TapDancingSpiders

When I was first at university, a friend and I would watch television advertisements and compete to pick the target audience first. Later, I took it a step further to pick the advertiser’s goal.

I’m struggling with this one…

I Love Vlogbrothers SEM

The keywords are perfect to target the vlogbrothers and their fans. However, Google continually reminds us to make the image compelling enough to get people to click. That’s compelling, not creepy.

Display network ads are great for branding. Is he trying to brand himself? Gain awareness of his love of Hank and John Green, aka the Vlogbrothers? I’m older than the typical teen/young adult nerdfighter (as the vlogbrothers fans call themselves), but all this ad has done is frighten me.

If anyone knows the goal of this campaign or who this guy is, please let me know. There is no way I’m clicking the ad.

Check out the video and the Vlogbrothers here.

Videos like this make me miss event management. What would you do if you arrived at your summer venue to find it a flooded mess? I love the way the team jumped in to get it fixed, had the Wiggles outside explaining the delay to thousands of fans and ticked all the crisis management boxes. What could have been fans hitting the internet to complain was only a 30 minute delay to the show. Watch and learn.

Disclaimer: I used to work in merchandise sales for the Wiggles in Australia. I can’t take credit for their event and crisis management awesomeness, but I can praise them for it.

The problem with reading books a few months after they’ve been released is that it’s harder to have an original opinion.

Dan Zarrella of Hubspot said of Enchantment by Guy Kawasaki: “I loved the book and can’t recommend it highly enough. Especially to people like myself who find ourselves up to our necks everyday in the world of digital social interaction and technology. We all need to be reminded of how to connect with real people in meaningful ways.

Phil Simon’s review on GoodReads.com explains “It’s also very broad but not very deep. I feel like this book could have been much better if it had gone deeper in fewer areas, rather than trying to cover employees, customers, and so many other areas.”

And on the Teens in Tech blog, Gregory Hosono decided “The book is truly a fast-read because it is very hard to put down. I would recommend Enchantment as a fabulous read for anyone who wants to be more persuasive.”

I agree with these three comments. Even the negative one. I also agree with the many reviews online saying that Guy draws heavily from other books on influence.

he does and that’s one of the things that makes Enchantment a must-read. Enchantment is the perfect book for anyone who needs to be convincing. Among the key points from leading authors, such as Jon Winokur, Darcy Rezac and Robert B Cialdini; examples from Guy’s own life, successful companies and researchers and everyday people are weaved.

These key points and examples turn into practical tips of How to dress, shake hands, treat colleagues and customers. Even how to present yourself online. In summary, Guy Kawasaki tells you what to do and why you should do it.

Even if you don’t consider yourself a businessperson (and I wonder how you ended up on my blog), read this and use the tips to enchant your partner or your kids. It’s worth it.

On Wednesday evening Curt Rosengren, Passion Catalyst, taught an IABC/Seattle audience the best piece of career advice and a tool to make it actionable.

We’ve all heard the advice to do what you love, but how do you work out exactly what that is? As Curt said, many of us love travel, but all for different reasons. Just accepting a job in travel may not make you happy.

The fist step is to make a list of the things we love (this is where the travel generalization came in).

Next, we asked ourselves why do we love these things and why do we love those ‘whys’. Curt recommended taking this down four levels, but with his clients he takes it as far as it can go.

These final things are what we’re really passionate about – the motivators that really drive us.

Mine came down to ‘new things/experiences’ and ‘making a difference’. Which really translates to me having a short attention-span but using that to constantly improve what needs to be improved. Yes, my weaknesses are also great strengths.

How can this help us in our careers? From this exercise what really motivates us an use it as a measure for any career opportunities. Does the job have the variety and learning opportunities to keep me active, along with the freedom to improve processes or results to make it worthwhile? If not, it’s not a good fit for me long term.

I recommend you do this exercise and discover your passions, motivators and strengths.

Want to learn more? Visit Curt Rosengren’s website for his ebooks and his coaching sessions.
Thanks to Nicole Allard for her notes on the session. Photography is mine. Even the photo of Nicole’s notes.

Thank you for proving that computers can be beautiful and functional.

Thank you for imagining the unimaginable.

Thank you for never accepting good enough.

Thank you for changing the world.

Thank you, Steve Jobs.

Steve Jobs 1955-2011