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.

Here in Boston, a television station just went social- real social. They already had a good fan base on Facebook, some followers on Twitter and were actively promoting their “socialness” online.  But where it really shines through is in their newly redesigned website.

WHDH, whether you like it or not, is going to make you understand social by simply visiting their website. Check out the quick (2 minute video) below.

What I really like is that the entire team has bought into the concept. Their weather team hops online and blogs on a regular basis and really brings their news to life. Weather can be boring- for them it’s not. WHDH brings a bit of personality and context to the news they deliver and share online, which in this day and age, is a good thing…

American Idol  (and all the other reality shows out there) is the biggest waste of time and money. It’s exploitative. It is a perfect example of the “dumbing down” of America. It’s goofy, and provides no intellectual or educational value whatsoever.

But what it has done is satiated our natural tendency to engage and interact with others. We want to root for that singer, we encourage others to vote for our favorite performer, and we talk about it at the water cooler. In short, it brings us together to socialize, right?

Wasn’t the first American Idol episode in fact, the first great experiment in social media? Instead of watching that rerun of Seinfeld, wouldn’t we rather vote for our favorite singer and talk about it the next day at work?

Heck, now we blog about it, twitter about it and create facebook pages about our favorite things, products, or businesses because we like to engage with others. We are curious about what they think, feel and say, right?

Human beings are by their very nature, social. While we love being entertained on the television, we can’t resist the temptation to tell other people what we think, and most of this is (to the fear of television executives worldwide) is happening online.

There’s a reason more people are spending more time online than they are watching television.  We don’t want to be told told what to watch. We’d rather make our own content (whatever it may be) and share it with friends.

Thoughts?