Productivity

Reclaiming Sanity

by Jason Falls · November 19, 2011

You hear a lot of people bemoaning the fact they’re “plugged in” too much. “I’m going off the grid this weekend! Need to unplug!”

Certainly, I’m in the circle of the oft-plugged-in and could use a little down time from screen time from time to time. But it’s not being plugged in that I think people grow tired of. It’s how they use their budget of such time.

Social media tools have allowed us to be incredibly schizophrenic in our daily communications. Maintaining an active Twitter account alone can eat up and entire day if you let it. Add email, Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn, instant messaging, texting and the like and, if you’re even a remotely social person, you burn an awful lot on just the churn of daily conversing.

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Content Marketing Lessons from Warren Buffett

by Andrew Hanelly · April 5, 2011

Warren Buffett would have made an excellent blogger.

Unfortunately, he’s too busy finding places to stack his piles of money to give it a shot but he really could have been something special.

He’s been through highs and lows in the stock market, and has always managed to come out on top. Along the way he’s learned a lot of valuable lessons, and a much of it can be applied to content marketing.

Some of his best insight:

“Someone’s sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago.”

warren buffett content marketing lessons

Image: thewalkingirony

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Want Infinite Blog Post Ideas?

by Andrew Hanelly · March 15, 2011

I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by Facebook.

OK, so maybe destroyed is a bit dramatic, but they were at least heavily distracted by it.

And so it goes. We in the world of content marketing have a lot of things to click on. There are blog posts to read. There are whitepapers to download. There is research to skim. There is news to dissect. There are viral videos to watch. There are infographics to print out. There are webinars to attend. There are podcasts to tune in to.

It all becomes a bit exhausting after a while.

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Integrate Social Media … In Real Life

by Andrew Hanelly · January 6, 2011

There’s often a gap between the idea of social media (what can happen in your head) and the practice of social media (what happens in real life).

Maybe your “social media engagement strategy” seemed more solid in the PowerPoint presentation. The “monitoring station” seemed to work better during discussion meetings. And the enthusiasm has vanished from the honeymoon that followed your organization’s marriage to social media.

In other words, the ideas all sounded good, but getting the organization to change overnight was more difficult than it seemed it would be. No one actually wanted to digest a pie in the sky social media initiative so we just sort of took a bite, smiled, then spat it out when no one was looking.

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Shoeboxed Minimizes Busy Work

by Jason Falls · December 13, 2010

If there’s one thing I’ve had to adjust to as a small business owner, it is budgeting the time needed each month to do the busy work of being in business. Whether it’s paying bills, filing receipts with my accountant or inputting dozens of business cards into my contacts or customer database, there’s just some time you have to allot each month for administrative tasks. When the commercial says, “There’s an app for that,” they’re not wrong.

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Conference Productivity Tips For SXSW

by Jason Falls · March 10, 2010

South by Southwest Interactive begins in ernest tomorrow as geeks from everywhere descend upon Austin, Texas. If you’ve heard of “South by,” you’ve probably been told it’s an amazing experience that is largely defined by parties and networking. Conference productivity is often tossed by the wayside at these things, but if you don’t plan for business success while attending them, then why are you going?

Conferences of any kind are only as productive as you make them. You can to to every session and learn a lot. You can go to none and do the same. If you’re goals are more business driven, the hallways and blogger lounges are where the action is, if not the exhibition floor. But you can’t just show up and be productive.

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How To Be The Social Media Champion At Your Office

by Jason Falls · November 17, 2008

Your boss thinks you “play on Facebook,” all day. Your co-worker who is jonesing for the same promotion is monitoring the time of day you post to Twitter. The guy from across the hall sips black coffee through his brown teeth and laughs, “Met the man of your dreams on Ebay, yet?”

What a nimrod.

Take it from someone who knows. It’s not easy being the social media champion in the building. If very few people in the business world understand social media, it’s only logical very few at your place of work would, too. So how do you help make them understand social media isn’t just about posting personal journals on MySpace or blowing 30 minute chunks of your day watching the skateboarding dog on YouTube? Some thoughts:

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