heyNathan

The New Look of Working

cubicle17:

I’ve heard some ridiculous chatter around the office recently about how some people “obviously aren’t working because they don’t spend enough time at their desks”. While it may have been true in the past that employees were working only when they were sitting in their desks with their heads down for 8 hours a day, that simply isn’t true anymore. These days working looks markedly different…

These days working looks like staying at home so you can get more done with less distraction. It looks like walking around the office so you can talk to your colleagues face-to-face instead of through e-mail. Working looks like taking a break every hour so you can remain focused over an entire day. Working looks like a day without meetings, and looks like eating lunch somewhere other than your desk. It looks like leaving two hours early because you’re ahead of schedule. Working even looks like spending the weekend doing what you want to do, not spending it in the office.

One thing that working does not necessarily look like, however, is busy. After all, the only real way to tell if someone is working is by their results, and that’s how it should have been all along.

Seth Godin on the Forces of Mediocrity

claudia:

bauldoff:

“Remarkable visions and genuine insight are always met with resistance. And when you start to make progress, your efforts are met with even more resistance. Products, services, career paths… whatever it is, the forces for mediocrity will align to stop you, forgiving no errors and never backing down until it’s over.

If it were any other way, it would be easy. And if it were any other way, everyone would do it and your work would ultimately be devalued. The yin and yang are clear: without people pushing against your quest to do something worth talking about, it’s unlikely it would be worth the journey. Persist.” (via his blog)

On FriendFeed

heather-rivers:

Seriously? How many ways can we invent to monitor each others’ lives before monitoring is all anyone does? Lately the interweb feels like a large, tightly packed crowd of people, motionless, all feverishly glancing around, waiting for someone to blink. Then when someone does, the twelve people near enough to see it start shouting “WE GOT A BLINKER! RIGHT HERE, BLINKED! SAW IT MYSELF! SOMEBODY TIMESTAMP THIS BITCH!” “Did you see that guy who just saw that one girl blink?” “Yeah, that made me laugh. I posted it on Facebook and it showed up on my FriendFeed, and then the girl saw it and totally Twittered ‘LOL that was me’.”

Kudos to those of you with lots of original content. That’s why I follow you.

(Filed under “great meta ironic reblog potential”)

Amen.

Social media advertising, done right.

Let’s consider it a good thing that brands and organizations are so interested in utilizing social platforms on the web. Even the big agencies are starting to realize they need to get beyond the Flash-tastic/experiential/brochure-ware sites that have become so prevalent in advertising. Making a commitment to promoting your brand through social media may sound simple enough, but doing it right requires that designers, developers and their clients truly understand what works and what doesn’t.

Social advertising done right:

1. Create meaningful offline experiences for your audience, THEN build online destinations that enhance and reflect those real-world experiences.
2. Add value to existing social platforms - create content, applications and social tie-ins that reflect your brand while providing value to the online community.
3. Choose platforms that accurately represent your audience and message. Virb may be an awesome site, but how many teenagers in Quebec are using it? Does video serve as the primary creative in your campaign? Dedicating your resources to YouTube and Vimeo may be a better bet than a Facebook app.
4. Branch out. People use more than one site - your brand should do the same. Tie your campaign into multiple platforms and connect them all as much as possible.
5. Don’t forget, people still like to touch things! Print collateral, merch, giveaways, etc.. Use real stuff as the hook to drive people to your online initiatives.
6. Take chances creatively. A significant challenge to swimming in the social media pool is that the inherent lack of filters means you’ll be competing to stand out. Drop some compelling content. Make a big splash. Get noticed.
7. Clearly define the goals of your online campaign. How are you monitoring its effectiveness - number of ‘friends’, comments, a specific call to action, quantity or quality of impressions? Best to ask these questions early and often.
8. Have a plan for sustaining and supporting your social presence. Creating a profile on Facebook, MySpace or Virb may get the ball rolling, but how will you continue to build your visibility over time?

Social advertising gone wrong:

1. “The tv spots air tomorrow! Does anyone know how to skin a MySpace page?!!”
2. Your budget should be aligned with the social strategy. Sinking all your dollars into a traditional media buy can be a big mistake. Invest in quality content. Let the audience do the rest.
3. Blind ‘friending’ can be worthwhile, but don’t expect it to move mountains of people to your brand.
4. Don’t depend on luck. There are plenty of great vids on YouTube that never get seen. Push your content in every way conceivable. Take part in the community. Create more opportunities for people to find you.
5. Assuming your content is cooler than cool? Too stubborn to make a creative shift? The masses are fickle and you better be flexible. Expect the unexpected and respond.
6. No matter how cool your website is, it is not the destination! Don’t expect people to come to you. Go to the users and give them a reason to interact with your brand.