Check the end of this post for a special giveaway!

I am a huge advocate of training and education, especially when it comes to gaining a better understanding of the world of digital marketing. While there’s a certain point where you need to just hit publish, there’s also a point where being in a classroom (virtual or otherwise) can really help you to get focused on the right areas to move a digital strategy forward, or glean a few new ways of doing things. It’s why my company has spent so much time developing a series of digital marketing courses that are more than just “how to tweet”. Having a strategic approach to building and sharing great content is really important. Being smart about how you use your time online to accomplish business and personal goals is vital.

Being in a classroom has great benefits, but there’s nothing quite like going to a great conference. Being able to spend focused time learning from the top people in your industry is a wonderful way to learn and extend your knowledge. It can take you from a basic knowledge of something into the realm of becoming a real smarty pants about it. And that’s a good thing. But even more than that, I find the hallway conversations at conferences to be absolutely invaluable. Let’s face it – we are all busy people and we don’t always have a lot of time for in-person interaction. Conferences provide a great outlet for being able to meet and interact with friends new and old that we may only otherwise interact with online.

I try to make it to at least one or two conferences per year, and I’m usually pretty picky about the ones I attend. They tend to be smaller – rather than thousands of people milling about, I stick to the ones that are only a few hundred deep. I look for sessions that dig deep too – focusing on more than just “Facebook 101″, but getting to the heart of the latest trends and topics. I check out the speakers too – visiting their web sites to really understand who they are and if I’m lucky, watching a few of their presentations online to get a sense of what I might glean from seeing them live.

I head into the conference with a blank note book and an open mind, and I’m rarely disappointed.

May 31st and June 1st in Ottawa (my hometown), there’s a conference happening that meets all of the above criteria, the Social Capital Conference. It’s not too big, not too small, and has a great lineup of speakers too. Smarty pantses like Bob LeDrew, Mark Blevis, Gini Dietrich and Danny Brown will be there, among many others. I’m thrilled to be part of it too – on Friday May 31st I’m doing a morning workshop on digital storytelling, and in the afternoon that day, I’ll be working with my esteemed colleagues Anthony Wong and Shawn MacDonnell on an interactive session that brings together digital storytelling, video and social into one epic 3 hour, hands-on workshop. Then on Saturday, I’m honoured to be joining Eden Spodek, Martin Waxman, and Diane Begin on a panel called “Social Media Goes to College”, where we’ll be discussing the merits of social media education.

If you’re around Ottawa next week, I strongly recommend you hit up Social Capital. There are still a few spaces available in the workshops on Friday, and there’s going to be an awesome crowd in attendance on the Saturday. You can get your tickets here. 

And wouldn’t you know, I just happen to have one full conference ticket to give away. This will get you into both the workshop day (Friday May 31st) and the conference day (Saturday June 1st). It’s a $329 value! All you need to do is leave a comment below (including a valid email address!) telling me why you’d love to come to Social Capital. I’ll put all the commenters’ names in a hat, and will draw the winner on Monday May 27th.

Hope to see you at the conference!

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Why are people so hung up on labels? Ever since social media began its rise to mainstream popularity back in 2006 or so, I’ve seen it time and time again – everyone clamouring to become the next big “expert” on the subject. “I can teach you to Twitter in just 1 hour!”, “I’m a LinkedIN GURU and you can be, too!”! Still today, I see even more and more cringe-worthy iterations on the term “social media expert”. It seems like everyone has jumped on the bandwagon these days in one form or another. Everyone wants to be an expert…but why?

I think much of it stems from a desire to be like the “big players”. We see guys and gals who have had immense success with social media. People like Gary Vaynerchuk, a guy who, a few short years ago, worked in a wine store. Now he’s a bestselling author many times over, a world-renowned speaker, and an immensely successful businessperson working with Fortune 500 companies on a daily basis. People like Chris Brogan and Gini Dietrich fit into that category too – they have built immensely successful businesses and careers and have leveraged social media tools in the process. I get why people would want the same kind of success.

The thing is, most of the people on the A-List probably wouldn’t call themselves “social media experts” (they probably wouldn’t call themselves “A Listers” either). Nope – they are entrepreneurs, communicators, marketers, writers and teachers (Chris even refers to himself as simply “a typist”).

Yet I see it time and time again – people who are expending so much effort to position themselves as the next big “social media guru”. They are making a play to reach expert status, so maybe they can launch the next bestseller or get on the TED circuit. The problem is, they are trying to do this by making a million dollars teaching people how to set up Facebook pages.

You don’t want to be a social media expert.

Instead, how about spending some time figuring out what makes you unique? Gary Vaynerchuk is unique because of his personality. He understood that his outgoingness and loud, rambunctious spirit would play well in front of a camera (or maybe he didn’t, but he soon discovered it). He also understood that he knew a lot about a subject (wine), something that a lot of people didn’t know about. He put two and two together and was able to present wine in a way nobody else had done before.

Ultimately, Gary came up with an idea, leveraged his strengths and his knowledge of a subject and then acted upon it. He didn’t know for sure it was going to work, and he sure as Shiraz didn’t know that it would launch his career in a whole new direction.

Figuring out your uniqueness is really important, and it’s not easy to do. When I see someone describing themselves as a “social media expert” I often think, “big deal!”. There are a million people out there who can put that badge on, but does it really mean anything?

The ones who stand out are the ones who are unique. And the ones who are most unique are that way because a) they are exceptional at what they do and b) they allow their personality to be prominent in everything they do.

Knowing a lot about social media is great, but it’s got to go deeper than that. You have to be able to look at all of your experience, and everything you know, and piece it together in a way that is going to be compelling and ultimately help other people. But you have to do it from that place, and not a place of “positioning”.

In the end, if you want to be successful in this world, this is what you need to do:

1) Figure out what makes you unique (hint: often it’s some aspect of your personality)
2) Figure out your strengths
3) Figure out what you know how to do really really well.
4) Figure out how you can combine these things to be helpful to other people
5) Go DO it.

(Note: the last step is often the most difficult.)

So go, be you, and do.

Thoughts?

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We are lost in a sea of noise. It seems like every day, our online streams are more and more full. There is more noise than ever, and there seems to be less and less signal all the time. It can be pretty discouraging if you’re trying to build an online presence. Sometimes you might think, “Why bother? My voice is just going to get lost in the shuffle.” But the truth is, digital channels are one of the best ways to share your stories, tell the world about your passions and be heard. So how do you do it? Here are a few things I’ve learned.

Start small.

A billion Facebook users. 200 million Twitterers. Hundreds of millions of blog posts a day. Seems pretty daunting to try and become part of that, eh? All those people make a lot of noise, it’s true. But you don’t have to try and reach them all (nor should you). My secret to getting traction online was to start small. The first time I ever went on Twitter, I went to the search page, and simply typed the name of my city, “Ottawa”. Up came dozens of people, in my own city, who were on Twitter. They were talking about the city, about life here, and the things that they cared about (and that I cared about too). I started following them, said hello. I became part of the Ottawa Twitter community first, and then grew my network from there. When I posted something new on my blog, I would share it to my Ottawa friends, and if they liked it, they’d share it too.

It’s okay to start out on social media by following people you already know. It might seem redundant at first, but you’ll soon find that people you know and are friends with in your own community are some of your biggest advocates. Talk to them, get to know them and you’ll soon be part of a conversation and a community that is relatable and vibrant, and right outside your own front door.

Share and share alike.

The content I create takes many forms. It could be a blog post, my weekly podcast, photos of my cats, songs I’ve sung, or even my lunch. My content is about whatever is interesting to me in the moment. I observe the world around me and if something catches my fancy, I share it. And because I am already connected to people who have similar interests, they sometimes find what I’m sharing interesting too.

The point is, if you don’t share things that matter to you, people won’t get to know the real you. If your Twitter stream is just a sea of retweets and links, you’ll never build a community. Be real, share the things you care about, and actually talk to people. Your entire experience will change in a heart beat. I promise.

Focus on the craft.

Do I worry about posting too much, or sharing inane things? Sure, sometimes. But I also know that for anyone who decides I tweet too much, or doesn’t like cats, or thinks I’m a lousy singer or can’t write a blog post to save my life, the unfollow button is just a click away. I don’t take it personally, and I do the same thing to others if I don’t find their stuff of value to me. The online world is a choose your own adventure game. I put things out and sometimes people like what I’ve done. Other times, they don’t. Sometimes I get noticed. Many times I don’t.

I’ve written plenty of blog posts that I have thought were epic. I poured my soul onto the page, carefully crafted the paragraphs until they were just right. I’ve posted, hoping people would find what I had to say interesting and would want to talk to me more about it. And nobody notices.

But even if something I post doesn’t get any response, I don’t let that stop me. So a blog post wasn’t a hit. Big deal! I still enjoyed the process of writing it. It allowed me to think about something in a new way. And maybe the next post will tweak more interest. Or maybe it won’t.

Stop feeling discouraged if everything you say and do online isn’t getting noticed. That’s not the point. The point is to keep working at it. Refine your craft. Learn what you can. Enjoy the process. If someone else finds it interesting too, that’s just gravy.

The fact is, the noisy online world is not going away. In fact, it may only continue to get more noisy as time goes on. But that’s why it’s so important for you to find ways to get your voice heard. That starts with finding a small community in which to develop some roots, then finding ways to share the real things you care about in all aspects of your life, and then defining and refining your craft. It won’t happen overnight, and it’s a crapton of work. But ultimately, if it’s what you want to do, it’s worth every second.

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If you’re anything like me, you’ve been watching with interest as Commander Chris Hadfield has been hurtling around our planet for the past few months on the International Space Station. While it’s pretty amazing that we are even able to have humans floating around in space, what I think is even more amazing is how Commander Hadfield has been able to share his experience with the world in an unprecedented way through social media.

Hadfield, along with being an astronaut, is also a musician and photographer. Which means that not only is he able to do one of the most dangerous and complex jobs in the world, he’s also able to produce content about it. And produce he has.

Commander Hadfield, in addition to doing his regular incredibly busy, demanding, and risky job, has also made the time to produce stunning photographs, send tweets, and create music to share with us. Every day our streams have been filled with spectacular, never-before-seen views of our planet. His photographs are consistently breathtaking. Over the past several months, he’s sent hundreds of images of our planet from space to Earth, and has shown us the beauty, magnificence and fragility of our only home.

And lucky for us, he somehow managed to smuggle a guitar on board the ISS, and shortly thereafter, started posting videos of his music. His song, “Is Somebody Singing”, became a viral hit, when he did the first ever live musical duet between Earth and space with Ed Robertson.

Not only that, but Hadfield has posted dozens of videos explaining the effects of weightlessness on everyday things, like fingernail clipping and crying. His “Mixed Nuts in Space” video has amassed over 5 million views. He and his crew have hosted Google Hangouts, he’s done cooking shows, and had Earth-to-Standard-Orbit conversations with everyones OTHER favourite spaceship captain, William Shatner. He’s talked to students around the world. Do a Google search – the amount of content this guy has put out in his 5 months on the ISS is astounding. It’s a real testament to what’s possible when one puts their mind to telling a story.

How to Be a Social Media Un-Guru

Commander Hadfield has leveraged technology across platforms – Twitter, YouTube, and Google+, in particular. He’s done this, in spite of having an extremely demanding job and while floating in space, for Pete’s sake! But why? What does Chris Hadfield hope to gain from this? Is he extending his personal brand? Hoping to leverage online platforms to build a successful post-orbital business? Building a comprehensive social media strategy that’s going to land him a 10 book deal and a regular gig on the international speaking circuit?

Well, no. Chris Hadfield has not been trying to become an Internet sensation and a social media guru. All he’s done is shared his passion with us. He’s used technology to share with us the story of our universe, and he’s done it in an extremely compelling way.

And that’s really the point. Yes, goal-setting and strategy are important if you’re going to figure out how to be successful with digital. But it doesn’t matter how much strategizing and planning you do – if you have a story to tell, there’s a certain point where you just have to get out there and start telling it. Figure out which channels work for you – for Hadfield, he’s done great with Twitter, Google + and YouTube. But he doesn’t feel the need to blog every day, and he doesn’t need to (and neither do you, unless that’s what fits for you).

Space: The Final Storytelling Frontier

Don’t delve into this world if you’re not passionate about the story you’re telling. It’s simply not worth it, and your effort will come across as insincere and flat. Hadfield shares his stories out of a place of total passion. He is as awestruck as the rest of us about what he’s seeing and experiencing, and that makes us feel a real connection to him. The story of our universe exists whether Hadfield is there or not, but he’s our conduit.

Finally, stop making excuses about not having time, energy or ideas. If you are truly passionate, and really do want to succeed, you will figure out a way to make the time, find the energy and cultivate the ideas. If Chris Hadfield can produce oodles of great content from frickin’ SPACE, then none of us who really are passionate and want to succeed in the digital world have ANY excuse not to do it too.

Ultimately, you need to strike that balance between strategizing and thinking and planning and actually doing. Stories exist whether you’re there or not – but if you become the conduit, how does that change things? Because as Chris Hadfield has taught us all, having and sharing our own unique experiences is really what life on this planet is all about.

Welcome home, Commander Hadfield, and thank you for sharing your view from up there with all of us down here.

Oh, and if you haven’t seen this yet, watch. It just might be the single greatest music video of all time.

Photo Credit: NASA

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First, a disclaimer. I have been a Mitch Joel fan since the first time I ever met him at a Podcamp what seems like a million years ago (it was actually only about 6). He’s a friend, and if that makes my review biased, well, so be it. But…

You need to read this book.

Ctrl Alt Delete: Reboot Your Business. Reboot Your Life. Your Future Depends on It, is the latest collection of things to fall out of Mitch Joel’s amazing brain. The minute the book arrived in my mailbox, I put everything else on hold and started reading – and I couldn’t put it down.

Our hyper-connectedness has altered the way we do business and fundamentally changed the way we communicate, and it’s not over yet. The shift is still happening around us, as we find more ways to connect and as technology continues to innovate and help us to become even more connected, more easily, in more ways than ever. In fact, Mitch says we are in a sort of purgatory when it comes to all this stuff – the dust has yet to really settle, and a lot of people are having some real challenges navigating this new terrain.

Ctrl Alt Del is a user guide for anyone who is feeling lost in this purgatory. It is intended as a reset (or reboot, as Mitch calls it) of some of the old ways and thinking around communication and marketing, and charts a course for some new ways of doing things.

As I dove into this book, I began thinking about my own personal experience with this shift. I thought about all of the people I’ve formed relationships with online over the past several years – people I would have otherwise never crossed paths with – and the tremendous value those people have brought to my life. I thought about how, in 2009, when the economic downturn was at its peak, a significant portion of my company’s new business came through Twitter, 140 characters at a time. I considered that I’ve recorded over 100 hours of a podcast with a person on the other side of the planet that I’ve never even met face-to-face. I gazed in awe at my iPhone, and marveled in the fact that a whole world of information and possibility now rests in the palm of my hand.

We live in amazing times.

The book is broken into two sections; the first part is focused around business. It provides blunt advice on how smart businesses can navigate this purgatory. The truth told here is that using digital channels to market one’s business is no longer a choice. This isn’t a fad, and so the best thing smart businesses can do is embrace it and figure out how to make it work for them.

One of the concepts that really stood out to me in this section was Mitch’s discussion of utilitarianism marketing. It’s no longer just about having the lowest price or the slickest ad campaign. Businesses need to start being truly useful to consumers, and he provides some really great advice on how they can do that. He also talks a lot about the “one screen world”, and my favourite line of his (and one that I quote him on all the time) is, “The most important screen is the one you’re looking at.” Oh, and this section of the book also has the single best chapter title ever in the history of business books, “Sex With Data”. You’ll just have to read it to find out what Mitch means by that!

The second part of the book is more personal in nature. He dives deep into topics around career development (which he describes as a “long and squiggly road”), and provides common-sense advice for marketing yourself online. But what really got me thinking was the section on the new way of working. We are swiftly moving away from a world where everyone commutes downtown to go sit in a stuffy office all day surrounded by filing cabinets and cubicle walls. We now live in a world where our connectedness allows us to work anywhere; be it in collaborative spaces or on our own. Work environments are changing, and with it, work itself. We are no longer at the mercy of some mid-level manager to dictate every step of our career. Connectivity has sparked a new kind of autonomy, and it’s now up to each of us as individuals to take charge of our own careers and figure out how we are going to navigate our own squiggly road.

I love reading stuff by Mitch, because he has this uncanny way of being able to really relate deep concepts to real life. The book breaks down a topic that seems overwhelming into bite-sized chunks and gives really practical advice. You’ll walk away from Ctrl Alt Delete feeling smarter and you’ll have a few steps you can take to actually make this purgatory we are in work for you.

Ctrl Alt Delete is a user guide for the 21st century. Get in on the goodness, the book comes out May 21st but is available for pre-order now.

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