As always, I would love feedback. Did you catch any of these posts this week? Did any of these resonate with you? What are some of your most recent favorite/intriguing/humorous reads? Even better, what’s your favorite thing YOU wrote this week Share it with me in the comments section.

Good Reads:
The New Rules of Hiring – Inc. Staff
Hope and the Magic Lottery – Seth Godin

Cool Stuff:
> Jamie Livingston chronicled nearly every single day of his life in Polaroids, from 1979 to 1997, until he passed away from illness. Poignant and moving.
> There are awesome people everywhere. Too bad our society focuses more on the bad seeds instead.

Funny Links:
The Most Inappropriate Mom Ever (Funny might not be the word. Maybe sad, disturbing, gross)
The 6 Most Insanely Misguided Attempts at Viral Marketing

Listen to This Song:
“Sunrise” – Ryan Bingham (Oscar Winning Ryan Bingham)

Quote:
“I don’t know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody.” — Bill Cosby

RSM Post to Re-Visit:
Mediocrity Equates to Winning & Profits

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If you stay on message and make the most of everyday you can do what you want and sell your company for tons of money.

This could lead to a book deal, which will invariably impress someone who you randomly crossed paths with 30 years prior. The two of you will likely receive a police escort to the hospital where you’ll have twins who’ll insist on a sick home theater system when they turn fifteen.

Hopefully they’ll eat red meat and help their grandma with her computer problems while you find time to listen to some light rock and the fight the urge to surrender while contemplating the impact your friends have on your life.

Good Reads:
Staying On Message – Matt Linderman (37 Signals)
How to Make the Most of Every Day – Samantha Karol (Simple & on point.)
Why Mark Zuckerberg Should Have a Carol Bartz Moment – Robert Scoble
Why I Sold Zappos – Tony Hsieh

Cool Stuff:
Ladies and Gents we have a BOOK DEAL!!! (This is cool because I love Jenny of course.)
Couple Appear in Same Disney Photo 30 Years Before They Met
(Awesome Story) To the Undercover Cop That Followed Me…
Escape Into 15 Fantastic Home Theaters To WOW You!

Funny Links:
Vegan vs. Carnivore
Why Old People Shouldn’t Use the Internet

Listen to This Song:
“Annabel’s Falling” – Greg Tannen

Quote:
“The harder you work, the harder it is to surrender.” — Vince Lombardi (I’ve said this my whole life, and to this day I respect a little league coach who pushed us harder than anyone has dared since…)

RSM Post to Re-Visit:
Do Your Friends Determine How How Successful You Are?

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In REWORK, we talk about how you need to be willing to let your customers outgrow you. There are more people who are not using your product than people who are; You need to make sure you make it easy for these people to get on board. That’s where your continued growth potential lies.

It’s the same for your marketing message. There may be .0001% who have read everything you’ve ever written and who want you to deliver something brand new. Follow their wishes and you’ll wind up with a tiny audience of experts while excluding the 99.9999% of people who have no idea who you are or what you think.

There’s a new batch of freshmen every year. Every day, there’s a new person discovering you for the first time. If your message is simple and accessible, they can become fans. If it’s geared exclusively to PhD candidates, these freshmen will never latch onto you.

And he’s 100% right. When I write social media marketing 101 posts I typically see spikes in traffic and an influx of comments. But to be candid, it grows tiresome for me.

I get more satisfaction researching and writing more complex posts, and the discussions that follow with the handful of people who want to extend the conversation.

Learning to take off is important, but once you have the foundation wouldn’t you rather keep growing and challenging yourself and others, as opposed to turning on autopilot?

For a business Matt is spot on, but what about a blog?

Do you have to pick a side? High traffic or complex thought and next-level discussions? What bloggers are able to consistently walk that line (i.e. Valeria Maltoni), maintain that balance? And what factors contribute to said balance?

Is it about finding unique and innovative ways to keep hammering out the same value proposition?

I don’t know the answer, and I don’t think I’m ready to pick a side. That’s why I’m asking you guys.

Thanks to Lauren Fernandez & Stuart Foster for help sparking this post.

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Good Reads:
Sunscreen Accelerates Cancer (and other stuff you don’t know – Julien Smith
It’s The Little Things – Alexandra Levit
Do-overs: 5 Things I Would Do Differently in Business – Amber Singleton Riviere
An Illustrated Guide to the Science of Influence & Persuasion – randfish
Meet Leroy Stick, The Man Behind @BPGlobalPR

Cool Stuff:
The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us – RSA Animate explains on a whiteboard on Youtube.
The 100 Most Creative People in Business in 2010

Funny Links:
Further Proof That Steve Martin is Amazing
Lamebook: Blonde Bombed

Listen to This Song:
“Trouble” – Wade Bowen

Quote:
“It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.” – Charles Darwin

RSM Post to Re-Visit:
Your Favorite Way to Communicate Doesn’t Matter

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But better isn’t always the only suitable solution, sometimes it’s just “different.” The main thing different in my life since last Friday is that I have a new job. I’m hoping it’ll be a great fit and that I’ll have the opportunity to really move the needle and make a positive impact.

Speaking of different, I’ve been wanting to try some new things here lately. I think there’s real value in filtering and sharing solid content. I’ve also enjoyed similar approaches to Friday posts (since nobody wants to think on Friday anyway) such as: Analagous Friday, Friday Quick Hits, and Friday Linky Love. With said, I’m hoping to make “Friday Grab Bag” a regular feature. Use the comments to let me know if you like it, and what else you’d like to see included.

Good Reads:
Self-knowledge Reigns! Every Interaction Unique! Their Eyes, Not Yours! — (Tom Peters)
Why Social Media Doesn’t Matter Anymore — (John Jantsch)
The Social Business Manifesto — (David Armano)
I Tweet, Therefore I Am… Empty? — Justin Kownacki
The “Like, Er, Lie” Economy — (Robert Scoble)

Cool Stuff:
10 YouTube Videos of People Doing Amazing Things
Greyson Chance Performing Lady Gaga’s “Paparazzi”

Funny Links:
The Funniest Kids Test Answers of All-Time
Awesome Kid Pens Hilarious To-Do List
Perfect Lock For Alcoholics

Listen to This Song:
“Maybe You” – Sean McConnell

Quote:
“For every piece of advice anyone gives you, there’s an equal & opposite piece of advice that someone else swears by.” — Justin Kownacki

RSM Post You Should Re-Visit:
Three Experiments to Retain Employees and Increase Productivity

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Let’s start with the #u30pro crew. If you’re not familiar with #u30pro it’s a Thursday night chat hosted on Twitter that highlights key issues facing you guessed it, under 30 pros and bridging the generation gap. It’s been a huge success, and that can be attributed in large part to these three people:

Lauren Fernandez – I think Lauren and I started talking when I found out she went to high school with my college roommate and we haven’t stopped since. Not only is she a talented and engaging blogger, but I love her sporadic thoughts during the day on gchat. A metrics whiz kid, Lauren, has gone above and beyond for me the last couple of weeks without me even asking for anything. That’s someone you should want in your corner.

David Spinks – Lauren’s co-founder and partner in crime for #u30pro, sometimes affectionately known as “Spinksy” is the Community and Project Manager for Scribnia.com. (They just launched a new website by the way!) In my opinion David is one of the more thoughtful and underrated bloggers out there right now. He’s extremely insightful and when he’s not taking leisurely cruises he can be found all over the Internet. I finally got to meet him at SxSW and he’s definitely a rock star you’ll want to follow.

Scott Hale – This #u30pro co-mod hasn’t blogged in a bit, but that’s okay because in my mind Scott provides the vast majority of his value somewhere other people often fail to take advantage of – the comments section of other people’s blogs. I read a lot of different people and everywhere I go I find an incredible and detailed comment from Scott, often times more valuable than the post itself.

Now let’s switch gears and let me give a shout to 3 people I miss chatting up from my time in Charlotte:

Brian Gainor – I connected with Brian because we were both deeply embedded in the sports marketing world. He’s an agency guy by day, and runs his own site Partnership Activation in the evenings. In fact that he’s run it so successfully he’s been featured in many influential sports publications, and even has people applying to be interns despite the fact that he’s a one man show. He’s since moved to Milwaukee, but I’d still love to have another beer with Brian and meet his talented wife Laura.

Roy Morejon – Roy and I first started talking at the CLTwestival and then talked more at subsequent events like SoFresh Charlotte. The guy works like 16 hours a day, specializing in social media and brand management. He’s also very knowledgeable about SEO. On top of all that he’s an avid golfer. He’s tough to meet up with so I appreciated when he made time to grab a beer with me before I left the east coast.

Lisa Hoffman – Lisa is the kind of person you meet for the first time and you feel like you’ve known her forever. She’s so friendly and relatable it’s easy to forget just how smart and talented she is. A social media specialist for Duke Energy, Lisa was doling out hugs at a social media breakfast despite the fact we’d only me once before. Can’t wait to reconnect with her at a conference in the future!

What do you think of recognizing people this way? Should this become a Friday staple?

Who should I #FollowFriday that I might be missing out on? Let me know in the comments.

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(omgtheworldisgoingtoend)

Excuse me while I don’t apologize. As I’ve said before I’m a proponent of not blogging unless you have something valuable to say.

But there’s more to it than that sometimes…

There are mornings you wake up and you just don’t feel productive, inspired, enthusiastic, etc. Ask yourself, how much do you really get done when these feelings (or lack thereof) overwhelm you?

And I get that as a professional it’s your responsibility, your job even, to trudge through the items on your to-do list anyway. But there’s a big difference in doing what it takes to get an “A,” and being excited about what you’re doing to the point that you know you’re going to do your absolute best regardless of the end critique. Isn’t it these projects, tasks, posts that turn out the best anyway?

Lately I haven’t felt the itch to blog. And so I haven’t.

Instead I have:

• Read a book
• Worked out more
• Tried some new restaurants
• Visited Friends
• Danced
• Had important conversations
• Fought for something I believe in
• Played a lot of basketball
• Researched some new projects
• Tried some new recipes
• Wrote some posts in other genres you’ll probably never see

Could I have made time for blogging? Without a doubt, but here’s the truth: Blogging can’t feel like a chore, and I do it as much for me as I do it to provide value for my community. I’m selfish sometimes, and that’s okay

Andrew Norcross told me he feels like he only writes when he needs to rant.

Well I write when I’m ranting, but I also write when I’m learning, and I need to get my thoughts on paper in order to diagnose the jumbled assortment of thoughts running rampart in my head. I write when I read something that compels me to respond, but I never write when I don’t feel like it, or just because I haven’t written in a long time.

It comes back to the ebb and the flow. It’s the way your productivity mirrors your mood throughout your work day and it’s the way you crave a certain food until you don’t, or the way you always read Writer X until you finally burn out of their content. Chances are you’ll come back, but you can’t force yourself or you’ll end up with lackluster results.

At SxSW I asked where Andy Drish had been lately, and Monica said he’d been too busy making money. (Congrats by the way Andy!)

Rest assured I haven’t been too busy making money, but I have been busy doing things that at the time were more important to me than writing here. That’s really the moral of this story: Write when you’re passionate about getting something down, something out, but don’t do it because you feel like you’re falling behind, losing influence, or because it says so on some schedule.

Write when you can’t keep it from spilling out all over the page.

Do you sometimes write a post because you’re trying to stick to a schedule? Because you haven’t written anything in a while and you feel obligated? What about the ebb and the flow in your workplace? Are you uber productive sometimes and not-so-much others?

Tweet This: (Copy & Paste into Twitter):
The Ebb & The Flow–> http://bit.ly/91ycaD

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Though some people called him Negative Nancy, he was right, and we see it more often than we care to admit. In the comments Monica asks two important questions, “How do people know when they’ve become drones in someone else’s community?” and “How do we take down those that use social media to do this to people?”

To answer her first question, I suspect the overwhelming majority doesn’t have a clue when they’ve become a drone. For their benefit, some symptoms of drone syndrome include, but aren’t limited to:

• Nodding along with everything you read, never challenging the author
• Reading something like “work harder than other people and you’ll succeed,” knowing it’s as generic as the advice from a Tarot card reader, but accepting it just because technically it isn’t false
• Re-tweeting their posts without reading it just because they’re your friend, you respect them, etc.
• Referring everyone to their work regardless of their actual need

Since the history of time the average person wants someone to stand up and say, “this is what we’re going to do, follow me.” Many of you that read this post probably don’t fall into this category often, but you sometimes do.

How many times have you just wanted you friend, your significant other, etc. to just pick a movie, place to eat, etc. It might not be EXACTLY what you wanted to watch or what you were hungry for, but if it isn’t completely blasphemous you’re down. Besides, it’s easier than continuing to argue/be indecisive, right?

That is kind of what I liken this current epidemic to, picking out a movie. If someone’s content is ‘good enough’ you’ll go along with it. Calling out their taste in movies doesn’t work, and choosing your own movie and watching it in the back bedroom probably isn’t a very good solution either.

So then how do we answer Monica’s second question?

We’ve already acknowledged people just want someone to lead, and maybe that’s the key here. Maybe you have to consistently craft content so great that at some point they get tired of watching Channing Tatum try to act and they realize that The Hurt Locker will blow their mind.

And it’s hard. If it wasn’t the drones would easily see the trap they’re falling into and they wouldn’t aimlessly agree with everything someone else writes as he/she steps on their head like a rung in ladder to the top of the blogosphere.

For most people calling them out only makes you seem jealous. Pointing fingers at the drone questions their intellect (and nobody is going to respond well to that).

The solution is to get out of the fishbowl, make it a competition, and find a way to win. Drones are notoriously nimble bandwagon fans and when they see you take the lead they’ll try to ride your coattails. When they do, don’t manipulate them. Demand they call you on your bullshit. Demand they challenge you, and push you to keep stay atop your game. Then deliver the goods, not re-packaged generic garbage.

Tweet This: How to Sway Drones, Kill the Queen Bee, & Take Over the Hive –> http://bit.ly/cI3OK4

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They read your blog because they like YOUR thoughts and YOUR writing

If people wanted to read about what all those other people thought they would subscribe to them. They don’t. They subscribe to your blog. They’ve grown accustomed to your disposition and they like what you have to say. This is especially true if you’re really smart and have really good insights.

Let’s be honest. It’s a bit overwhelming.

An occasional guest post is refreshing and probably a welcome reprieve in which you don’t have to think up anything clever, but a week, two weeks, a month? That’s just lazy. If people are used to seeing 2 posts a week in from you in their reader and then they start getting 5, chances are they’re skipping the extra three.

Why People Are Reading Your Guest Post Series

They get introduced to new writers.

Let’s face it, it’s impossible to keep up with all the talented bloggers out there. Chances are the people that read your blog trust you so if you’ve identified someone talented then by all means share them with your readers.

While they enjoy your writing they appreciate a different perspective all in one place.

Sometimes new perspective, especially if it’s a good fit for what you normally write about (or sometimes if it is the complete opposite – confusing huh!?), provides a nice change of pace. Sometimes your audience might be growing tired of the same ‘ol opinion and genuinely appreciate you mixing it up. Think of it like a married couple trying to spice up their sex life.

One of the twenty people who contributed to the series tweeted about it five times.

There’s nothing wrong with this. You write because you think what you have to say is important and so do they. A series of guest post means that instead of one person self-promoting you have multiple people spreading the word. This means more traffic and potentially new readers. I can get behind that.

Do you enjoy guest post series? What are some other things that draw you into guest post series? What makes you stray away?

Tweet This: Why People Aren’t Reading Your Guest Post Series –> http://bit.ly/bW0oCX

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• I don’t like seeing hard work go unnoticed
• Despite Gary V’s insistence, I love LOST

For those two reasons I wanted to take a break from business/marketing discussions and share one of my friend’s LOST Season VI Preview (Embedded Below). It’s extremely thorough and the design is tasteful and engaging.

If you’re a fan of the show I think you’ll find it worth your time. If you are not, how could you design similar PDFs, slide decks, etc. to market and share something you’re passionate about? Your business?

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