuterol inhaler, 2) a placebo…

• Dieter Rams’ Ten Principles for Good Design

  Stephen Few

  15 Dec 2011 | 4:54 pm

  On Monday of this week I travelled from Berkeley across the Bay Bridge into San Francisco to have dinner with a friend who was staying at a hotel next to the Museum of Modern Art, so I decided to go a little early and enjoy the current exhibits. I’m glad I did, because the work of industrial designer Dieter Rams is currently on exhibit, along with his extraordinary principles for good design. For several decades Rams designed products for Braun and Vitsoe, and has been a leading inspiration behind Apple’s approach to product design. The simple beauty of products such as the iPhone…

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  800 CEO Read

• Sharpen Your Heels

  Sally

  8 Feb 2012 | 1:38 pm

  Tweet Mrs. Moneypenny, long-time Financial Times columnist, concludes her book, Sharpen Your Heels: Mrs. Moneypenny’s Career Advice for Women, with this: One more piece of careers advice. A final word to all the ambitious women who will read this book. When you get to the top — and if you follow my advice, you will do so — remember to turn round and reach back to help the generation of women behind you. As Madeleine Albright once said, ‘There is a special place in hell for women who don’t help other women.’ At the risk of ‘giving away the…

• Paper Promises

  dylan

  7 Feb 2012 | 2:43 pm

  TweetOur economic lives could literally stop on a dime. All it would take is an agreement redefining what a dime is, or is worth, backed by or tied to. It’s happened before, and The Economist‘s “Buttonwood” columnist Philip Coggan believes it will inevitably happen again as the great international play of creditors and debtors enters its next act. Coggan, in his new book Paper Promises: Debt, Money, and the New World Order (released today by PublicAffairs), identifies turning points in the history of economies, nations and international affairs by examining the…

• Business Book Awards Lab

  Jon

  7 Feb 2012 | 9:13 am

  Tweet “Reading leads to more reading. It leaves you hungry and leads you to the ideas, information and inspiration to try something new. As the book of the year, Great By Choice begins: “We cannot predict the future. But we can create it.” – In the Books, 2011 800-CEO-READ has spent the past 28 years helping lead people to ideas that can change the way they think about business. Join us on February 14, 2012 at a very special Translator Lab as we facilitate a conversation about each of the winning books from the 2011 Business Book Awards. You’ll hear lessons and insights from the…

• The Start-Up of You

  Jon

  2 Feb 2012 | 9:36 am

  TweetIt used to be that there were entrepreneurs, and then the rest of us who were happy to help others achieve their goals and somehow find our own in the process. That’s changed. Many people are pursuing their own business ideas, and catching up on ideas and knowledge to help them run that business. For those that work for others, they too sense that stability is not what it used to be, and might be mentally preparing for the next step – whether they decide to take it, or it’s decided for them. Here’s a book that can help people on either side of the fence. Reid…

• Have a Nice Conflict

  Sally

  1 Feb 2012 | 1:03 pm

  Tweet In a serendipitous turn of events, a copy of Have a Nice Conflict landed on my desk the same day that I happened to watch a current episode of Sesame Street with my son that features Mother Goose and her struggle to write a new rhyme because she had run out of conflicts to inspire her. As with all Sesame Street skits, there is a lesson to be learned. Conflict happens, and while the drama of a good conflict can be sensational (or rhyme-spirational), it’s important to learn how to work through them to maintain good relationships between friends. It struck me that day that while we…

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  Small Business Marketing Blog from Duct Tape Marketing

• How to Use a WordPress Blog as a Referral Generator

  John Jantsch

  9 Feb 2012 | 5:19 am

  How to Use a WordPress Blog as a Referral GeneratorThis content from: Duct Tape Marketing I’ve seen and heard this scenario countless times. Two perfectly suited strategic partners determine they should start doing some things together in an effort to create referral opportunities for each other. They shake hands and agree that it’s a fabulous idea, but then nothing happens. Mostly nothing happens because there’s no catalyst to get the ball rolling in a way that makes sense. I mean, sure, they could both send out a mass mailing to their clients professing how great the other is, but…

• Turn Your Business Into a Community Building Platform

  John Jantsch

  8 Feb 2012 | 5:36 am

  Turn Your Business Into a Community Building PlatformThis content from: Duct Tape Marketing I believe the future of business and commitment building resides in the idea of viewing your business as a platform for your community. The notion of a platform is one that receives a fair amount of play in various contexts. An author is said to possess a platform when they have built a following. Consultants might work with a business owner to build a platform through speaking, writing, blogging and connecting in social media. And finally, many tech firms have built platforms by creating open source…

• Is Your Marketing Producing the Results You Expected

  John Jantsch

  7 Feb 2012 | 5:58 am

  Is Your Marketing Producing the Results You ExpectedThis content from: Duct Tape Marketing Quipol Image:One-Fat-Man via Flickr CC The poll question above is a bit loaded and, not that I want to skew the results, the answer for most lies in the fact that they don’t really know what results they expected or what result they are actually getting. Mostly they know the results aren’t what they had hoped for, but that’s another issue. Setting expectations One of the simplest, yet most effective, things you can do is set expectations or goals for your marketing. You can create…

• This Is a Message from Your Heart

  John Jantsch

  6 Feb 2012 | 5:51 am

  This Is a Message from Your HeartThis content from: Duct Tape Marketing I had a heart scan the other day – mainly because I’m old and my spouse is convincing in the most loving way. a4gpa via Flickr CCIf you’ve never done it, it’s a pretty incredible experience to get to watch the awesome mechanical miracle that is you heart spray blood in and out through a series of valves, tubes, chambers, levers and doors that any engineer would be challenged to recreate. More often than not the heart is the subject of poems and songs about romance and love but in addition to being a physical…

• Weekend Favs February Four

  John Jantsch

  4 Feb 2012 | 5:32 am

  Weekend Favs February FourThis content from: Duct Tape Marketing My weekend blog post routine includes posting links to a handful of tools or great content I ran across during the week. I don’t go into depth about the finds, but encourage you check them out if they sound interesting. The photo in the post is a favorite for the week from Flickr or from my own travels. First run of the day Telluride Good stuff I found this week: Quipol – Easily create and embed social polls that are very easy to use and very good looking Transcribe – free online tool that makes it much easier…

• 

  Daniel Pink

• Help Kathryn come up with a job title

  Dan Pink

  7 Feb 2012 | 4:41 am

  Kathryn, a reader in Canada, wrote to me last week asking for some advice. Since history has shown that your advice is always way better than mine, I’m posing her challenge to you, Dear Readers. She writes: “I’d just finished your book, Drive, when I was approached out of the blue about taking on a new and exciting job working with a cutting edge athletic performance and rehabilitation centre. “The role entails strategic thinking, visioning, marketing, promoting, branding, building a sense of community within the training facility and ‘managing’ a team of…

• Free management consulting — only on today’s Office Hours!

  Dan Pink

  6 Feb 2012 | 4:04 am

  If you have any interest in picking the brain of one of the top management thinkers of our times — and thereby cadge thousands of bucks in free consulting — tune in to Office Hours today at 2pm, EST. Our guest will be Gary Hamel. He’s the originator (with CK Prahalad) of the idea of core competencies, a visiting professor at the London Business School, the most reprinted writer in the history of the Harvard Business Review, founder of the Management Innovation eXchange, and pioneer in the quest for “moonshots for management.” He’s also the author of What…

• Emotionally intelligent signage and Louis C.K.

  Dan Pink

  30 Jan 2012 | 6:51 am

  Comedian Louis C.K. garnered a lot of press — and made a ton of money — last month when he disintermediated the major television networks and released his latest special as a $5 download on his web site. Less well known is that the funny man (if you haven’t seen this bit, you need to) used emotionally intelligent signage to discourage fans from ripping off his intellectual property and distributing it for free. It seems to have worked. (HT: The great Kevin Kelly, who pointed this out to me.)

• State of the Union address as an eye exam chart

  Dan Pink

  25 Jan 2012 | 7:48 am

  Can a Presidential speech ever be a work of art? Not usually. But R. Luke Dubois is doing his best. As part of the “Mulitplicity” exhibit now showing at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, which I had a chance to see last weekend, Dubois reconfigured all the State of the Union addresses in an interesting way. In a series of prints called “Hindsight is always 20/20,” he’s taken the words of each speech, noted their frequency, and rendered them as a Snellen eye exam chart – with a President’s most-used words in large type near the top and his less-used words in…

• 5 great guests on our new season of Office Hours

  Dan Pink

  24 Jan 2012 | 5:08 am

  Good news, folks. Office Hours is back for a new season! The madness begins this Friday, January 27, at 11am, EST, when our guest will be Susan Cain, author of the hot new book, Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking. (That’s her on the right.) For those of you who’ve missed the biggest cultural phenomenon since Cop Rock, Office Hours is our radio-ish program, now available around the world on iTunes, in which I and a special guest open up the phone lines for an hour to take your questions about work, life, business, education, and anything…

• 

  Rajesh Setty » Blog

• Being grateful…

  thinksulting@gmail.com (Rajesh Setty)

  7 Feb 2012 | 11:08 pm

  Being grateful is not optional. Most people behave differently though – because they are taking things for granted. Here is a thought experiment: Can you list all the things that you are grateful for in the next minute? How many items did you get on that list? What if you expanded the available time. Would it make a difference? How big of a difference would it make on the list? If the list of things (and people, of course) is not very large, there are many things that may be happening: -  You are arrogant (yes, it might sound harsh but - You don’t give enough credit where it is…

• Foresight Plus

  thinksulting@gmail.com (Rajesh Setty)

  2 Feb 2012 | 1:38 pm

  Foresight Plus We bring new ideas to life and new life to current ideas read more

• THINKBook

  thinksulting@gmail.com (Rajesh Setty)

  2 Feb 2012 | 1:36 pm

  ThinkBook: A notebook that makes you think! read more

• Who is an Entrepreneur?

  thinksulting@gmail.com (Rajesh Setty)

  1 Feb 2012 | 7:07 am

  It’s hard to “box” an entrepreneur as there are so many different kinds of them. However, there are several characteristics that will make it easy to spot one. I have picked 11 really interesting quotes about an entrepreneur. Here they are (in no particular order) #1 Dan Sullivan of Strategic Coach “An entrepreneur is someone who does not expect compensation until he has created value for someone else.” #2 Jean-Baptist Say, French Economist “Entrepreneur is someone who takes resources from a lower level of productivity and raise them to a higher level.” #3…

• The Relentless Manifesto

  thinksulting@gmail.com (Rajesh Setty)

  21 Jan 2012 | 9:04 pm

  To be relentless is to keep going. The dictionary definition for relentless is “unyieldingly severe.” When you are relentless, you know that stop signs are temporary. The Relentless Manifesto is an invitation to get something done this year. Here is the manifesto for your consideration: The Relentless Manifesto 1. Pick themes that you will be passionate about even after ten years If your themes belong to the “fashion-de-jour” category, there is a good possibility that you may not be able to sustain your interest when the marketplace perceptions for those themes change…

• 

  Remarkablogger

• How to Script and Record Audio for a Screencast

  Michael Martine

  2 Feb 2012 | 1:05 pm

  Image from BigStock Photo. This is the 3rd part in a series on Screencasting. Check out the previous post in the series: How to plan a Screencast or start at the beginning: How to Create Professional-Quality Screencasts. Scripting for Screencasts Nobody wants to sound like an idiot when they make a recording. You want to sound like you know what you’re doing. It’s really easy to make mistakes and commit all manner of presentational sins when you try to make a screencast with no script. What do I mean by scripting? Do I mean you actually write a script? Everything you’re…

• WTF is Smart YouTube Plugin?

  Michael Martine

  1 Feb 2012 | 1:43 pm

  In this latest “WTF” video (I’ll try to do one of these at least once a week) I’m showing you a nifty WordPress plugin that anyone who puts YouTube videos on their blog will want to have: Smart YouTube Plugin. (Can’t see the video? Click here.) Why is thing so cool? Well, from my viewpoint it’s amazing, because it gives me everything I want in video embedding: fast & lazy and with very specific settings and features. Here’s the thing: WordPress lets you just throw a YouTube URL into a post (right in the Visual tab, no pasting of <iframe>…

• How to Install WordPress Plugins

  Michael Martine

  30 Jan 2012 | 11:42 am

  This video will show you how to install WordPress plugins into your self-hosted WordPress site. There are two ways to do this: search and install from within WordPress itself, or find a plugin out on the web and download it. I’ll show you how to do both in this video. This may seem simple and you may even already know how to do it, but do you also know what to look for in a plugin? What are the signs of a good plugin? You may pick up some good tips from this video. But I don’t stop there. You’ll learn how to manage plugins, too: Activate & deactivate plugins Delete…

• What WordPress Plugins I Use and Why

  Michael Martine

  27 Jan 2012 | 10:47 am

  Plugins are, in my opinion, the big reason why WordPress has become the juggernaut success story of content management systems. Plugins let you extend and enhance the functionality of your self-hosted WordPress-powered website. Anything from a simple contact form to full blown e-commerce functionality can be added to your WordPress site with plugins. But because there are so many plugins, the question of which ones to use comes up for every WordPress site owner. There are often many plugins all trying to do the same thing. Some plugins cost money while most are free. The choice can be…

• How to Plan a Screencast

  Michael Martine

  26 Jan 2012 | 3:45 am

  If you want to have a professional-quality successful screencast video, you do not simply hit the record button on your screencasting software and go. Unless, of course, you want to look like a total idiot. But if you want to look like a confident pro, a bit of planning is in order. Planning a screencast is easy when you simply ask the right questions, which I’ve conveniently listed for you below. Don’t say I never did nothin’ for ya. Questions to Ask Before Before Creating a Screencast So You Don’t Look Like a Total Idiot What specific task or series of tasks do you…

• 

  The Content Marketing Revolution

• What Can a Super Bowl Ad Buy You in Content Marketing?

  Joe Pulizzi

  6 Feb 2012 | 7:14 am

  So, another Super Bowl gone.  For those who advertised during the Super Bowl, the average cost of a Super Bowl ad this year was $3.5 million to promote their brand in front of 111 million viewers. For those counting, that’s $116,000 per second. Back in 2008 I looked at how much content marketing you could buy for the price of a Super Bowl ad.  Four years ago, the price for a 30-second-spot was $2.7 million (folks, in this market, the economy is working just fine).  That bought you A LOT of content.  Today, you can buy even more.  Here are a few examples. 47 Issues of Your Own…

• Lethal Generosity: The Key To Your Online Content Strategy

  Joe Pulizzi

  2 Feb 2012 | 6:16 pm

  The concept of Lethal Generosity was first coined by social media pioneer Shel Israel in 2008. Simply put: Lethal Generosity is the concept that the most generous members of any social media company are the most credible and influential and as such, they can devastate their competition in the marketplace. In short, the company whose representative posts the most tips, links, advice, case studies, best practices that followers find useful will always [rise] to the top, not just in influence but also in search results.  The more outbound links you post, the more inbound links you are likely…

• 47 Essential Social Media Tools for Content Marketers

  Joe Pulizzi

  1 Feb 2012 | 9:29 am

  It’s hard to believe the sheer number of social media tools we use everyday to help grow the Content Marketing Institute and SocialTract, as well as my own personal brand.  Since there are so many, I decided to update this post from almost three years ago.  It’s amazing the number of social media and content marketing tools that I continue to use, as well as the many that died over the years from lack of use. Which ones am I missing that you cannot live without? [disclaimer: many of the tools below are CMI partner tools] The Basics LinkedIn - Start the practice of connecting…

• McDonald’s Social Media Goes Wrong? Not a Chance

  Joe Pulizzi

  26 Jan 2012 | 4:49 pm

  You’d have to be living in a cave not to be aware of the now historic McDonald’s Twitter campaign launched a few days ago. If you’ve been out of it for a while, here’s the CliffsNotes version: McDonald’s promoted a Tweet using the Twitter hashtag #McDStories that went like this: ‘When u make something w/pride, people can taste it,’ – McD potato supplier #McDStories http://t.co/HaPM5G9F‘ (source). The link is a video  of McDonald’s potato supplier Frank Martinez and includes a heartwarming story about his life as a potato farmer.

• Tablet Content Marketing: Crazy Stats and Time to Move

  Joe Pulizzi

  25 Jan 2012 | 4:14 am

  If you are not up on the latest statistics on the tablet, here are some to chew on: Apple reported first quarter earnings, selling over 15 million iPads during the quarter.  This is a 111% increase from the previous quarter. In just under two years, Apple has now sold over 55 million units. According to Pew Internet’s latest findings, the share of Americans who own a tablet computer nearly doubled from December 2011 to January 2012.  The number of Americans now owning at least one tablet device is now at 29%. Tablet: The Curl-Up Device Historically in marketing, we have talked about…

• 

  Flooring The Consumer

• Thoughtfulness in the Retail Experience: Zipcar, Nufloors Coquitlam

  6 Feb 2012 | 7:34 am

  Whenever I come across signs of thoughtfulness in the retail experience, I appreciate it. In this article, I share with you examples from Zipcar [thank you, Gary Petersen!] and Nufloors Coquitlam in British Columbia [thank you, Cynthia Dean!]. You may read the article by clicking on the link: What Goes Into a Thoughtful Retail Experience? Let me know what examples you've come across in your retail travels that have caught your attention. Let me know, too, how you demonstrate thoughtfulness in your business? Thanks for reading! Best, C.B.

• Does 'Green' Feel Good? 5 Tips

  30 Jan 2012 | 8:00 am

  Do you celebrate 'green' or are you skeptical? Here are 5 tips for ensuring that green feels good to you and your customers: Sustainability and Flooring Marketing: 'Green Should Feel Good' Thanks for reading! Best, C.B.

• Retail Experience in the News: Link for Updates!

  27 Jan 2012 | 1:07 pm

  If you are looking for my weekly updates on Retail Experience in the News, you will find them on the Simple Marketing Now website. More specifically, click on Retail Experience in the News on Flooring The Consumer. Any questions or observations, please let me know. Thanks for reading! Best, C.B.

• Uniqlo's Retail Experience Offers 2 Business Marketing Ideas

  17 Jan 2012 | 6:26 am

  I love coming across new retail experience examples, particularly when they offer ideas for reconsidering the tried and true... This latest blog article is inspired by Uniqlo which recently opened two stores in NYC, in addition to its SoHo store: on 5th Avenue and on 34th Street. To read the article, click on... Two Small Business Marketing Ideas From Uniqlo Comments welcome! Thanks for reading. Best, C.B.

• How to Use eMail to Not Generate Retail Business!

  9 Jan 2012 | 9:48 am

  Here is my latest post inspired by the onslaught of email messages I received from retailers over the holidays. Were you in the same boat? What did you think of the experience? Check out How Not To Get More Business: 7 eMail Retail Experience Horrors! and let me know what you think... and what you would add to the list! Thanks for reading. Best, C.B.

• 

  MarketingProfs Daily Fix Blog

• Has Pinterest Broken a Golden Rule?

  Paul Fabretti

  9 Feb 2012 | 11:26 am

  Why are we so concerned about a report by LL Social that popular online pinboard Pinterest is making money off our interactions when Facebook has been doing it for years—but with our much more personal information? Is it because more people understand affiliate marketing—and have experienced the spammy nature of its content? Or is it that most people just don’t understand how Facebook makes money from them? The interesting or perhaps biggest risk I see Pinterest facing is in the relationships it will now have (or perhaps, not have) with brands. The launch of Google + brand…

• The Biggest Challenge for Marketers: Engagement

  Steve Olenski

  9 Feb 2012 | 11:17 am

  A recent McKinsey Quarterly study revealed that having the ability to engage their customers and leverage those relationships is the No. 1 digitally related challenge facing marketers today. The survey, which was conducted over a two-week period, queried nearly 800 marketing executives representing a wide range of industries from business-to-business marketing and business-to-consumer marketing. The results of the survey were quite fascinating insomuch as over 50% of the respondents indicated that engaging their customers and gleaning deep insights from those engagements is their most…

• How to Find ROI in the Multichannel Marketing Haystack

  Guest Blogger

  9 Feb 2012 | 6:51 am

  A guest post by Irv Shapiro of Ifbyphone. Admit it: Sometimes, you get knots in your stomach when you think about trying to attach measurable outcomes to all of your company’s multichannel marketing campaigns. The (sort of) good news is that you’re not alone. Even veteran marketers are having a tough time finding ROI in the ever-expanding haystack that is today’s multichannel marketing environment. But the unsettling news is that easy, online tracking tools and a shaky economy have created a C-suite expectation that every dollar spent must be connected to a quantifiable and measurable…

• How Social Media Is Changing the Agency/Client Relationship

  Matthew Grant

  8 Feb 2012 | 10:03 am

  This week on the Marketing Smarts Podcast, we discuss the evolving relationship between agencies and clients in the era of social media. Our guest is Glenn Engler, CEO of Digital Influence Group, a full-service digital agency with “social media at the core” of everything they do. The jumping-off point for our interview was that “social at the core” position. I wanted to know what that meant, and Glenn explained that, in a nutshell, it doesn’t make sense for an agency to offer “social” as a capability to its clients (as in, “We can also do…

• 5 Super Bowl XVLI Ads That Could Have Been Improved with a Mobile Call-to-Action

  Jeff Hasen

  8 Feb 2012 | 6:49 am

  Marketers buy into the Super Bowl telecast because it is the one time of the year when consumers are actually tuning in to commercials instead of muting the volume or fast-forwarding on their DVR. Here’s an old school recipe for success: One part new product or service offering upgrade A tear-inducing script (Tears can be a result of hilarity or a message that pulls at the heartstrings.) One teaspoon of a timely message (Think Valentine’s Day and/or tax season.) A cute animal or hot celebrity A tease in the media What’s missing in this day of 24/7 social, mobile consumers? Mobile calls…

• 

  CK's Blog

• New Mobile-Marketing Article: Mobile As 'First Screen' For Customers

  CK (Christina Kerley)

  4 Feb 2012 | 1:27 pm

  Big thanks to the BMA (the Business Marketing Association) for running an article with me in their "BMA Buzz" Newsletter. The piece, titled "Mobile Set To Be 'First Screen' For Customers" explores three facets of B2B mobile marketing, namely: (#1) Why it's important for B2B marketers to begin focusing on mobile-marketing opportunities, (#2) Why B2Bs in particular have been slower to move into mobile than their B2C counterparts, and (#3) What should be the top priorities for B2Bs in setting their mobile strategies. The article is located here and in case you…

• Mobile Marketing 101: Unique Experiences For Unique Environments

  CK (Christina Kerley)

  13 Jan 2012 | 10:52 am

  While mobile-marketing tools and strategies will differ amongst different companies; like any strategy worth its salt, there's no one-size-fits-all solution. There is, however, one action that all companies—yes, every single company—must take. We must optimize our content for the mobile environment. Why? Because the mobile environment is unique, our audiences' needs are unique when they're mobile, and the mobile environment has a unique set of best practices, opportunities and constraints. I feature an example above of my own sites (desktop and mobile), which I'm…

• Video Interview: Mobile Marketing At The PPAI Expo

  CK (Christina Kerley)

  4 Jan 2012 | 7:39 pm

  While leading two mobile marketing sessions at the 2012 PPAI Expo in Las Vegas on January 2nd and January 3rd, I did a quick 2-minute video interview on mobile and its tremendous impact upon the promotional products industry... you might find some mobile gems in here to leverage in your own marketing. And for all videos, just go here and for my mobile marketing guide go here • B2B Social Media • B2B Mobile • About CK • CK's Web Site • Services • Contact CK •

• CK On Mobile: Collection Of Video Clips All In One Place

  CK (Christina Kerley)

  24 Dec 2011 | 10:06 am

  Just click around the below image to launch several videos (you'll see several hotspots when you roll your mouse over several parts of the graphic ). Videos are a collection of clips covering many facets, implications and best practices on mobile. Best of all, you don't have to leave the image to enjoy the video content. I created this dynamic graphic through ThingLinkwhich was both fun and easyand I can see many uses of it going forward. In this anytime-anywhere, always-connected world, I like how several images within one graphic can also be connected and become veritable channels…

• Mobile Marketing Video Clip: Key Imperatives to Close 2011... And Begin 2012!

  CK (Christina Kerley)

  21 Dec 2011 | 6:35 am

  In a recent class lecture on mobile marketing, I hit on several key changes and imperatives and I wanted to share some of the snippets with you through the below 3-minute video. In the clip I hit on anytime-anywhere media and how it changes our behavior, mobile's explosive ascendancy to the most-used media of all time, the real revolution on how mobile drives permanent shifts across our expectations and thresholds, the unique "bridge" that mobile provides between all marketing efforts... and how "better, faster, easier," is the mobile mantra for succees (be your…

• 

  Servant of Chaos

• Five Must-Read Posts from Last Week

  Gavin Heaton

  6 Feb 2012 | 6:09 pm

  Sometimes the week takes off without us holding tightly. So that makes it already Tuesday where I live – and I’m yet to catch up with my long list of Monday to-do items. And I am sure I am not alone, right? I hope that these five great posts from last week help you catch up with your busy life! I’ve often thought that blogs (and all the other social media sites, content and interactions that we produce) – when taken collectively – say more about our lives and reputations than we’d like to admit. Jen Stumbles calls this out explaining just how recruitment is changing right beneath…

• Presentation Trends 2011

  Gavin Heaton

  5 Feb 2012 | 9:19 pm

  Take a look back at your presentations from last January/February. Think about how you might do them differently. What would it be – more images? Longer? Shorter? More words? Less video? Personally, my file sizes seem to be getting larger – with higher resolution photos and images blowing out the sizing. I’m using PPTX files – and about 80% of my slides have pictures. This deck on trends from popular web presentation sharing site, Slideshare, provides the details on just what has changed in the last 12 months. Take a look. How do you compare? SlideShare Zeitgeist 2011 View more…

• How Average Is An Average Day on Facebook?

  Gavin Heaton

  2 Feb 2012 | 8:29 pm

  With all the hoopla about Facebook’s IPO, I thought it would be interesting to dig a little below the surface. Brian Solis points out that with 845 million monthly active users and 100 billion friend connections as at December 31, 2011, we’re looking at a valuation of about $5.90 per active user and about 5c per friend. So, for the average Dunbar bound individual, it values your network at around $7.50 (there’s a premium calculation there on your individual active user value). But what does “average” look like in the Facebook world? This infographic from JESS3 provides a nice…

• Who is your Most Valuable Follower?

  Gavin Heaton

  2 Feb 2012 | 7:31 pm

  Here is a nice web app for Twitter built by Alexander Taub and Michael Schonfeld. It’s very simple and straight forward, asking “who’s your MVF” – most valuable follower. You login via Twitter and authorise the app to dig around in your follower list, and after a few moments it tells you which of your followers has the largest following. OK, so it’s not necessarily your most valuable, but your most popular – even still, it’s an interesting question to ask of any audience. Mine is @ONECampaign. Who is yours? Find out here.

• Social Media Week and The Social Enterprise Hub at SAP

  Gavin Heaton

  1 Feb 2012 | 5:18 pm

  Social branding, online communities, social business and product integration are big and popular topics at the moment. Every day you will see blog posts, articles, whitepapers, videos and conferences devoted to these topics – yet there is a vast gap between those who can “talk” about social media and those who “do” social media within a business context. During the week February 13-17, 2012, Social Media Week seeks to remedy this with a focus on the business impact of social media. For those near San Francisco, you will be able to attend the “content hubs” hosted by Cisco…

• 

  Escape From Cubicle Nation

• Taking People With You: Interview with CEO and author David Novak

  Pamela

  9 Feb 2012 | 9:36 am

  In a departure from my normal entrepreneur interviews, in this podcast, I talk with Yum Brands CEO David Novak who talks about how to create a great culture for your startup. Although he is the head of a huge corporation, he talks about core building blocks that apply to any stage of business. His book Taking People With You: The Only Way to Make Big Things Happen  breaks down the critical things you need to keep in mind to build a great business culture with happy employees, customers and shareholders. In our interview we discuss: How to choose the right people to grow your business How to…

• Tracking your right life: Interview with Martha Beck

  Pamela

  6 Feb 2012 | 12:00 pm

  Those of you who have been following my work for awhile know that I have been heavily influenced by my coach mentor Dr. Martha Beck. Her book Finding Your Own North Star changed the course of my life when I read it nearly a decade ago, and eventually led to my Escape from Cubicle Nation work. Martha is a Harvard-trained sociologist and bestselling author. She is Oprah’s life coach in residence, and writes a monthly column for O Magazine. In this interview, I talk with Martha about her brand new book Finding Your Way in a Wild New World. Building on the research she started at Harvard…

• Are you massively wrong about the size of your market?

  Pamela

  2 Feb 2012 | 4:05 pm

  I walked in my son’s Cub Scout meeting late last night, and ran into the wife of our den leader. She is a wonderful person; an engaged mother, passionate volunteer and airline pilot. “I am so sorry for being late,” I said. “I was teaching a class.” “No problem at all, where were you teaching?” she said. “On the phone,” I said. She looked puzzled. “You were teaching on the phone? How does that work?” “I teach marketing to coaches who are in the Martha Beck coaching program. They dial in from all over the world, and I…

• A concrete example of how to get yourself to “do the work”

  Pamela

  1 Feb 2012 | 8:51 am

  Golden Gloves contender Amanda Wang and Pamela Slim. Photo by proud cousin Abe Cajudo. They say the best way to learn something and reinforce positive behavior is to teach it. So here, 5 minutes after gaining insight while on a walk to Starbucks, is my advice to help you “do the work” (said channeling Steven Pressfield). To watch directly on YouTube, go here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3zVWDH2QflA What I neglected to say in the video is that exercising even a little bit makes everything feel better! <Enjoy getting back to your regularly scheduled programming. I have a…

• How to build a powerful and profitable mailing list

  Pamela

  17 Jan 2012 | 12:27 pm

  If you have studied small business marketing, you may have heard the frequent cheer “The money is in The List!” And indeed, creating a strong email marketing list is a powerful foundation for any business, online or offline. In this video, I give you a few things to think about as you are establishing your mailing list, as well as a cardinal sin to avoid. To view this directly on YouTube, go here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g4xEkc0qEbg More marketing tips coming! At the end of this month, I am going to be opening a new section of Power Boost Marketing for enrollment. Power…

• 

  ChangeThis Newsletter

• 90.01

  changethis@gmail.com (ChangeThis)

  25 Jan 2012 | 1:55 pm

  GROW: How to Change the Narrative of Business by Jim Stengel “The business case for brand ideals is not altruism. It’s self-interest and mutual interest. In addition to its wider positive impact, a devotion to brand ideals will do more for your own business and career than any other factor. Maximum business growth and high ideals are not incompatible. They’re inseparable.”

• 90.02

  changethis@gmail.com (ChangeThis)

  25 Jan 2012 | 1:54 pm

  Transcendent Leadership: How to Lead Anyone, Anywhere, Anytime by Les McKeown “What if each successive leadership role brought out more of what makes you you, rather than asking you to compromise your core values, bury your deepest wishes, hold ransom your dreams? Having coached and advised hundreds of leaders, I know this isn’t a pipe dream.”

• 90.03

  changethis@gmail.com (ChangeThis)

  25 Jan 2012 | 1:53 pm

  Shift & Reset by Brian Reich “There are lots of excuses for not making real, demonstrable changes in the way we live, work, and how we interact as individuals and engage in groups/communities. I have heard them all. I have used many of them myself. But they are bullshit. All excuses are.”

• 90.04

  changethis@gmail.com (ChangeThis)

  25 Jan 2012 | 1:51 pm

  It Really is As Simple As ABC: What Leaders Can Learn from Masterful Orators of the Past by Matt Eventoff “Millions of meetings and presentations occur daily. Each of these presentations is meant to drive 'someone' to do 'something.' And what do the vast majority of [them] have in common? Unfortunately, they usually fail to get anyone to do anything.”

• 90.05

  changethis@gmail.com (ChangeThis)

  25 Jan 2012 | 1:49 pm

  Make Social Media Sell—Now by Jeff Molander “The 'social media revolution' is over-hyped nonsense. The real business opportunity is to become more relevant and meaningful to customers in ways that create sales.”

• 

  Connie Bensen

• You’re Invited to Celebrate Community Manager Appreciation Day with us! #CMAD

  conniebensen@gmail.com (Connie Bensen)

  18 Jan 2012 | 8:57 pm

  When I say that it’s the third annual Community Manager Appreciation Day … they look at me like Really? REALLY?!!! Yes, really! And the question is, who started that? My answer, Jeremiah Owyang did. (with a straight face). And I believe that we should have a day! It’s not a Hallmark recognized day yet, but organizations should appreciate these committed people who tirelessly work to make things better externally and internally. It’s not easy job! So, I pondered what could I do for everyone? Last week I was in a meeting listening to Susan Beebe brief us on the Google+ Hangout that Dell…

• Community Manager Training Course

  conniebensen@gmail.com (Connie Bensen)

  22 Dec 2011 | 10:26 pm

  It’s been exciting to see the evolution of the Community Manager role and how it is becoming mainstream across organizations ranging from start-ups to the Fortune 50 and with no matter as to profit or non-profit. People have been avidly interested in pursuing this type of role and want to know how they can gain the necessary skills. Back in June of 2008 I offered 2 training programs to meet that need. It went great until I got sucked into the tech startup world and social media monitoring. Since then I have continued to mentor and scale the reach here through my blog. Periodically people…

• Put Some Bling in Your Blog for Improved SEO

  conniebensen@gmail.com (Connie Bensen)

  16 Sep 2011 | 5:44 pm

  Whenever I get a request to speak, I’m always humbled and honored by the invitation. But when I found out that the audience was crafters, I was thrilled because this is the very group that I was part of when I started on the path to my present career. I thoroughly enjoyed creating a niche community at DigiScrapInfo.com for digital scrapbookers to assist them in organizing their supplies & photos. For three years I translated digital marketing techniques for this very passionate group of entrepreneurs that are also busy moms and grandmas. Jess from BlogHer had requested a class on…

• Next Stop – Community Strategist Role @Dell

  conniebensen@gmail.com (Connie Bensen)

  26 Aug 2011 | 6:48 pm

  Last week I tweeted this photo of my car being loaded on a truck destined for my next social engagement. On Monday, August 29th, I will start the next chapter in my career. I will be joining forces with Bill Johnston and the global community team at Dell in a new role as Sr. Manager, Community Strategy and Execution. Needless to say, I am very excited to be joining a team and company that is committed to becoming a social business. In looking back, this appears to be a natural next step. Long ago (around 2008) I had a conversation with Sean McDonald and we pondered how to evolve the benefits…

• 7 Tips to Improve Measuring Your Social Media Marketing Efforts

  conniebensen@gmail.com (Connie Bensen)

  3 Jul 2011 | 4:41 pm

  Marketing Sherpa recently published an article on improving Facebook measurement tactics. Adam Sutton included a number of quotes in which I was speaking in a general context beyond Facebook. Here are the tactics and how I see them being applied to social media marketing in general across all channels: Need to start with concrete goals & tactics Before you decide on metrics, it’s imperative that you decide on the objective. In creating the strategy, then it will be necessary to outline the goals and tactics required to achieve them. The goals will be tied to business objectives and…

• 

  Dawud Miracle @ dmiracle.com

• The Single, Most Important Question You Can Answer About Your Business

  Dawud Miracle

  28 Jan 2012 | 7:20 am

  Why? Really, that’s it. Why? It’s the most important question to ask yourself about your business. It’s also the most important question to answer. Why? Simple – you have to know the reasons…the motivations…the rationelle for everything you do. Nothing you do, say, create, experience, generate, design, produce, promote, develop or decide upon should go without you asking, “why! So…why are you in business? Why do you market to the people you do? Why is your business not as successful as you want? And…the next most important question……

• Why You Want Your Business To Forever Be Unfinished

  Dawud Miracle

  17 Jan 2012 | 5:38 am

  I want to share a business secret with you. It’s a secret that you may know already – a least mentally. Yet it’s a secret that often separates highly successful businesses from the less successful ones. Are you ready? Okay… No matter how well developed your business is; no matter how many years you’ve been doing it, how many customers you’ve served, how much money you’re making – your business will forever be a work in progress. I heard this years ago from a colleague and fluffed it off with the usual, “yeah, of course!” But I was…

• How Do You Measure Success…and Why You Should

  Dawud Miracle

  7 Jan 2012 | 9:38 pm

  How do you define success in your business? It’s a question I ask every client – and most of the prospects I ever speak with. The interesting thing for me is how often the people I speak with don’t have a specific answer. Sure, we can come up with just about anything on the fly. Yet it’s not difficult to tell the difference between established, well-thought-through business goals and those that we sort of find when we need to talk about such things. Having a way to measure the success of your business, however, is one of the most vital parts of running a business. It…

• Small Business Owner: Do You Know When To Ask For Help?

  Dawud Miracle

  19 Dec 2011 | 1:10 pm

  I’ve always been a do-it-yourselfer. I’ve taught myself a great many things by taking this attitude. When I bought my first house, I completely gutted it – down to the timbers in most rooms. In other places, we removed and moved walls. For instance, I created a large, walk-in closet in our huge bedroom where there was once a little coat room. When it came to moving plumbing, rerouting and adding electrical, drywall, replacing subfloor, moving my toilets and bathtub drains – I basically did it all. And in most cases, I took to each project never having done it before.

• Why You Need To Invest In Your Business

  Dawud Miracle

  12 Nov 2011 | 9:22 am

  Are you investing in your business? I’m not just talking about time. Of course you’re investing time, right? If you’re not, then you’re likely not very successful. But what about money? Are you investing money into your business? Over the past decade, I’ve worked with hundreds of small and medium-size business owners. Some have been startups with funding while others have had large marketing and PR budgets. But I’m not talking about those businesses. I’m talking about small business owners. I’m talking about corporate trainers, business and…

• 

  Holy Kaw!

• Do aliens go invisible by 'going green'?

  9 Feb 2012 | 11:24 am

  As we discover more and more planets around other stars, the Fermi Paradox is becoming, well, more paradoxical. The Fermi Paradox simply asks the question "where are they?" Our Milky Way galaxy is so big and so old -- and we are estimated to be accompanied by at least 100 billion planets -- that aliens should have visited us by now. Instead, when we peruse the heavens, we are faced with the Great Silence, which is one of the biggest challenges to modern astronomy. Full story at Discovery News. More news from Discovery Communications. Permalink | Leave a comment  »

• Mysterious sounds reported around the world

  9 Feb 2012 | 11:23 am

  People around the world have reported hearing strange sounds from the skies over the past month. Sometimes they describe it as a hum or low rumble; other times it’s a whine, thump, or even a melody. Often the sounds have been recorded and posted online, fueling rumors and conspiracy theories. One blogger wrote, "either the world is ending, aliens are landing or everyone is getting hoaxed. Or, possibly, there’s an actual scientific explanation for the mass amount of YouTube videos capturing bizarre sounds that are being heard around the globe. Are we witnessing the beginning of a…

• Costa Concordia: an ecological time bomb

  9 Feb 2012 | 11:21 am

  As workers begin to extract the half-million gallons of fuel in the shipwrecked cruise liner, locals are worried that their pristine waters are in danger. Reporting by Rossella Lorenzi. Written and produced by Rossella Lorenzi and Martin Berman. Full story at Discovery News. More news from Discovery Communications. Permalink | Leave a comment  »

• Inside Syria's capitol: nervously normal

  9 Feb 2012 | 11:18 am

  As the violence in Syria continues to escalate, Syrian citizens are arming themselves to resist their oppressive regime. For days, Homs, the third-largest city in Syria, has endured shelling, tanks and attacks by heavy weaponry. Syrian protestors react with more violence against forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad, resulting in all-out war zones in some residential neighborhoods. Full story at Discovery News. More news from Discovery Communications. Permalink | Leave a comment  »

• How to battle negativity

  9 Feb 2012 | 11:17 am

  How often have you gotten together with a group from work who can’t say enough great things about the boss and all your wonderful colleagues? When was the last time you hunkered down over a cup of coffee with a friend and discussed how great your day was? If you can’t remember, you’re not alone, since, as Jeff Haden at Inc. explains, the research shows we humans appear to be wired for negativity. Sound like a challenge? If you’re ready to buck the trend, Haden also offers a number of tips for swimming against the tide. - One trick is to take on a difficult task,…

• 

  SmartBrief on Social Media

• Understanding the role of micro-copy in a brand's content strategy

  9 Feb 2012 | 9:28 am

  When it comes to planning your brand's content strategy, pay special attention to the micro-copy -- wording on a website's in -More- 

• Pinterest is found to be secretly cashing in on user links

  9 Feb 2012 | 9:28 am

  Pinterest is quietly adding affiliate tracking codes to the links shared by its users, allowing the social network to generat -More- 

• Foursquare is getting more rewarding, CEO says

  9 Feb 2012 | 9:28 am

  Foursquare is more than just a check-in service, says co-founder and CEO Dennis Crowley.  -More- 

• Facebook's IPO? There goes the neighborhood

  9 Feb 2012 | 9:28 am

  Facebook's planned public offering is good news for Silicon Valley Realtors, who say they're expecting a surge in house sales -More- Executive Vice President Media Works Ltd.

• Facebook seeks to attract investors from social media startups

  9 Feb 2012 | 9:28 am

  Facebook is cozying up to social media startup investors with a program called fbStart.  -More- 

• 

  SmartBrief on Leadership

• Myanmar rebels dodge bullets, then shoot birdies

  9 Feb 2012 | 5:43 am

  After a hard day battling government troops, Myanmar's rebel fighters like to decompress by playing a round or two of golf.  -More- Executive Vice President Media Works Ltd.

• Do your workers know when it's OK to unplug?

  9 Feb 2012 | 5:43 am

  If you e-mail your workers at 4 a.m.  -More- 

• It's morning in Africa

  9 Feb 2012 | 5:43 am

  Africa's economy is looking up, writes Ndubuisi Ekekwe.  -More- 

• 3 lessons from the Komen crisis

  9 Feb 2012 | 5:43 am

  The reaction to the Komen Foundation's decision to defund Planned Parenthood, later reversed, shows the need for leaders to p -More- 

• Why leaders should be philosophers

  9 Feb 2012 | 5:43 am

  Business leaders should be philosophers, says John Petrucci.  -More- 

• 

  ASCD SmartBrief

• What your rules say about you

  9 Feb 2012 | 8:45 am

  Are there student conduct rules posted in your classroom?  -More- PK-12 Jobs in Private/Independent Schools in the South Southern Teachers Agency

• ASCD has launched a petition asking the White House to focus national attention on children by creating a President's Council on the Whole Child. What, if anything, would be your primary reason for supporting such a council?

  9 Feb 2012 | 8:45 am

  To promote a new vision of the comprehensive education needed to prepare our youth for college, career and citizenship.  -More- 

• How do educators, parents feel about student testing?

  9 Feb 2012 | 8:45 am

  Interim and formative assessments are seen as more valuable than summative tests, according to a new survey of parents, educa -More- Narrowing the Achievement Gap “This volume replays an instructive history—pinpointing what hasn’t worked—and then carves a path forward to build schools that narrow disparities...a must-read for those dedicated to uniting our society.”—Bruce Fuller, UC Berkeley Look Inside the Book.

• 10 states are expected to receive NCLB waivers

  9 Feb 2012 | 8:45 am

  President Barack Obama is expected to grant 10 states waivers today from No Child Left Behind.  -More- 

• Teachers must be part of the reform process, says R.I. schools leader

  9 Feb 2012 | 8:45 am

  Rhode Island is undergoing a series of school reforms under the leadership of Deborah Gist, the state's Commissioner of Eleme -More- 

• 

  Social Media Explorer

• Boosting the Content Quality on Your Blog or Website

  Jason Falls

  9 Feb 2012 | 10:00 am

  Editor’s Note: This is a guest post written by Samantha Peters, an avid blogger who writes about social media, digital marketing, and online communications. When we talk about blogs and websites these days we often use phrases like “SEO,” “page rank,” and “web statistics.” We pay close attention to our click-throughs, our inbound links, and the way we incorporate advertisers. In short, we approach our sites from a marketing angle and take every opportunity we can to increase and maximize our exposure. Amidst all this positioning, many bloggers and site managers overlook the…

• In Social Media, The Fine Line Between Nimble And Fickle

  Ilana Rabinowitz

  9 Feb 2012 | 6:00 am

  A study by The Center For Marketing Research declared, “blogging declines as new media rules.” Based on results of a survey sent to the Inc 500, the article states, “there is clearly a shift in how these nimble companies are communicating.” If it is true that blogging is on the decline, then I’d say these companies are more fickle than nimble. Throwing over — or not starting a blog because it’s easier to use Facebook, Twitter or Pinterest is short-sighted and risky. A blog may be an “old” form of social media but it has five benefits that the newer platforms can’t touch.

• What Happened To Saying Something Nice?

  Jason Falls

  8 Feb 2012 | 6:00 am

  Social media has certainly given the power back to the consumer. But sometimes the consumer doesn’t do nice things with that power. While it could be a matter of perception (the overwhelming sentiment of most brands in online conversational analysis is positive), it certainly seems like the only time we take note of brand mentions online is when someone is whining or bitching about them. AT&T is one brand that gets unnecessarily beaten about its head and face a lot online. I’ve never quite understood this, perhaps because I’m A) Practical in nature and understand…

• Get Out of Your Own Way: 5 Excuses Marketers Use to Avoid Social Media ROI

  Nichole Kelly

  7 Feb 2012 | 6:00 am

  You see it everywhere. Management teams and marketers desperately want to understand how social media is delivering to the bottom line. Marketers are getting tons of pressure from their management teams and are desperate for a way to prove their strategies are working. With so many chomping at the bit to get at true return on investment (ROI), how has it remained so elusive? Has social media become the marketing channel that we know we need to have, but can’t demonstrate why? What if Social Media ROI was really simple, but we let a bunch of excuses get in our way of measuring it?

• Empowering Your Employees With Social Media

  Jason Falls

  6 Feb 2012 | 10:00 am

  Editor’s Note: This is a guest post by Emily Eldridge, Senior Vice President of Pure. It’s tempting to think that employees’ online discussions about your company should be curbed.  Most company policies in the modern workplace exist to protect us from lawsuits – and to ostensibly protect employees from themselves.  While it’s understandable to want control over our corporate image, this fear dimishes our employees’ ability to communicate.  A stronger approach is to empower our staff to be brand advocates. Advocate for Your Employees Companies should decide whether their…

• 

  Dan Zarrella

• [Infographic] How to Get More Clicks on Twitter

  Dan Zarrella

  24 Jan 2012 | 9:18 pm

  I’ve often said that the best use of Twitter is as a broadcast medium. You should be creating a ton of interesting content and sharing it with your followers. To that end I’ve done a bunch of research on how to optimize the clickthrough rate (CTR) of the links you’re tweeting. For the purposes of this data, I’ve calculated CTR as the number of clicks on a tweeted link divided by the number of followers the account had when it tweeted that link. Below is an infographic presenting some of my past findings as well as some entirely new data I’ve found about…

• [Infographic] What are the Best Times to Blog?

  Dan Zarrella

  22 Jan 2012 | 10:54 pm

  One of the most popular webinars I’ve ever worked on, The Science of Timing was also one of my favorite. If you haven’t seen it, go check out the on-demand recording now. In it, I present data I’ve collected over three years about the effect timing has on a variety of online marketing activities, including blogging. Below is an infographic that represents a collection of the three most important stats I have about when to publish blog posts. In the webinar, I also make the point that my results are based on huge aggregates of thousands, millions, or even in some cases,…

• [Infographic] The 2012 Republican Candidates by the Twitter Numbers

  Dan Zarrella

  17 Jan 2012 | 9:59 pm

  I’ve studied the relationship between Twitter success and politics before, and since this year is a big year in elections, I figured I’d do it again. This time I looked at how the 4 front-running republican presidential candidates are doing on Twitter. I analyzed the obvious numbers, followers, retweets and mentions, but I also looked at a few of my favorite, deeper metrics: retweets-per-follower, link-percentage and reply-percentage. I also looked at Twitter “penetration” in two upcoming primary states: South Carolina and Florida. Notice anything that surprises you in…

• [Infographic] How To Use Contra-Competitive Timing for More ReTweets, Likes, Comments and Clicks

  Dan Zarrella

  16 Jan 2012 | 11:44 pm

  One of the most interesting patterns I’ve found while studying social media and marketing data is what I call in my book “contra-competitive timing.” I’ve found in numerous cases that the most successful times and days to publish new content are off-peak times. It’s like when you’re at a noisy party and it’s hard to hear the person talking to you 2 feet away, but suddenly you say something awkward and the room quiets down. Now everyone can hear you. The same is true with the internet. When there is less other noise to compete with (ie fewer Tweets,…

• [New Data] What Percentage of your Tweets Should be Links or Replies

  Dan Zarrella

  10 Jan 2012 | 9:25 pm

  If you like myth busting social media data like this, be sure to buy my newest book, Zarrella’s Hierarchy of Contagiousness. One of the social media questions I’m most interested in is about whether Twitter is best suited for conversation or broadcasting. To many people’s surprise, I generally find myself on the broadcast side, and most of the data I’ve analyzed seems to back me up. Just yesterday, I started a little informal Twitter poll and found that respondents were pretty evenly split between broadcasting and conversation. This time, I looked at more than 100k…

• 

  The Social Customer Manifesto

• Good Attention vs. Bad Attention

  Christopher Carfi

  5 Feb 2012 | 2:44 pm

  The confluence of the Super Bowl and its focus on immense ad spend, coupled with speaking at last week’s NetPromoter conference triggered a thought. Are there two kinds of attention (let’s call them “Good Attention” and “Bad Attention”), in the same way that there are two kinds of profits? We know that there are two kinds of profits. Good profits are profits that fuel growth, and come from serving customers in such a way that they are willing to recommend your organization to others. Bad profits, conversely, are the types of profits where the customer feels…

• Social Engagement Journey Video

  Christopher Carfi

  15 Jan 2012 | 11:39 am

  Check out this fun little video on the Social Engagement Journey that our team in Seattle just put together.

• Social Business 2012 Presentation

  Christopher Carfi

  29 Nov 2011 | 2:08 pm

  I’ll be speaking about social business strategy at the ASAE Technology Conference and Expo CIO Summit next week in Washington, DC. There are three key components to the conversation. 1) The Social Engagement Journey The Journey is the recognizable progression of social engagement capabilities that a large enterprise goes through on its way to becoming a social businesses.   2) The Relationship Progression While the “purchase funnel” has been well understood for years, there is a comparative dearth of conversation around how business relationships progress over time. A…

• This Week’s Social Business Jam

  Christopher Carfi

  11 Nov 2011 | 10:48 am

  A number of luminaries participated on this week’s W3C Social Business Jam, including Doc Searls (pictured), Alex “Sandy” Pentland and the inventor of the web itself, Sir Tim Berners-Lee. A jam is “an online conversation among leaders in business, government and technology about the current state of social business, the future role that social technologies can play in improving the bottom line, and how social technology should evolve in order to support business objectives.” There were a number of deep conversations, which generated over 1,100 posts on the…

• Google+ Launches Brand Pages

  Christopher Carfi

  7 Nov 2011 | 3:58 am

  The big news today is that Google+ has finally announced their long-awaited brand pages with a blog post here. The top line, from Google: For businesses and brands, Google+ pages help you connect with the customers and fans who love you. Not only can they recommend you with a +1, or add you to a circle to listen long-term. They can actually spend time with your team, face-to-face-to-face. All you need to do is start sharing, and you'll soon find the super fans and loyal customers that want to say hello. A number of pages are already available (see below), but any organization…

• 

  Web Strategy by Jeremiah

• Google+ Has a Perception Problem

  jeremiah_owyang

  9 Feb 2012 | 5:36 am

  Remember that smart kid who sat in the front of the class, but was ignored by the cool kids? That’s a good metaphor for what Google+ is going through. I’ve heard from corporate social strategists I should be cautious about how much time and how frequently I discuss this nascent social newtork, and I spoke to media from a Tier 1 this week who said “does anyone even go there anymore? It seems like a wasteland”. Furthermore take this damning image which has been viewed 11k times suggests Google+ is filled with Google employees –and that’s about it. In fact, in our data on Super bowl…

• Altimeter Webinar Recording: State of Social Media Management Industry

  jeremiah_owyang

  8 Feb 2012 | 10:08 am

  This week, Altimeter (myself and Andrew Jones, researcher) hosted a webinar stemming from the the recent report on Social Media Proliferation, which you can download the full report on this blog post. In the embedded slides and video below, you’ll be able to get additional insights on how we perceive how this market will change in the coming years: We’ll see a vendor shakeout, although expect pure play vendors of each of the five uses cases to remain Consolidation will occur from market forces of email marketing, web analytics, CMS, marketing automation, brand monitoring, support…

• Hey Retailers! Refine That Mobile Marketing Strategy (Altimeter Report)

  jeremiah_owyang

  7 Feb 2012 | 10:01 am

  This latest Altimeter Report, by my colleague Industry Analyst Chris Silva, focuses on how companies must develop a mobile marketing strategy. It sources research from 26 ecosystem contributors including brands, agencies, and technology providers. To learn more about this report, please register for the webinar in which Chris will provide deeper knowledge from the report. This report is powerful in a few ways, it indicates the growth the in space, referencing that 45% of all mobile phone users are carrying a smart phone, and the growth rate for tablets is 23% annually. The report also…

• Five Trends: How Brands Integrated Social, Mobile, and Web into 2012 Super Bowl Advertisements

  jeremiah_owyang

  6 Feb 2012 | 8:39 am

  By Altimeter’s Jeremiah Owyang, Brian Solis, and Zak Kirchner Findings: Five Trends Indicate Cross Channel Integration a Mainstay. Super Bowl ads, while only representing the nation’s largest consumer facing ads are a bellwether for advertising trends for the remainder of the year. To best understand these trends, Altimeter Group’s research team analyzed each Ad in real time, and conducted analysis to best understand the advertising trends for 2012.  Using Chicago as a middle ground, we reviewed all ads from kickoff till the game clock expired and found that trends out of 87…

• P&G Layoffs Signal Focus on Digital Industry

  jeremiah_owyang

  4 Feb 2012 | 10:49 am

  Last week was a tremendous change, giant marketer P&G announces 1600 layoffs as they reduce jobs in various roles, and instead shifting budget to digital marketing. The CEO, when pressed, indicates a strong focus on digital marketing, citing: “In the digital space, with things like Facebook and Google and others, we find that return on investment of the advertising when properly designed, when the big idea is there, can be much more efficient” -Bob McDonald, Chairman-CEO, P&G Yet this is a trend, as P&G had previously cut advertising spend on soap operas on traditional TV,…

• 

  Common Craft - Common Craft - Our Product is Explanation

• New Video: Copyright and Creative Commons

  leelefever

  7 Feb 2012 | 10:04 am

  Today we’re announcing a new video: Copyright and Creative Commons - Explained by Common Craft.   Watch it now. One of the exciting things about having Common Craft members is working with them on ideas for future video titles. We provide them tools for suggesting and voting on future titles and this idea came directly from the members. Yaay! About the video: This video tells the story of a photographer who learns the basics of copyright law and creative commons licensing. Her story highlights the role each can play in helping creators protect and share their work.  It teaches:   •…

• This Week in Love: PEMCO Commercials

  leelefever

  3 Feb 2012 | 10:07 am

  This Week in Love is a series of blog posts where Sachi and I share what we love. Browse the archives and follow @weekinlove on Twitter.  This Week in Love: PEMCO Commercials It's not often that we're prepared to come out and say that we love a series of insurance commercials, but these are near and dear to our hearts. They're commercials for Seattle-based PEMCO Insurance (with DNA Seattle) and part of a campaign called "We're A Little Different. A Lot Like You." Why we love them: Wherever you're from, you know the things that make that region unique.  You know how people think and what…

• This Week in Love: Radiolab Podcast

  leelefever

  26 Jan 2012 | 11:09 am

  This Week in Love is a series of blog posts where Sachi and I share what we love. Browse the archives and follow @weekinlove on Twitter.  This Week in Love:  The Radiolab Podcast Over the last couple of years, podcasts have become a big part of our lives.  We work from home and end up sharing our listening habits, for better or for worse.  We've discovered a number of podcasts that we love.  We play them while working (especially doing creative work), cooking dinner, working out, etc. They've become among our most frequently used types of media and we listen through iTunes and Stitcher…

• 5 Trends Behind the Growing Shift to Video Explanations

  leelefever

  23 Jan 2012 | 11:24 am

  It’s easy to look back at Internet history and spot the points of major change. A famous example is the Web 2.0 era which spawned products like Twitter, Facebook and other lasting features of the Web. Some would say we're in the cloud era now, with nearly everything we do on computers being moved to off-site servers.  Within these big, tectonic shifts are smaller shifts that also make a difference.  YouTube was a big shift that kicked off online video in 2005 and in the years since, we’ve seen the growth of viral videos and myriad artistic expressions in video form. How did we survive…

• Guest Post: What Communicators Can Learn from a Highsticking Penalty

  leelefever

  16 Jan 2012 | 12:45 pm

  This is a guest post by friend of Common Craft, Darren Barefoot. He's a writermarketerCanadian and a big hockey fan. During a hockey game in March, 2010, Boston Bruins defenseman Zdeno Chara drove Montreal Canadians forward Max Pacioretty into the stanchion that separates the player's benches. Nearly a year later, it still looks like a brutal hit as Pacioretty 's head bounced off the corner of the boards. Chara received a five-minute penalty and ejected from the game. Pacioretty was sent to the hospital. The next day, Mike Murphy, the NHL's vice-president of hockey operations released a…

• 

   louisgray.com

• Dice.com: Louis Gray on Google and Job Hunting

  7 Feb 2012 | 10:53 am

  Last fall, shortly after I joined Google, Michelle Greenlee contacted me for a quick interview about the Google hiring experience, and what tech-savvy job seekers can do to leverage the influence of social media to influence hiring managers. The story was finally posted this morning.The biggest take-away is probably my last note in an answer to her final question: "The world is becoming social and the new world of business and hiring can find great candidates through how you present yourself online."See: Dice.com: Louis Gray on Google and Job Hunting/via My Google+ Profile.More:…

• 50 Things a +1 Can Mean

  7 Feb 2012 | 12:15 am

  A +1 is simple. It’s one of the easiest ways on the web to take an action that endorses the content and says you saw something. But it can mean many different things. That’s the beauty of +1. You can +1 things you like. You can +1 bad news. You can +1 things you love. You can +1 casual status updates or items that change the world.Often, we get asked what it means to +1. Here are some ideas. We’d love to see yours./via The Google+ Page (Which I maintain)1. A +1 can say you agree with the post.2. A +1 can say your photo is beautiful.3. A +1 can say your joke was funny.4. A +1 can mean…

• Two Numbers: 1 and 90 Million

  7 Feb 2012 | 12:10 am

  By now, you all have seen the dual bits of news today - first that Google+ has achieved 90 million users with at least one new feature every single day, over 1 million businesses and brand pages, and sign in of 60% daily, 80% weekly.Also, earlier today, Google was (for the 3rd time) named the best place to work by Fortune Magazine (see http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/best-companies/2012/snapshots/1.html). We're working on making Google+ the best place to be for you so you can be just as proud about these numbers and this news. To stay on top of all this great stuff,…

• Daria Musk Visits Google+ for Live Performance

  7 Feb 2012 | 12:08 am

  Last Monday, I had the great pleasure of meeting Daria Musk and interviewing her on stage, to learn more about her story and rise from relative obscurity to becoming a Google+ sensation. As I told the Google+ team, assembled in the private concert, in my introduction, Daria epitomizes the community here as well as anyone I know.She is fully invested in this platform, is tireless, upbeat, and to boot, is incredibly talented. I'd heard her sing in many a hangout, but to hear her sing live at Google was transformative. Nothing beats a live performance by an artist with passion, energy…

• 10 Great Ways to Get Discovered on Google+

  7 Feb 2012 | 12:04 am

  As social networks evolve, so to do your circles. Even in the few months since our launch, you’ve probably added a lot of people to your circles who you didn’t know before - people who share common interests, or came by recommendation of a trusted friend or expert. Some people have rocketed their way to high visibility, added to hundreds of thousands of circles, by virtue of their actions on Google+. So while I can’t promise you the big numbers, here are ten ways you can get found on Google+, and examples to boot.1. Embrace the Community While Doing Something Unique and Creative.Daria…

• 

  Speaking about Presenting: Presentation Tips from Olivia Mitchell

• Find a Presentation Designer Here

  Olivia Mitchell

  25 Jan 2012 | 12:22 pm

  Are you looking for a presentation designer? I’ve been asked so many times if I could recommend a presentation designer that I’ve decided to publish a list of PowerPoint and Keynote slide design companies and freelancers. I asked each presentation designer to talk about their approach to presentation design and to give me an example of a slide that represents their brand. I’ve used a very traditional method to order these presentation designers – it’s alphabetical based on the principal’s last name. You’ll see a tremendous variety in approaches…

• 6 Presentation Links Worth Clicking

  Olivia Mitchell

  14 Jan 2012 | 5:33 pm

  When I was in the States last year, I met up with Nancy Duarte… and she interviewed me. She’s now written up the interview on her blog. Find out more about my story and why I’m passionate about helping people be better presenters – and particularly helping people overcome the fear of public speaking. Here’s the link: Nancy Duarte interviews Olivia Mitchell. And here’s five more links to great writing on presentation skills: Even TED speakers get nervous TED is an elite conference where invited speakers give 18 minute talks on the ideas they’re…

• The sobering truth about what an audience remembers

  Olivia Mitchell

  27 Sep 2011 | 8:40 am

  Last week I spent three awesome days at the Presentation Summit. In this post, I want to explore what audience members remember from a presentation, using the first three keynotes of the conference as my examples. I asked as many people as I could what they remembered from each of these keynotes. This was an informal, non-random, non-scientific survey. Nigel Holmes Photo Credit: Rikk Flohr – www.rikkflohr.com Nigel Holmes is a phenomenal graphic artist who used to be Art Director for Time magazine. His presentation didn’t start well – there were a few technical hitches and it took him…

• The two types of presenter: which are you?

  Olivia Mitchell

  25 Aug 2011 | 3:03 pm

  This is a post written by Tony Burns, my partner and co-trainer. There are two types of people in the world – those who divide the world into two types of people, and those who don’t. I’m one of the former. I find models useful – they show distinctions that can help explain and predict behaviors – and they can help us see other opportunities and ways we can grow. One distinction that, as a presenter and presentation trainer, I’ve found useful, is to look at whether a person is “careful” or “carefree” when it comes to creating and delivering presentations. It’s a question…

• The 5-step cure for boring body language

  Olivia Mitchell

  16 Jun 2011 | 2:05 am

  Could your body language be more expressive? Do you inhibit your natural body language when you’re public speaking because of your self-consciousness? Or maybe you’ve been told (by a well-meaning but misguided person) that you wave your arms around too much? As a result you’ve shut down your natural gestures and become stiff and boring. The secret to curing boring body language in public speaking is to replicate the state you’re in when you’re in an animated one-on-one conversation. When you’re in that state your gestures unconsciously complement what…

• 

  The Engaging Brand

• Cat Stroking, Not Facebook Poking, Satisfies Needs For Real Interaction

  Anna Farmery

  9 Feb 2012 | 9:55 am

  Martin Lindstrom is one of my favourite authors as he combines brain science with marketing - you might have listened to Show 208 when I interviewed him about The Truth and Lies About How We Buy - great listen if you haven't! Anyway, with a new book out called Brandwashed Martin wanted to share with The Engaging Brand Podcast listeners an insight....so from Martin! "Forget poking on Facebook or IMing people, shaking a hand or putting an arm on someone else's shoulder is where social interaction really begins. In Japan, this need for touch has extended to a focus on pets, including cafes for…

• How Memories are Made and Unmade

  Anna Farmery

  8 Feb 2012 | 11:47 am

  It strikes me as odd that we see the future as unmade and the past as made, because in a sense I think it works the other way! I was coaching a leadership team today and when they started to talk about an acquisition, it was really interesting to compare how people perceived what had happened. This is so often true. We imagine that the past fixed and yet as we talk about the past we preserve it, but we also slightly evolve it based on our emotional investment. Memories are made, unmade..... Ironically, we also make the future with the decisions we take today. We decide our future by what we…

• How to Optimize Your Resume with Social Media

  Anna Farmery

  7 Feb 2012 | 9:35 am

  There are two things we know for certain about today’s economy. 1) Finding jobs is getting more and more difficult, for both college educated and non-college educated people. 2) Social media has made job hunting and job candidate hunting trickier. Social media brings a degree of transparency - for better or worse - to the application and interview process that wasn’t there before.In the old world, before the heavy use of LinkedIn and Facebook, employers relied on personal networks to find great candidates. Now, they combine that with these impressive social networks, not just for fact…

• Why Social Media Can Work For Your Brand

  Anna Farmery

  6 Feb 2012 | 7:01 am

  It is often said that art externalises and fixes beliefs. When we express our ideas in whatever format, we bring our ideas to life. Social media is an art form. It allows us to share experiences, expectations, fears and hopes in a format that personalises what you stand for.... The social part of this kind of media means that it can be shared. Just like art, the 'can be shared' can be transformed into 'will be shared' if it reflects real life, real problems, real facts or real opportunities which people can relate to... And just like art, there is nothing new to share...there is just your…

• Show 371 - Little Black Book of Innovation

  Anna Farmery

  3 Feb 2012 | 3:04 am

  I hope you enjoyed last weeks show on Steve Jobs and here is show 371 of The Engaging Brand business and marketing podcast talking about social media, leadership and marketing and sponsored today by MozyPro Online Backup: Simple, Automatic & Secure Backup - for special offer try today! Today Scott Anthony of Innosight joins Anna Farmery to discuss The Little Black Book of Innovation and we discuss The paradox of innovation - the optimism of the word and yet the stress it causes How to look at innovation The idea of "thunk' value How we all have to find our inner salesperson Is…

• 

  Presentation Zen

• Hans Rosling: The Jedi Master of data visualization

  Garr

  26 Jan 2012 | 11:31 pm

  Dr. Hans Rosling is one of my presentation heroes; he's been featured or mentioned in all my books and several times on presentationzen.com over the years. If there is a Jedi Master of presenting data clearly, visually, and simply, then it is Hans. He proves time and time again, that data are not dull—and when you are trying to change the world, there is no excuse for boring presentations. Most people are aware of Dr. Rosling through his popular TED Talks, but just in case you've never seen him present, below is a nice 5-minute piece he did on CNN's Fareed Zakaria GPS. At TED.com you'll…

• New: Presentation Zen (2nd Edition)

  Garr

  18 Jan 2012 | 10:36 pm

  Four years ago my first book Presentation Zen was published by Peachpit Press. Since then I wrote two other presentation books and a sketchbook/storyboard book and a DVD (plus an additional DVD/Book just for Japan). Although a lot of time had passed, I was still happy with the original Presentation Zen. And yet, the original Presentation Zen book could benefit from a little freshening up in the form of a 2nd edition for 2012. This 2nd edition of Presentation Zen has the same look and feel as the original book and I still did all the design and layout myself. The biggest difference is the book…

• 10 great books to help you think, create, & communicate better in 2012

  Garr

  10 Jan 2012 | 4:54 am

  In the spirit of personal kaizen, I have listed below a few books that I read (or reread) over the past year that you may want to read as part of your own continuous improvement journey. (Clicking on the book's icon takes you to Amazon.com.) (1) Your Brain at Work: Strategies for Overcoming Distraction, Regaining Focus, and Working Smarter All Day Long. Over the last 10-20 years scientists have made many remarkable discoveries concerning the brain and how it works. David Rock is not a neuroscientist but he is a good "neurotranslator" of the scientific evidence and does a good job of…

• Progress and the intentional selection of less

  Garr

  30 Dec 2011 | 5:26 pm

  Many people today talk about presentation technology as if it were a panacea for boring lectures and ineffective presentations. Technologies such as our laptops, iPads, and cool software packages are wonderful tools that can, when used well, increase the quality of communication and engagement. This is especially true when we need to engage with people live on the other side of the planet via tools like video conferencing, webinars, Skype, and so on. However, while technology has evolved in dramatic ways over the last generation, our deep human need for visceral connections, and personal…

• Steve Jobs: "People who know what they’re talking about don’t need PowerPoint"

  Garr

  20 Dec 2011 | 5:12 am

  One thing we need to constantly remind ourselves is that slides and other forms of projected visualization—no matter how "cool" they may be—are not appropriate for every context. Multimedia is great for presentations before large groups such as keynote addresses or conference presentations, but in meetings where you want to actively discuss issues or go over details in depth, slides—especially the snooze-inducing bulletpoint variety, which are never a good idea—are almost always counter productive. I stressed early on in the first version of Presentation Zen four years ago—and ad…

• 

  Duarte Blog

• Creative Like a Fox! Dan Roam and I Compare Notes on Creative Process

  Nancy Duarte

  3 Feb 2012 | 6:15 am

  Dan Roam schools me on creative process. His new book, BLAH BLAH BLAH, offers awesome tips on how to utilize visual and verbal concepts to refine ideas to their most pure state.

• Are You a Fox or a Hummingbird? Dan Roam Explains Your Brain

  Nancy Duarte

  2 Feb 2012 | 6:27 am

  Dan Roam uses an animalistic metaphor to explain how your brain processes information, and reveals how to help facilitate communication between our verbal and visual minds. That and more in his new book, BLAH BLAH BLAH.

• Grammar Ain’t Just for Words Anymore

  Nancy Duarte

  1 Feb 2012 | 8:58 am

  Dan Roam used the rules of verbal grammar to build a Visual Grammar Graph that bridges the gap between verbal and visual concepts. Vivid Grammar is featured in his new book, BLAH BLAH BLAH.

• Quit Talking and Start Thinking

  Nancy Duarte

  31 Jan 2012 | 4:03 pm

  Dan Roam explains why we talk too much, and how we can use our predilection for vision to become better problem solvers. “Vivid Thinking” is one of the many gems in his new book, BLAH BLAH BLAH. 

• Obama’s SOTU: What Is, and What Could Have Been

  Greta Stahl

  25 Jan 2012 | 3:46 pm

  Last night President Barack Obama delivered what could be considered the biggest presentation of the year. In outlining his vision for America and his legislative priorities for 2012, the President attempted to persuade a variety of different audiences – including the United States Congress, business leaders and 25 million members of the American public – that he has a plan to continue improving the lives of Americans. So how did he do? Leaving aside the merit of his proposals, did he tell a story compelling enough to convince such a broad audience? Graphic recording of the State of the…

• 

  Ethos3 - A Presentation Design Agency

• Presentation Lessons from Don Draper

  maggie

  9 Feb 2012 | 10:39 am

  “You are the product. You feeling something. That’s what sells. Not them. Not sex. They can’t do what we do and they hate us for it.” When you give a presentation, you’re offering something to your audience. Maybe it’s information, maybe it’s a proposal, maybe it’s a product. You and your message are the products and your audience is deciding whether they’re going to buy it or not. You are selling them on the content of your presentation, and as Don Draper aptly observes “feeling something” is what sells.  So make your audience feel something. Don’t bore them with…

• Using Flash Fiction in Presentations

  maggie

  8 Feb 2012 | 12:08 pm

  There are billions of ways to tell a story and millions of avenues with which to tell it. Storytelling has been around as long as humans have, and for good reason. Storytelling is the most effective way to get a point across. People live for stories. People are passionate about stories. Movies, books, television, magazines– nearly all media– is designed with a story in mind. The story is what hooks the audience; the story is what keeps them reading, listening, wanting more. Of course, as times change, so do stories and the ways we communicate those stories. Technology has revolutionized…

• How to Simplify Your Presentation

  maggie

  7 Feb 2012 | 3:03 pm

  You’re staring at a fistful of slides from your upcoming presentation for the hundredth time and it hits you like a ton of bricks: all of this is much too complicated. You suddenly realize that your presentation sounds like every day of high school Calculus when your teacher may as well have been lecturing in Latin. It doesn’t make sense because it’s too complicated. You start having a mild panic attack… Relax. It’s going to be okay. A few small adjustments can save your presentation. First, find the crux of your idea. What are you trying to prove? What point are you trying to…

• How to Boost Creativity

  maggie

  6 Feb 2012 | 9:00 am

  In a perfect world, the dreaded Monday after the Super Bowl would be a national holiday. We’d all get to sleep in and sleep off our beer and spinach artichoke dip hangover. Instead, most of us are dutifully sitting at our desks by 9 AM. No rest for the weary. On days like these, creativity is a vague, forgotten notion that most of us will wait to employ until the late afternoon, or maybe… tomorrow. So here are some tips on how to boost your creativity, whether that be on days where your mind is particularly hazy, or when you feel stuck, waiting for the metaphorical lightbulb to go…

• Dance vs. PowerPoint: A Modest Proposal

  maggie

  3 Feb 2012 | 8:45 am

  John Bohannon has a modest proposal. In his TEDxBrussels talk from November 2011, he asserts that “bad PowerPoint presentations are a serious threat to the global economy.” Touché, Mr. Bohannon. You’re speaking our language already. He claims bad PowerPoint presentations drain the global economy of $250 million per day and add up to an annual deficit of $1 billion a year. While we can’t speak to the truthiness of either of those claims, we can empathize with Bohannon. Bad presentations waste time and wasting time wastes money. Bad news all around. Bohannon’s modest proposal is to…

• 

  Idea Sandbox Brainstorming » SandBlog

• Brainstorming = Finding Better Options

  Paul

  5 Feb 2012 | 6:23 am

  Your spouse asks you to stop by the grocery store and pick up a nice, ripe tomato for this evening’s dinner. You make your way to the produce department, to the bin of tomatoes. To your disappointment, there’s only one tomato left. It is overripe, bruised, and fuzzy. You only have one bad item to choose from. Your other option is to depart tomato-less. Go home without a tomato, you’ve wrecked the salad. Go home with a rotten tomato, you’ve wrecked the salad. While this example is so simple, it is almost silly… This is what happens in business. We find ourselves…

• Achieve Goals + Resolutions With Bite-Sized Chunks

  Paul

  16 Jan 2012 | 1:23 pm

  Sand for Your Inbox January 2012 I hope your year is off to a great start! Have you ever tried to put together a jigsaw puzzle with 500 or 1,000 pieces? It takes a while… And, needs to be done in more than one sitting. One of the reasons we miss achieving our personal New Year’s resolutions or business strategies is that we try to accomplish too much at once. We approach the 1,000-piece goal as if it can be finished in one sitting. We get frustrated… The finish line seems a million miles away… And, we lose motivation. A better approach is to cut your goal into…

• On Resisting Change

  Paul

  9 Jan 2012 | 1:23 pm

  How To Deal With ChangeChanging versus Being ChangedHow ‘Riding Elephants’ Can Prompt Change: “Switch”Read “Switch” To Be A Champion Of ChangeDon’t Like The Way Things Are At Work?

• Todd Sattersten’s 11 Best Business Books of 2011

  Paul

  29 Dec 2011 | 8:30 am

  This article is a complete copy/paste from what Todd posted on his site on the 17th of December. Why am I stealing so blatantly? Todd “wrote the book” on great business books. No. Literally. He wrote “The 100 Best Business Books of All Time: What They Say, Why They Matter, and How They Can Help You” with Jack Covert in 2009. Todd always does a great job summarizing WHY a book should be read. He lets you know the value of the read. (This is a lesson for any of us who write book reviews on our sites). Enjoy! Todd’s words are next… 2011 brought us some…

• NORAD Tracking Santa – Live!

  Paul

  24 Dec 2011 | 2:28 pm

  It is very exciting to be able to track Santa’s progress around the globe. As of this writing, he is making his rounds in Italy! The NORAD website (noradsanta.org) allows you to watch Santa as he flies over different cities and also tracks how many presents delivered along the way. [click for larger view] NORAD – which stands for North American Aerospace Defense Command – is a military organization responsible for keeping watch of the skies and waterways of North America. Normally they use their equipment to watch for air attacks and missiles. On Christmas Eve, their…

• 

  Sticky Slides

• Pick your battles when pitching

  8 Feb 2012 | 7:30 pm

  Arguing until the bitter end about small facts, when the VC thinks she right because she has a reliable source (in her opinion) is not a good idea. You might be right, BUT you will not convince her, you will do no good to your credibility, and you raise doubts about how the future CEO-Board Member relationship is going to pan out. Better focus that energy in disagreements that are really worth arguing about. Pick your battles.

• Write notes after the meeting

  7 Feb 2012 | 7:30 pm

  If you are reviewing your presentation with your boss, here is a thought. Write down your notes immediately after the meeting. It makes for a better 2-way conversation as you are not scribbling all the time looking down on a piece of paper, and strangely it makes you remember things better. This article in Wired explains how your brain is refreshing the memory that is only slightly faded, that process makes future recollection stronger: Along these lines, Bjork also recommends taking notes just after class, rather than during — forcing yourself to recall a lecture’s information is more…

• Video summary in stills

  6 Feb 2012 | 7:30 pm

  Embedding video in presentations has its drawbacks. It adds another technical risk factor when setting up the presentation outside your office environment. File sizes become so big that it is hard to email a document. And a PDF version of the presentation does not show the video. As a solution, you can put in a video summary in your presentation consisting of a few key still images taken from the video. Our brain is powerful enough to make up most of what happens in between, and might even imagine the Star Wars sound track in the background when looking at last year’s Volkswagen Super Bowl…

• No need to show that monitor

  5 Feb 2012 | 7:30 pm

  In technical pitch presentations, you often have to show the application through screen shots. While a picture of the application inside a monitor frame might look nice, it is a poor way to get your audience to see the content of the screen. I would cut the monitor, cut the window bars above and below your application, and even zoom in to parts of the screen to highlight what is important. Cover everything that is not relevant (ads for example) with white boxes to keep things clean. Having said that, there might be 2 uses for the monitor shot. One for a very quick 5-second slide that enables…

• Not reality, not a cartoon

  2 Feb 2012 | 7:30 pm

  Have a look at these great images (on Fubiz) in the series “Enlightened Souls” by French photographer Fabrice Wittner. He uses images of people with a stencil-like effect and puts them on a background of a real photo. This effect might be very useful in presentation design. It is very hard to a series of images with a consistent look and feel on either stock photo sites, or Flickr. Moreover, I find that using images with real people not working very well in slides. It is too personal. This slight distortion of the characters might just solve these 2 problems in one go.

• 

  TEDTalks (video)

• TED: Jack Horner: Shape-shifting dinosaurs - Jack Horner (2011)

  TEDTalks

  9 Feb 2012 | 7:59 am

  Where are the baby dinosaurs? In a spellbinding talk from TEDxVancouver paleontologist Jack Horner describes how slicing open fossil skulls revealed a shocking secret about some of our most beloved dinosaurs.

• TED: Sheikha Al Mayassa: Globalizing the local, localizing the global - Sheikha Al Mayassa (2010)

  TEDTalks

  8 Feb 2012 | 8:28 am

  Sheikha Al Mayassa, a patron of artists, storytellers and filmmakers in Qatar, talks about how art and culture create a country's identity -- and allow every country to share its unique identity with the wider world. As she says: "We don't want to be all the same, but we do want to understand each other."

• TED: Stephen Coleman: The moral dangers of non-lethal weapons - Stephen Coleman (2011)

  TEDTalks

  7 Feb 2012 | 8:08 am

  Pepper spray and tasers are in increasing use by both police and military, and more exotic non-lethal weapons such as heat rays are in the works. At TEDxCanberra, ethicist Stephen Coleman explores the unexpected consequences of their introduction and asks some challenging questions.

• TED: Neil Burgess: How your brain tells you where you are - Neil Burgess (2011)

  TEDTalks

  6 Feb 2012 | 7:58 am

  How do you remember where you parked your car? How do you know if you're moving in the right direction? Neuroscientist Neil Burgess studies the neural mechanisms that map the space around us, and how they link to memory and imagination.

• TED: Mike deGruy: Hooked by an octopus - Mike deGruy (2010)

  TEDTalks

  4 Feb 2012 | 12:14 am

  Underwater filmmaker Mike deGruy has spent decades looking intimately at the ocean. A consummate storyteller, he takes the stage at Mission Blue to share his awe and excitement -- and his fears -- about the blue heart of our planet.

• 

  The Six Disciplines Blog

• The Cost of Bad Project Management - And How Six Disciplines Can Help

  7 Feb 2012 | 8:33 am

  In a recent Gallup Management Journal study, the resulting cost from bad project management is reaching astronomical levels. Why? Apparently, "when it comes to project management, most organizations put their practices before their people. They place more emphasis on rational factors -- the process itself -- and less on emotional drivers that could lead to project excellence -- like their employees' engagement with the project and company." Consider these statistics: A study by PricewaterhouseCoopers, which reviewed 10,640 projects from 200 companies in 30 countries and across various…

• Extending the Effectiveness of Microsoft Outlook - With Six Disciplines

  7 Feb 2012 | 7:57 am

  Do you (and everyone else in your organization) spend 80+% of your time in Microsoft Outlook?  We all know that Outlook gives us a great way to manage our email, calendar, contacts, tasks, and our daily to-do list.  But, what if Outlook could also help us (and our entire organization) with: Strategic planning Goal-setting Measures/metrics/KPIs Performance management Initiative and project management Time tracking Progress-meetings management   Process management Email/attachment storage Until now, you had to use several different programs and approaches to accomplish what you…

• Using SWOT Regularly Ensures Focus, Flexibility, Innovation

  7 Feb 2012 | 5:19 am

  Tough times require tough decisions. During times of economic uncertainty, strategy refinement and execution need to become a top priority for business leaders. SWOT Analyses are one of the top-rated core services offered by Six Disciplines.   SWOT is a strategic planning tool used to evaluate the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats involved in your business. The aim of any SWOT exercise is to identify the key internal and external factors that are important to achieving your strategy. SWOT analysis groups key pieces of information into two main categories: Internal…

• The ROI of Total Performance Excellence Programs

  6 Feb 2012 | 6:13 am

  Six Disciplines® is a total performance excellence program. By integrating a proven best-practices methodology and innovative Outlook software, we help you to build an effective culture of continuous improvement, enabling you to achieve predictable and measurable growth.  The desired end result is different for each of our clients, but it's usually centered around growth, higher productivity, improved profitability and greater overall goal accomplishment.   We're often asked by prospective clients about the ROI of the Six Disciplines program.  The best answer is to look at…

• The ROI of Performance Excellence Programs

  25 Jan 2012 | 8:06 am

  The ROI of performance excellence programs like Six Disciplines has been researched and proven many times over, by similar quality, performance, and business excellence programs like Baldrige, EFQM, and TQM.  The value of implementing a performance excellence program like Six Disciplines is hard to ignore:  A study by the European Foundation for Quality Management of 120 award-winning companies, including 24 from the U.S., compared their financial performance to that of similar companies that had not won awards. Five years after receiving their awards, these companies…

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  Dumb Little Man - Tips for Life

• 5 Myths Haunting Your Healthy Foods

  DLM Writers

  3 Feb 2012 | 8:03 am

  These days, eating healthy has become a curiously difficult task. Despite the fact that the canons of healthy eating have not changed in centuries, the proliferation of health food products has continued unabated for years. It’s become a crisis of abundance.However, just because a product occupies shelf space in a boutique food store doesn’t mean it’s any better for you than its generic counterpart. Advertisers are very aware of the powers of “mood affiliation”, which is the tendency to associate familiar claims with one another. For example, consumers are very likely to believe a…

• Four Steps To Rescue Stray New Year Resolutions

  DLM Writers

  2 Feb 2012 | 6:55 am

  Looks like it is that time of year when many New Year resolutions that people set have already strayed. Attempts to kick a smoking habit for example, might have seemed successful for a few weeks but once the realities and stresses of coming back from the holidays have resurfaced, some people may have caved into the nicotine again.Of course there is the usual health promises that get broken too. According to the fitness industry, a lot of gym memberships are sold from December to February but gym attendance significantly drops shortly afterwards when people realize that working out involves a…

• Finding the Courage to Stay the Course

  DLM Writers

  30 Jan 2012 | 10:06 am

  Anytime you decide on the pursuit of an important goal, you’ll be faced with a series of challenges. Peaks, valleys and plateaus are par for the the course. But the thing that separates the people who make it from the ones that don’t is the courage to stay the course.At the start of any new endeavor most of us look forward to every single day with a child like excitement. We see infinite possibilities and the future appears bright. It seems as though there is absolutely nothing that can get in our way. We feel almost invincible and the possibility of failure doesn’t even occur to us. We…

• How to Deal with Difficult People and Have Constructive Conflict

  DLM Writers

  28 Jan 2012 | 8:32 am

  Life and relationships aren't always perfect. Take a minute to think of some difficult people you have to deal with in your life? These may be people you work with, the in-laws that come to town throughout the year, or your neighbor who can’t seem to take a hint. For whatever reason, you're just not jiving with these people.Do you flee? Or, do you get flexible and learn to interact?When we encounter these extreme personalities it can feel like they are trying to make our life miserable, but more often than not, it’s simply learning about these peoples’ tendencies and how to interact in…

• 7 Habits of Highly Excellent People

  DLM Writers

  27 Jan 2012 | 2:16 am

  Are you driven in life? Do you love to excel? I believe all of us do. We are born to be the best we can be and to make the best out of our lives.When I was in high school, I wasn't exactly the kind of student teachers would like. I was truant, didn't do my homework and did badly on my examinations. I was lazy and unmotivated in school. However, after a while I realized that this wasn't who I wanted to be. This wasn't the life I saw myself leading. People around me were judging and negative, and I had enough of all of that crap. I had enough of being discriminated against and I decided to turn…

• 

  Productivity501

• Capsul8 – Preview for Productivity501 Readers

  Mark Shead

  30 Jan 2012 | 12:08 pm

  When you get a newspaper, you can cut out an article and come back and read the same thing later. It doesn’t change after you read it. The web isn’t like that. The article you read today, may not be around tomorrow or the version that is here tomorrow may be very different from what you have today.Capsul8 is a startup that solves this problem by giving you a simple way to take a snapshot of a web page and collect these snapshots into a “capsule” where each web page is a different “chapter” that you can easily navigate through and share.Some of the capsules…

• Google+

  Mark Shead

  19 Dec 2011 | 1:25 pm

  Productivity501 has a Google+ Page now. If you use G+, please consider adding it to one of your circles.You can follow us on Facebook for quotes, links, and contests.This article was useful when looking for:google (1)---Related Articles at Productivity501:Google App PlatformGoogle VoiceGoogle Voice Mobile AppGoogle PlusBreaking the Internet

• Effort vs. Ability

  Mark Shead

  19 Dec 2011 | 12:16 pm

  Scientists did an experiment with a bunch of children where they gave them several tests that got increasingly more difficult.  After the first two tests, they told the children that they had done very well. Group A was praised them for being smart and talented. Group B was praised for their hard work.Next they gave them a very difficult test–so difficult that many children didn’t get a single question right. They then told both groups that they hadn’t done as well on this test and asked them if they knew why. The students from group A said that it must be because they…

• Christmas Gift Ideas

  Mark Shead

  8 Dec 2011 | 11:23 am

  Christmas is coming soon so I thought I’d do a few posts with gift ideas based on things I’ve used this year and found to be exceptionally useful and or fun. Here is the first post and I’ll try to do a few more as I think of ideas and have time to write about them. If you have suggestions, please add them in the comments. You might be able to suggest the perfect gift that another reader hadn’t though of.Fingerless GlovesFingerless Gloves ~ $3.50 My office is in the walk-out basement of our home. It is typically 60 to 65 degrees in the winter, but when there is a…

• LifeRemix Announcements

  Mark Shead

  7 Dec 2011 | 9:51 am

  Productivity501 is a member of LifeRemix–a network of bloggers who are all focused on enriching people’s lives in one way or another. Everyone has been pretty busy writing books, starting podcasts, and creating courses. Here are four of those projects ranging from a free manifesto PDF to a paid course on living without clutter.The TowerChris Guillebeau from The Art of Non-Conformity has released a new manifesto called The Tower. You might be familiar with his previous Brief Guide To World Domination. The Tower is a beautiful PDF that is designed to be viewed on an iPad. (But in my…

• 

  zenhabits

• The Pause Upon Which All Else Relies

  Leo

  9 Feb 2012 | 7:56 am

  Post written by Leo Babauta. There is one little habit I’ve learned that has changed everything else in my life. The pause. When we fail, it’s because we act on urges without thinking, without realizing it. We have the urge to eat junk, and we do it. We have the urge to check email instead of writing a chapter of our book, and so we open our inbox. We have an urge to smoke, to drink, to do drugs, to chew our nails, to play a Facebook game, to procrastinate, to skip a workout, to eat more fries, to criticize, to act in jealousy or anger, to be rude … and we act on that urge.

• The Thousand Cuts Fitness Program

  Leo

  6 Feb 2012 | 9:43 am

  Post written by Leo Babauta. I’ve trained for marathons, triathlons, 10Ks, a 13.5-hour challenge, Ubanathlons, and more. But my favorite fitness program isn’t one where you train for a major event. It’s where you get fit by a thousand little actions. When the actions are tiny, they are easy. You have no excuse. You can do them anywhere, all day long. I fold fitness into my life, like blueberries into batter, and it becomes a part of the recipe, not just a topping. If you haven’t found a way to get fit, try the Thousand Cuts Fitness Program. There is nothing better for…

• The Two-Headed Beast of Successful Habit Change

  guest

  2 Feb 2012 | 8:20 am

  Editor’s Note: This is a guest post from Tyler Tervooren of Advanced Riskology. I used to have a lot of bad habits. I still do, but I used to have a lot more. Here’s just a small sampling: I woke up late and went to bed early. I procrastinated on my most important work. I neglected my relationships. I drank too much. I bit my fingernails. I slouched a lot. I picked my nose (no joke). I bought worthless things I didn’t need. I chewed with my mouth open. I dressed like a slob. I ate tons of junk food. I could go on, but none of that’s incredibly important. What’s…

• Create the Habit of Meditation, & the Zen Habits Premium Membership

  Leo

  31 Jan 2012 | 2:03 pm

  Post written by Leo Babauta. It’s something I should have created a long time ago: the Zen Habits Premium Membership, and a mini-course that’s included with it called Create the Habit of Meditation. The membership is a monthly subscription of $19.99, but really it’s a commitment to changing your life, and the tools needed to do that. If you’ve been looking to simplify, get healthy & fit, become more effective, do work you’re passionate about, eliminate debt, find contentment, declutter, create new habits … this new program is meant to show you how to…

• Creating Silence from Chaos

  Leo

  27 Jan 2012 | 2:20 pm

  Post written by Leo Babauta. We are often afraid of silence, because its emptiness feels idle, boring, unproductive, and scary. And so we fill our lives with chaos, noise, clutter. But silence can be lovely, and therapeutic, and powerful. It can be the remedy for our stress and the habits that crush us. If we want quiet in our lives, how do we create it? I’ve been exploring this myself. As a father of six kids, I have to admit that I don’t always have silence in my life. That’s not a complaint — I love the messy noise that my family brings — but silence can be a…

• 

  Mind Hacks

• goCognitive 2.0

  tomstafford

  4 Feb 2012 | 5:30 am

  We’ve reported before on the Univeristy of Idaho’s goCognitive project. It’s a enticing collection of videos and demonstrations, including many guest spots by the glitterati of cognitive neuroscience. The site has more free video content in cognitive neuroscience than before – and it is more easily accessible as well. Check it out

• Dressing psychologists as wizards in court

  tomstafford

  4 Feb 2012 | 1:53 am

  From overlawyered.com we hear that in 1995, New Mexico state senator Duncan Scott introduced a legislative ammendment providing that When a psychologist or psychiatrist testifies during a defendant’s competency hearing, the psychologist or psychiatrist shall wear a cone-shaped hat that is not less than two feet tall. The surface of the hat shall be imprinted with stars and lightning bolts. Additionally, a psychologist or psychiatrist shall be required to don a white beard that is not less than 18 inches in length, and shall punctuate crucial elements of his testimony by stabbing the air…

• A treasure hunt for the mysteries of mind and brain

  tomstafford

  21 Jan 2012 | 6:22 am

  I’ve published a couple of free ebooks recently: Explore your blind spot shows you how to reveal the gap we all have in our visual experience of the world, and discusses what it means about consciousness that this gap is kept hidden from us most of the time. Control Your Dreams, co-written with Cathryn Bardsley and illustrated beautifully by Harriet Cameron, tells you how to have lucid dreams, those dreams where you realise you are dreaming and can take control over reality. Both books are written as treasure hunts – travel guides, but for exploring inner space. When you start…

• The peak experiences of Abraham Maslow

  vaughanbell

  19 Jan 2012 | 4:48 pm

  The New Atlantis has an in-depth biographical article on psychologist Abraham Maslow – one of the founders of humanistic psychology and famous for his ‘hierarchy of needs’. Maslow is stereotypically associated with a kind of fluffy ‘love yourself’ psychology although the man himself was quite a skeptic of the mumbo jumbo that got associated with his work. The association is not so much because of Maslow’s focus on self-actualization, a goal where we use our psychological potential to its fullest, but because of his association with the ‘human…

• Gimme Shelter

  vaughanbell

  16 Jan 2012 | 5:44 pm

  The Rolling Stones launched their career in a social therapeutic club, designed to help troubled youth with communication skills. The club became legendary in rock ‘n roll history but its therapeutic roots have almost been forgotten. Eel Pie Island is a small patch on the River Thames famous for the underground club that earned a place in 60′s history for hosting the cream of jazz bands and rock n’ roll outfits. Less well known, is the story of how the club was created as a therapeutic environment to help troubled youth. Its place in music history has been recounted many…

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  PickTheBrain | Motivation and Self Improvement| PickTheBrain | Motivation and Self Improvement

• How to be Intentionally Happy

  Bobbi Emel

  8 Feb 2012 | 9:27 pm

  What makes you happy? Money? The newest iPhone? The good health of your family? A promotion at work? Some interesting work by University of California, Riverside researcher Sonja Lyubomirsky not only suggests where our happiness comes from, but shows how to get more of it. Pieces of the happiness pie Dr. Lyubomirsky proposes that there are three components to happiness: A genetically-based “happiness set point” Life circumstances Intentional activities and practices. She has broken these three areas into percentages regarding how much they are responsible for your happiness. Although the…

• How to Use Diet and Exercise to Naturally Treat Your Depression

  Katie BrindAmour

  7 Feb 2012 | 9:58 pm

  Let’s face it. Depression is daunting, but so are some of its treatments. SSRIs, MAOIs, TCAs, SNRIs, nerve or magnetic stimulation, seizure therapy, and even neurosurgery are available to battle depression. For the most part, drugs and intensive medical therapies are only necessary for severe or persistent cases of depression that cannot be resolved in talk therapy or by means of other alternate therapies. If you have recently been diagnosed with depression, if you suffer from a mild form of depression, or if you would like to consider reducing your dependency on depression medications,…

• 5 Self Help Books That Might Just Change Your Life

  Heidi Marks

  6 Feb 2012 | 10:56 pm

  Self-Help: the act of helping or improving yourself without relying on anyone else. Luckily for us, there is a large selection of self-help literature written by truly remarkable authors. These authors share personal experiences from their own successful careers or interview others who have unlocked secrets of happiness and achievement. Stopping by your local bookstore or Amazon for a self-help title can be a bit intimidating! So we’ve handpicked five great reads to jump start your journey to the richer life: The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success: A Practical Guide to the Fulfillment of…

• It’s Never Too Late To Learn Anything

  Clint Cora

  5 Feb 2012 | 9:47 pm

  I have a group of ladies who are beginner to intermediate level snow skiers that I teach each week for eight weeks during the winter. When we were sitting on the chairlift, we saw some of the little kids below who were fearlessly zipping down the slopes. These kids must have been anywhere from four to six years of age. Some of the ladies remarked how they wished they had started snow skiing at the same age of these little kids. They claimed that the kids seem to have no fear unlike them, struggling adults. When the kids fall on the snow, they just get up again and laugh it off. This is in…

• The Secret to Waking Up Early

  Amber Smith

  4 Feb 2012 | 1:26 am

  Having troubles waking up early in the morning? Always snoozing until the last minute? Often late to work? Well, then you should learn the secret of waking up early. It’s all about the motivation. It is always easier to make an effort when you are really motivated. So, if you want to become an early riser after years of being a night owl, all that you need is to find a good reason to get up early in the morning. Think of the things you always wanted to do but never had time for. Imagine you can find the time needed every day. Just be smart and use your mornings for that. Do something…

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  The M.A.P. Maker

• What's your multidimensional profit?

  Curt Rosengren

  2 Feb 2012 | 2:36 pm

  Ask most anyone why they work, and their answer is most likely to be some variation of "for the paycheck."  Money is clearly a huge motivation for those of us who forgot to hit the independently wealthy button on the way out of the womb, but when we see it as the only thing we get from our work, it can lead us down a slippery slope.   A comment from a client that "there's not a lot of profit in working with non-profits" got me thinking about how we evaluate what we get from our jobs. I countered that that might be true if you take a one-dimensional view of profit, but that the story might…

• Open the door to possibility: Challenge your first no

  Curt Rosengren

  13 Jan 2012 | 11:43 am

  For most people, saying no to possibilities seems to be an ingrained response. "No, that won't work. No, that's not realistic. No, I can't do something like that."  In the last 10+ years of helping people create careers that energize and inspire them, here's one thing I've learned about that initial no: It's often complete and utter bunk.  Frequently, when I challenge people to take a second look at their initial negative assumption, they discover that it wasn't accurate. Maybe they are making a flawed assumption. "I can't do that, because nobody would want to help" becomes, "Wow, I reached…

• Positive change: The BIG power of small

  Curt Rosengren

  10 Jan 2012 | 5:20 am

  As you embark on the new year, you might be tempted to use it as an occasion to make wholesale change in your life. My advice? Don't! Wholesale, grand scale change almost never works. You run at it fueled by an initial adrenaline rush, maybe feel that first blush of successful change, and then almost inevitably start to falter as old patterns start to take over again.  Instead of going for that wholesale, grand scale change, do something different. Tap into the BIG power of small. Twenty small steps in pursuit of a big change is exponentially more likely to bring the results you want than…

• New year's resolution success: Make it a 1-year project

  Curt Rosengren

  9 Jan 2012 | 5:10 am

  If you're like most people, your new year's resolutions are anything but a path to long-lasting positive change. You make a resolution, stick with it for a couple weeks before letting it lapse, and then beat up on yourself for not being able to stick with it.  Instead of setting yourself up to fail (and let's face it, that's what most people do with their resolutions) by expecting magical change in one fell swoop, take a different approach.  Rather than a flick-of-the-switch change, look at your resolution as a year-long project. Take action on it, but don't assume that your current…

• Employee retention keys: Passion and career planning

  Curt Rosengren

  15 Dec 2011 | 11:52 am

  Companies invest a lot in finding top talent. Unfortunately, they often don't seem to invest as much in keeping them once they're on board. A recent Forbes article offers up the top ten reasons why large companies fail to keep their best talent. The two that struck me most (or, more accurately, the two things that fit tongue-in-groove with my focus) were: #2: Failing to find a project for the talent that ignites their passion: "Top talent isn’t driven by money and power, but by the opportunity to be a part of something huge, that will change the world, and for which they are really…

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  The Rapid eLearning Blog

• Let Others Inspire Your Interactive E-Learning. Here’s How.

  tom

  7 Feb 2012 | 12:35 am

  Many people are stuck in the world of linear, click-and-read content. Sometimes it’s because that’s all the organization wants. And sometimes it’s because we’re not quite sure how to make something more interactive. It’s probably the subject I’m asked about the most. One of the most frequent questions I get. The cool thing is that regardless of the tools you use, you can still build interactive content. One of the best ways to learn to build better courses is to find some good examples, break them apart, and then try to build something similar. This way you get some hands-on…

• 5 Free Online Image Editors for Rapid E-Learning

  tom

  31 Jan 2012 | 12:58 am

  In a previous post, we looked at five free desktop image editors.  Here are a couple of additional free desktop applications shared by some blog readers. They both look very capable. PhotoPlus SE PhotoFiltre A challenge with free software is that sometimes your organization isn’t comfortable with you downloading and installing applications that aren’t approved. This is where the online graphics applications come in handy. Of course, you’ll need an internet connection and hope that your organization isn’t blocking its use. If you do a search, you’ll find that there are a lot of…

• How to Create a Learning Journal to Go with Your E-Learning Courses

  tom

  24 Jan 2012 | 12:49 am

  In an earlier post we looked at how to combine elearning with an on-the-job mentoring program. I received a lot of questions about the learning journal. So in today’s post we’ll look at the basic structure of the learning journal and how you could use something like it to complement your elearning courses. The Value of a Learning Journal Before we look at how to set up the learning journal, let’s review where it adds value: Connects elearning to real world activities. The learning journal is used as a bridge between the learning that happens in the elearning course and what happens in…

• 5 Free Desktop Image Editors for E-Learning

  tom

  17 Jan 2012 | 12:19 am

  I’m always asked what skills a rapid elearning designer should have.  One of the most important skills is basic image editing.  You don’t need to be a professional graphics designer.  However, you should be able to do some basic editing.  Because of this, an image editing application should be in your tool chest. Today we’ll look at five free desktop applications that you can use for basic image editing.  But before we explore the free tools, a good budget-friendly option is Photoshop Elements.  It’s relatively inexpensive and should be able to do what…

• Need to Combine E-Learning with Mentoring? Here’s a Simple Solution.

  tom

  10 Jan 2012 | 12:54 am

  Recently someone asked how to combine their mentoring program with elearning courses.  This is something I’ve worked on a few times over the years.  It usually involved a production environment where peer coaches were tasked with training new employees on the floor.  But the ideas in this post could work in any type of training program that includes some sort of mentoring or peer coaching. A Common Case A person’s hired to a new position and often assigned a peer coach who walks beside him until he’s up-to-speed.  Not only is this an effective way to teach new…

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  TerryStarbucker.com

• Leverage Your Business Pulse: The 5 Day Leadership Planner

  Starbucker

  5 Feb 2012 | 12:09 pm

  Every business has a natural “pulse” of activity that is designed to match the human rhythm of the calendar.  Savvy leaders know how to leverage this pulse to their best advantage by properly sequencing their analysis, interaction, thinking, discussing, deciding, and doing. For them, each day of the business week has an overarching theme, designed to maximize team effectiveness: Monday:  “Absorb & Process” The first day of the business week should not be spent in meetings (especially just after a weekend)  – it’s a time to absorb, and then process,…

• The 200 mph Tune Up: 4 Critical Decision Filters For The Startup Leader

  Starbucker

  29 Jan 2012 | 5:26 pm

  Over the past year here in Portland I’ve been talking to a lot of startup leaders trying to make their fledgling businesses fly, and the image that always comes to my mind when I have these conversations is that of a race car traveling at 200 mph, and getting a tune up at the same time. It’s quite a problem these leaders face, because once the green flag is raised and the business is launched – they can’t pull their business “cars” into the pits, have some work done, and then restart – that’s precious time in the marketplace that could mean the…

• What’s The Right Stuff of Leadership? Think Dog, Turtle, and Cockroach

  Starbucker

  22 Jan 2012 | 6:42 pm

  Growing up in the 60′s and 70′s I was utterly fascinated by the US Space Program, and its corps of courageous astronauts.   They were my childhood heroes, and I still vividly remember that night in July of 1969 when I ran outside moments after Neil Armstrong uttered that famous “one small step” line and stared at the moon, utterly captivated by the notion that a man was walking on it at that very moment. It took a special kind of person to be an astronaut, and those distinct qualities were captured perfectly by Tom Wolfe in his famous book, “The Right…

• Execution Leadership: 12 Metrics That Must Be Measured, Monitored, and Managed….Relentlessly

  Starbucker

  15 Jan 2012 | 1:27 pm

  Someone once asked me to use a single word to describe a “secret to leadership” – without hesitation, I replied, “Relentlessness” If there is one thing I learned in my nearly 25  years in the executive chair, it’s this:   Leaders cannot achieve their grand visions and strategies without a relentless push to execute brilliantly. The best way to do this is with the right metrics to measure, monitor and manage.  Metrics that are not necessarily the “bottom line” ones – such as Net Profit, Total Revenue, Earnings Per Share, or Total…

• 9 Ways Social Media Can Make You a Better Leader (The Video)

  Starbucker

  8 Jan 2012 | 9:47 pm

  A few weeks ago at Portland State University’s Digital Media Conference, I was challenged to present “9 Ways Social Media Can Make You a Better Leader”, in the “Ignite” format (that’s 20 slides in 5 minutes, each one changing over every 15 seconds, whether you are ready for the change or not). It was a great experience, and thanks to PSU, I’m happy to share the result (here is the link if you don’t see the embed: http://youtu.be/yi11zeKkeuE)  Lead well!  

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  Penelope Trunk Blog

• What Facebook's IPO means for women

  Penelope Trunk

  7 Feb 2012 | 7:15 pm

  After the Facebook IPO, Sheryl Sandberg will become number two on the list of richest self-made women. She is the COO of Facebook.  For those of you not familiar with her career, there’s a nice summary in the New York Times. But the bottom line is that she is really smart (Harvard), a really hard worker (startups, Google, Facebook), a great speaker (here’s a commencement speech) ,and she’s married to a guy who is also making tons of money in startups. There is nothing, really, that is bad to say about Sandberg. And she works very hard to encourage other women to go as far as she has…

• How to have faith in yourself

  Penelope Trunk

  30 Jan 2012 | 8:37 am

  Sunday nights at our house are dinner with me, the kids, the Farmer and the Ex. They are always fun dinners, and I always feel very lucky for that. My six-year-old talked about his new baby cousin, Eva (who is pictured, in utero, above). "She has a terrible name," he said, "for Pig Latin. Its Vaeay. It doesn't work." We all do the vowel arranging in our heads and agree, Eva is not a good Pig Latin name. "Mom has a great name! It's Enelopepay." The Farmer says, "It sounds like it could be the name of her next company." The Ex says, "Yeah,…

• Key to productivity: Choose phone calls carefully

  Penelope Trunk

  22 Jan 2012 | 12:00 pm

  One of the keys to my ability to work 40 hours a week and homeschool two kids is that I have great time management. Which is to say, I say no to just about everything. But learning when to say no is still a work in progress. Here's what I know about saying no to phone calls: 1. It's more efficient to read the book than talk to the author. I get about ten emails a day asking me if I want to talk to someone about their book so I’ll recommend it on the blog. My answer is always no. I said yes once because it was Gloria Steinem. And it turned out to be a really disappointing phone…

• Things I wish I had written

  Penelope Trunk

  20 Jan 2012 | 10:34 am

  In therapy lately I am learning to identify my feelings. Maybe you’re thinking this is elementary, but did you know that envy is about wanting something you don’t have, but jealousy is the fear of losing something you already have? I am thinking about those two things. I am almost never envious, but I am often jealous. Most of my emotions, in fact, are rooted in fear. I am thinking a lot lately about where my joy comes from, and one thing I love is writing well. When I have a blog post that people love I am happy for weeks. And the excitement of doing good creative work gives me energy to…

• How to manage a career in 2012

  Penelope Trunk

  16 Jan 2012 | 12:57 pm

  I have never been great at picking my own clothes. I’m great at interior design, but I have a blind spot for clothes. So I email Melissa photos of my outfits, and she uses her photographic memory of my closet to edit my outfits. When I sent her this photo, she said: “What is this?” I only wanted her opinion about the color of the shirt, so I thought it was okay that it was blurry. But the more I look at the picture, the more I think that it’s how I feel about myself right now. I am not quite sure who I am, right now. And given the current career climate, this is actually how most…

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  All Things Workplace

• Leadership: It Is About You

  Steve Roesler

  5 Feb 2012 | 9:01 pm

  There seems to be an ongoing attempt to recycle, re-package, re-label and microwave new leaders into  existence. Yet that approach must be important, fascinating, or both, because it's a huge moneymaker. Look at this: Leadership books at Amazon: 72,587  vs. 26,086 for Nutrition & Diet. There are twice as many authors and publishers banking on people wanting to become leaders than paying attention to staying alive long enough to get there. Google the word "leadership" and you can spend the rest of your lunch break reading your choice of 160,000,000 results. Want to know the definition…

• Talent: Where You Decide to Perform Matters

  Steve Roesler

  29 Jan 2012 | 9:01 pm

  Hide not your talents, they for use were made. What's a sun-dial in the shade?     --Benjamin Franklin (1706 - 1790) Everyone is talented at something. Everyone. Where you decide to perform can build you up or whittle you down. So pick the venue that's a showcase, not a coffin. 1. If you want corporate life, find a corporation that's already doing the kinds of things you like to do the way you like to do them. Don't expect them to change for you, no matter how right you may be about something. 2. If you love being independent, then research the kinds of clients who will appreciate you…

• 5 Meeting Traps and How To Fix Them

  Steve Roesler

  23 Jan 2012 | 1:30 pm

  I just returned from a good meeting. Everyone was engaged, no one dominated (unless it made sense because of specific expertise), and every speaker followed up to check for understanding. It was more like sitting around a warm fireplace in winter than a typical business meeting.  So, it made me think about the planning that went into it and how it was led. If you've struggled through more than a few bad meetings, I'm guessing you've experienced the following traps. Here they are and how to fix them. 1) People think they are experts. Many people tell me that they know how to run an…

• Leadership & Influence: Raise The Standard

  Steve Roesler

  15 Jan 2012 | 9:06 pm

  "Fitting in" is a big deal, and in many organizations it's seen as the way to career longevity. That's a problem. People are influenced by those they see as being "ahead of them." If you simply match the rest of the workforce and blend in, your influence is diminished. Eventually, you become invisible. If you want to lead, be willing to raise your personal standards to exceed the common expectations of your organization or work group. "Raising" equates with "elevating." Once you raise the bar for yourself, you begin to view things from a heightened position that expands your perspective. When…

• 5 Tips To Make Things Happen

  Steve Roesler

  8 Jan 2012 | 9:01 pm

  Decisions get made. It's time to start. The goal is clear. There is a picture of what the result should look like. Now we just have to "do it." Some don't make it... .. .individually or organizationally. Given that there are entire industries built around "doing it"--continuous improvement, change management, life coaching-- there must be some trick to that whole in between area. If you are involved in any kind of a change, here are 5 tips that you can take to the bank. (Ignoring them may put you in the collection agency). 1. Language matters. "We're going to make a transition…

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  Personal Branding Blog - Dan Schawbel

• ‘Online Applications ONLY’: A ‘Lose-Lose’ Proposition for All!

  Skip Freeman

  9 Feb 2012 | 10:30 am

  In last week’s posting (Corporate America: Your Hiring Processes are Branded as “Broken”!) I pointed out the tremendous disconnect that exists today between job seekers and the companies that seek to hire them because of certain current hiring processes in corporate America. In this week’s posting I am going to examine one of those processes that contributes mightily to this disconnect—the “online applications ONLY” job application requirement imposed by some hiring companies. It’s a process that usually results in a “lose-lose” proposition for both hiring companies and…

• Are You Using The Right Words For Your Brand?

  Roger Parker

  8 Feb 2012 | 10:30 am

  Are you using the right words to build your personal brand in your resume, marketing materials, and social media updates? Often, there’s a disconnect, or gap, between the words used in resumes, marketing materials, & day-to-day social marketing, and the personal brand an individual is trying to build. Personal brand building is impossible if you’re not using the right words! To make sure that you’re using the right words, I’d like to share a free online tool you can use to visually display the contents of your resume, marketing materials, and social media marketing…

• Interview Rejection To Selection

  Elinor Stutz

  8 Feb 2012 | 2:30 am

  People unfamiliar with sales techniques usually become depressed by interview rejection and then lose momentum for continuing in their search for employment. From a typical salesperson’s perspective, rejections are not necessarily bad particularly when used as valuable learning lessons. BUT the seasoned sales professional, with a smile on her face, will mentally say, NEXT! Early in my sales career, I learned that it was necessary to make 100 sales calls in order to make 10 sales. It was not motivating to learn I only had a 10% chance for making a sale. We were then told, the more…

• 3 Ways To Implement Your Personal Brand Offline

  Heather Huhman

  7 Feb 2012 | 10:30 am

  For most professionals, personal branding thrives online. Through juggling social media profiles, managing reputation, creating content, and securing our sites, we may forget that personal branding can also be done in person – and can be just as effective, if not more so. Attending an industry event, association meeting, or even a professional cocktail hour in your city can be a great and easy way to transition the brand you’ve created online into the real world. Consider below three ways to implement your brand in person once you’re there: Keep The Conversation Going. Since you’re…

• 20 Questions Smart Employees Ask Themselves

  Nance Rosen

  7 Feb 2012 | 2:30 am

  These 20 questions cover five key areas that are critical to your accurately evaluating how well you’re doing at work. Your answers (or score) predict whether you’re likely to be promoted, fired or kept simmering in the same spot for years to come. Score each question on a scale of 1-10 (10 = AWESOME). Add up your total score in each category. If you are totally awesome, you’ll have a total of 200 points. If you score below 30 points in any category, it’s time to take remedial action. Job mastery How well do I? 1. Exhibit expertise of the particular knowledge and skills that make me a…

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  Occam's Razor by Avinash Kaushik

• Google Analytics Tutorial: 8 Valuable Tips To Hustle With Data!

  Avinash Kaushik

  30 Jan 2012 | 2:52 am

  It is painfully heartbreaking to realize that a very small tiny number of people who have access to web analytics tools actually use them. I mean really use the tools. Ravage all the features. Exploit every possible button. Produce built-in visualization magic. Poke into the hidden crevices and discover exotic delights. Nourish yourself with the "info snacks" the tool's engineers and product managers cooked up. This post is all about that. When it comes to data analysis, you are usually more likely to see me share guidance on advanced segmentation or custom reports or advanced…

• The 2015 Digital Marketing Rule Book. Change or Perish.

  Avinash Kaushik

  9 Jan 2012 | 2:26 am

  It is the season to be predicting the future, but that is almost always a career-limiting move. So I'm not going to do that. It is a lot easier to predict the present. So I'm not going to do that either. Rather, I'm going to share a clump of realities/rules garnered from the present to help ready you for the predictable near future . Now here is the great part… if you follow these rules and act on these insights I believe you'll be significantly better prepared for the unpredictable future. Awesome right? Now here's another surprise: These rules/insights/mind…

• Best Web Metrics / KPIs for a Small, Medium or Large Sized Business

  Avinash Kaushik

  12 Dec 2011 | 2:11 am

  We have access to more data than God wants anyone to have. Thus it is not surprising that we feel overwhelmed, and rather than being data driven we just get paralyzed. Life does not have to be that scary. In fact a data driven life is sexiest digital life you can imagine. In this blog post we are going to bring the sexyback. I am going to attempt to significantly simply your life by recommending the critical few metrics you should use to analyze performance of your digital marketing campaigns and website. You'll be able to quickly go from "omg what can I do!" to "omg what…

• Smarter Data Analysis of Google's https (not provided) change: 5 Steps

  Avinash Kaushik

  21 Nov 2011 | 2:22 am

  It is astonishingly common that we are asked to analyze the impossible. In perhaps a career-limiting move I'm going to try to do that today (and for a controversial topic to boot!). In this post about an important Google change, I want you to focus less on the data and focus more on the methodology. And – so important – I want you to help me with your ideas of how we can do this impossible analysis better, in the complete absence of data :). So please share your ideas via comments and let's together make a smarter ecosystem. On board? Let's go…. In an effort…

• Data Analysis 101: Seven Simple Mistakes That Limit Your Salary

  Avinash Kaushik

  31 Oct 2011 | 2:42 am

  Data analysis is not easy. It takes years to get good at it, and once you get good at it you realize how much more there is to learn. That is part of the joy. You are always learning. You are always growing. This blogpost is a collection of tips I share with my friends who are just starting out. Each tip is a "simple" mistake that is easily avoided. My hope is that you'll skip them if you are aware of them, and move on to making more important valuable mistakes. :) My plan is to wrap each tip with additional observations, context that will be of value even to those who have…

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  Lateral Action

• How to Suffer for Your Art (without Being a Jerk)

  Mark McGuinness

  6 Feb 2012 | 6:14 am

  The tortured artist is one of the great cliches of creativity. And like all cliches, it contains a grain of truth. Look at the work of any truly great artist, and you will find suffering is one of the big themes – whether it’s the everyday misery of poverty (Dickens), the pain of unrequited love (Petrarch), the atrocity of war (Picasso), the inhumanity of bureaucracy (Kafka), the pathos of passing time (Hardy), despair in the face of death (Tolstoy), or sheer existential anguish (Plath, Munch). Even apparently trivial forms of popular entertainment, like the cinema and pop music,…

• The Real Value of Tablet Computers to Creators

  Mark McGuinness

  23 Jan 2012 | 11:55 am

  When the iPad was launched, amid all the huzzahs and hoopla, there were a few murmurs of discontent from the creative community. “Sure, it looks slick, but you can’t make anything with it.” “If this isn’t ‘lean back’ media, I don’t know what is.” ‘Lean back’, of course, was a reference to Jakob Nielsen’s well-known distinction between television (‘lean back’ = passive consumption) and the Web (‘lean forward’ = active creation). So criticisms of the iPad as a ‘lean back’ device were…

• 7 Ways Learning to Draw Can Improve Your Productivity

  Will Kemp

  10 Jan 2012 | 11:01 am

  Drawings by Will Kemp Ever wanted to learn to draw? Have you daydreamed of just picking up a pencil and sketching? But inside there is a lingering doubt. A distant memory of a school teacher who told you once you were bad at art. An inner critic that holds you back…. Even before you begin. But what if you could learn to draw? What if the principles of drawing could help you to become more productive in other areas of your life. Would you give it a try? Feel the fear, and draw it anyway. Productivity is often linked to a fear of failure, an obsession with thinking rather than doing. Of…

• Why It Pays to Panic Early (and How to Do it Effectively)

  Mark McGuinness

  3 Jan 2012 | 7:34 am

  So. We have a whole new year spread out before us. Like a pristine sheet of paper. We can create anything we like, and it feels like we have all the time in the world. Pretty good huh? It’s exciting – but like all opportunities, there’s a flipside. Ask any writer or artist who has spent hours (or days) staring at a blank sheet of paper and they will tell you how paralysing creative freedom can be. And the freelance life may sound idyllic to those of you who have to report for duty in an office each day, but the freedom to arrange your own time can be just as intimidating as…

• Competition Winners – and a Special Bonus Prize for You

  Mark McGuinness

  20 Dec 2011 | 12:12 am

  Thank you to everyone who entered the What Inspires You? competition by leaving comments on the original post about your inspirations. Fittingly, the comment thread turned out to be an inspiration in its own right, with over 100 entries that reminded me what a special group of people read this blog. We had such a great response that I was glad I’d delegated the difficult task of judging to the artist himself, Mike Kammerling, so that I could simply enjoy the comments for their own sake. Mike has now chosen the five winners, listed below, who will receive a very limited edition print of…

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  Cathy Moore

• How action mapping can change your design process

  Cathy Moore

  18 Jan 2012 | 11:57 am

  Happy action mapping users say that the model helps them create lively elearning. But would it fit into your design workflow? Action mapping makes stakeholders work together to analyze the performance problem, commit to the same measurable goal, and agree to focus on activities rather than information. This can be a big change to the typical course development workflow. Without action mapping: The client says, “I need a course.” You say, “Okay.” The client gives you a pile of content, the phone number of a subject matter expert (SME), and a deadline. You create a…

• Are learners idiots?

  Cathy Moore

  13 Dec 2011 | 7:02 pm

  Be sure to read this paragraph. It tells you that in this post, you’ll learn how to manage stakeholders who want to treat learners like idiots. If you have trouble reading the paragraph, click the speaker icon located in the bottom right-hand corner of this screen and a professional narrator will read the text to you in a soothing voice that slides like oil over any functioning brain cells and gently smothers them. Now read the next paragraph. “Assume intelligence,” Jerry Weissman tells us in Presentations in Action. “Your audience has been there, done that, and they…

• How to create a memorable mini-scenario

  Cathy Moore

  12 Oct 2011 | 7:03 pm

  Often we’re told, “Put this information into a course.” But what happens if we put the information into a job aid instead, and then design mini-scenarios that help learners use the job aid? This approach not only keeps boring blather out of our elearning, it can also make our activities more memorable. Here’s how it could work. Example Let’s say we’re designing a course on needle safety for a hospital. A common approach would be to display some slides of information about dos and don’ts, and then to present a generic fact check, like,…

• Do they just know it, or can they USE it?

  Cathy Moore

  28 Sep 2011 | 7:47 am

  It’s easy and tempting to write activities that test whether learners know something. How can we make learners use their knowledge as well? You might be familiar with Bloom’s Taxonomy. Its current form identifies six categories of intellectual performance, from remembering to creating. To make the taxonomy easier to apply, I grabbed my Unsubtle Machete of Oversimplification and in a few whacks reduced the categories to just two: Know activities ask learners to retrieve and maybe categorize or explain information. Use activities ask learners to apply information to realistic…

• Are instructional designers doormats?

  Cathy Moore

  23 Aug 2011 | 2:53 pm

  If your client said, “Please create a course about our impossibly complex process,” what would you say? A. “Hmmm. That process looks really complicated. Is there any way to make it simpler?” or B. “No problem. Would you like fries with that?” Often we know nothing about our client’s processes, and it’s tempting to think we should never question what they do. But I like to think that our ignorance gives us a valuable outsider’s perspective that can help our clients improve performance through every means, not just through a course. Our…