Oh No, It’s Weekend!!

Stuff that caught my attention this week, or posts that are worth mentioning.
Something to do or read over the weekend.

A Day in the Life of a Digital Marketing Consultant

For starters I liked Mike McGrail‘s post “A Day in the Life of a Digital Marketing Consultant“.
(Actually, this post is from the week before, but it kinda popped in my head when I started this post.., so I’m putting it up here anyway.)

A cool (and funny) post, the title says it all. For me this came exactly at the right moment. I wasn’t aware of how much I needed a schedule until I read this post.

It stimulated me to focus on my own daily routine. A routine which is, at the moment, dominated by our puppies. Eating, sleeping, pooping.., that kind of stuff. And in the meantime I have to focus on my start-up and this blog.

Mike is, and writes for, Velocity Digital.

To Almost Die

On the heavier side of things there is Geoff Livingston‘s post “To Almost Die“. A strong post questioning our mortality and asking the question how we feel about death.

Geoff writes very openly about his adventures which, give or take a split second or half an inch, could have ended his life prematurely. Having a daughter and plenty of positive things in his life, he questions the validity of walking the tight rope.

Sometimes we just need to read a heavy post to make us stop and think, to keep us grounded. You can’t walk with your head in the clouds all the time.

Geoff shares his thoughts on geofflivingston.com.

A Webinar

I stayed up late for a webinar by Stan Smith of Pushing Social fame and co-author of Born to Blog. Stan caught my attention through Mark Schaefer’s blog and because of the book. When I caught wind of his webinar “Side-Income Blogging” I decided I needed to attend. And it was worth it.

When you read a lot of blog posts about blogging then at some point you know a lot, you know how to set up a blog and how to write. Getting feedback is not that hard, a few comments, a few Tweets.., not that hard (especially when you use Triberr).

You think you know it all, but you don’t. There is always something new to learn. Stan teaches how to put all that knowledge into practice, and that’s where it counts.

Find out more about Stan and his webinars on Pushing Social.

And A Tutorial

Dino Dogan posted about Reblogging through the Triberr platform. It’s something that takes more shape with every iteration of the platform and frankly, I think it’s a great concept benefiting both the author and the blog that reblogs the post.

So, I decided to reblog the post about reblogging only to find that the post was already reblogged by Dino. So, I searched for the original post so I could reblog it properly.

I found it, written by Brent Carnduff on EchelonSEO.com. Then I started thinking and remembered I had written a similar post.

Triberr has many friends and supporters. And the more popular it gets, the more posts will be written about.
I mentioned it before, but the Triberr Team created a great and supporting community.

It’s textbook. And we can all learn from it.

Happy weekend people.

Just take it easy, man. – The Dude

 

A Song for a New King and 16 million opinions.

100430-Oranje BovenIn typical Dutch tradition everybody has an opinion about everything.

This usually manifests itself best when our national football (soccer) team is playing (badly), and the higher the stakes, the more opinions there are.

Everybody is a coach and knows what’s best for our team. But, in fact, next to the current national coach there might be 3 or 4 people in the land that can do an equal or better job. Not a couple of million (but that doesn’t stop them from having an opinion).

Now, 30th April we’ll have a new King, the first King since 1890, and the Dutch top of the poppers decided to create a song in his honour.

“Het Koningslied”

, or “A Song for a King”.

Now, I have an opinion about most things.., some things I know nothing about and I’m still able to form an opinion. I am often wrong and should learn to either say something positive or meaningful.., or say nothing.

I don’t like “Het Koningslied“. I never really liked Dutch music (just a few exceptions), and I do not particularly like Dutch singers.., especially when singing in Dutch (just a few exceptions).

“Het Koningslied” has the perfect formula for me not to like it.., and as I said, I don’t.

However:

  • It was not created for me.
  • It was not written by me.
  • It was not produced by me.
  • It was not recorded by me.

I know it took a lot of effort to create, that all involved spend time and gave it their all.
And now the whole nation has an opinion.., and it isn’t good. In fact it’s bad, really, really bad (and really sad).

Instead of adopting it for what it is, it got burned.., to the ground.

 

In fact, it received so much criticism that the producer of the song, John Ewbank (who wrote/produced a record number of eighteen #1 Dutch Top 40 hit singles) withdrew completely from the project. Ewbank received so much personal criticism that he decided that it was not worth being involved any longer.

Well done Dutchies… What a great way to show your appreciation for what was supposed to be a song of celebration and support.

The song isn’t that bad, it might not be to my taste, but that’s irrelevant. The people who created it made a valiant attempt to reflect the (royal) moment and the Dutch culture. I’d say that’s a very difficult thing to do.., and apparently impossible.

Why So Serious?

People.., do not take yourself so serious. Just because you can Tweet or write a comment on YouTube does not mean you have to, or that other people want to here it.
You could not have done a better job than Ewbank. The song was not written for you, but for your future King (and I believe he’d love it).

There’s a time and place for criticism and you are allowed to have your opinion. But, make it about a better moment or experience, offer help to improve, genuinely offer support.

There is no more neutrality in the world. You either have to be part of the solution, or you’re going to be part of the problem.
– Eldridge Cleaver said

People, chill out. Have fun, find positive outlets, be grateful, choose to be happy and appreciate each other.

 

The Social Media Paradox, will you break free?

I don’t want to miss anything.., so I stay on-line just a bit longer. Because I stay a little bit longer, there is a little bit more information, or a new follow. Which in turn leads to more information which is easily missed and I don’t want to miss anything.

the social media paradox

Attention

This paradox is fed by endless Twitter streams and endless Pinterest pages which lure us into a non-stop attention span. But, instead of having one concentrated attention span it is broken up in tiny fragments of 140 characters or a few 100 pixels.
Social media is not helping us with our attention deficit disorders.

Question

A question comes to mind though.
What if I stop scrolling, turn of the notifications or mark them all as read…

What will I miss?

Something important, not likely. Something valuable, that depends on who you follow.

Cost of Atttention

Here I must refer to, in my opinion, a truly valuable article by Srinivas Rao; “Time, attention, and the content creation curve

The advice given here is about the cost of attention.
A Tweet costing only 1 point and a book 6.
Although this is from a creating perspective, it translates perfectly to the recipient.

I am not saying that 6 Tweets equals a book (of course), the scale is a bit different than that. Srinivas isn’t suggesting this either.
The point is that reading a book is more valuable than reading a similar amount of Tweets on the same subject.

We focus more when reading a book, tend to be less distracted. The content is more focussed too and the chances of you retaining anything go up.
Do you remember the last Tweet you read?
Do you remember the last book you read?

Dealing with the paradox

Subscribe to less clutter. Be more selective in what you read or watch.
Pick your streams carefully, follow and read that which delivers the most value to you or your business.

How do you deal with this social media paradox?