I made a 2014 resolution to publish an eBook / presentation.
This presentation / eBook describes three (3) career management lessons I've learned from my Dad and applied to my own career:
1) Learn From the Best
2) Get Published
3) Get Back Up — Fast!
My Dad inspired me to apply each of these lessons in a digital marketing and social media context (e.g., blogging, participating in Twitter, reading books of marketing strategy thought leaders, connecting directly with marketing strategy thought leaders, etc.).
These lessons describe the opportunity for online self-publishing, personal brand / personal reputation management, and the teachings of different marketing strategy authors. The marketing strategy authors (and their books and blogs) that have inspired me include Seth Godin, Ann Handley, Mitch Joel, Tom Peters, and David Meerman Scott.
It's my way of showing my Dad how much I admire and respect his individual achievements (and the obstacles he overcame).
Thank you and I hope you enjoy and benefit from reading it. If you find the content helpful, please feel free to share this presentation with others.
In 2009, I discovered MarketingProfs.com. You and the MarketingProfs team dedicated significant time and energy to help me and other social media rookies learn, understand, and enjoy the current and future implications of online conversations in 21st century marketing.
Even more importantly, I discovered and connected with YOU.
My love for marketing strategy skyrocketed due to your influence. When I'm not in my day job, marketing strategy is what I love writing about and studying. The valuable and generous work you and MarketingProfs publish and share continues fueling that passion.
For two or three straight years, I think I signed up for every webinar, virtual conference, and LinkedIn Discussion Group with the words: "MarketingProfs." Whenever I marked one of those events on my calendar, I anticipated them like Christmas morning!
"As part of the Fall 2009, MarketingProfs Digital Marketing World Conference, Ann's going to talk to Tina Brown." Yeah, that Tina Brown!! You were stellar during that Q&A. Tina Brown took Ann Handley's phone calls, emails, and questions.
And, Ann Handley shared that access to Ms. Brown to benefit the MarketingProfs fanbase — Wow!
The writing you publish on Annarchy.com is funny, smart, and thoughtful. Every blog post is an writing and marketing master class.
That's why I read EVERY WORD of your work. When it comes to Ann Handley content, skimming is forbidden. Plus, my reader reaction inevitably involves one or more of the following:
Three (3) horrible thoughts engulfed me. First, Ann and David probably won't see the tweet or respond because I'm a nobody with less than 10 Twitter followers. Second, if they do read the tweet and click the attached link, they're going to HATE my post and horrible writing. Third, they'll never want to see anything from me again. They'll block my tweets because I'm an just another unworthy amateur, rookie, or "wannabe social media hack" who's trying way too hard to gain their attention.
But, something incredible happened — YOU tweeted back! YOU even wrote THE FIRST comment on my blog — EVER!
THAT'S RIGHT, ANN HANDLEY WAS MY FIRST!
(If you know what I mean …)
Okay, all kidding and Joey Tribiani-like innuendo aside, I've never forgotten your kindness and generosity. That was four years ago …
At that moment, YOU made me believe I was on the right path. YOU made me feel important. YOU made me believe if I kept at it, my content could bring value to others.
I know I shouldn't look for validation. But, when one of your heroes says something nice about you, shares your work, and gives you praise, it feels soooooo good!
Your kindness motivated me to believe: "Yes! I CAN DO THIS!"
As I gained more Twitter experience, I started tweeting you directly. I love tweeting and talking with you! I don't know how to describe it. It genuinely feel like I'm sitting across from you while enjoying a a hot cup of coffee or a cold beer.
It feels that real.
And, it's because IT IS REAL. It's because YOU make it real. It's because YOU are genuinely kind and authentic.
I'm sure you get embarrassingly sick of how I share on a weekly basis why I know and believe YOU are the best writer in the business. I'm still learning how to write and connect. I'm still learning how to do them both well. And, there are times when I feel like I'll never get there.
That's why your work is so personally important and influential. That's why I cherish directly connecting with YOU. Your art is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to learn from one of the all-time great teachers and practitioners. That why I view you as an important professional mentor.
Ann, I hold you in the highest regard. Every time YOU share and publish your art, YOU inspire me to become a better writer, marketer, and person.
One day, I hope to have the privilege of telling you these things face-to-face and shaking your hand. Till that time, please travel safely wherever you may be (today and in 2014).
May You and Your Family Enjoy a Safe and Merry Christmas,
Note: Austin Kleon's book, Steal Like an Artist and Mitch Joel's public fan letters inspired this post. Pages 108 to 109, "Write Fan Letters," and Chapter 2: "Don't Wait Until You Know Who You Are To Get Started" from Austin's book are amazing. After reading Austin's book and Mitch's public fan letters, I made a list of my heroes.
Please indulge me as I periodically publish these fan letters on this blog.
From page 109 of Steal Like an Artist: "Maybe your hero will see your work, maybe he or she won't. Maybe they'll respond to you, maybe not. The important thing is that you show your appreciation without expecting anything in return."
CTRL ALT Delete Is a Gift on 21st Century Career Leadership and Opportunity Management. Mitch frames and delivers his compelling arguments in two (2) sections:
1. Reboot: Business – The 5 Massive Movements
2. Reboot: You – The 7 Triggers
Yes, his book describes corporate and marketing strategy opportunities impacting organizations (big or small). Yes, his book contains important personal branding / personal reputation implications.
But, all twelve (12) principles focus on individually identifying and framing opportunity (and having the collective or individual courage to pursue it).
We All Have the Opportunity to Differentiate Ourselves and Lead. CTRL ALT Delete's resounding themes are to:
Take the Initiative
Take Intelligent Risks (i.e., Embrace the Squiggle)
Differentiate Yourself (because the opportunities are highest in THIS era)
Invest in Yourself and Buy CTRL ALT Delete. Here are four (4) important questions Mitch Joel asks about building competitive advantages to reboot our organizations and individual careers:
How Are We Building Direct Relationships with Our Customers, Fans, and Connections?
Creating a Unique Competitive Advantage. Direct relationships as a competitive advantage (versus price) is best described by these CTRL ALT Delete quotes (page 11) on how Apple executes its retail strategy:
The solution for Apple was to create a "cradle to the grave" business model where the customer is–at every touch point–directly speaking with Apple's brand. A true, direct relationship–in every sense of the word. Apple could not win on price (their computers and other devices are usually much more expensive than their competition's), so they had to win by being there for the consumer and by making these consumers a part of a more complete brand ecosystem.
At the time that Apple first launched retail stores in 2001, the common practices among retailers was to cram each nook and cranny of space with merchandise to maximize the sales per square foot. Sadly most retailers (and businesses) still hold on to the traditional thinking. For Apple, it was less about every square foot of retail space and much more about evey square inch of the direct relationship. Apple didn't start in the retail business to compete with other consumer electronics stores; they went into retail for the direct relationship with their customers. Apple's attitude was: "Why give that power to Best Buy or anyone else?"
"My dad used to always to say that he could teach anything but he couldn't teach how to feel. That's the hardest part when you have 11,000 people: How do you teach them how we feel?"
"The thing is, I don't want to be soldwhen I walk into a store to be welcomed. The job is tobe a brilliant brand ambasador. Everyone is welcome. Don't be judgmental whatsoever."
"Don't sell! NO! Because that is a turnoff."
Converse Directly With Your Connections and Followers. Don't just tweet out links and "like" stuff. Mitch's observations about building direct relationships highly applies to our personal social network connections. For example, participating in Twitter by sharing links your followers find helpful is a starting point for establishing authority and reputation.
But, if you want to "own and nurture" a long-term direct relationship, you have to directly converse with your followers. Mitch talks in depth about this concept throughout the book. These types of direct conversations are powerful and solidify lifelong loyalty and relationships:
How are You Building Competitive Advantage in a One-Screen World?
The entire chapter describes how consumers operate in a mobile, one-screen world. The only screen consumers care about is "the one currently staring them in the face."
Mitch further makes a compelling argument:The most important consumer screen resides on our smartphones.
Here are Mitch's thoughts on Twitter and the one-screen world (from page 99 of CTRL ALT Delete):
"Twitter's metoric rise and continued success have less to do with how many followers Lady Gaga has and much more to do with the fact that it was the first-ever online social network that worked better on mobile than it does on the Web. The sheer simplicity of those 140 characters of tweets makes it that much more workable and easy for consumers. Twitter's focus (from day one) was on connecting people as they were on the go. To this day, everything that Twitter does — from acquisitions to business strategy — is driven by a one-screen-world philosophy."
How are We Differentiating Ourselves as Critical Thinkers?
A Personal Blog = Personal Competitive Advantage. The Internet affords anyone with a laptop and broadband access an opportunity to stand out. But, we often allow ourselves to be defined by our current job titles and bullet points on our resumes. That's a mistake.
Mitch thinks strategically and critically. In a social media age, when most tweets or Facebook status updates provide diminishing returns on our attention, the opportunity to differentiate ourselves as entrepreneurial, credible, forward-looking strategic, critical thinkers has never been higher.
3. Making it easy for a potential employer / great connection to find you (e.g., SEO benefits)
4. Giving you practice in an important and portable business skill set — writing
5. Proving you're technology and Internet savvy
6. Informing people first-hand how you're driven to learn new skills
Isn't Blogging Supposed to be Dead? Hardly. As Mitch points out in the section, "Your Life in Startup Mode," a personal blog describes important aspects about ourselves that a resume fails to represent:
(page 227) "You're writing to exercise your critical thinking skills."
(page 225) "But for the purpose of this book, I'll define a blog as an online journal of your work. The spirit of the blog is to create a living and breathing resume and portfolio of how you think and work."
(page 224) "I still believe that a blog is a canvas that allows you to think, share, and connect with an audience."
(page 228) "Because if you care enough to blog, it means that you have something to say. If you have something to say and you're blogging it, it means that you want to share and connect.Ultimately, the world needs more people like that."
What is the Legacy and the Value You are Ultimately Delivering and Leaving?
Pages 190 and 193 fromThe Marketing of Youexplain the ultimate goal for connecting (online or face-to-face):
(page 190) "There's nothing wrong with asking for help, but you will always see a more positive result if you start by delivering value first—by being valuable to others before asking them for favors. Give abundantly and be helpful."
(page 193) "True influence comes from connecting to individuals, nurturing those relationships, adding real value to other people's lives, and doing anything and everything to serve them, so that when the time comes for you to make a request, there is someone there to lend a hand. Worry less about how many people you are connected to, and worry a whole lot more about who you are connected to—who they are and what you are doing to value and honor them(in their spaces)."
That sounds like a great philosophy towards achieving professional and personal fulfillment.
Did You Enjoy This Post?
If yes, please share it with your friends and subscribe to my blog. Many Thanks!
Thank you for generously sharing your art and patiently coaching people like myself to “dance with confronting fear and the pain of vulnerability”
Ask you to re-read Reason #1 because your passion, leadership, and teaching will continue to make a lasting impact on my life
When I wrote that Tribes* review, I was going through a challenging professional period. Four years ago, I was looking for the “usual 10 steps to get yourself out of a tough work situation quickly in a crappy economy.” When I read Tribes, I kept searching for “that map” (which of course, wasn’t there).
So, I took out my frustrations on you. And, I’m genuinely sorry I wrote that review.
After re-reading Tribes at least three or four more times (along with your other important works multiple times), I finally understood that the beauty and wisdom driving Tribes (and all of your important art) is making sure someone like me finally wakes up to the all-important realization that those maps don’t exist in a book …
… because I’m the one who has to write the map.
“Those maps” reside within us. We are develop / sketch them out each time we create and ship our art. How we choose to reach our individual destinations / write out those maps is our own business. That’s what makes my map special (along with anyone else’s when she/he raises their hand to become their own mapmaker). Producing “those maps” requires our emotional labor (e.g., the daily joy and pain linked to creating and shipping our individual art).
And, if you’ve said it once, you’ve said at least 67 different times: “High-speed Internet access hooked up to our laptops, tablets, or smartphones gives us all an equal shot at ‘changing the world’ in our own unique, and meaningful way.
If we have the heart and guts to continue thrashing, failing, “poking the box*” and winking at the resistance (even when it’s mocking us, breathing down our necks and staring us square in the face), then we ALL have a puncher’s chance (regardless of the current economy).
I amended that Tribes review in September 2013, but left the original review intact. Why? I want to remind myself of what a publicly-displayed version of petty, lame-ass, “easy out” excuses looks like. I hope others will see it too so they can learn from my mistakes.
For 47 years, I would beat myself up when I’d try something different or try to learn something new. So, I’d thrash around for what seemed forever (especially in the beginning). I’d keep screwing up and it seemed like I couldn’t get anywhere. The resistance convinced me I was wasting precious time.
But, I wasn’t wasting time — I was learning.
Yet, somewhere along the way, I heard the resistance laughing (and relishing in my struggles). I could hear it f**king taunting me.
That’s what stopped me from following-through and shipping. That’s why I stopped trusting my instincts.
But, you, woke me up. It took me 47 years to conclude that the journey to creating genuinely, memorable, remarkable art isn’t supposed to be easy. I’ve finally learned after 47 years of beating myself up (and subsequently complying) that my instincts were trying to inform me to take calculated, intelligent risks at various stages of my life.
And, this time, I’m actively listening to those instincts …
Picking oneself to create really inspiring, emotional labor-driven, memorable and remarkable art*, means taking risks and accepting and dealing with pain, humiliation, embarrassment, and failure.
Most importantly, you’ve made me realize that the pain, humiliation, embarrassment aren’t bad things. Yes, these things hurt and wound our pride (at times very deeply) but that’s part of the contract if I want to live the life of an artist. Yes, I will take these failures and embarassments personally. Yes, it’s going to hurt (but it’s not as painful and life-threatening as the resistance wants me to believe).
The beating myself up ends now. The obsession for perfection ends now. How the hell am I supposed to create remarkable art if the only thing remarkable about me is a unique ability be my own, worst enemy.
Thank you for waking me up to realize that the dirty work / crap work / stuff that gets zero glory / the shit I resented doing is a true linchpin’s bread and butter. Because, I see now how that shit holds a team together, and it enables me to move the team towards the goal line and score in difficult situations (where others can’t).
Thank you for teaching and constantly reminding me “that risky is safe and safe is risky.”
Thank you for giving me the courage and commitment to do this:
Tony Faustino Commits to Being an Artist
Lastly, I’d like to leave you with the same thought that I’ve shared in my public fan letters to Mitch Joel and David Meerman Scott:
One day, I hope to have the privilege of meeting you face-to-face and shaking your hand.
Until that day, please travel safely Seth (wherever you may be),
I am not a member of the Amazon Affiliate Program. I provided hyperlinks to the Amazon landing pages of Seth’s books because I want others to be inspired by his important art.
Note: Austin Kleon’s book, Steal Like an Artist and Mitch Joel‘s public fan letters inspired this post. Pages 108 to 109, “Write Fan Letters,” and Chapter 2: “Don’t Wait Until You Know Who You Are To Get Started” from Austin’s book are amazing. After reading Austin’s book and Mitch’s public fan letters, I made a list of my heroes.
Please indulge me as I periodically publish these fan letters on this blog.
From page 109 of Steal Like an Artist: “Maybe your hero will see your work, maybe he or she won’t. Maybe they’ll respond to you, maybe not. The important thing is that you show your appreciation without expecting anything in return.”
Your Turn
Please let me know if you agree or disagree with my thoughts in the comments. I would love to hear from you. I’m here to read, listen, and learn from YOUR PERSPECTIVE. Comments are open. So let’er rip!
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"A bachelor's degree on its own no longer conveys intelligence or capability."
Suggested Authors / Books to Help Undergraduate Marketing Majors Land that First Job After College
These suggested authors / books are not of the "cookie cutter" or "10 easy steps on how-to land your first job out of college / summer internship in a lousy economy" variety. They share creative ideas to show a potential employer "you're more than a resume and the grades on a college transcript". Their teachings maximize the Internet's global reach and leverage search engines to your advantage.
In my opinion, if you graduated with a marketing and/or communications degree (or are currently studying these undergraduate majors), the following authors and books are REQUIRED READING.
Note: I am not an Amazon Affiliate Program Member. I respect the following authors because of their invaluable advice on how to develop a credible and professional online presence.
David Meerman Scott is a marketing strategist, advisor to emerging companies, bestselling author of eight books including three international bestsellers, and a professional speaker on topics including marketing, leadership, and social media.
Why The New Rules of Marketing & PR Matters
The New Rules of Marketing & PR is in its 4th Edition, has sold 300,000+ copies, and is translated in 25 languages.
Marketing and communications students will learn from this book the value of:
Thinking Like a Publisher (e.g. managing and creating content as a valuable asset)
Tactfully and Skillfully Informing the World About Your Expertise
Creating Varieties of Content Demonstrating That Expertise
Building, Understanding, and Targeting Your Audience Via Buyer Persona Profiles
Commenting on Other Blogs to Build Online Credibility and Relationships
Giving Away Your Expertise by Publishing and Distributing Free E-Books
Here's David discussing the latest release of The New Rules of Marketing & PR:
"An e-book is a PDF-formatted document that identifies a market problem and supplies an answer to the problem. E-books have a bit of intrigue to them — like hip younger sibling to the nerdy white paper."
If you click on the image captions, the hyperlinks will take you to the respective, eBook PDF download pages.
If I've said it once, I've said it 43 other times. Ann Handley is the best writer and storyteller in the New Media Business. Her writing and storytelling makes you:
Ann and C.C. share clear, actionable advice built on two (2) governing principles:
Thinking and Acting Like a Publisher
Publishing Helpful, Remarkable Content
Content Defined. Words, images, videos comprise content and can take the form of:
Web Pages
Videos
Blogs
Photographs
Webinars
Whitepapers
eBooks
Podcasts
Presentations
Social Outposts (e.g., Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, Pinterest, etc.)
Learning Through Great Storytelling and Writing. Great writing makes reading Content Rules enjoyable. And, studying it helps you ask the right questions about content strategy execution:
Goal Setting: Who is Your Audience? What Metrics Will Determine You're Succeeding (or Failing)?
Defining: What Content Type(s) Should You Publish?
Publishing: How Often to Publish (by content type)? What are the Platform Considerations (i.e., blog posts, tweets, Facebook updates, LinkedIn Group discussions, etc.)?
Promoting: How to Share Content (without the cologne of a used car salesman).
More importantly, they share practical advice for budget-constrained marketing teams wondering:
How Do We Start?
What's the RIGHT Content Strategy for US?
Pages 22 to 24 to the Rescue. The Content Rules of Why & Who (or Grab Your Colleagues, Tons of Sticky Notes, Lots of Paper, and Thrash Through the Following Questions):
Whom are you trying to reach (e.g., your audience, clients, customers)?
What does your audience crave (e.g., content that informs, entertains, something else)?
What do you want your audience to do (e.g., motivate it to do X, figure out the calls-to-action)?
What content do you already have (e.g. take a content inventory)?
Wake Up (because this is a long post, and I can hear you snoring)! How about re-imagining those boring bullets into something differentiating and remarkable:
Content Rules Video Update with C.C. Chapman and Ann Handley. C.C. and Ann made this September 2010 video before the book's release. It's a great example of practicing what they preach and seeing the human side of great content marketing.
Walk-the Walk and Talk-the-Talk.Inbound Marketing is the second book I studied about digital marketing strategy (The New Rules of Marketing & PR being the first). If you're a serious marketing and communications graduate (or current MAR-COMM undergraduate) and want to "rock it" in your interview, you have to study and learn Inbound Marketing's principles COLD. Published in 2010, Brian and Dharmesh's teachings preceded much of the current and future implications of marketing and digital strategy:
Foundation principles and relevance of inbound links, SEO, Google Authority, Page Rank so potential customers/clients find you (instead of you interrupting them)
The underlying principles behind “closed loop” marketing (CLM)
Inbound Marketing provides clues to what a genuine, 21st century digital-driven organization looks for in employees. Hubspot utilizes its DARC framework when evaluating potential hires:
D = Hire Digital Citizens
A = Hire for Analytical Chops
R = Hire for Web Reach
C = Hire Content Creators
If you can'tanswer the following HubSpot interview questions while simultaneously providing real-time "show-them-the-money" on-screen, digital evidence, YOU'RE HOSED. Here are example interview questions from pages 170-171 and page 173 of Inbound Marketing (within the context of your interviewer verifying your answers on her/his laptop, tablet, or smartphone):
Interview Questions Evalutating Depth of Digital Citizenship:
What RSS reader do you use? Can you show it to me?
What blogs do you read?
Do you rank first for your name in Google?
Do you have a blog? Can you show to me?
Do you use Facebook or LinkedIn? When was the last time you updated your profile?
Do you have a channel on YouTube? Can you show it to me?
Interview Questions Evaluating Web Reach:
How many subscribers to your blog? Do you talk about our industry on your blog or about personal stuff?
How many Facebook followers do you have? Do you talk about our industry at all on your Facebook account?
How many LinkedIn followers do you have?
How many Twitter followers do you have? Do you talk about our industry on you Twitter account?
Closing Thoughts
My apologies for not finishing / publishing this post by the originally stated timeline. My "day job" is crazy/hectic especially as the 2013 4Q ticks away. That's okay (because that's the job).
Please tune in for the this series's next post: a comprehensive list of online resources (i.e., websites, blogs, blog articles, etc) to help recent college graduates and current college students land full-time jobs or internships. The HUGE list will easily comprise "20+ Resources."
Please give me a couple weeks to consolidate this list, provide context, and hit "publish."
Your Turn: What is your opinion of the books listed here? Have you read any of them? If so, how did the book(s) content create an opportunity for differentiating yourself either before, during, or after the interview? What books did I leave off? What additional books would recommend?
Please let me know. It would be great to hear from you!
Note: This is post four in a series sharing resources to help new college graduates and current students land full-time jobs or internships. If interested, here are links to other posts in this series:
The Social Media ReInvention Community knows how much my family loves dogs. My family is blessed with two loving German Shepherds utterly devoted to our young daughters. And, one German Shepherd is a rescue.
If the Following Video Is Not Remarkable and Compelling Storytelling, I Don't Know What Is
Note: My apologizes for the brief commercial in the video's introduction. I couldn't locate the commercial-free version. But, I promise it is a moving and soulful content marketing example.
Rule 16 is Highlighted Differently for Obvious Reasons. When the video ended, a lump entered my throat and tears filled my eyes. I don't know what else to say …
The Content We Should Create / The Stories We Should Tell. I'm currently reading / studying Mitch Joel's wonderful book, Ctrl Alt Delete. Mitch makes a valuable and insightful point about committing the common mistake of "creating content just for the sake of creating content or telling stories just for the sake of telling stories … "
Direct quotes from page 196 of Ctrl Alt Delete:
"Marketers often will often say that the best ads are the ones that tell stories. While you can easily shoot back with a 'Duh, tell me something I don't know,' take a cold hard look at all of your marketing collateral and ask yourself if you're telling a story worthy of being told—-or are you just telling a story to get something sold?"
It's not all about content. It's all about stories. It's not all about stories.It's all about GREAT stories.
Your Turn. How did this video / art affect you? Which 22 Pixar Rules of Storytelling do you recognize? How about comparing notes? Please let me know in the comments.
The admiration, respect, and friendship expressed to people who've meant so much to your professional career moved me. You wrote those letters with such honesty. And, you had the courage to publish them online.
A professional colleague gave me your book, Six Pixels of Separation, as a gift around four years ago. She knew I wanted to learn and understand the impact of new media in marketing. Your book and David Meerman Scott inspired me to pursue blogging and to participate in social networks.
Two concepts from your book continue influencing my approach to blogging and social networking:
In Praise of Slow
The Golden Rule (e.g., Saying Thank You)
Whenever I write about blogging or personal branding, I usually describe and cite the relevance of these concepts.
I remember my fear of promotingmy book review of Six Pixels of Separation on Twitter (because I included your Twitter handle in the tweet). It was one of the few reviews I'd written at that time.
Self-doubt consumed me. Negative thougts ran through my mind like "if Mitch reads this post, what if he thinks it sucks." Or, "what if he thinks I'm misrepresenting his work."
But, you wrote the nicest comment on my post. And, you shared the book review with your Twitter followers.
Your gesture and generosity meant so much. It gave me confidence to keep blogging. I started believing I was on the right path. It reinforced I was doing things the right way (e.g., the approach you described for building a credible reputation).
And, the books and articles you read and share — Wow! I love how you share your love of reading (especially the diversity and number of books you annually consume).
I can't wait till you publish Ctrl Alt Del in Spring 2013. I know it will be great. I love the ironic play on words (because I and your legions of fans know how much you love writing with your MacBook Air). When you to made the full conversion to Apple products, that was my tipping point to invest in a MacBook Pro.
My biggest regret: not discovering, reading, and studying your book and your blog sooner. I'm not making that mistake twice. I read and study your blog every day. It's required reading in my continuing education to understand where marketing is heading.
Plus, your podcasts demonstrate why you're "the Charlie Rose" of New Media. The conversational insights and your access to New Media's A-List are beyond compare. My personal favorites are your recent conversations with Seth Godin and Ken Wong.
Your writing teaches and inspires me how to write. Every time I read your blog, I say out loud: "Man, I wish I could write like that. I don't care how long it takes — I'm going to learn to write like that."
Letterman described how "he needed a target" (because he needed something to shoot for). His ideal was Carson.
When I write, you're my target. You're the standard I shoot for.
Thank you for inspiring me (and countless others).
All the best,
Tony Faustino
Note: Austin Kleon's book, Steal Like an Artist and Mitch Joel's public fan letters inspired this post. Pages 108 to 109, "Write Fan Letters," and Chapter 2: "Don't Wait Until You Know Who You Are To Get Started" from Austin's book are amazing. After reading Austin's book and Mitch's aforementioned posts, I made a public fan letters list of my heroes.
Please indulge me as I periodically publish these fan letters on this blog.
From page 109 of Steal Like an Artist: "Maybe your hero will see your work, maybe he or she won't. Maybe they'll respond to you, maybe not. The important thing is that you show your appreciation without expecting anything in return."
1. Can't Wait to Wake Up at 5 AM to Write. It's your moment of zen. It's your time to express what you love, hate, makes you laugh, admire, respect, wish you could be, and continue striving to become. It's SACRED TIME.
2. Know You're Steering the Ship. Sitting behind a keyboard means complete control. The published words on your personal blog are yours (not somebody else's spin). No watered-down mess requiring corporate approval or a committee's sign-off.
3. Pick Yourself. You didn't seek the approval of Random House or another member of the New York City publishing dynasty. You write. You publish. You promote. The daily, weekly, and monthly results are there to measure and interpret. And, the immediate audience feedback (or lack thereof) is a constant lesson in humility.
4. Press "Publish" Even When You Fear Your Content Sucks.Blogging teaches you how to address and deal with personal fear. Notice, I didn't say overcome it. The "F" in Freedom Is Blogging In Your Underwear stands for "Fear."
Rejection looms close by when you're a blogger. But, so does opportunity.
You learn over time that subscribers and readers who believe in your art stick with you. These audience members who vote with their precious time know you won't hit a home run with every-at-bat.
But, they expect you to consistently publish. Your subscribers expect you to show up. That's part of the deal. That's part of the mutual bond.
It's why I can't wait to repeat Reason #1 for as long as I humanly can.
5. Want To Hug Your Blog Subscribers (But, Not Necessarily in My Underwear, Or Theirs). The Social Media ReInvention Blog Community and subscriber base continues growing. I want to hug you and thank you for teaching and reinforcing how trust is earned one-person-at-a-time.
You've sent me emails with praise (especially at times when I really needed it), tweeted my posts on Twitter, "liked" them on Facebook, shared them on LinkedIn, and linked my posts to your respective blogs. It means so much to me — Thank You From the Bottom of My Heart!
6. Can Continuously Iterate and Experiment. 21st century self-publishing means everything is "a working draft." You can keep shaping, condensing, adding, or deleting. It's taken me three years to realize perfection is not the goal.
7. Trust Yourself to Write With Your Heart (Versus Type With Your Brain). Writing doesn't come naturally to me. I work at it every day (which I was I love it). I'm still learning when/how to write and structure my position in traditional, MBA-analysis mode (and when to just let'er rip and flow).
This is what the blogging community refers to as "finding your voice." I'm still searching. And, this self-discovery journey is empowering.
8. Realize There Are No Rules — There Are Only Guidelines. Great blog posts can be less than 140 characters or as long as 4,000+ words. You can use text, audio, video, and images (or a combination of all four). What makes a blog post great is in the eye of the beholder. It's art. Coloring outside-the-lines is encouraged.
9. Love Something So Much You Do It for Free (Sort of). I receive zero financial compensation for blogging. But, I consider blogging a valuable and significant time investment
It's not about getting paid. It's the joy and challenge of telling a story. It's about sharing. It's about saying thank you. It's about reminding yourself why you love it so much even on the days when you're struggling personally and/or professionally. It's about Reasons #1 through Reasons #10.
10. See and Embrace The Like-Minded. Google the phrase "blogging is dead" (without the quotation marks). You'll receive close to 57 million search results.
When I see that number and the different search headlines, here's what I see:
* I see opportunity.
* I see people who give didn't give up on their blogging / writing in the first six or seven months of launch.
* I see people who voraciously read books, periodicals, blog posts, newsletters, and all content in-between to learn ideas and insights they can deliver to and share with their subscribers.
* I see people who acknowledge this is a difficult and long-term endeavor.
* I see people proudly displaying, reading, and investing in this book:
The Premise / Goal / Timing of This Weekly Feature
Premise. If you like the content in this blog, maybe you'll also like the content I regularly read, study, and curate from the Web.
Goal. On a weekly basis, I'm going to publish links to three (3) articles I find interesting. I'll include a brief explanation why I decided to curate them.
1. Why The PC Will Die Soon (Fast Company). I suppose the real question to ask is "what do you mean by soon." I'm not completely sold that the PC or MacBook will completely go away (at least not yet).
But, I acknowledge consumers' desires to be "untethered" (I'm one of them). Consumer demand will continue driving advancements for better mobile and cloud applications enabling "heavy-lifting" content creation from a tablet (maybe even our smartphones someday).
Why I haven't purchased an iPad? Convenience in content creation is the determining factor.
I purchased a MacBook Pro about a month ago (and I LOVE IT). My MacBook Pro provides the essential capabilities for heads-down content creation (i.e., word processing, spreadsheets, infographics, presentation slides, etc.) that an iPad can't conveniently deliver (at least presently).
Plus, my MacBook Pro:
Is mobile and light (I bring it on business trips with my work computer)
Comes with an easy-to-use keyboard for typing lengthy documents
Includes a 500 gigabyte hard drive
Allows off-line usage
Is always "on and connected" (as long as I have access to a WiFi spot, I'm golden)
Has a DVD drive
Yes, I'd love to read my favorite technology content from The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Fortune, Fast Company, and Wired all from an iPad. Plus, I'd look really cool at the airport or a coffee shop by doing that with an iPad 3.
But, my laptop already does all of the above.
2. P&G To Slash $10 Billion in Costs Over Five Years (Advertising Age). Unfortunately, this decision includes 5,700+ jobs (including fewer P&G marketing executives). Chairman-CEO Bob McDonald says P&G will shift investments away from traditional vehicles like TV to digital channels (e.g., mobile and social media):
"To cut costs without sacrificing impact, Mr. McDonald said P&G is using technology to shift spending from more traditional vehicles like TV to digital and mobile advertising and more efficiently target consumers, "allowing us to build one-on-one personal relationships with every consumer." He also expects to use more multibrand efforts to spread spending more efficiently among brands. He cited the kickoff of P&G's Summer Olympics program in January, which he said delivered more than 2.5 billion impressions in traditional and social media the first month alone and produced a bigger overall impact than the brands could have had by spending individually."
Here's a direct quote and Key Conclusion #5 from the 2012 State of Inbound Marketing Report:
Businesses are increasingly aware their blog is highly valuable. 81% of businesses rated their company blogs as “useful,” “important” or “critical.” An impressive 25% rated their company blog as “critical” to their business.
And, there are more fact-based conclusions in the 2012 State of Inbound Marketing Report. Here are seven (7) reasons from HubSpot's data supporting the continuing relevance of blogging.
1. Blogs Are and Remain the Most Important Marketing Channel
Look Who's The #1 Social Media Channel in Terms of Importance. It's Blogs! LinkedIn, YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter all ranked in lesser importance. The hub-and-spoke social media strategy model works with a website or your blog as the center. Social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter are short-from outposts guiding customers back to your website or blog (the long-form hub).
3. Blogs Have the Lowest Cost-Per-Lead of Any Marketing Channel
52% of Respondents Say blogs are "Below Average" in Cost Per Lead. Blogs are the most cost efficient lead generation channel (inbound or outbound). Not surprisingly, trade shows are considered the most expensive.
Here's a direct quote from the respondent survey:
"The worst thing we did in marketing last year was attend several trade shows and events with low yield and ROI."
4. Blogs are Second Only to LinkedIn In Acquiring Customers
57% of Respondents Say Their Company Blog Acquired Customers. LinkedIn ranked first in customer acquistion. 62% of respondents validated its effectiveness. Interesting how "the two least sexy social media channels" ranked first and second respectively.
And, Speaking of Social Media Sexy – Blogs and LinkedIn Outdistanced Facebook and Twitter in Customer Acquisition. Don't believe the hype that long form content is dead. Or, consumer attention spans last only 140 characters or less.
HubSpot's 2012 Data Shows a Direct Correlation Between Post Frequency and Customer Acquisition. At a minimum, post at least once-per-week. But, increasing post frequency from weekly to twice per month provides significant benefits:
50 posts a year goes to 100 posts (that's the equivalent of 100 indexed web pages in Google)
An extra 50 posts, means double the number of keywords increasing SEO relevance
50 more web pages mean 5o more opportunities to earn inbound links (and increase Google authority)
6. Blogs Are Consistently Effective for Either B2B or B2C Companies
At a Minimum, Your Social Media Strategy MUST Include a Blog. The data shows blogs rank second in customer acquisition for either B2B or B2C companies. Number 1 for customer acquisition depended on business-type:
B2B: LinkedIn
B2C: Facebook
A Killer Social Media Strategy Incorporates at Least Three Customer Acquisition Platforms. The companies succeeding in social media are the ones who view these channels as customer acquisition weapons. Based on this data, a three-channel approach geared to customer acquistion by business-type would look like the following:
B2B: LinkedIn, Company Blog, Facebook or Twitter
B2C: Facebook, Company Blog, Twitter
7. Blogs Level the Playing Field for Small Companies
Small Companies Allocate Almost 4x the Marketing Budget to Blogs Versus Large Companies. Social media or inbound marketing channels are where small companies invest their marketing budget (i.e., social, SEO or organic search, and blogs). Large companies prefer outbound channels (i.e., trade shows, PPC or paid search, or direct mail).
