Unplugged, Offline, Disconnected . . . and Loving It?

Audacious Ink is taking a short break while I try an experiment I’ve been meaning to do for some time now: I am going to unplug from the Internet for a couple of weeks. That’s right. You heard me correctly. No Twitter, no Facebook, no You Tube or My Space. Listen to this: I won’t even read email. Well, not much at least.

I am a firm believer that every now and then we just need to disconnect. I don’t do it often, but when I find myself stressed out and looking for my “happy place,” I think of a time when I was in Antigua, floating on a raft in the low waves, with the warm sun beating down on my back and the clear blue sea underneath me. I didn’t know what was going on at the office, I didn’t know if the world was still running across the ocean or what the stock market looked like or how much money was in my checking account or anything. All I knew was that as soon as I could get the beach-side waiter’s attention, I was going to order another Pina Colada. And I did. It was good. That, folks, is my happy place, and it does not involve a computer.

So for the next ten or twelve days, I am going to read books, you know, the kind printed on paper. I am going to start a conversation face-to-face with a stranger. I’m going to people-watch in a cafe. I’m going to snap some photos and contemplate printing them instead of uploading them. I’m not going to check Facebook to see the moment-by-moment happenings of some of my friends (I don’t need to know when someone just got out of the shower or that they are about to go to the dry-cleaners), and I’m definitely not touching Twitter where if I hear the phrase “affiliate marketing” one more time I’m going to commit the Twitter version of murder and “Unfollow” some twits. I’m not going to have CNN on in the background, running constantly, talking about divisive masses who can’t agree on squat.

Here’s something we can all agree on, though: we have information overload. The average American sees over 3,000 advertising messages a day, thanks to TV, radio, print, online, and especially now social media. I would like to trim that number by half for just a couple of weeks. In the process of doing so, I’m going to notice what kind of thoughts and ideas seep into my mind. I’m going to jot them down, via pen and paper. I’m going to experience life like it’s 1984, and not the future 1984, but pre-1984, the 1984 where we complained about Nancy Reagan’s bitchiness, and “Born in the USA” topped the charts.

So until I return around mid-October for more blogging and musings on marketing and the written word, I wish you well. I wish you rest, relaxation, great thoughts, original ideas, and a marvelous lack of streaming data bombarding your senses. Oh, but do watch Mad Men. I mean, you can only take this disconnecting from the world thing so far, you know?

The Future of Rock and Roll Turns Sixty

In 1975, I saw the future of rock and roll and its name was Bruce Springsteen. Darn. I wish I had come up with that line originally, but Jon Landau did. I did see the future in 1975, though: my own, if I didn’t start making plans. I loved Springsteen’s music, but didn’t want to end up like a character from “Meeting Across the River,” or “Jungleland.”

I heard Born To Run and my imagination went wild. Here was this artist painting a New Jersey landscape so vivid and real that a small town girl in Mississippi who had never been to the East Coast could appreciate it. When Bruce wrote, “It’s a town full of losers, and I’m pulling out of here to win,” I revved up my car and drove across the state line. I had to come back though. I was only sixteen. I was just warming up for when I was all grown. After college, I revved up the car again, and left for real, listening to “Thunder Road” as I pulled out of town.

Through the years, he has written songs that have been food for my soul and fuel for my imagination. He has also provided many hours of pure joy, as that is what seeing his concerts provides: pure joy. No wine is needed, certainly nothing stronger. I literally feel euphoric after a Springsteen show—for days.

A lot of people have bashed Bruce the last few years, saying he is old and should just retire. I wish those people would retire their mouths. Seriously. I would feel sorry for them if they just didn’t make me so darn angry. Not liking Springsteen is the same as rooting against your hometown team, or hoping your puppy gets fleas. To all his naysayers, I just have one question: when you turn sixty, will you be creating anything new, or still exciting people when you perform your job? Though we don’t see eye-to-eye, I do hope you will find yourself at sixty full of creativity and energy, and performing your own work better than ever, which is what he is guilty of: getting even better, and beating his own benchmark.

Bruce Springsteen’s music has always been the story of a journey, but now that the man is turning sixty, I think what’s noteworthy is not just the music, but that he still does what he does with such enthusiasm and passion, and he’s still looking, as Wallace Stevens would say “for that act that will suffice.” We all grow old: some of us just do it better, with more vigor—and with a good song.

For nearly thirty-five years, I’ve been a fan of Bruce Springsteen’s music and performances. So much so that when I wrote a novel a few moons back, I managed to squeeze a nod to Bruce into the book. The protagonist is a big Bruce fan, and this is how his music affected her:

“I would lie on my bed with my headphones strapped around my head and listen to Born To run or Darkness on the Edge of Town. I’d think about how the whole world existed in motion around the earth, and so on. And out on a lonely highway, just like in Bruce’s song “The Promised Land,” some guy in a car was driving that “dusty road from Monroe to Angeline” and points beyond. It didn’t matter the destination; it was the getting away, the getting on, the going that counted.”

All these decades after Bruce released “The Promised Land” he’s still driving down that road, at least metaphorically. It’s not so dusty anymore. In fact, at age sixty, it’s looking pretty darn new.

Thanks for the ride, Boss. Let’s keep going.

A How-To Paradise

I’ve blogged numerous time about how much I love Mashable. It’s at the top of my things-I-can’t-live-without list, along with my Channel powder compact, an overplayed Born to Run, my ancient iBook laptop and my worn copy of The Chicago Manual of Style. One of my favorite sections on Mashable is the How-To section. Wanna know how to write a novel online? Check it out. Wanna know how to create a wining Facebook Fan Page? Check it out. Wanna know how to plan a wedding online? Check it out. Wanna reverse the national deficit? Hmmm. Can’t help you there.

From Small Things Big Things Come

There’s big news coming out of the International Cannes Advertising Festival. An underdog (a small island off the Great Barrier Reef) took home a Grand Prix in three categories: direct, cyber & PR. Fast Company has a great article on it, complete with all the must-see links. As the article states, what makes the win so impressive is not the marketing campaign itself, but how they used social media to get the word out. There are six lessons to be learned, which Fast Company goes into great detail, but here they are bulleted for those who prefer the abbreviated version:

1) Make your campaigns believable. Too perfect can sometimes sadly translate into too fake.

2) It’s not about how much you spend. From my own experience, I’ve learned that you have to go for the biggest bang for the buck. PR and social media are often the way to do that. Bill Gates once said that if he had money to spend on only one thing in marketing, it would be PR. I bet he’d revise that now to include social media.

3) Focus on content, not traffic. Quality does matter, and if it’s really good and the stars are in place, the traffic will come.

4) Create inherent reason for people to share. Give them something they want to talk about with their friends.

5) Don’t underestimate the power of content creators. Some people just draw traffic. Tap into their drawing power if possible.

6) Give your promotion a shelf life. As my southern grandmother always said, A lady always knows when it’s time to leave.

Quick Thoughts For the Job Seeker

In honor of Labor Day, and because our country is facing record unemployment, I thought it would be appropriate to devote a blog to the Job Seeker. Ask any recruiter, the moment you put yourself on the job market, no matter what you do, whether you are an accountant, an engineer, an IT professional or even a dog walker, you are now a marketer. Welcome to my world. There are a few things you should do when you are out there in the market, first off is consider what you are actually doing: you are not just looking for a job, you are asking hiring managers to let you share their space for eight to ten or more hours a day, asking to become a major part of their lives as this manager will probably spend more time with you than she does with her own loved ones. Which brings me to . . . .

Know your audience: That’s the first item on the checklist, put yourself in the hiring manager’s shoes. You are a marketer now, and a marketer’s number one rule is to know their audience. What can you offer them that answers their question: what’s in it for me? Yes, you have to talk about yourself, but frame the content around the question the hiring manager is silently asking. They want to know, “if I hire you what are you going to do for me? How will you make my life easier? Or are you going to be some pain in the rear who can’t do anything?”

Sorry to be blunt, but face it, that is what this all boils down to in the job market. Can you not only do the job, but can you excel, and by excelling you make your manager look better and therefore, make his or day a tad smoother? These are busy people who need solutions. Be a part of that solution.

Forget Elevator Pitches, give them a headline: Think of your skills, your expertise. Now, try to turn that into a concise one-line sentence that sells the benefits the interviewer seeks from you. An account executive or salesman might say, “I brought in over $XXX in revenue in one year alone.” How have you increased revenues, implemented policies, streamlined processes? State is with strong action verbs, but don’t elaborate too long, which brings me to the next point:

Be a communicator, not a bore: I’ve said it many times, if you talk too long on one topic, you are probably boring people, unless they paid to come hear you give a speech. Give them a chance to ask questions or even ask them questions. Don’t have an interview. Have a conversation—unless the interviewer clearly does not want to talk. That goes back to point #1.

Marketers are generally People Persons. They are also generally Big Talkers. They love to chat, and by chatting, that means have a two-way conversation. So ask intelligent questions of your interviewer. Do some research on the company and the job. A little Google research will turn up dozens of lists of interview questions the job seeker can ask the interviewer. Remember to slant your questions in a way that will let you eventually answer their hidden question of “what’s in it for me?”

If finding a job is about marketing yourself, then just remember the fundamental tenet of marketing: you are filling a need. Show how you can do that, and hopefully, you will have a jump start over your competitors.