January 2012

Monday Spark: Yes, you should reinvent the wheel.

Published on January 30, 2012 by Nick Usborne

Five people play one guitarIt’s easy to sit in a meeting room on a Friday afternoon and say, “I don’t think we need to reinvent the wheel here”.

It’s much harder to say, “It’s going to involve working through the weekend, but let’s step back and see if we can be genuinely creative, and come up with an idea that really is new and interesting.”

In other words, the decision not to reinvent the wheel is the easy way out. It’s the lazy way out. It means you can stop thinking, stop worrying about making a mistake, and grab a “proven process” off the shelf.

It’s also a first-class ticket to mediocrity.

Beware anyone who tempts you with a “proven process” or an easy “success formula”.

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The difference between an authentic voice and a paid-for voice.

Published on January 26, 2012 by Nick Usborne
authentic voice

Photo courtesy: CBC

Last week, during the fight against SOPA, I was listening to a radio show on CBC, hosted by Mike Finnerty.

He had two guests – Rob Beschizza, Managing Editor of BoingBoing, which went dark to protest SOPA, and Steve Tepp, Chief Intellectual Property Counsel of the Global Intellectual Property Center.

(Yes, this post is about copywriting. Keep reading…)

Finnerty reached them both by phone and gave them more or less equal time to present their points of view.

Both Beschizza and Tepp are smart guys, and both shared very different views on the value of SOPA. Beschizza said it was bad legislation that would result in a lot of unintended consequences for thousands of websites. Tepp said it was excellent legislation that would put a stop to piracy by “foreign criminals”.

Who won the debate?

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Monday Spark: Tips on creativity from John Cleese.

Published on January 23, 2012 by Nick Usborne

john cleese on creativityThe video below is an edited version of a longer talk on creativity, given by John Cleese in Belgium. (Remember John Cleese from Monty Python and Faulty Towers?)

Pretty much everything he talks about applies to freelancers like us. Yes, what we do is creative!

I absolutely agree with him about “sleeping on” a problem. I have had the same experience many times. I’m struggling with something in the evening, sleep on it, and then find the answer to the problem is easy to see when I get up the next morning.

But most of all, I like what he said about carving out some space and time…a place where you can be creative. It’s hard or even impossible to be creative when you are being interrupted or distracted.

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To really understand social media, you first need to know its 30-year history.

Published on January 19, 2012 by Nick Usborne

speakers corner conversationsHere’s a timely quote for you:

“…a place for conversation or publication, like a giant coffee-shop with a thousand rooms; it is also a worldwide digital version of the Speaker’s Corner in London’s Hyde Park, an unedited collection of letters to the editor, a floating flea market, a huge vanity publisher, and a collection of every odd special-interest group in the world.”

That’s not a bad description of social media.

But it wasn’t written about social media.

It was written by Howard Rheingold in his book, The Virtual Community. His book was first published in 1993, before the web even existed.

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Published in Social Media
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Is there a market for more social media experts?

Published on January 17, 2012 by Nick Usborne

nick usborne social mediaEvery week I seem to find an article, post or tweet that mocks social media experts.

Granted, most of these pieces are written by social media gurus themselves, who are anxious to separate themselves from this influx of new competitors.

As I say in the video below, there are two sides to this story.

Yes, in one respect these gurus are right. A lot of people claim to be experts, based only on their own, personal familiarity with various social media sites.

But they are also wrong, because there are also plenty of other people who are taking the trouble to dig deeper and learn the skills of true social media marketers.

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Monday Spark: If you had one shot or one opportunity…

Published on January 16, 2012 by Nick Usborne

one shot or one opportunityLook, if you had one shot, or one opportunity
To seize everything you ever wanted in one moment
Would you capture it or just let it slip?

These are the opening lines of Eminem’s song, Lose Yourself. You can watch the video of this song below. As you will see, I chose a version that includes the lyrics, so you can read along as he raps.

I don’t listen to a lot of rap, but when I like it, I like it a lot. For me, good rap is poetry turned up loud.

In this song, Eminem talks about how sometimes life hands you an opportunity that is within your grasp now…but will be gone tomorrow.

As a freelancer, you’ll experience these opportunities.

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