Long before the Arab Spring erupted, before there were physical actions in Bahrain and Libya, graffiti waged its own quiet revolution to spread its media directly to the people on the street. When Internet [...]]]> A fascinating report on Al Jazeera’s Listening Post reported that street art is a clue to how a population is feeling.

Long before the Arab Spring erupted, before there were physical actions in Bahrain and Libya, graffiti waged its own quiet revolution to spread its media directly to the people on the street. When Internet channels are shut down by the government, street art sends a clear message: keep the faith; we will prevail.

The movement went one step further with the Artocracy project.

And then there is this.

This might get you to look at some graffiti in a new light.

While Facebook allows you to send out requests to your followers to follow your page (or blog) — and I admit I have used that in the past — is it me or does it seem rather [...]]]> I received an interesting email tonight from a passing acquaintance who wants me to like her Facebook page.

While Facebook allows you to send out requests to your followers to follow your page (or blog) — and I admit I have used that in the past — is it me or does it seem rather presumptuous and kind of creepy?

But when the request comes in an email or direct message as please go to my new fanpage and click “LIKE” from someone you hardly know, it’s like asking for a business referral when you know nothing about them. (I’ve had a few of those on LinkedIn.)

Now I periodically share the page on my main Facebook wall, share the odd posting that I think will engage my regular Facebook peeps, and have buttons posted in widgets, such as at the side of this blog or in my eNewsletter. If you’re interested, you’ll press “like” but if you’re not, I won’t beg and whine or force you into it. Yea, perhaps I’m not getting a whole lot of likes that way, but I can tell you one thing, the people who have joined the page are truly interested or else they drop out.

New media isn’t about getting as many followers as you can. It’s about creating raving fans, engaging people, and producing content that is good enough for them to share and spread through their own networks. Seth Godin calls it marketing in slow motion. I always say, slow and easy wins the race.

It is better to have 100 engaged people who communicate and engage, offer feedback, and share your content regularly than to have 2,000 who just don’t give a damn.

His books are genius. The last one I bought, We Are All Weird, took me two clicks to receive it in [...]]]> Seth Godin has it going on. He lands in my inbox every morning, sometimes twice a day, and he provides great insight and real meat on how to connect with people and market intelligently.

His books are genius. The last one I bought, We Are All Weird, took me two clicks to receive it in less than 30 seconds. He introduced it with a link in his email, which led to its Amazon page, where the One-Click button sits at the top and immediately downloaded it into my Kindle.

We couldn’t order books that fast a year and a half ago. And around that time was when Seth Godin decided to remove himself from the traditional publishers that had pumped out his other books.

His Learning Leadership From Congress post is brilliantly written.

The most frustrating thing for me in the SOPA/PIPA debate now winding down is how unnecessary the whole thing should have been. It occurred to me that we learned a lot about what sort of behaviors make for great leaders and careers. The short version: do the opposite.

Here’s the rest of that blog post. 

His philosophy to publishing mirrors mine. Here is a session that will empower and inspire and give you a new look into the publishing industry. Find parts 2 and 3 of this workshop on YouTube.

First question didn’t need much thought:

If you could tell one sentence to every prospective author out here, what would it be?

Writing is a business, not a lottery ticket.

Here’s the link to the rest.

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What is art?

What is good music?

What is entertainment?

What is a great car?

What is the best restaurant in the city?

What is the best TV show?

What is the most important issue?

What is perfection?

Ask these questions to 20 different people and you will get 20 different [...]]]> What does success mean?

What is art?

What is good music?

What is entertainment?

What is a great car?

What is the best restaurant in the city?

What is the best TV show?

What is the most important issue?

What is perfection?

Ask these questions to 20 different people and you will get 20 different answers. Each one of them will be right; and each will think the others are wrong.

I have many examples of “what not to do” letters. All I have to do is past them and you will probably get the message. Bottom line, if you are gung ho at [...]]]> When it comes to teaching people about how to navigate the book publishing minefield, some things I don’t have to make up.

I have many examples of “what not to do” letters. All I have to do is past them and you will probably get the message. Bottom line, if you are gung ho at getting a traditional publisher, it’s no different than applying for a job. If you want people to take you seriously, then get serious about your query and proposal.

This one won’t take long and also note, the author attached a PDF of his/her book. Publishers will not open attachments. It’s like spending $100 on 20 hard copy manuscripts, boxing them, and mailing them out to every firm that spells its name “publisher.”

You will notice the author has done his/her due diligence, not, in actually knowing who the email goes to. First thing you need to do is GO TO THE PUBLISHER WEBSITE and see if it at least publishes your genre.

Also, the advertising stuff at the bottom of the email does not lend itself well to the proposal. How does it look to you?

There are no Apple products in my possession, but Jobs was someone who interested me for his visionary leadership, how he trumped the conventional and made unconventional a household [...]]]> I was on my living room couch updating my Facebook from my Asus Eee Pad tablet when I saw a posting that Steve Jobs had died.

There are no Apple products in my possession, but Jobs was someone who interested me for his visionary leadership, how he trumped the conventional and made unconventional a household word.

I don’t have an iPod, or an iPhone, or an iPad. However, I do frequent iTunes and have purchased music then synced my downloads to play off all my computers.

That said, it is impossible to ignore the innovation of the Apple products, and like everyone else, I yearned for the tablet as soon as I saw it. I just didn’t want to pay Apple prices, plus my philosophy on technology thus far has been to wait at least eight months until the price comes down. But with respect to the tablet, the market flooded with other alternatives, and it was the Eee Pad that seemed to work best for what I needed it for.

Not being a phone person, the iPhone interests me only for its apps and its potential for unlimited social networking and Internet options. If the phone function never rang, that would suit me just fine. Having spent time trying to figure out whether I should go Blackberry or iPhone, the latter has won out. It’s not in my possession yet, but that, too, can wait. As long as I have four computer devices and HD digital cable, I’m not suffering with an archaic land line that I’ll be punting very soon. I only rings with solicitors and political robocalls, so it’s turned off most of the time anyway.

But getting back to Steve Jobs–there would be no Eee Pad, Kindle, and numerous other technology options on the market if it were not for other companies following his lead.

It wasn’t just about the products. Steve Jobs was inspiring. He taught resilience and persistence and that you may have to start your business in a garage before you can take it anywhere.

He was a brilliant marketer and presenter and those gifts are great influences for the rest of us to learn from–whether we own a Mac or not.

So thank you, Steve. Rest in peace. Thank you for the legacy you left us. Now it is up to us to continue to do what you intended us to do with your products and those products that were created as a result: create own inspirations.

What I do [...]]]> I’m reading more. Because my Kindle is so transportable, I take it with me everywhere. In a bank lineup, I can read while I wait. You can if you take a physical book, too, but the Kindle is easy to slip into my purse and weighs about as much as my keys.

What I do often in physical books is highlight sections — something I wasn’t sure how to do at first in Kindle.

In a way, when you highlight text in a Kindle book, it’s actually easier to reference than using a physical book. Why? Kindle automatically saves your highlights in a file called My Clippings.

It hasn’t been that long since I’ve had this device, but I have amassed a few nuggets in the My Clippings file that I thought I’d share with you.

From John C. Maxwell’s Thinking for a Change: 11 Ways Highly Successful People Approach Life and Work

Be selective, not exhaustive, in your focused thinking. (page 83)

Wherever you are…be there! (page 87)

Big Thinkers who make things happen also create possibilities for others. (page 160)

From Seth Godin’s We Are All Weird

The epic battle of our generation is between the status quo of mass and the never-ceasing tide of weird. (page 4)

That idea may make you uncomfortable. If your work evolves around finding the masses, creating for the masses, or selling to the masses, this change is very threatening. Some of us, though, view it as the opportunity of a lifetime. (page 11)

Eric Schmidt, the former CEO of Google estimates that every two days, Earthlings produce as much information as was produced by all mankind for the 20,000 years leading up to 2003. (page 17)

A computer should cost a billion dollars. Instead, you can buy one for $200. The reason? The insights and investments and innovations of a decade or two ago have already been paid for. (page 29)

The smart ones are in fact co-marketing with parts of the market instead of marketing to the masses. (page 33)

If you want to sell $900 handmade rifles to obsessive collectors, the easiest way to grow your sales is to grow the market of obsessive rifle collectors. (page 34)

The reason that people are walking away from mass is not so that they can buy more stuff. Material goods and commerce are not the goal, they are merely a consequence. The goal is to connect. (page 36)