Friday Favourites from Mick Sharpe. How much did you miss this week?

Friday Favourites from Mick Sharpe. How much did you miss this week?

#fridayfavourites

Originally shared by Mick Sharpe

Keeping it straight

Nothing about the flexibility of a certain fruity piece of communication technology this week (I’m trying not to get drawn into the Fanboy battles!) Just some great information and thoughtful discussion in Thinkers Corner..

Kicking off with The Mia Connect Power Chat taking a look at Book Bloggers & What to Read! (http://goo.gl/GGLrxf). I have to applaud Mia Voss for always bringing variety to her audience and always finding interesting and entertaining guests. Book bloggers Laura Fabiani, Vera Pereskokova and Jessica Porter talk about their passion and the value of the services they provide. Always a great hour of #infotainment and where else will you learn about Belches Burps and Farts in an HOA. As ever Mia makes it very easy for you to extract the bits of interest with the #BatCrapCrazy #timestamp post here (http://goo.gl/T9kfRk)

In the event description for The Pinterest Marketing HOA for All the Things (http://goo.gl/k3zi6C) Jason T. Wiser promised not to talk about the top ten Pinterest tips that seem to regularly do the rounds. Well I think that promise was kept as Cynthia Sanchez discusses the relevance of Pinterest for small business. I think it’s always a good plan for any small business to diversify their marketing efforts and with Dustin W. Stout’s recent revelation that Pinterest is now his biggest source of traffic for his website you could do worse than consider this platform to expand your reach.

Thomas E. Hanna | BlogPhoto.tv gave us a cracking post in The Hidden Reach Of Google Plus ...and how to leverage it for yourself (http://goo.gl/PBEJXn). As well as the sound advice this post is notable as an example of how to write effectively. Thomas opens with a captivating story that illustrates the cultural differences that abound in the online world leading nicely into the meat and potatoes of the article. Good job Thomas.

The latest Social Media Today #SMTPowerTalk looks at Games & Design in Social Media Marketing (http://goo.gl/aon50J). It’s hard to imagine two better guests to discuss this topic than Dustin W. Stout and Christopher Vogelmann. David Amerland coordinates this interesting discussion about these elements that can delight and motivate your audience. Some really useful thoughts on dealing with today’s much more discerning, savvy and changeable audience. Dustin explains the importance of communicating the reasoning behind design choices - although I have experience of this still not being enough in some situations. Overall a great discussion about the marketing world and the psychology of customer engagement, authenticity, ethics and core values. Thirty minutes well spent!

Fortuitous happenstance
martin shervington summed this up perfectly in the comments with Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the Stream, have a little splash about, Amerland hits us with one... In the small hours of the night David Amerland gave us Designing Serendipity in Semantic Search (http://goo.gl/TMn4yg). An excellent overview of where search is heading and the possibilities that open up. Rounding off the post David outlines the things to do to maximise the chance of your content being found by a new and unexpected audience. Also very much worth watching the video segment highlighted by Martin in his share of another David Amerland post Serendipity in Search (http://goo.gl/9jDUCD) in which Eric Schmidt answers a question about programmed serendipity. I’m still waiting for that more time to play benefit to happen!

Two for one this week with the Mid Week Marketing Mix joining forces with Google+ Business Spotlight (http://goo.gl/yxqxMM) for a one off special. James Dearsley introduces kara wood who gives us the latest marketing news including Twitter’s venture into social commerce. Stephan Hovnanian and Ben Fisher give an overview of the upcoming Season 4 of the G+ Spotlight with some great guests planned including Bandit Woof! Ryan Hanley talks about his new book Content Warfare and James wraps up the show with a look at Oculus Rift. As usual you can get the blow-by-blow #timestamp post from The Digital Marketing Bureau here (http://goo.gl/Xln9L2)

I’ve been regretting not having the time to watch everything I would like to due to work commitments so this week I took the time to review some those that I’ve missed over the last few weeks and I’m glad I did. The latest Fearlessly Questioning Empty Business Building (http://goo.gl/FkUEbA) has Joey Giangola probing Trent Dyrsmid about his success in business. Some really sensible advice about getting your business systems and processes up to scratch, differentiation, defining your target market and capturing your audience when your product or service is dull and boring. Trent sums it up when he states you can either have control or growth and to grow you have to bring in others to do the work.

In support of curation

I’m taking the opportunity here to acknowledge the efforts of John Kellden and the Conversation Community (http://goo.gl/pU1c8F) who are doing a marvellous job of collating, collecting and curating a vast amount of the content created here. John’s latest 21C Monday Magazine: Moving Through Portals (http://goo.gl/cIZ3fW) will give you a taste of what it’s all about as well as linking to some really great content. Give it a whirl you’re sure to find something of interest.

Thinkers corner

I found this much shared piece from Yonatan Zunger Thiel's Question (http://goo.gl/M35NRM) to be a very useful reminder to check ourselves when we’re about to make assumptions about others we encounter. This is probably much more relevant in the online world where we lack the normal cues available in real world meetings. Yonatan ably demonstrates that people aren’t stupid and that they only have a differing set of decision making criteria, which is often unknown to us. This greater appreciation of the motives and drivers behind the actions, or inactions, of others can only be a good thing. Who needs an amygdala hijack anyway?

And as if serendipity were playing a part in this week’s post we have Making the unconscious conscious (http://goo.gl/8AnP16) looking at the biases that influence our decisions on a daily basis. Thanks to Denis Labelle for surfacing this as his #VideoOfTheWeek.

A little piece of #MarkoKoolAid to wrap up this section. In The Lesson in the Blade (http://goo.gl/QoV4Bs) Bruce Marko imagines us as a single blade of grass tenaciously holding on to life in the face of a hostile and ever changing environment. Always enjoy reading Bruce’s words.

And finally…

You may well have bookmarked the Google+ Partner Playbook but not yet had the chance to look at it. If so don't worry martin shervington has you covered with this bite-sized video and audio run throughs of each section (http://goo.gl/ezCeJU). I can see a lot of mileage in putting clients in front of these resources. Many thanks Martin.


Have a great weekend wherever you are

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Created by Mick Sharpe of Bitingedge