Amazon Studios recently released pilots 14 comedies and kids’ series featuring top stars like John Goodman, Jeffrey Tambor, and Bebe Neuwirth. Over the past few weeks, I took the to evaluate their lineup of adult comedies.

Half of the adult comedies appear to be clear winners. Viewers of the Zombieland TV series may miss the cast of the original movie, but they’ll enjoy 29 minutes of commercial-free, zombie-inspired humor. In the first episode, characters Columbus, Tallahassee, Wichita, and Little Rock head west seeking to grow their numbers. With navigating tips from On-star, they struggle to build a family as each person they meet meets their own untimely demise.

Zombieland’s first episode isn’t a perfect pilot, but its a good starting point.  The series comes from the film’s original creative team, writers Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick (G.I. Joe: Retaliation, The Joe Schmo Show), and producer Gavin Polone (Gilmore Girls, Curb Your Enthusiasm).

Other must-try series from Amazon Studios include Onion News Empire, Those Who Can’t, and Alpha House (with John Goodman).  Dark Minions, a stop-animation series from Amazon Studios, shows potential. The partially-animated first episode of this series provides a good introduction of characters and things to come.  Like Amazon Studios other animated adult comedy, Supanatural, I wonder if it will endure.

Supanatural, an animated series featuring outspoken divas who are humanity’s last line of defense against the supernatural — is enjoyable for about 10 minutes. Thereafter, you stop cheering  for the divas and begin hoping they’ll be devoured by evil.  Believe me… one episode of Supanatural was enough.

Looking for more than 30 minutes of fun? Amazon Studios released rough drafts of two test movies: For Sale by Superhero  and Burma Rising.  In ‘For Sale by Superhero’ an unemployed father discovers that his new house is really the former secret headquarters of a deceased superhero. Naturally, he decides to assume the hero’s identity in order to win back the respect of his family — with mixed results.

‘Burma Rising’ is the story of an illicit mission into Burma gone horribly wrong. a group of American mercenaries must find their way back across the border in the midst of a war between guerrillas and the vicious military junta.

As ‘rough drafts’, the movies are professionally voiced and simply animated. The intent is to tell the whole story of the script in a compelling way. After watching, you’re invited to help decide whether the draft should be adapted as full-budget, theatrical feature films.  The studio currently has 24 movie projects in development including — wait for it — Zombies Vs Gladiators, where a gladiator must save Rome from the outbreak of the world’s first zombie plague. Clive Barker has signed on to direct the project.

According to Amazon Studio guidelines. they test ”premises, posters, trailers, storyboards, pilots, promos, comic books, and other formats to see what people like you think of our projects.”

This takes audience participation to a new level.

We recently had the opportunity to interview Lee LeFever, the author of The Art of Explanation and founder of Common Craft. He is producer of the ‘In Plain English’ series of explainer videos. Lee is a Social Pro, so we wanted to share this entire interview with everyone. Enjoy!

‘SELF PACED TRAINING’, DELIVERED BY VIDEO, OFTEN GETS A BAD RAP? WHAT DO YOU ATTRIBUTE THIS TO? I think it comes down to a couple of major factors. Until very recently, it wasn’t easy to be creative in training videos. Most relied on talking heads, screencasts and/or live-action footage that comes off dry and boring. The equipment was expensive and hard to use. With these challenges, creativity wasn’t the priority as much as getting the video made.

These days, new tools and options have made production easy by comparison and allowed nearly everyone to find creative ways of presenting ideas.

WHAT DOES AN INSTRUCTIONAL VIDEO WITH POOR PLANNING LOOK LIKE? From my experience, a poorly planned video does not account for the needs of the audience. It uses unfamiliar language and examples and is not focused on solving a problem.

A poorly planned video is one that is not designed around the audience needs or values.

WHAT DOES AN INSTRUCTIONAL VIDEO WITH POOR PACKAGING LOOK LIKE? Packaging an explanation is all about writing. It’s a process of taking a bunch of facts and ideas and assembling them into an explanation that’s designed to solve a specific problem.

Like a script for a movie, explanations begin life in the form of the written word. By writing out an explanation, we can take a step back and look for ways to improve it before it becomes a video. This includes the used of analogies, stories and context. Without a focus on the script and content of the explanation, a video can easy appear to be poorly packaged.

WHAT DOES AN INSTRUCTIONAL VIDEO WITH POOR PRESENTATION LOOK LIKE? Presentation, from my perspective is all about the use of media. These days we have more choices than ever in transforming our explanations into media experiences.

Poorly presented videos are ones that rely on bullet points and text when visuals or animations are more appropriate and effective.

 WHICH OVERSIGHT (PLANNING, PACKAGING, PRESENTATION) PROVIDE THE WORST RESULT FOR LEARNERS? I’d say planning. Without a focus on the audience, few videos can be successful.

HOW OFTEN ARE YOUR INSTRUCTIONAL VIDEOS TESTED/VETTED WITH LEARNERS BEFORE COMPLETION? We don’t do a lot of testing with learners specifically, but we do have technical advisors that help us ensure accuracy, etc. We sometimes send rough cuts to family members, which can be very helpful. The storyboard we build often provide the best chance to get feedback because they contain both script and visuals that can be edited very easy.

We work hard to nail everything down before production because edits are harder after the video is produced.

 WHAT IS THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ‘STORYTELLING’ and ‘EXPLANATION’? This is an interesting question to me. Storytelling gets a lot of attention and rightly so. It’s a valuable way of communicating. But stories don’t necessarily solve problems and in business or education that’s often the goal. Complex ideas in the form of story don’t cease to be complex ideas.

When people talk about storytelling in business, for example, I think their intention is using story to make an idea more understandable, engaging or motivating. In this context, I think they are actually creating an explanation that uses story as a tactic for achieving that goal.

 DO YOU FIND IT IRONIC PRESENTING ‘ART OF EXPLANATION’ AS A BOOK, RATHER THAN A SERIES OF INSTRUCTIONAL VIDEOS? Not really. A new medium for a new audience. I approached the book like a very long Common Craft video and I’ve heard from multiple people that they hear my voice as the narrator in the book, so I think it may have worked. In all, it was quite liberating. Usually I work within a strict constraint of video scripts that are usually under 500 words. With the book, I was free from this constraint and it felt good!

That is why books like The Art of Explanation, by Lee LeFever. are a welcome addition to my bookshelf.  LeFever is founder of Common Craft and producer of the ‘In Plain English’ series of explainer videos. His new book, The Art of Explanation: Making your Ideas, Products, and Services Easier to Understand, is must-have tome for online content marketers.

Common Craft’s ‘In Plain English’ series became the benchmark for top-notch instructional videos in the early 2000’s. They have spawned countless look-alikes and adaptations (whiteboard videos, etc.).  In Art of Explanation, LeFever shares the secret to his company’s success with instructional videos in a familiar, approachable style.  As a result, the 200+ page book feels like the printed embodiment of their video format.

LeFever shares simple and effective tips for planning, packaging, and presenting instructional content with video. In the ‘planning’ portion of the book, he talks about ‘lowering the cost of understanding’ by implementing good explanation tactics.  Too often, he said that videos take context for granted. The result? A poorly planned video does not account for the needs of the audience. It uses unfamiliar language and examples and is not focused on solving a problem.

That is why, he said, Common Craft videos often start from the beginning with a four-part story format:

1. Meet Bob; he’s like you
2. Bob has a problems that makes him feel bad
3. Now Bob found a solution and he feels good!
4. Don’t you want to feel like Bob?

Packaging an explanation is all about writing, according to LeFever. It’s a process of taking a bunch of facts and ideas and assembling them into an explanation that’s designed to solve a specific problem.

“Like a script for a movie, explanations begin life in the form of the written word. By writing out an explanation, we can take a step back and look for ways to improve it before it becomes a video. This includes the used of analogies, stories and context,” LeFever told Social Meteor. “Without a focus on the script and content of the explanation, a video can easy appear to be poorly packaged.”

In the book, LeFever shares lessons learned, best practices, and easy-to-implement tips.  He also identifies resources, such as the Common Craft Cut-Out library that make the process easier for video creators.

I consider LeFever’s book a must-have because online video skills are essential for content marketers. Consider these stats:

• More than 1 billion unique users visit YouTube each month, spending more than 4 billion hours watching videos (YouTube).
• 2 billion video views per week are monetized on YouTube, and every auto-shared tweet results in six new YouTube browsing sessions (ReelSEO).
• Online video production will account for more than one-third of all online advertising spending within the next five years. (Borrell Associates)
• Globally, online video traffic will be 55 percent of all consumer Internet traffic in 2016. (Cisco)
• 52 percent of consumers say that watching product videos makes them more confident in online purchase decisions. (Invodo)
• 76 percent of marketers plan to add video to their sites, making it a higher priority than Facebook, Twitter and blog integration. (Social Media Examiner)
• 92 percent of mobile video viewers share videos with others. (Invodo)
• Mobile and tablet shoppers are three times as likely to view a video as laptop or desktop users. (NPD)
• Online video now accounts for 50 percent of all mobile traffic and up to 69 percent of traffic on certain networks. (Bytemobile Mobile Analytics Report)

“You HAVE to serve us,” the poet tells the bartender. “We have the write.”

I opened this post with a joke for two reasons.  Firstly, I’m trying to improve storytelling abilities — and every storyteller needs to be well versed in ‘walk into a bar..” jokes.  Secondly, the three writers in this story have earned the reward (aka their favorite cocktail) after the end of a hard day. The poet completed a poem. The storyteller, a story. The author a book.  They earned the right — by completing their writings.

I recently exchanged thoughts about writing with several peers — not dissimilar to the small group gathered at the bar in the beginning of this story.  Each of us talked about why what we write, how we write, and what motivates us.  This post explores the third topic: motivation.  What inspires us as writers? What gives us, ‘the write?’

At first glance, there seem to be three sure-fire ways to motivate writers: You can beat them up. You can bore them. Or, you can ignore them.

Beating a writer up might be the best motivation.  It doesn’t take a hard stick — just a school of hard knocks. I grew up in a trailer park. My parents had too many kids. They drank too much.  Each of my siblings left home as soon as possible, without looking back.  I was  one of the youngest. I found my escape at friends’ houses, in books, and in notebooks. I wrote a ton of stuff.

Justin Gordon-Deacon, a storyteller in my group writes,  ”As I made my way through a painfully clichéd journey of self-discovery I became more and more aware of the necessity of including the voice of the storyteller in narratives that need to be told. In research and reports on colonialism, racism, homophobic violence, misogyny, and all of bigotry’s other treats, I found that the untold story of the storyteller held the potential to elucidate a far more nuanced understanding of the issue at hand than just the story being told.” Gordon-Deacon was identified as gifted in elementary school and was diagnosed with ADHD and Tourette’s later in life.

Escaping a revolution tinged with racial hatred fueled writing for Yandi Jaya, a writer my group. “The walls became prisons. How to translate this life I was seeing, this thing I was experiencing; how to transform these images in my memory into words?” she asked herself.  ”One page of paper and it’s not enough; two pages and it turned into a nonsense. I wanted to tell more but I can’t. I was unfocused, I was untrained, I was unprepared.” Although pain provides a good motivation for writers, it’s not a desirable state.  As we improve our lot in life, we risk losing our spirit for writing.

Boredom is another strong motivator.  When I got out of college, I accepted a job with the State of Wisconsin legislature because it paid more than jobs in the field of journalism.  What I didn’t anticipate was the slow pace of clocks in a government office.  My writing was prolific and — thanks to a 25-cent arcade a few blocks away — my pinball skills were well-honed.  One of the biggest obstacles to writing is high volume of small commitments.

“In college, I was not able to hone my writing skills since I  enrolled on part-time basis due to financial constraints.  I am lucky enough to have found a clerical job in our local government that has allowed me to go through college,” said Felma G. Aguilan. “Accordingly,  my dream of becoming a writer died during these days.” Life gets in the way.  Sometimes it’s the job. Sometimes its the family. Sometimes it’s the couch, a remote control, and a bag of microwave popcorn.  When we have ANY OTHER OPTION than writing, our ability to write can be hampered.

When it comes to writing, the phrase ‘ignorance is bliss’ comes to mind.  When writers are ignored, cast out, and ridiculed, their imagination becomes a fortress of solitude. Yandi describes this in her essay. “…Fights with a sprinkle of loneliness. Despair and depression and burnouts and everything in between. It was then that I want to create: I want to write even better;  make a good argument, explain what I’m thinking. To be right. If only that last one could get fulfilled.”

Yet, boredom and isolation aren’t preferred fuel for writing.  The fire to write burns from within. And, it must be nurtured there. Forest fires of emotion, loneliness and instability caused by external factors aren’t a substitute for a slow and controlled motivational burn.

That’s why we’re taking a journey ‘Rhetorical Composing’ together.  Along this journey, we write and we share. At the end, we’ll celebrate… maybe by walking into a bar… knowing that we have ‘the write’.

Macs have been the preferred tool of visual designers and video editors for decades. They’ve also been an outcast of PC-centric corporate networks.  Over the years, an epic battle raged between network administrators and corporate creative groups over which machines were best for the company.

The choice is often left up to a company’s marketing leader, like myself, who needs to balance competing points of view.  As a lifelong Mac enthusiast, I’ve always erred on the side of Macs. In recent years, however, the benefits of Mac-centric design and video editing have diminished. Print-ready PDFs have become the standard format for file delivery. Adobe InDesign conquered QuarkXPress.  Adobe Premiere trumped Final Cut Pro.  PC processors, hardware and operating systems are capable of meeting — sometimes surpassing — the performance of their OsX-based equivalents.

After taking the time to vet differences among more than 50 print designers (Macs staunchest defenders),  its become clear to me that Macs in the workplace are no longer the result of business need. They’re the result of  personal preference.  Using a LinkedIn poll and several LinkedIn design-oriented discussion groups, I asked designers to reconsider the ‘Mac vs PC’ debate.  Although most designers still prefer a Mac, few said they ‘require’ one to complete their job. A growing number of designers are platform agnostic or prefer working on a PC.

“I have been in the design business for many years and use a PC exclusively,” said  Sarah Hanley, a print design based in North Carolina. “I work with businesses and printers alike and have never had a problem… It’s not the tools, but the designer and how the tools (software, PC or MAC) are used. As long as you supply the printer or end user for whatever you are creating with a comprehensive product that includes all the elements they are going to need to complete their end of the product (be it print or web or app design), that’s what’s important. “

“I think that -for the most part- it’s a question of prestige. There’s quite a bit of snobbery – somehow you are perceived to be a non-sophisticated designer if you say you work on a PC,” said Costas Kyriacou, a UK-based designer. “Yes, Macs tend to look nicer, which is a factor to consider as a designer obviously cares about how things look.”

“Apple has a very closed and controlled system which makes quality control easy, whereas in the area of PCs you may run into a lot of cheap low quality options” said Kyriacou, “But if you compare a CAREFULLY SELECTED PC (ideally one for which you have selected the components yourself), with a good monitor, I really don’t see any significant difference. Especially since from Windows 7 onwards the operating system stopped being a hindrance. I have been working on an iMac for more than 3 months as this was the computer that was provided to me at work and my personal computer is a PC. Sometimes I actually find the Mac OS (especially the ‘Finder’ function) less practical than the Windows 7 one.”

“As far as video production…Mac is not even with Windows…it’s trailing,” said Video Production Editor Tim Kolb, of Oshkosh. “I switched around the time whe OSX first dropped and Apple’s own editing program wouldn’t run on it…yet Adobe Premiere would. As far back as 2003, I had a colleague that was anxious to return to Mac since they were 64 bit, however in his tests, his 32 bit Xeon Windows XP system still significantly out-performed Apple’s biggest desktop offering in After Effects. Apple pulled near even in CPU power when they adopted Intel, but fell behind again with slow config updates. Print and Web design are fine on an iMac, but Windows has owned the heavy-lift video post market for some time.”

While using a PC for video editing — and for design in a PC-based workplace — probably makes the most sense, a Mac-based environment for small offices and home based designers still seems like the best fit.  Macs network easily, resist malware effectively, and provide a better overall user experience.

Like many designers and video editors,  I prefer using Macs myself — but I don’t NEED them to get the job done.

In the past 25 years, I’ve worked hard to become a better writer. Looking back, though, I wish I had spent more time becoming a better storyteller.

As a young writer, I wove prose into poetry, short stories, song lyrics, and plays. These works were driven by passion, not grammar. I still remember the words of many short poems I wrote at that time. One such poem, entitled The Traveler, vetted the frustrations of a toxic home life. It goes like this:

When you left for the first time, your fish died.
You forgot to feed them.
When you left for the second time, your plants died.
You forgot to water them.
When you had to stay home, you said, “Things aren’t exciting enough.”
The place was too dead.

In college I matured as a writer. I obtained degrees in journalism and mass communication by learning to write newspaper articles and research papers. I wrote hundreds of articles while working for newspapers. I wrote dozens of research papers in graduate school. I don’t recall specifics for any of them – only generalities. Topics. Events. Interviews. I remember interviewing all of the presidential candidates the 1988 US election.

As a marketing professional, I tightened my prose. I inject the appropriate amount of humor, emotion, and information on demand. I demonstrate mastery of corporate America’s most loved communication tools: PowerPoint and email.

The result is a far cry from poetry or journalism.

Nick Napper hosts a website that provides of content from Martin Luther King, Winston Churchill, Mark Anthony and Monty Python adapted to PowerPoint. Enriched with clip art and corporate communication norms (such as the SWOT analysis in Monty Python’s Dead Parrot sketch), the PowerPoint ‘equivalents’ of each text are a pale comparison of the original.

One of my favorite writers of short fiction is Arjun Basu. I’m one of Arjun’s 165,000+ devoted readers. We follow him on Twitter because he delivers every story in 140 characters. His most recent work: The Lonely Man stumbles and screams, I hurt my foot! and when he realizes no one has noticed he yells louder. And then he laughs at himself.

With no more 140 characters at his disposal, Arjun isn’t bound by writers’ conventions – only those of a storyteller.

Stephanie Meyer, author of the Twilight series of books, is widely criticized as a writer because she produces great stories, rather than great literature. The author said she wrote the original Twilight book, for her own enjoyment after dreaming about vampires. She didn’t intend to publish the story. Meyer only intended to share it with her sister, who encouraged her to send the manuscript to literary agencies.

The result was nine letters of rejection and… eventually… a #1 best seller. James Frenkel, a senior editor for Tor Books that I met recently, began the practice early in his career of reading bestsellers, regardless of the genre. As part of the effort, he read Jacqueline Susann’s Valley of the Dolls. The novel was an instant success when it was published and sold more than 30 million copies.

“I read the first page and thought. ‘this is dumb…’ I read a few more pages and thought, ‘this is stupid…’ After 25 pages, I really thought it was crap…. but I never put it down,” Frenkel said. “It was really badly written, but it was really great storytelling.” Frenkel said that being a good storyteller is the most important quality a writer needs to succeed.

Frenkel believes that good storytelling is a skill that cannot be taught. I disagree.

Storytelling is a fundamental skill for communication. We use it in our daily lives to communicate with friends, family and coworkers. Storytelling pre-dates writing. It was used by many ancient cultures to pass along traditions, beliefs and learning from generation to generation.

Storytelling skills are easier to develop than writing skills – because you have the opportunity for immediate feedback from your listeners. When my family goes camping, we end each evening with songs and stories around the campfire. Some of the stories are family memories we share year after year – such as the time we took a family road trip to South Dakota.

On the South Dakota trip, our camper lost a tire in the first 100 miles. 100 miles later, the engine died in our van. 24 hours after that, our rental vehicle that broke down close to the destination. We had it repaired and enjoyed two days in the shadow of Mount Rushmore. On our way home, howver, the rental car’s engine died before we were able to pick up our originalvan. 30 miles from home, the ‘check engine’ light went on in the repaired van – and everyone laughed. It was a horrible trip, but it was an excellent story.

Being a good storyteller comes from the practice of telling stories. Each time I tell the story of our South Dakota road trip, it gets better.

Before a story begins, many skilled storytellers construct a careful introduction to set the proper mood for listeners. As the story unfolds, they use language, tone, and emotion to move listeners from one event to another toward a satisfying conclusion.

Storytellers have the ability to observe the world around them an extract the stories. Sometimes, its a real story they’ve witnessed in their own life. At other times, its a fictional story they’ve witnessed in the making.

Kevin Hearne, author of the Iron Druid Chronicles, said that his stories evolve through the telling of them. As characters develop, he said they take on a life of their own and sometimes choose to act in ways that he didn’t intend them to as the writer. In these instances, he said be becomes an observer – watching his own story unfold on paper as characters react to the scenario he’s dropped them into. In these circumstances, minor characters emerge as unintended heroes and the writer’s outline is cast aside.

To become a better storyteller, sometimes it take the courage to cast aside some of the things that make a better writer.

 Credits: Image by Leap Design.

Last week, I went on a Twitter rampage about LinkedIn’s clunky and counter-intuitive iPhone app.  This week, They released version 6.0 — an overdue update –that rebuilt the application from the ground up.

Version 6.0 uses swipe-enabled sidebar navigation. It lets users share, follow, invite, like, and comment from content in their stream. Users can also update their profile from within the app; view and save recommended jobs; read the latest industry news; follow and learn more about companies; and keep up with their favorite groups.

The app also boast two features I haven’t explored: personalized and customizable navigation; and the ability to follow influencers and access their original insights and content.

“I love linked in but the old app was a pain to use,” said Leah Ferrini, an Android user. “The New one is modern, speak and full of features. The only thing is I hate the New logo. It looks very similar to the phones default settings logo and doesn’t stand out.”

The mobile improvements to version 6.0 could have a huge impact for LinkedIn. Why? The site receives around 45 million mobile searches a month. 27% of unique LinkedIn users visit with a smartphone or tablet.

That’s what motivated me to sign up for my first MOOCs this week.

Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) are courses available for free to anyone with an Internet connection. They allow anyone, from any location, to attend some of the world’s top colleges and universities — despite the rising cost of higher education.

The easiest way to find MOOCs is to visit  Coursera,  Udacity, or Edx.  Coursera offers the widest array of courses.  Their offerings are organized into 24 categories, ranging from art, nutrition, and film – to computer science, engineering and math. By contrast, Udacity and Edx offers courses in business, computer science, mathematics and physics.

Although MOOCs don’t provide college credit, many provide a certificate of completion.  I’ve been told that these certificates can sometimes be used as part of your ‘prior learning portfolio’ to obtain ‘prior learning’ credits when you apply for programs offered by traditional schools.  That’s not the intent of MOOCs, though. The reward is what you learn – and what you achieve through course assignments.

I selected two courses from Coursera: Writing II: Rhetorical Composition, a 10-week course from Ohio State University and Introduction to Guitar, a six-week course from the Berklee College of Music.  Both courses start April 22.  It’s estimated that each course will require 6-10 hours of work per week. The guitar course includes video demonstrations with integrated quizzes and requires basic recording examples of guitar playing for peer review.   I plan to complete these assignments by replacing that I currently spend reading, watching TV, and browsing the web.

If these topics interest you, join me.

Not your cup of tea? Coursera lists more than 300 courses from 62 schools. Since launching in April 2012, the site has registered nearly 3 million students and has nearly 1.4 million course enrollments each month.

What is a MOOC?

With the availability of DVRs, Amazon on demand, Hulu, and NetFlix, I can only imagine what dad would say about on-demand streaming video content if he were alive today.

It took less than a year (10 months) for my family to become Netflix addicts.  During that time, on-demand availability of How I Met Your Mother, The Office, Supernatural, and Breaking Bad episodes via Netflix became some of the biggest obstacles to household productivity I’ve experienced in my lifetime. According to recent calculations, my teens were on pace to spend more time in front of the TV during 2013 than in the classroom.

To counter the affect, I did the only thing I could as the family’s streaming media dealer: I forced everyone to quit, cold-turkey.   I cancelled out Netflix subscription during Lent, 2013. An immediate result of the change was the biggest negative backlash that I’d EVER received from family members.   They were distraught — and vocal — at the prospect of losing immediate access to their favorite TV show archives.

Now, more than 30 days later. we’ve overcome the addiction.  We’re spending more time away from the TV and more time together.  Board games. Reading. Video games. Projects. Music. One of my daughters learned to play the ukelele.  The other is playing her guitar, ukulele and piano more.

I hope we can hold out long enough to overcome our Netflix cravings — but we have frequent doubts and moments of weakness. We talk about renewing the subscription and maintaining better control than we had before.  Or, renewing the subscription ‘just over summer’ when we can catch up on some Netflix series for a while and give it up again when summer is over.

We’ve still got the Netflix monkey on our back.

To prevent a Netflix relapse, I’m hoping we can deploy common addiction coping strategies:

• Build a social network of people who share similar goals.  If we work against renewing Netflix together, and encourage others to join us, our chance for lasting success is greater.  Do you want to join us in our effort? If so, add your comments and encouragement below.
• Find meaningful things to do with recovery time. This gives life purpose and prevents us from becoming bored. Individuals who have built a successful recovery usually complain that there is not enough hours in the day to do all the things they would like to do.
• Have realistic expectations. We’re going to miss Netflix for a long time – even when we’re occupied in other ways, we’re still going to pine for the comfort, convenience, entertainment and satisfaction that Netflix offers.

When our minds produce excuses to renew our Netflix subscription, we need to be prepared. Like the streaming content it offers, Netflix  is available 24/7. It’s easier to get ahold of than a drug.

Diary of a TV Addict
If you subscribe to Netflix, Then you know ‘that moment’ when you kiss your regular life goodbye after getting sucked into a TV series.

In this case, I’m using the definition of ‘tool’ suggested by the urban slang dictionary: “A fool. A cretin. Characterized by low intelligence and/or self-steem.” These lack either scruples or smarts.

Each of these guys have gone off the keyword saturation deep end.  Their profiles are meaningless and their ‘top five’ achievement is worthy of more mockery, rather than admiration. The biggest tool, Adam, from Toronto, Canada, includes ‘social media’ more than 1,220 times in his profile. The term ‘marketing’ appears in his profile 4,171 times.

Apparently, Adam gained his experience in 2008 during a month when he worked as ’social media social media, social media marketing, social media consultant,social,social strategy,social manager’ at a company called ‘social media marketing.’  (I can’t imagine how that title worked on his business cards.)

How does he describe the experience? In his own words:  ”social media,social media marketing,social media consultant,social,social strategy,social manager, social media,social media marketing,social media consultant,social,social strategy,social manager, social media,social media marketing,social media consultant,social,social strategy,social manager, social media,social media marketing,social media consultant,social,social strategy,social manager, social media,social media marketing,social media consultant,social,social strategy,social manager, social media,social media marketing,social media consultant,social,social strategy,social manager, social media,social media marketing,social media consultant,social,social strategy,social manager, social media,social media marketing,social media consultant,social,social strategy,social manager, social media,social media marketing,social media consultant,social,social strategy,social manager, social media,social media marketing,social media consultant,social,social strategy,social manager, social media,social media marketing,social media consultant,social,social strategy,social manager, social media,social media marketing,social media consultant,social,social strategy,social manager, social media,social media marketing,social media consultant,social,social strategy,social manager, social media,social media marketing,social media consultant,social,social strategy,social manager, social media,social media marketing,social media consultant,social,social strategy,social manager, social media,social media marketing,social media consultant,social,social strategy,social manager, social media,social media marketing,social media consultant,social,social strategy,social manager, social media,social media marketing,social media consultant,social,social strategy,social manager, social media,social media marketing,social media consultant,social,social strategy,social manager, social media,social media marketing,social media consultant,social,social strategy,social manager, social media,social”

The best thing I have to say about Adam is that he’s from Canada, instead of the US. As a result, I’ll let Scott Stratten of Unmarketing (@unmarketing) pour out his wrath on this behavior. Like Snap-On, the remains tools are ‘made in the USA.’

• John, from an undisclosed location in the US, ranks #2. He mentions ‘social media’ 2,478 times and ‘marketing’ 2,589 times. He mentions ‘LinkedIn’ more than 900 times.
• Chris, from LA, ranks third. He mentions ‘social media’ 2,446 times and ‘marketing’  1,214 times. He also rates ‘most favored tool’ status based solely on his work experience. He worked as ‘Riahanna’ at ‘Justin Bieber’ and describes that experience as “Barack Obama, Justin Bieber, Rihanna, Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, Louis C.K., George Clooney, Ellen DeGeneres, Aziz Ansari, Ron Paul, Mitt Romney, Lady Gaga, Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmell, Mark Zuckerberg, tyra banks, britney spears, simon cowell, michael porter“
• Phil, from New York, ranks 4th.  He mentions ‘social media’ 1,847 times in his profile and ‘marketing’ 782 times.
• Matthew, from Chicago, finished out the Top 5.  He includes ‘social media’ 1,358 times in his profile and ‘marketing’ a mere 391 times.

Each of these guys are great examples of outdated search engine optimization (SEO) mentality gone awry.  Their Franken-profiles are the worst examples of LinkedIn on LinkedIn and the worst examples of social media on social media.

If you want to ‘Vew Source’ for HTML pages, you’ll need to enable Safari’s ‘Developer’ menu. Here’s how:

1. Open Safari.
2. Select ‘Preferences’ from the ‘Safari’ menu.
3. In the ‘Advanced’ section and select ‘Show Develop menu’ in menu bar.’
4. Visit the web page you want to view HTML source for.
5. Select ‘Show Page Source’ from the ‘Develop’ menu that has been added to Safari.

On most web pages you can also view the source by right-clicking on the page (not on an image) and choosing ‘Show Page Source.’ (‘Develop menu’ must be enabled as described in Step 2.)

Some overshare mundane, gross, intimate and inappropriate details of their life. Others overshare photos, jokes, videos and gameplay.

People deal with oversharing in different ways. The most common? unfriending. However, there is a better way to battle oversharing on Facebook: You can adjust the individual friend settings for friends that overuse your stream.

To do this, mouse over the your friend’s name.  Instead of unfriending them, select ‘settings’ and reduce the volume of their updates that appear in your stream.

Until individual friend settings were available on Facebook, oversharing was the biggest turnoff among Facebook users.

In a 2012 survey of more than 1,700 Facebook users, 46 percent admitted unfriending individuals who overshared. One third of those surveyed said that they unfriended people who posting too many photos. One fifth said they were bothered by messages from friends who ‘liked’ too many pages.

Oversharing is a common faux pas on Facebook, Twitter and blogs. Some of the best examples can be found on oversharers.com – a shrine oversharing.

Facebook Faux Pas

Trendy or Trashy describes the nine types of Facebook posts that men hate the most. Find this sexist? Watch the counterpart.

Facebook is the best tool for remembering birthdays.  It’s also one of the most convenient places to buy birthday gifts — ‘Facebook Gifts’ to be exact.

As the name implies, Facebook Gifts allows Facebook users to purchase gifts for their friends, family members and colleagues without leaving their favorite social network.

The ability to ‘send a gift’ is now bundled with each birthday reminder on Facebook.

Facebook Gifts makes it easy to send what people want most: gift cards. According to a December 2012 survey by First Data (a payment processing company), consumers prefer a $25 gift card to a present valued at $25 to $50.

The survey said that gift cards have a preferred gift for birthdays — particularly for non-immediate family members, such as nieces, cousins and uncles.

Gift cards are available from Starbucks, SpaFinder, Target, iTunes, Olive Garden and other stores.  Facebook Gifts also includes a wide array of fun, unique and inexpensive alternatives such as a 5-pound gummy bear for $30; a variety of $10 chocolates; $5 smile cookies; and $12 party mustaches that rest on the neck of beverage bottles. The platform is driven by Karma, a gifting app Facebook purchased in 2012.

The biggest benefit of sending gifts via Facebook may be the real estate gained in the recipients Facebook stream.  Facebook Gifts stand out among the countless birthday greetings everyone has become accustomed to:

You’re also notified when the recipient is notified of their gift, reads the card, and receives their gift by mail.

When it comes to delivering happiness to distant friends and extended family on special occasions, Facebook is ‘gifted’.

The Worst Gifts on Facebook

When Ellen Degeneres asked her Facebook friends to post about the worst holiday gifts they’ve ever received, this is what she learned. Enjoy

In a recent roundup of the 15 worst companies in customer service from Business Insider , Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter ranked high on their list of poor service companies. The roundup was built from results of the most recent American Consumer Satisfaction Index (ACSI). The ACSI reports customer satisfaction scores on a scale of 0 to 100 — and social media’s leaders received failing marks.

Facebook ranked 5th worst with a score of 61. LinkedIn ranked 8th worst, scoring 63.  Twitter ranked 11th worst, scoring 64. Top performers among social media companies were Google Plus and Wikipedia with a score of 78.  Pinterest rated a 69.

Social media companies have joined utilities, cable TV providers, airlines, and credit card companies among the most hated companies. This is an embarrassment to companies touting their abilities for social connection, relationship management, and customer service.

Social media companies need to implement more effective social marketing strategies.

When I recently purchased two Kindle Fires as gifts for my teenage daughters, I didn’t realize that I was selling my daughters to Amazon.com for $15.

Let me explain: When I purchased the 7″ 8GB Kindles for $129 each, It included a $15 discount to Amazon’s special offers and sponsors screensavers.

What I didn’t realize at the time is that I trading $15 in one-time savings for lifelong access to my daughters.   To remove ads from the Kindle home screen and screensaver,  I had to repay $15 (plus applicable sales tax) for each device.

As a marketer, I applaud Amazon’s innovative was to create and guarantee and ongoing advertising channel to its customers.  As a consumer, this one-sided practice makes my stomach churn.  It’s only a matter of time until this kind of one-sided offer finds its way into smartphone contracts among mobile carriers.

Trading a one-time $15 discount for a lifetime of access to each customer on their Kindle is a bargain for Amazon.com. But its not a bargain for consumers. Amazon’s current offer is too self-serving. If Amazon is getting ongoing access to my customers, they should provide an ongoing benefit such as a $5 e-book credit for each month a customer subscribes to their promotions.

The best deal for consumers? Pay the additional $15 for a lifetime of GUARANTEED ad-free service. That’s what I did.

If your New Year’s day was anything like mine, you were barraged by this question: “What were your New Year’s resolutions?”

I’m not making any resolutions this year. Instead, I’m focusing on something more meaningful and more powerful: my purpose.

Like this blog, my purpose has been exploring the far reaches of social media and being one of its strongest evangelists. That changed more than 12 months ago — when I changed roles from ‘social media manager’ at American Family Insurance to being ‘marketing communications director’ for Sentry Insurance. The change of role is why I’ve blogged less in the past 12 months (since the change) than at any other time of my life.

A lot has also changed since 2009 when I launched socialmeteor.com. Social media isn’t new. Social media evangelists (self included) are commonplace. We’ve become as tiresome as traditional marketers were when this blog began.

It’s time to seek a higher purpose.

In upcoming weeks and months, you’ll see a wider range of topics on this blog than ever before. I’ll talk about general marketing, content marketing, relationship marketing, word of mouth, customer satisfaction and whatever comes to mind.  Social media remain a part of it — but just a part of it.

It’s 2013. Sit back. Relax. Anticipate. Wait for the Social Meteor to strike.

Credits: Image by Hugh MacLeod of Gaping Void.

We put ourselves and loved ones at risk when avoid undesirable conversation about cancer, our cancer risks and preventative care.

Fuck Cancer is an organization that attacks cancer by sharing facts and information that lead to early cancer detection, cancer treatment and recovery.

That’s in stark contrast to the cure-focused approach of the American Cancer Society which receives ongoing, albeit declining,  local support. In 2012, our local community raise nearly $68,000 for the American Cancer Society via our local community’s Relay for Life event. The same event raised $69,000 in 2011, $70,100 in 2010 and $71,000 in 2009.

“Fuck Cancer is unlike other cancer-related charities out there,” said Saschie MacLean. “We’re not raising money to fund research or looking for a cure, we believe many charities across the globe cover that mission in spades. Our mission is to put an end to late stage cancer diagnosis by educating people about early detection. We’re educators. With 90 per cent of cancers being curable if caught in stage one, we think it’s extremely important to take a proactive educational approach, rather than reactive approach.”

FCancer provides a resource that’s honest and raw for people (like myself) that are dealing with these challenging situations. Interactive tools at LetsFCancer.com provide kids of all ages with the tools they need to have “the cancer talk” with parents. They’re encouraged to ask questions like “Has anyone in our family had cancer?”, “How old were they when they got it?” and “What kinds of cancer do we have in our family history?”

Based on these answers, we can encourage parents to reduce risk factors, identify warning signs, and follow through on annual exams (mammograms, colonoscopies, pap tests, and prostate exams).  The site also includes infographics that break down ways to approach tough subjects like “how to talk to your best friend with cancer” or “how to tell your family that you have cancer.”

Although the time to have candid cancer conversations with my own parents has passed, I’m on board with what FCancer represents. I’ll use the tools with my own kids and with friends to begin difficult conversations, raise awareness, and contribute my own voice: Fuck cancer.

Fuck Cancer from Fuck Cancer on Vimeo.

TELL ME HOW YOU USE BOOKS, EBOOKS AND AUDIO BOOKS; BECAUSE THAT’S THE TOPIC WE’RE TALKING ABOUT TODAY.

I’m very slowly moving into the eBook world. However I use books and audio books.  I use them primarily to make a living [chuckle].

HOW BIG A ROLE DO AUDIBLE AND AMAZON PLAY IN THE AUDIO BOOK INDUSTRY?

They’re the 800-lb gorilla. Amazon is great for the industry. Audible is great for the industry. Amazon now owns Audible. there need to be other delivery systems as well.

It’s a great thing having them in the industry but it’s also kind of frustrating. They price their books so low that other sites can’t compete. I don’t think ANY industry can thrive when there’s only one delivery mechanism. In the same way, as much as I love Amazon, you know I’m always rooting for the ‘brick and mortar; stores. There’s just something about sharing the experience with others. For instance, I’m a lifelong comic book fan. There are some comic book subscription services that I could subscribe to. They would make sure that I never miss an issue. I would have them every week. But, I want to go into a store. I want to go in and meet other fans. I want to know that I can ask somebody an opinion who is leafing through an issue that I’m thinking of. It’s the same thing with the bookstores. I thrive on that kind of interaction.

There’s a very cool place in the audiobook community called ‘Audio Book Crowd’ (www.audiobookcrowd.com). On ‘ABC’ you can find a lot of audiobook narrators, producers, publishers, enthusiasts, and listeners. They’re all there. It’s easier to find your favorite narrator on ABC than it is on Facebook. ABC is dedicated exclusively to audio book enthusiasts. It’s a very cool place.

YOU’RE AN ACTOR AND A NARRATOR. IT’S RARE FOR AN ACTOR TO HAVE MORE THAN TWO HOURS WITH THE AUDIENCE. AUDIOBOOKS ARE OFTEN MORE THAN 20 HOURS. HOW DOES THE ADDITIONAL TIME AFFECT THE RELATIONSHIP WITH YOUR AUDIENCE?

It creates an intimacy that movies don’t. Movies are two hours. Its ‘one and done.’ With audio books you’re spending a lot of time (a lot of days, even) with someone. It becomes a much more intimate experience. People e-mail me every day. They tell me it feels like we’ve been friends for years. Somebody e-mailing me this morning said, he told his wife that he has to stop listening to the audiobooks because the voice in his head has become “Scott Bricks’ voice.” That’s a lovely thing.

HERE’S A DEBATE THAT I’VE HAD WITH NON-AUDIO BOOK USERS: IS LISTENING TO AN AUDIOBOOK READING?

Oh God! What an excellent question! You can put me on the spot on this one. I think it is. When I experience a book that I’ve only experienced by audiobook I still feel it’s the right experience. I’ve experienced the book. I’ve experienced the story completely. Somebody was complaining on a website that I enjoy that an audiobook is not the same experience. He was insisting that it was not reading. He said there is no way that an audiobook can capture everything that the imagination can. And, he’s entitled to his opinion. But, do you turn off your imagination when you listen to an audiobook? You shouldn’t be. If you do then you’re doing it wrong. Far more comes to the process when you read it out loud. I think when you say a story out loud, it becomes better. Shakespeare’s work were meant to be read aloud not read to yourself. So, of course, I’m going to believe its reading.

WHEN YOUR WHOLE JOB IS REVOLVING AROUND AUDIOBOOKS AND READING, HOW DO YOU UNWIND?

I really want to curl up with a good book. I want to… but I don’t always because it’s kind of like a busman’s holiday. The one hard thing about narrating all your books is that when you are done, you are absolutely emotionally exhausted. I am not a construction worker, I don’t have a right to be physically exhausted like they do. But narrating books requires concentrating every moment, every day. After eight hours, oh my god, I’m absolutely wiped out.

When people learn that I spend 15-20 hours each week reading books, they tell me “That’s unbelievable.” When I tell them that more than half of the time is spent listening to audiobooks, they tell me “That’s not reading.”

According to the Audio Publishers’Association, audiobook customers are frequent book readers who leverage audiobooks to “read” while pursuing other lifestyle activities. They are well educated tend to be older (30+) and are attuned to book trends through reviews and bestseller lists.Children’s audiobooks are also a formidable part of the market, as many families choose them for in-car entertainment or an at-home hobby, as well as many teachers and schools using them for educational tools.

Like most listeners, I use audiobooks while traveling, commuting and  during lifestyle activities such as exercising, relaxing, cooking, cleaning, gardening, crafting, walking the dog, etc.

During the past 10 years, I’ve spend more than 5,000 hours listening to nearly 600 audiobooks.  I discovered audible.com five years before Amazon and I’ve been a dedicated listener ever since.  I’ve exhausted the fictional works of Ben Bova, Orson Scott Card, George R. Martin, Robert Jordan, Stephen King, Joe Ambercrombie, Dean Kootz, Christopher Moore, Kevin Hearne, Christopher Paolini, Jim Butcher, Patrick Rothfuss, Jonathan Stroud, S.M. Stirling, Angie Sage, Ken Follette, Dan Brown, Robert Heinlein and lesser-known fiction writers.  I’ve also explored physics, history, and foreign language and other non-fiction offerings.

What I learned is this: I enjoy (always unabridged) fiction in audiobook format. Non-fiction is better on paper.

Blessed are the Storytellers

With the right narrator, audiobooks are a good replacement for reading fiction for attentive listeners. It’s the real deal. Sometimes, it’s better. Unabridged fiction can be far superior to the printed page with the right narrator.  Audiobook publishers look for professional narrators or actors and actresses that have voice and dramatic training, are able to use dialects and accents, can respond to direction, have the stamina that being in a closed studio for many hours requires, and ultimately deliver the feeling behind the author’s intent of the book or project. Frequently, the author approves the choice of narrator. The role of the narrator is ‘cast’ as it would be for many other forms of drama, only in most audiobooks, the performer usually plays all of the parts (although there are also books performed by multiple narrators or a full cast).  Once a narrator begins working on a specific series, it’s unusual for them to be replaced.

There’s nothing worse (or more disruptive) than having a ‘change of narrators’ part-way through a series.  I nearly abandoned Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time series for this reason.  After listening to 100s of hours, a new narrator took . His cadence, characterization and affinity for pronouncing names differently than his predecessor made the hand off almost intolerable.

It’s common to for audiobook readers to discover new authors by following the works of narrators they enjoy.  I’m as committed to the narrative works of Scott Brick, Roy Dotrice, Kay Reading, John Lee, Stefan Rudnicki, Stephen Hoye, and Luke Daniels as I am by the authors they represent — sometimes more so. A good narrator can soften the rough edges of a new writer — and a bad narrator can destroy the best works.  That is why authors and narrators tend to pair themselves off — at least by book series — to ensure a consistent experience for their listeners, aka ‘readers’.

For fictional works, I think unabridged audiobooks are akin to reading.  Although, I often purchase hard copies of my favorite audiobook experiences.  I do this to experience the books as intended. I also like to collected signed books — and to support the author.

Just the Facts

When it comes to nonfiction works, audiobooks are only a good supplement to the real deal.   Without the ability to review, underline, lookup, skip, write notes, or easily cross reference, I’ve had limited success listening to nonfiction books despite 100s of hours trying.  History books seem to be the easiest nonfiction works to digest. Books on physics, math, foreign languages  and work-related concepts that you want to revisit aren’t ideal.  In the past 10 years, there has been only one audiobook, Re-Imagine, by Tom Peters, where the audiobook was better than the printed copy.  In this rare case, it was because the book was over-designed to the point where it became unreadable and the audiobook alternative provided the consistency and structure that the printed version lacked.

The Real Deal

Still having doubts about whether an audiobook can be a better experience than the printed original? Experience this audiobook, as narrated by Samuel L. Jackson.

Credit: cartoon by Doug Savage of Savage Chickens.

It’s not enough to declare your expertise on social networks — you need to demonstrate it, regardless of the industry you work in.

Working in marketing over the past decade – I’ve seen a lot of companies try to position themselves as an ‘Approachable expert’ (show of hands). It sounds great, but too often it turns into ‘know it all’ because brands have to say everything themselves, or ‘expert of the obvious’ because brands hedge themselves by only talking about things at the very highest level.

This can be combated in simple ways. You just need to spend a little bit of time each week networking within your industry on social networks:

• Share content from influencers. Follow influencers. Engage with influencers.
• Find other experts and follow them. Like them. Share some of their stuff. Engage them in conversation. Be ‘seen’ having conversations.  Share links to any piece of good content that is relevant you can – even from competitors if it makes sense to do so.  Answer questions. Go out on a limb to the extent you can. (regulated industries need to be VERY aware of what can be done).
• Participate in weekly Twitter-based chats related to your industry, profession, and interests. Visit TweetChat to learn about Twitter chats and participate in real-time conversations with your peers.  (Some of my favorites chats related to social media include #mmchat, #blogchat, #smchat, #kloutchat, and #linkedinchat)
• Create good content. Blog. Blog regularly. Start a group on Facebook or Linkedin. Keep it general enough so that its more about the industry than it is just about your company. Unless, of course, your company attracts that many fans. Start a twitter chat.
• Provide Answers on LinkedIn. Do it well and LinkedIn will designate you as an expert.
• Discuss on industry-related topics enough and Klout will designate you as an expert.
• Consider leveraging the private accounts you, employees, distributors, and others have to spread the word.
• Many people work hard to separate their personal life from their professional life. I’m not convinced that that approach works anymore.  It’s too fragmented and impractical.

Bragging Rights

Growing up, I remember watching “The World of Commander McBragg” cartoons as part of the Bullwinkle show. In each episode, the Commander would buttonhole a hapless member of his gentleman’s club, and proceed to relate some story filled with unlikelihoods and outright impossibilities, always concluding with a hairbreadth escape.  Reminds me of many industry experts that talk a good game, but spend most of their time on the bench, or the sidelines.

Credits: Cartoon by @IDErmaux