It has been a little over a year since I changed jobs. While some days I still miss producing TV, I have enjoyed the challenge of focusing on social media. I'm always learning but below are five lessons, both professional and personal, that I wanted to share. 

1) Titles Mean Nothing

I'm convinced that there are people who are moving forward with new ideas and there are those who are standing still. From business unit to business unit, there is no correlation between where these two groups sit within an organizational chart. The best ideas can come from anywhere and the challenge is to stay open to them. 

2) Scale

"Does it scale?" is a question that TV producers don't have to answer. When working in television, you have a good idea and with some very hard work it finds its way on to the TV screen. When working online, a good idea needs scale. Key questions to answer: Would this concept work across other properties? Can we itirate the idea and over time make it in to something bigger? 

3) Developers are the New Cameramen

I was always amazed by a how good shooter could take a mediocre story and make it great. Making sure a cameraman was caffeinated and well fed were habits that I picked up quickly while working in the field. As I've learned more about the web, a similar dynamic applies to developers. They are the ones who turn concepts in to reality and separate the great from the mediocre.  

4) Community is King

I hate to play off a bad media cliche but a common theme that I have seen across the most successful brands online is that they allow their fans to feel a part of the product in a unique way. No matter the platform, the secret sauce is community.

5) Family is All that Matters

About six months ago, I became a dad. Every day I'm so grateful for my family. My wife and daughter are a constant reminder of what is most important.  

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

Most of the stuff that parents do with flashcards and special drills and tutorials to hone their kids into perfect achievement machines don't have any effect at all. Instead, parents just have to be good enough. They have to provide their kids with stable and predictable rhythms. They need to be able to fall in tune with their kids' needs, combining warmth and discipline. They need to establish the secure emotional bonds that kids can fall back upon in the face of stress. They need to be there to provide living examples of how to cope with the problems of the world so that their children can develop unconscious models in their head.

                                          -David Brooks, "The Social Animal"

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

See the full gallery on Posterous

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

5) "Trouble" by Ray Lamontagne

Forget your umbrella, just remember this album.

4) "Being There" by Wilco

Some great ups and even better downs, this album always play well on a rainy day.

3) "Time (The Revelator)" by Gillian Welch

An album made for stormy weather.

2) "Rainy Day Music" by Jayhawks

Too easy but definitely solid.

1) "Heartbreaker" by Ryan Adams

Perfect for a bad breakup or a bad downpour.

*List inspired by @MSLaurenRae's tweet.

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

I recently finished reading "The Facebook Effect" by David Kirkpatrick and highly recommend it. Below are a few interesting quotes that I think offer some insights, especially for news organizations. 

"Facebook is founded on a radical social premise--that an inevitable enveloping transparency will overtake modern life. But through strength of conviction, consistency, and strategic flexibility, Zuckerberg has been able to keep Facebook true to this premise despite the pressures that have come as it grows toward 500 million users. To understand Facebook's history you must understand Zuckerberg's views about what at Facebook they call 'radical transparency.'" (pg. 200)

"..the rationale Zuckerberg gave internally for the News feed: 'A squirrel dying in front of your house may be more relevant to your interests right now than people dying in Africa.' Now your every move on Facebook might become news for your friends." (pg. 296)

"So how do traditional media organizations fit into this new personcentric information architecture? Paradoxically, if they are to most benefit from the Facebook environment they have to learn to function within it as if they were individuals. The playing field has been leveled by the site's neutral way of treating all messages as similar. Any media company, newspaper, or TV station can create its own page on Facebook. But then it faces the same mandate to generate interesting, relevant, and useful messages that an individual does." (pg. 297)

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

"It's one thing to start it with a positive jam and it's another thing to see it all through."

Lesson: Too many focus on an idea and not the execution. 

"God only knows it's not always a positive thing to see a few seconds into the future."

Lesson: The first steps of innovation are often met with resistance. 

"Everyone's a critic and most people are DJs."

Lesson: Everyone has an opinion. 

"There's gonna come a time when the true scene leaders forget where they differ and get big picture." 

Lesson: The biggest challenge is not from competition but instead from within organizations that are tied to institutional process.

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

See the full gallery on Posterous

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

 

Permalink | Leave a comment  »