Cognitive Surplus by Clay Shirky

I purchased this book on 12 June, and started reading it shortly thereafter. It is an amazing book, a thorough and well-though-out expansion of the ideas in this presentation by Shirky (Link to Clay Shirky on Cognitive Surplus). He has been thinking about this for a couple of years and it shows.

Means, Motive, Opportunity and the Current Economic Crisis

Cognitive Surplus is the term Shirky uses for our free time, or the time that we are not spending making a living. In this book Shirky describes the history of cognitive surplus and the massive potential for its use and development.

Shirky describes the background of events and technological developments that have allowed humans to spend less time doing the things they need to do to survive – the creation of “free time”.

Before the invention of television people used a great deal of this time for social interaction. The advent of TV, and the marketing that financed its production, pulled people away from social and group activities and into passive consumption of entertainment.

People also started to turn to TV and favored programs if they were lonely (of course they were lonely, no one gets together for ice cream socials or barn-dances any more!), with the on-screen cast replacing or standing in for their personal, real-world, social network.

As an aside, I find it interesting that TV broadcast companies are called “networks”…

Social Networks in the Internet Age

With the explosive growth of the Internet, however, we find that people still have a fundamental need to connect and share with others. Suddenly people have the opportunity to be sociable again, with an incredibly low barrier to entry. In addition people are creating and nurturing connections to other people that share very narrow interests. In the past it could be difficult for a person interested in, say, model trains, to find and interact with others that share that interest. The Internet has destroyed the barriers of geography and publicity, enabling these people to find each other easily and have conversations, create relationships, and share their experiences.

Today it is only a matter of investing a few minutes in searching Google (or Flickr or Facebook or Twitter…) to find others actively sharing their thoughts on any topic imaginable. This is having a revolutionary impact on the use of free time, the active employment of our cognitive surplus, because people really do want to share, to collaborate, to create things.

Two Thousand Wikipedias

One of the most amazing examples of the potential of applying our cognitive surplus to something other than TV involves the collaborative effort that is Wikipedia. According to an estimate, Wikipedia represents the result of the application of about 100 million hours of human thought. To give that some context, 100 million hours is about 50 thousand full-time jobs lasting one year. All of it is contributed by volunteers for free. In their spare time, putting their cognitive surplus to good use.

“Sure“, you might say, “but how much free time, this cognitive surplus, is there anyway?”

Well, Americans watch 200 billion hours of television each year, or the equivalent of two thousand Wikipedia projects. Think about that for a minute…

Imagine if even a fraction of that passive consumption of TV could be re-directed toward something productive. It makes me feel guilty about the one evening a week that I spend in front of the TV with my Lovely Bride.

Moving Away from TV

Recent studies indicate that for the first time ever there are groups of young people that are actually watching less TV than their elders. I would be willing to bet that these groups probably fall into fairly specific demographics: 20-something, early adopters of technology, largely self-educated (learning more in their free time than they do in “lowest-common-denominator public schools), web-savvy, and completely uninterested in getting a “job” and working for The Man. I say this because in this time of recession where about 1 in 6 people are out of work, creating your own stimulus is undeniably attractive.

In my own experience I know half a dozen young people like this that are preparing to start their own business. They work hard and don’t watch TV. One young man I know doesn’t even own a TV, but he does have a computer and a great idea for a business.

Means, Motive, Opportunity

So here we are, faced with economic uncertainty, a depressed economy, and an amazing asset – our collective cognitive surplus – sitting idly by watching “Real Housewives of New Jersey“. Couldn’t we put this asset to better use? Shouldn’t we? Is it not a moral imperative? Perhaps not, but I think that we should all be putting at least one hour a week into creating something amazing. And remember, amazing is what you say it is.

Here are some ideas to get you started:

• Learn something – Read a book, take a class, go online, whatever, but learn something new. How to paint with watercolors, how to tie a fly, how to create YouTube videos to promote your business.
• Make something - Create a new product or service for your business, or an online store.
• Teach something to another person – Could your neighbors or co-workers benefit from learning about something that you know how to do? Drag them away from their TVs too, and share your knowledge.

What are your thoughts on how to use your own cognitive surplus? Please share in the Comments.

Justin McCullough at Leader 4 Hire shares a recent experience with a newsletter and a sales push: A Failed Sales Push by Chris Brogan and How You Can Do Better.

This is a detailed look at trust, marketing, and execution on an online sales push from some of the biggest names in Social Media – the good and the bad and how you can learn and apply this to your sales and marketing efforts.

Follow every bit of this through (except the last part) and you will succeed in your next email sales push. The sections I call “What’s Happening Here” should provide the key elements for you to model in your online campaign and sales efforts.

Nearly everything here is actually a success story other than the fifth area below.
First – Chris Brogan eNewsletter

Subject line of email from Chris: “Email marketing and the folks at Blue Sky Factory”

This is a great little sales piece from Chris. It clearly identifies his role in the email, why I (we) received it and who it benefits and why. On top of that, a nice bit of positioning and display of influence by offering an exclusive ebook download and discount to use Blue Sky Factory as a benefit to loyalty with Chris. Well done. This is the right sort of email marketing and who would expect less from Chris?

McCullough goes on to analyze the components of the newsletter, the links and sales pages, and the offers that are made. Pay attention to his description of how “marketing information” is captured when he has an opportunity to download a free e-book.

The big lesson in e-mail marketing

The email marketing campaign that McCullough details is a good one, executed well, until the the final part – where Sales and Customer Service fail mightily. I urge you to read the entire post, and the comments – they are a textbook example of how to manage a situation like this. Before you go, however, consider this:

Read the whole thing here: A Failed Sales Push by Chris Brogan and How You Can Do Better.

“Thanksgiving is a typically American holiday…The lavish meal is a symbol of the fact that abundant consumption is the result and reward of production.” ~Ayn Rand

This year on Thanksgiving day I would like to express my thankfulness for my lovely bride, my family and friends, and my readers that have made this blog such a success.

I am also thankful that my wife found a good job in New Hampshire, in a great little town. One year ago today we were in Lacrosse, WI for my little sister’s wedding, in the first leg of a long journey of self-discovery and exploration. Some might call it a vacation, or a sabbatical, whatever – it was fun and brought us closer together.

I am looking forward to an even better year in 2010, as my new job as a restaurant manager develops ( I am creating some cool content for a new e-book for that industry). I am looking forward to getting more focused on some personal development, especially in being healthier. This winter is going to be awesome.

God bless all of you.

Let me start with this: I met these gentlemen in May of 2008 at SOBCon and they are two of the most knowledgeable and sincere people that I have encountered. I really didn’t know who they were or what they did, but I have sure learned a lot from them since then.

In fact, I have spent about 3 years learning about what is in this book:

You need to go to Amazon and order this book right now. It’s okay, I’ll wait.

This book is a complete course in how to do business online in today’s world. There is quite a bit of buzz about this book, it is a NY Times best-seller after all. But that is not why I want you to go out and buy it, or why I gush a little about how cool Chris and Julien are. No, the reason is that you can save yourself a lot of time and effort learning the things that I learned the hard way – reading lots and lots of blog posts and e-books and whatever else I could get my hands on.

Trust Agents – Find out what Social Media is really all about

Chris and Julien have put together a reference book and instruction manual for gaining the background and skills that you need to bring your business into the world of Web 2.0 and beyond. To quote from the introduction:

“Trust Agents is the answer to the question,”What do I do now?” It is full of actionable information, supported by research and strategies, studies, and an explanation of the thought process behind what we do on the web. We love all the great “idea” books out there, and we do have lots of ideas packed in here as starting points. In addition to these, we give you actionable tasks that you can execute.”

Ideas and actionable tasks for business

The book starts off with a couple of stories about building trust, social capital, and the state of media today (and this will probably be the only business book you read this year that has stories about mobsters and student loans). Basic Social Media Literacy, followed by an in-depth explanation of what they call the six principles of trust agents.

Now, since this is a review and not a summary, I am just going to tell you about one of these principles:

The Archimedes Effect

This is my favorite, primarily because it is about leverage, a word that lots of marketing people hate to use. Which is too bad, because – even though it may be badly overused, it is the best word to describe the effect.

“Everyone uses leverage every day: Business owners hire employees so that their business can do more; people use technology such as cars to help them get to work faster; companies have systems that allow them to be more efficient. Yet millions use the Web every day and ignore how best to use the tools at their disposal to bring the greatest benefit.”

This chapter has page after page of examples on using leverage to increase the power of your online (and offline) efforts:

• Build on one success to fuel another
• Arbitrage and Pay Per Click advertising
• Applying these principles for online gaming and business
• Building your network and strengthening relationships
• Create your own niche
• Using your time effectively – delegate
• Get creative with your business marketing, be bold
• Protect your community

If you can’t find something in this chapter to apply to your business, well, it’s likely that one of your competitors will. Guess what happens then?

Buy Trust Agents at Amazon, now.

Inspired by this post from Amber Naslund (Productivity and Time Wasters in Social Media):

We all want to be more productive and know that where we’re spending our time is worthwhile. I’m asked this question a lot and I see it of others, so I wanted to discuss, in specifics, some of my most productive activities in social media, and some of the biggest time wasters I encounter (and avoid wherever I can).

Naslund goes on to describe her job and how she uses Social Media tools for building and maintaining relationships. Her list of places where time is well spent (I would use the term invested) is very similar to my own (In the post she shares more details of what these things mean, the extras below are my own take):

• My Twitter presence.
• Attending in-person events.
• Responding to email.
• Commenting on blogs.
• Keeping up with LinkedIn.
• Content creation and sharing.
• Reading books.

How I invest my time in Social Media

• Twitter presence. I love Twitter, because I get to talk to people that I know from all over the world about this and that. Many of these folks I met at conferences (see the next bullet) and they have amazing things to say, things that I can learn from every day. You can see my list of people that I follow here (hdbbstephen on Twitter), and you may notice that there are only about 500 of them. I find it difficult to participate in conversations or catch the good information that comes from these folks if I follow many more than that. The good news is that many of these people share awesome links to other Twitter people that I don’t follow, so that the best of the best information still gets through. I also use Twitter for reaching out to new clients and readers for this site, but that is another post!
• Attending in-person events. My favorites are Social Media conferences and Chamber of Commerce events. I love the networking and learning opportunities that come out of them. I am actually planning a pretty cool project involving my local Chamber and some hyper-local news opportunities (stay tuned).
• Reading/Responding to email. This is vital to my business, especially in the website construction and maintenance part, where responsiveness and customer service are part of my differentiation strategy (slow response from website designers is a frequent complaint). Also, I no longer use a RSS feed reader for keeping up with news and other blogs. I only subscribe via e-mail – and these updates are filtered into a special folder in Thunderbird. This way I can catch up on blog reading at my convenience, whether I am online or not.
• Commenting on blogs. This is a fantastic method for reaching out to a larger audience, creating opportunities for guest-posting and larger discussions of topics, and drawing traffic to your own site/community. When you are able to enhance a discussion or provide more information on a topic it shows that you know what you are talking about, an attractive feature for web-surfers. I use this technique in conjunction with reading the e-mails in my “Feed” folder – when I see an interesting post that I can make a contribution to I can click over and leave a comment.
• Keeping up with LinkedIn. I know that I need to be better about this, LinkedIn is such a powerful tool. Unlike other social networking platforms it has very little spam or distracting foolishness. I love to watch how people use the Q&A feature.
• Content creation and sharing. Again, I need to do more writing [those pesky clients are keeping me busy! ], especially about the business development part – a lot of time lately is being invested in my new e-book on Productivity: Today, Tomorrow, or Later. I am also part of the Work.Life.Creativity forum community, which is a lot of fun – creativity is definitely an area in which I want to invest more time.
• Reading books. One of the best investments that you can make is in reading books. Actual books with pages. Yes, really. Oh, I suppose that printing out a PDF of an e-book works too, because I like to take notes while I read, even write in the margins. Reading and learning is, for me, one of the most effective methods – I tend to do a little less well with audio and video content (it may have something to do with my ADD…).

I know that the original post contained time-wasters, but I am not going to dwell on those (I think that we all know what they are for ourselves!) What are some things that you invest your time in for effective, productive work? Leave a comment.

Christine Major sent out a reminder:

In case you need to be reminded, the Portsmouth TweetUp at the Gas Light Co. is tomorrow night starting at 6:30! Woo hoo!

I am really excited to see and meet everyone at what will be a great event.

The weather for tomorrow night at this time is still a bit iffy and I choose not to pay attention to any forecasts that say it is going to rain. But the event will happen rain or shine because The Gas Light has made arrangements for us to go to the upstairs club if we cannot go on the outdoor deck, but let’s not think about that. Think only dry thoughts.

Don’t forget that there will be pizza there provided by JitterGram and MicroArts. We have a limited amount of pizza that will be coming out througout the night so hopefully everyone will get some.

We will also be raffling off a $50 GC to Gas Light Co and another $50 gift card to Sullivan Tire. We also have several tour passes for New England Curiosities to raffle off while you are there and some t-shirts I have lying around my house that I am not wearing anymore (ok, maybe not that).

I will be handing out Pokens that were donated by @startpoken to the 5 winners who played along with me on Twitter the other night. http://www.startpoken.com/ – if you are interested in checking out a poken you can see me. I will let you play with my poken

I am looking forward to meeting everyone, and pushing (gently, of course) the Social Media Club – New Hampshire.

There is a new post up at the SOBCon blog:
Using Sales Techniques in Relationship Management | SOBCon09

Long Term Customers With New Needs

Most sales people have experienced that moment when a customer says, “Oh, you have that? I just ordered one from someone else!” Often this happens because we have failed to continue to treat existing customers as prospects.

Even with a reliable customer, we may miss opportunities when our product line or their responsibilities change.

I have a new post at work.life.creativity:

Scott Ginsburg has a great column in the latest newsletter from Jeffrey Gitomer. In the article he discusses a double-handful of ways that you can make someone feel important, valued, and needed. These are, of course, important ways to develop and enhance your relationship with your team at work, even your family and friends.

I was struck by three of these tips, involving the use of notes:

3. Take notes. Taking notes is proof. Taking notes keeps you mindful in the conversation. Taking notes honors someone’s thoughts. Taking notes is respectful. Taking notes increases someone’s self-esteem. Not to mention, if you don’t write it down, it never happened. Do you carry a notebook or jotter with you at all times?

Read more Note-taking and Relationships >>

150 People Looking in the Same Direction

(post borrowed from Liz Strauss, because I am too buried in moving to write for myself right now)

TIME.

It’s the only resource we can’t get more of.

Suppose you could take a weekend retreat away from the noise…

• to focus entirely on your business
• to work with the support of a team
• to get quality time to interact with the best names in social media
• to get the best information AND time to dicuss how you’ll apply it
• to work with sponsors in the social media space
• in a room that only holds 150 people — all focused in the same direction
• without worry because the food and the wireless are outstanding.

A weekend of learning with Chris Brogan and Julien Smith, Brian Clark, Liz Strauss, Brian Solis, Kali Evans-Raoul, KD Paine, Geoff Nelson and Chris Aarons, Denise Wakeman, Wendy Piersall, and David Bullock, Stephen Smith and Michael Martine, Saul Colt and Terry Starbucker, Glenda Watson Hyatt, Karen Putz, and Stephen Hopson — and a 150-person dream team.

Would you invest in your business to experience that?

Register for SOBCon 2009 here.

I have been reading the new book by David Allen, “Making It All Work“, and getting some really powerful insights. The main thrust of the book is that it expands your Getting Things Done practice by emphasizing a couple of points that I have been advocating here for the past year or so:

1. Get control of your system
2. Gain perspective on your responsibilities

Keeping things in context has become my own personal mantra, and one way to do that is with a comprehensive series of reviews. I personally recommend a series of 69 reviews over the course of the year:

• Weekly
• Monthly
• Quarterly
• Annually

This may seem like a lot, but with some practice and by discovering what is most important to you these reviews do not take a lot of time and the return on that investment of time is invaluable. I use the weekly reviews to keep myself on track with the day-to-day work for my clients and personal projects. The monthly reviews focus on the larger scale of how my business is going and what I need to drill down on in the future.

The quarterly reviews are mainly geared toward measuring my progress toward the big goals, aspirations, and long-term success. These are the times that I really think about where I am headed and what is being done to get there. Last year I kept some fairly detailed notes during these highly introspective reviews and they came very handy recently when I sat down to look at what worked and what didn’t. This made my annual review go smoothly and provided a template for this year’s goal-setting.

Improving Relationships

One of my primary goals for 2009 is to expand and grow my new consulting business. Working for myself is an enormous challenge, with a fantastic reward – I get to work one-on-one with some really cool people. And I learn something new from every one.

Part of my plan to maintain and expand these existing client relationships – and get the new sales year off to a good start – is to schedule an annual review focusing on each of them.

During this review, I will be looking over the past year’s work with the client using this template:

• Thank them for their business, and tell them how important they are to me.
• Invite them to share their thoughts about the business we did with them – both positive and negative.
• Highlight the positive things we accomplished for them, and how we worked together to address their business issues.
• Brainstorm with the client on new products or services that I can help them to develop and market.

I am looking forward to building sustained relationships based on mutual trust and professional respect, and being able to ask for referrals to create these same powerful relationships with new clients.