All Entries Tagged With: "highly effective"
7 Habits of Highly Effective Social Marketers- Bill Johnston
Bill 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)
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).
7 Habits of Highly Effective Social Marketers- CC Chapman!
As 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 bottle (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!
7 Habits of Highly Effective Social Marketers- Diane Hessan
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.
7 Habits of Highly Effective Social Marketers- Mike Volpe
As the Dialogue team ramps up for SXSW (the Super Bowl of Social Media Conferences) we’re still interviewing some great marketers out there. Mike Volpe is our featured Social Marketer today. If you haven’t already, take 30 minutes on a Friday afternoon to watch Mike and Karen Rubin talk Inbound Marketing on their weekly television show/podcast/live-streaming event, Hubspot TV
About Mike
I’m Mike Volpe, and I love Marketing! I work as VP Inbound Marketing at HubSpot, where I get to lead a team of marketers as well as create a lot of content on our blog, for our TV show, and by speaking a lot too.
1. What one trait or habit got you to where you are today?
Passion! You need to find a job that allows you to leverage your passion. I mean it’s late at night right now, but I’m having fun writing about marketing because I love it. Focusing on your passion makes everything else a lot easier.
2. Your work day just started, what’s the FIRST thing you do and why?
Read. I read my email. I read blogs and news in my RSS reader. I read Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn. I read my reports in HubSpot analytics. You need to know what is going on before you can do something productive.
3. What makes you efficient with your day?
Seclusion time. I need at least 1 hour a day where I have zero interruptions and I just crank through all my inboxes and tasks. If not, it starts to back up and the problem gets worse. I tend to really focus in on things, and if I get distracted, I have a lot of trouble refocusing, so I need to comepletely uninterrupted time to be super productive. I actually book this time in my calendar, and if I am in the office, I will go hide someplace so no one can bother me.
4. Your Favorite Business book of all time?
New Rules of Marketing and PR by David Meerman Scott. He recently rewrote a lot of it to update it for a new addition. The month that book came out, I sent him and email with the subject line “Our company (HubSpot) was based on your book”. While HubSpot was founded before the book came out, it was a true statement. We had lunch the next week and David and I are friends now, and he’s been a great advisor. I should also mention that “Inbound Marketing” by Brian Halligan and Dharmesh Shah (the foreword is by David Meerman Scott) is another take ont he same subject, with probably more “how to” examples.
5. 3 things on your desk right now/3 things you can’t live without
iPhone – Not because I am in love with Apple (I don’t like them much) but because it makes me a lot more productive, I’ll replace it the second something better is available (please Google… help!)
Google Apps - I used Outlook for years, but once I converted and got used to Gmail/Gcal, I am faster and more efficient
DropBox – Having all my important files available anywhere, and collaborating with my team more easily is great
With the combination of these 3 things, I have stopped carrying a laptop and a bag except when I travel on planes. I just walk out of the office. I have a laptop that mostly stays in the office, a desktop in my house, and also a netbook for around the house and sometimes travel.
6. Habit you want to kick in 2010
Checking Twitter too much! It is usually pretty distracting, and can be addictive. And to be honest, most of the super important stuff there ends up getting to me through other channels. But, I do need to make time for it, just in a few 10 minutes chunks during the day (TweetDeck on the iPhone helps a lot with this).
7. Habit you want to form for 2010
Inbox Zero. I have been getting better… around 100 messages in my inbox on average the past few months, rather than 300-ish – but I want to really try to keep it under 10-20, and maybe even hit zero. We’ll see… I mean, I just got rid of this message!
7 Habits of Highly Effective Social Marketers – Phil Johnson
To end the week in our “7 Habits Series” , let’s have a chat with Phil Johnson, one of the best creative minds out there. When he’s not jetting around the country with clients, friends and other marketing luminaries he’s at home in his Cambridge office, just steps away from Harvard Square. And if you have the time on a Thursday afternoon, take a moment to listen to his agency’s weekly radio show on Social Media with Mike O’Toole and Hugh Kennedy – There’s alway something interesting happening over there.
About Phil
I’m the CEO of PJA Advertising + Marketing. We call ourselves an ad agency, but we’re really interested in all the ways that people communicate with each other, and especially how new technologies are changing our experiences and behaviors.
1. What one trait or habit got you to where you are today?
I’m a talent groupie. Nothing gets me excited like meeting someone with a great mind, a wonderful imagination, and better ideas than me. Sometimes I can’t sleep until I recruit them.
2. Your work day just started, what’s the FIRST thing you do?
Well at PJA, we all punch a time clock. Just kidding. I don’t know exactly when the workday starts. After I drop my son at school, I start thinking about business. But once I get to the office, I’ve got to check to see if there are any donuts in the kitchen, then put on some music, and play around with Tweet Deck. Next thing I know I’m writing stuff, going to meetings, and talking on the phone. I think that’s work.
3. What makes you efficient with your day?
It’s sad, but I’m just not efficient, but I’ve learned a couple of tricks. Every day, I jot down three things I absolutely want to get done. I’m always happy if I do two of them.
4. Your Favorite Business book of all time?
I’m not a huge fan of traditional business books, but here are three books that I really like, and they are kind of about business:
Fast Company, How Six Master Gamblers Defy the Odds – and Always Win, by Jon Bradshaw. These stories reveal tons about entrepreneurship and human nature.
Stumbling On Happiness, by Daniel Gilbert. Understanding how we pursue happiness is very helpful if you’re in the business of influencing people.
Here Comes Everybody, by Clay Shirky. This book helps explain how all these cool web 2.0 technologies that we love are redefining society.
5. 3 things on your desk right now/ 3 things you can’t live without
Diet Dr Pepper
PJA note pads
My tiny Bose speakers.
Those things, and my MacBook, are all I need.
6. Habit you want to kick in 2010
I think I’ll start with trans fats and then move on to butter, sugar, excessive amounts of empty carbohydrates, and alcohol.
7. Habit you’d like to form for 2010
I wish that all of us at PJA would connect to each other on a delicious network and get disciplined about tagging the content that fires up our imaginations. We’ve got a collection of really interesting people, and their collective knowledge is very powerful. I’d like to do a better job of harnessing it.
7 Habits of Highly Effective Social Marketers – Colin Browning
Colin Browning- Photo Credit Jim Storer
He’s # 15 in your scorecards, and number one in your hearts, ladies and gentleman, THE Colin Browning…..
About Colin
Colin had recently left New Marketing Labs to join IDG. He now designs marketing programs for leading technology brands as a part of IDG’s Strategic Marketing Services team.
1. What one trait or habit got you to where you are today?
I started as a photographer. I learned from the beginning that to stand out, I needed to see things differently and to make others see things differently.
2. Your work day just started, what’s the FIRST thing you do and why?
My work day starts when my eyes first open in the morning. I do some of my best creative thinking as I make my cup of coffee and take those first sips as I am thinking about the day ahead. My morning coffee ritual and day mapping is a critical part of my successful days.
3. What makes you efficient with your day?
Getting a solid 8 hours of sleep the night before, followed by a morning workout – then no matter what the day throws at me – I am can take it head on!
4. Your Favorite Business book of all time?
I have to say, I have been much more inspired by reading the bios of great artists lately like Arthur Danto’s bio of Robert Mapplethorpe or a biography of Andrew Wyeth (can’t recall the author). These have inspired me with their singularity of focus, dedication, and talent.
5. 3 things on your desk right now/3 things you can’t live without
I am going to cheat and write things in multiples (I hate rules):
Photos of my family & friends (iRoadtrip!)
iPhone
notepad & pen
6. Habit you want to kick in 2010
Evening TV – like many, I do tend to get sucked in.
7. Habit you want to form for 2010
Spending more of my evenings playing with the kids and then reading a wider range of material: fiction, non-fiction (not just the social media stuff) and biographies.
7 Habits of Highly Effective Social Marketers- Carissa Caramanis O’Brien
It gives me great pleasure to introduce interview #13 of the “7 Habits” Series. Carissa Caramanis O’Brien is a communications, content marketing and social media luminary in Boston. While she’s not running her own company, she also happens to be an EMT-B- and some of us had a chance to see here in action (Jan. ‘10) during a bit of medical emergency at Jeff Pulver’s 140 Conference in Boston
About Carissa
I’m Carissa Caramanis O’Brien, or @carissao. I’m the president of Red Box Communications, a consulting firm specializing in strategic communications counsel for healthcare, non-profits and technology organizations. I help people tell their stories and connect them to the audiences that matter most.
1. What one trait or habit got you to where you are today?
Determination. Even when work or life has dealt me a challenging hand, I’ve always found an even keel and a steady hand. Add that to a healthy dose of personal faith, a heck of a lot of hard work, continuous flexibility and just a dash of madness, and I’ve got the recipe for creating something great…it’s gotten me this far, and I’m counting on it to fuel my next successes.
2. Your work day just started, what’s the FIRST thing you do and why?
I check my email and Twitter (via Tweetdeck, unless I’m on the road, in which case I do a quick check of UberTwitter first). Unless something urgent welcomes me there, I’ll quickly move to Firefox to pull up Google Reader and simultaneously start my daily content assault to see just how many open tabs my system can really handle.
3. What makes you efficient with your day?
First and foremost, a recognition that I’m still not as efficient as I want to be. I am a work in progress. In my quest for efficiency, I rely mostly on simple, low-tech tools…daily to-do lists (one professional and one personal) and a common kitchen timer. Each night, I draft my to-do lists for the next day, ensuring at least the top priorities are captured. I recognize, of course, I’ll add to these or adjust them the next morning, but it helps me set the stage for the day ahead and plan accordingly. I owe good friend Tim Walker (@TWalk) for the timer idea. He suggested it for better time management while writing. I’ve found it to be an incredibly simple, yet disciplined means for budgeting my time and keeping me honest.
4. Your favorite business book of all time?
I always hesitate to pick a favorite because I’m incapable of choosing any ONE of virtually anything, and my favorites tend to fluctuate over time. I’m sure others will mention the likely suspects like Godin, Carnegie, Covey and the newer hits of Brogan and Vaynerchuk, all greats. A few I’d include are “Good to Great” by Jim Collins, “Making it All Work” by David Allen (better known for “Getting Things Done,” another winner) and “Oh, the Places You’ll Go” by Dr. Seuss. While I’m not a huge Seuss gal, that book was gifted to me by my first employer out of college, ironically the week I was planning to give notice. While I was naively struggling with the idea of the impending breakup, that book’s message was timely…“So be sure when you step. Step with care and great tact. And remember that life’s a great balancing act…You’re on your own. And you know what you know. And YOU are the one who’ll decide where to go.”
5. Three things on your desk right now/3 things you can’t live without?
My 17” HP laptop, which I love for many reasons, but will likely get replaced by a Macbook by the end of the year (especially now that I also have my Acer netbook);
My Blackberry Storm, which has served me well and keeps me connected, but will also be replaced as soon as Nexus One is available on Verizon (Spring 2010);
The very first photo taken of my daughter…my joy, my inspiration, my constant reminder of the woman I want to be.
6. Habit you want to kick in 2010?
I will find a way to ditch the guilt. Building a business, managing a household and raising a child are all tough jobs. Balance is something I’ve learned to concede. Instead, I want to be successful at flexibility, bending and shifting to match my diverse priorities and meet the needs of each. With that, I’ll find a way to let go of the guilt, of the professional that’s not with her kid, and of the mom that should be working on that blog post. I need to be a master of more than one thing, but that requires a healthy perspective of what success really looks like.
7. Habit you want to form for 2010?
Putting first things first. I’m easily drawn to the next exciting thing, but I mustn’t allow myself to be distracted from the priorities on my plate. A primary goal here is to refocus on a life-long habit by honoring my roots as a writer. After spending much of this year building a business, and helping clients craft their stories, I will get back to a regular schedule of my own content creation.
7 Habits of Highly Effective Social Marketers- Scott Henderson
In Interview #12 of the “7 Habits of Highly Effective Social Marketers” we have Scott Henderson, an Indiana native (sorry about the Colts Scotty) and someone who will soon be moving east to Boston. Will Scott join Red Sox Nation? Only time will tell.
About Scott
Scott is Principal of Rally the Cause and CauseShift.com-Game changing ideas for causes, companies, and charities.
1. What one trait or habit got you to where you are today?
My delusional optimism has helped me jump off many cliffs without thinking of the reasons why not to do it. Most of the time, I do pretty well. But sometimes, I’ve had to be scraped off the canyon floor.
2. Your work day just started, what’s the FIRST thing you do and why?
I review my inbox, Twitter, and blogs to collect any action items. Then, I review the list of action items I created the night before and make sure I’m focused on the most important one before I start.
3. What makes you efficient with your day?
Scheduling my days in blocks of time when I’m not traveling. As much I can, I use the first half of the morning for planning, writing, and organizing, while the late morning is for phone calls and in-person meetings. Over lunchtime, I take about two hours to workout and eat. I structure my afternoons much like my mornings. In the evening after my son goes to bed, I will sometimes spend time writing and organizing because of the lack of interruption.
4. Your Favorite Business book of all time?
I’ve learned more from reading Machiavelli’s The Prince than from any contemporary business book.
5. 3 things on your desk right now/3 things you can’t live without
MacBook Pro
iPhone
Headphones
6. Habit you want to kick in 2010
Checking email and Twitter as often as I do.
7. Habit you want to form for 2010
Spending more of my evenings away from the computer.
7 Habits of Highly Effective Social Marketers – Laura Fitton
In Interview #11 of the “7 Habits of Highly Effective Social Marketers” series we interview Laura “Pistachio” Fitton- fresh from her first vacation in SIX years- welcome back Laura. If you haven’t already met Laura, it might make sense to listen to her tweets (disclosure, she tweets a lot) and read her book, Twitter for Dummies. Right now she’s in in the middle of her next entrepreneurial venture at One Forty.
About Laura
I am the CEO and founder of oneforty inc., which has been widely dubbed “Twitter’s AppStore.” We help people get more out of Twitter by discovering and sharing the most effective Twitter tools for their work and life.
1. What one trait or habit got you to where you are today?
ADD. No really, I am constantly scanning the horizon and that definitely contributes to my uncanny (you could even call it excessive) luck.
2. Your work day just started, what’s the FIRST thing you do and why?
Check email & Twitter, usually via CoTweet. Habit. It’s just no good if I dive into the day not knowing something really important that we’re going to want to respond to.
3. What makes you efficient with your day?
I really struggle to feel efficient. It’s pretty hard. But I am also coming to some peace with some of my chaos because I recognize how powerful an engine serendipity is when it comes to being able to act on really big opportunities that would have been impossible to plan, predict & work towards.
4. Your Favorite Business book of all time?
Made to Stick definitely stands out in my mind because I am fascinated by which ideas catch on and which never do.
5. 3 things on your desk right now/3 things you can’t live without
A symbol of my daughters (in this case, their Christmas letters)
A smartphone (currently the iPhone, but I’m very open to trying others)
My MacBook. I brought it on vacation to Costa Rica and pretty much only used it for planning travel logistics and Skyping with my kids. I do have the self-discipline not to work when it’s not working time, but really my whole life is on this thing.
6. Habit you want to kick in 2010
Definitely fear. I can say with 99% certainty that fear has never led me to make a good decision. It’s really tempting to be fear-driven, but for me it’s always been counterproductive.
7. Habit you want to form for 2010
Getting more comfortable and facile with the GTD parts of my personality so I can grow professionally and strike a balance with the stochastic, opportunity-catching side.
7 Habits of Highly Effective Social Marketers – Paul Gillin
Ok, Interview #10 of the “7 Habits of Highly Effective Social Marketers” series. Today’s interview is with Paul Gillin, author of the
New Influencers and Social Media Speaker, Trainer, and Content Marketing Consultant. One of my favorite “products” that Paul Gillin produces is his website “Newspaper Death Watch“. As a journalist with 25+ years of experience, he is especially tuned in to the evolving space around journalism and publishing.
1. What one trait or habit got you to where you are today?
I suppose I have a knack for seeing where the puck is going, at least as far as media is concerned. I was trained as a journalist but quickly got out of general assignment work and into specialization in information technology, which was a pretty geeky field of the time. The timing turned out to be good, because in the early 1980s the technology went mainstream and I went along with it.
I got my first demonstration of the Internet in 1993, before there was even such a thing as a web browser. I knew immediately that this was the future of publishing and moved my interest and career in that direction years before that became fashionable. I also caught on to the idea that social media was going to revolutionize not just publishing but the way people communicate and was able to get a book into the market on that subject before the feeding frenzy began.
2. Your work day just started, what’s the FIRST thing you do and why?
I have a carefully tended list of RSS feeds from sources I respect on subjects relating to new media. I try to spend one or two hours at the beginning of each day browsing through new entries. I tweet a lot of those recommendations, which generates other conversations and awareness on Twitter. I also bookmark a great deal of stuff that may be useful to me later. It’s difficult for me to start a day without knowing what my most trusted sources are saying about my field.
3. What makes you efficient with your day?
I use the Google suite of applications for mail, calendaring and many of my documents. This means that nearly everything I write is searchable, which saves me from fumbling around for stuff. I also reuse a great deal of content so that letter writing is more a matter of assembling than creating new content.
My most productive tool, however, is Dragon NaturallySpeaking. It’s a voice recognition program that enables me to speak rather than type. I probably work two to three times faster and am able to write considerably more by speaking than I would if I had to type everything.
4. Your Favorite Business book of all time?
The Innovator’s Dilemma by Clayton Christensen
5. 3 things on your desk right now/ 3 things you can’t live without
Two of them are computers. I flip back and forth between them so I am constantly working even while waiting for a website to load. The third most useful item is the microphone I use to dictate into Dragon.
6. Habit you want to kick in 2010
Well, I would sure like to make it through the year without a cigarette, but I’ve already blown that one. From a business perspective, it’s a tendency to take on more than I can handle and then having to work 16-hour days to meet my obligations.
7. Habit you want to form for 2010
Doing a better job of following up and staying in contact with people. I value relationships but I’m so busy that I tend to let them lie fallow until I have a reason to contact someone. I would also like to get back into playing the trombone regularly. I was an avid musician through high school and college but put the instrument aside many years ago. It beckons to me but my ability has deteriorated so badly that it’s frustrating even to try.