With all the noise overwhelming our lives and our social streams it’s easy to miss the good stuff.
Here’s my effort to provide a little signal by curating some of the best posts I read during the first half of 2011.
February
On Course – Chris Penn
Unreasonable – Seth Godin
The Discipline of Social Media Measurement – Amber Naslund
Compelling Facebook Fan Pages – Chris Brogan
Playing By the Rules – David Meerman Scott
Make the Cheapskates Pay – Andy Singleton
For Every Minute – David Stehle
To Understand Your Market, Harness The 7 Elements of Customer and Social Data – Jeremiah Owyang
The Connected Company – Dave Gray
If You Don’t Want to Influence Others, You Can’t Lead – Linda Hill & Kent Linebeck
A Quick but Important Primer on Becoming a Doucebag – Julien Smith
Why Everyone Hopes You’ll be the Hero – Robert Bruce
Risk and Reward Are Not Obvious – Fred Wilson
College and Business Will Never be the Same – Steve Blank
Bother Me, I’m Thinking – Jonah Lehrer
How to Make Money in 6 Easy Steps – Jason Fried
Quotes:
“Conventional wisdom is that you should find a job that matches your passion. Transferring your passion to your job is far easier.” – Seth Godin
“The difference between marketing & selling is more than semantic. Selling focuses on the needs of the seller, marketing on the needs of the buyer.” – Theodore Levitt (Marketing Myopia, 1975)
“We tell our friends about your brand not because we like your brand, but because we like our friends.” – (@mikearauz)
March
Should You Hire an Overqualified Candidate? – Amy Gallo (Harvard Business Review)
Presentation: New Rules for the New Bubble – Steve Blank
Are You Doing A Good Job? – Seth Godin
Video: You Will Survive – Dyana Valentine
Presentation: Conference Insights from the Social Media Industry – BSI
9 Keys to Communicating Diplomatically – Amber Naslund
Infographic: The Student Loan Scheme: Gateway Drug to Debt Slavery – CollegeScholarships.org
Why Social Success is No Accident – Jay Baer
“Have An Idea? Do it!” – Bob Goyetche
Quotes:
“Discipline. Curiosity. Empathy. That’s all a person really needs.” – Hugh MacLeod
“The goal of an argument is not a victory, it’s progress.” – Keith Ferrazzi
“Early in a startup, product decisions should be hunch driven. Later on, product decisions should be data driven.” – Fred Wilson
“Influence is both ephemeral and subject-specific.” – Olivier Blanchard
“The single biggest pool of untapped resource in this world, is human good intentions that never translate into action.” – Cindy Gallup
April
Program Plan: The Social Media Center of Excellence – Jeremiah Owyang
9 Companies Doing Social Media Right and Why – Amy Porterfield
Social Business vs. Social Marketing: Understanding the Fight Over “Content” – Olivier Blanchard
1900 Word Ad on How to Create Advertising from David Ogilvy – 37 Signals
The Realization is Now – Seth Godin
Moving Beyond Teachers and Bosses – Seth Godin
When Failure is Cheap Why Not Give it a Go – David Meerman Scott
Influence is About Information, Not Egos – Jason Keath
Why I Run a Flat Company – Jason Fried
Perfect vs. Interesting – Seth Godin
The Secret to Climbing the Career Ladder: Realize There is No Ladder – Whitney May Parker
10 Truths I’ve Learned on the Open Road – Adam Baker
No, You Can’t Pick My Brain. It Costs Too Much – Adrienne Graham
What the Middle Looks Like – Sarah Peck
The Creative Badass Manifesto – Justine Musk
The Sleepless Elite – Melinda Beck
Real Time vs. Slow Time & a Defense of Sane Work Hours – 37 Signals
Cranking – Merlin Mann
Awesome/Funny:
50 More (Viral) Images the World Shared in 2011 – Adam Singer
Russell Brand on Newsnight – Youtube Video
May
Real time vs. slow time – and a defense of sane work hours – 37 Signals (April)
What I Believe – Charlie Gilkey
Stop Waiting for Friday – I Can Read (Tumblr)
What Don Draper Knows That You Don’t About Persuasion and Success – Sean Platt
Free Online Community Management Resources On The Web – Richard Millington
How to Develop a Mobile Strategy – Jeremiah Owyang
Why Fail Fast is Bad Advice – Peter Kim
5 Reasons Why Free is Hurting Us All – John Jantsch
5 Ways Social Media Has Changed Marketing Campaigns – Heather Whaling
Don’t Be Fooled By Last-Click Analysis Of Social Media – Dave Fleet
Why America is the No-Vacation Nation – A. Pawlowski
Open Letter to College Graduates – Scott Berkun
Jason Fried Of 37Signals Shares Tips For Creating A Productive Office Space
Other Stuff:
Jamie Varon & Nicole Antionette relaunched Shatterboxx and it’s super pretty.
Diana Antholis created an excellent E-Guide on conquering your career.
A Special Graduation Message to the Class of 2001 – Drew Magary
[Video]: An Otter Chasing a Kid
Gif of a Dude More Bad Ass Than Chuck Norris
Breathtaking 3D art paintings – Kristian Jeffrey
Quotes:
“Success in life is directly proportional to the number of awkward conversations you’re willing to have.” – Ramit Sethi
“The obsession with Cinco de Mayo is beyond me. I don’t need an excuse to drink beer and eat Mexican food.” – ME
“Your passion is what you love to do – your purpose is why the world loves you.” – Tim Sanders
June
The Way I Work: David Karp of Tumblr – Liz Welch (Inc.)
Can Simmons Win the Big One? – Jonathan Mahler (NY Times)
Conscious Spending Sets You Free – J.D. Roth (Time)
The Professional’s Platform – Seth Godin
The Shaping of the Social Media We Know – Amber Naslund (Brass Tack Thinking)
What Are Some Stupid Things Smart People Do – Lee Semel & others
35 Smart Social Media Business & Consumer Insights — Lee Odden/Brian Solis
Show us the Data (It’s Ours, After All.) Richard Thaler (NY Times)
The Best Investment You Can Make – Umair Haque
If You’re Going To Work… – Seth Godin
The More Friends You Have, The More Unpredictable Your Life Is—And That’s a Good Thing – Michael Ellsberg
The Seven Performance Metrics that Matter Most – eMarketer
To Viral or Not to Viral is Not Even a Question – Peter Novelli
Funny:
Why We Don’t Let Grandpa on Facebook Anymore
Quotes:
“Satisfying work is the intersection of what what you like to do, what you are good at, and what an organization values.” – Penelope Trunk
“We happily give up our freedom and our income in exchange for having someone else take responsibility for telling us what to do next.” – Seth Godin
“Haters are your daily confirmation that you’re doing something interesting. They are to be cherished.”- Lisa Barone
“Some brands are over-obsessed with fans. As an industry we need to move away from that.” — Carolyn Everson, Facebook VP
“For work to be satisfying there should be: autonomy, complexity, and a connection between effort and reward.” – Malcolm Gladwell
“I suppose leadership at one time meant muscles; but today it means getting along with people.” – Mohandas K. Gandhi
“How vain it is to sit down to write when you have not stood up to live.” – Henry David Thoreau
“Great leaders know their job is to create the right conditions. Not command and control.” – Sir Ken Robinson
“It is preoccupation with possession, more than anything else, that prevents men from living freely and nobly.” – Bertrand Russell
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