bill johnstonBill and I finally met face to face at this year’s SXSW AllHat Party (thanks to Armano and the good people at Dell). Bill is one of those lucky social media/community evangelists that get to call Sonoma, California home. Imagine that. While he’s not managing communities, building social media strategies for clients, and running great conferences, he’s basking in wine country.

So, on to interview #28 in the 7 Habits of Highly Effective Social Marketers Series.

About Bill
He’s JUST about to join the Dell Social Media/Community team down in Austin, TX. (I’ll let him fill you in with more details)

1. What one trait or habit got you to where you are today?
Confronting and working through fear. I found that the scariest option is often the right one. As an example, I remember almost blowing off my interview TechRepublic back in 1999. I was really intimidated by the prospect of working for a startup, and I had no idea what I would be getting myself into. About 10 minutes before the interview, I sat in the parking lot with my car in drive and debating just driving off. If I had blown that interview I would very likely have never “broken in” to tech and certainly wouldn’t have the online community building experience I have today.

2. Your work day just started, what’s the FIRST thing you do and why?
Coffee first (of course) then I skim email from the last 12 hours to see if there are any fires… then check twitter replies and skim my “a list” sources.

3. What makes you efficient with your day?
Having a weekly to do list.

4. Your Favorite Business book of all time?
A tie between “Good to Great” by Collins and “The Effective Executive” by Drucker. I am a recovering art student, so I have had to supplement my business and management training :)
A few other books that will always have a place on my office bookshelf include:
Bit Literacy - Mark Hurst / A fantastic productivity guide I describe as GTD “lite”.
Universal Traveler – Koberg and Bagnall / A guide for design and creativity that includes process, tips and techniques.
Community Building on the Web – Amy Jo Kim / The online community bible. Examples are somewhat dated, but concepts are still relevant.
Information Architecture: Blueprints for the Web – Wodtke / The IA bible. I keep bugging Christine to write a new edition that includes design for the social web.

5. 3 things on your desk right now
Iphone
Coffee
Graph paper pad & post its – I’m a paper freak, which I attribute to the recovering art student thing.

6. Habit you want to kick in 2009
Trying to manage projects and tasks in multiple formats. I’ve used paper, a template I developed in Word, OmniFocus, Things and have attempted to adopt GTD methodologies. What *really* works for me? Taking time at the end of the day on Friday, or 30 minutes over the weekend to develop a simple task list that breaks down tasks by project, and has a simple priority assigned to each task.

7. Habit you want to form for 2010
Becoming a better (and smarter) information consumer, curator and producer. Specifically, this means being more discerning about the content streams I pay attention to, being more systematic about how I save and share “the good stuff” and become more disciplined about producing content (specifically: blogging).

BONUS pictures of Bill’s office!
PastedGraphic-2

PastedGraphic-1



PrintFriendly
Tagged with:  

CCAs we all take our collective breaths from  an eventful SXSW, let’s get back into the “ 7 Habits of Highly Effective Social Marketers” Series.

Next up is CC Chapman.

I honestly can’t think of a friendlier, more approachable guy in the business of social media. When he’s not creating terrific content online, he’s probably snapping a photo of you and popping it up on Flickr. (NOTE- a few of my favorite collections are here and here)

About CC
C.C. Chapman is a Boston based family first entrepreneur, freelance photographer and digital storyteller. He is a Creative Director at Campfire and the Founder of Digital Dads.

1. What one trait or habit got you to where you are today?
I was raised with a strong work ethic and while it frustrated me more then once growing up, I’m very thankful that my parents instilled it in me. Growing up in a blue collar family I think grounded me in the reality of the world and constantly pushes me to do the work rather then just talking about it.

2. Your work day just started, what’s the FIRST thing you do and why?
Pour a cup of coffee and sit down on the couch with the laptop. It is the first thing I do every morning before the kids go to school to do my morning surf of Twitter, E-mail and Google Wave.

3. What makes you efficient with your day?
I’ve never found a single productivity methodology that worked for me. What I know I couldn’t live without and keeps me on task is Spaces on the Mac. It allows me to have multiple desktops with different programs opened in each. I recently moved from 9 to 12 and it has made all the difference. I don’t know how I got so much done before this.

4. Your Favorite Business book of all time?
Just one? Wow, that is a tough one. There are three that have made huge impacts on my career directly and those would be:

First, Break All the Rules
Made to Stick
The Dip

Each of them has caused a seismic shift in the way I thought and approached business.

5. 3 things on your desk right now/3 things you can’t live without
Those are two VERY different questions, so I’ll answer both.

On my desk:
My Canon S90 camera
A signed copy of
Freedom by Daniel Suarez
Navy blue Nalgene water bottl
e (that I should refill)

Can’t live without:
Notebooks to jot down ideas (I go back and forth between Field Notes & Moleskines)
a camera (can be any of the many I own)
a device to connect to the internet.

6. Habit you want to kick in 2010
Being highly distractible. With so much going on it is very easy for me to jump from one screen to the next and suddenly find myself deep in a rabbit hole and not being productive. I hate this, so I deemed 2010 the year of FOCUS for me and so far it is working pretty good but it is a constant struggle. Sometimes I feel like Doug the Dog in the movie Up! Squirrel!

7. Habit you want to form for 2010
Becoming a disciplined writer. I’ve got a goal to write at least a real book proposal, if not the full book this year and in order to do that I’ve got to learn to set aside time and make it a priority.

BONUS: Picture of CC’s Office!

cc's office


PrintFriendly
Tagged with:  

Diane - 2009 Headshot. small jpg

It’s people like Diane Hessan who make me look forward to opening up my computer, firing up Twitter, and listening to her stream of of consciousness. She’s the best of the best when you think of CEO’s on Twitter. I’m honored to call her a friend, a mentor and one of my favorites in the  ongoing “7 Habits of Highly Effective Social Marketers” Series. Thanks Diane!

About Diane
I am CEO of Communispace. We help many of the world’s most admired companies listen to, and get insights from, their customers — by building and managing online communities. We have about 100 clients and over 250 employees.


1. What one trait or habit got you to where you are today?
I love to laugh.

2. Your work day just started, what’s the FIRST thing you do and why?
I hang out at the coffee machine with employees and find out what they are working on that excites them – because it inspires me.

3. What makes you efficient with your day?
I have the best executive assistant in Boston. He is patient and super smart, and he anticipates every possible thing that could go wrong with my day.

4. Your Favorite Business book of all time?
First, my 12th grade physics book Concepts like momentum, critical mass, vectors, energy, and force are key to building a growing and profitable company.

Secondly, Customer-Centered Growth, which I co-authored in 1995, because it was an enormous intellectual challenge for an extrovert like me.

Thirdly, In Search of Excellence, written by one of my mentors, Tom Peters, which first raised the notion that some companies are intentionally more amazing than the rest of the pack.

5. 3 things on your desk right now/3 things you can’t live without
My blackberry
my laptop,
and my Red Sox Trivia Calendar
(The record for the most strikeouts in a single season is Pedro Martinez in 1999).

6. Habit you want to kick in 2010
When I start our 8:30 a.m. bimonthly all-staff meetings, I say “Good Morning Everyone!”, which really bothers our employees in Europe and Australia.

7. Habit you want to form for 2010.
I want to pick up the phone at least 3 times a week, call a client, and tell them how much we value their confidence in us. I also need to take more vitamins.

PrintFriendly