Business Book Summary #18: “Six Pixels of Separation” by Mitch Joel

I enjoyed the part of the review where it emphasized commenting and interacting with the community that you are selling a product at. I know that I have found most my favorite blogs and sites via comments and community interactions.

Thanks for the reviews. Keep up the good work.

Daniel - thanks for the kind words. Interaction is definitely the most important aspect of any social media strategy. The best part about it is that the interaction will almost always take you in a different (and better) direction than you otherwise would have taken. Thanks for dropping by with your thoughts!

Another great book - love your book summaries.
The point about truly embracing 'feedback' is tough. It is as if you are 'open source' allowing others to judge and contribute to your business model. Not one of the 'best ideas' in my business was mine - so, I just had to learn to get over it.

Reese - I agree with you 100%. Embracing feedback is very tough, and very necessary. It takes a true leader to let the best ideas win.

Steve,

Once again, excellent program! I have heard some good things about this book and was glad to see that you'd reviewed it.

I have been taking a very slow and deliberate approach to our company's Social Media strategy and I am glad to have done so. Our methodology and approach has been much more akin to the ripples you've described as opposed to a big splash and we are beginning to see an authentic growth in our online social media network.

We began by assessing the health of our blog, identifying its strengths and weaknesses, and developing a content strategy going forward. As the organic traffic to the blog has grown, we took a step in to Twitter. I have had a personal Twitter account for years and am very familiar with the platform, but when it "tipped" earlier this year and the # of users graph went in to hockey stick territory, I was wary. I saw too many businesses jumping in and shouting about themselves without understanding what Twitter should "feel" like.

Very cautiously, I created our company Twitter account and have slowly and purposefully built a network of relevant followers. Because we have permission from the folks we communicate with on Twitter and because we are careful to broadcast only signal and no noise, our Tweets are beginning to direct traffic to our blog as well.

The book applies to our social media strategy at The Miller Company because it affirms what has felt right to us, "Let's not jump up and down on the table and scream 'Look at me! Look at me!' Let's provide meaningful content on a regular basis and develop a loyal following over time."

I am certain there is a great deal more I could learn from this book. In the same way that we have taken a cautious approach to our blog and now Twitter, we have the same approach to Facebook and YouTube (video blogging). I suspect that there is a huge opportunity to develop a strong community of HR professionals interested in Reward & Recognition strategies that has yet to be tapped in to. The example that keeps me awake at night is "Will It Blend?" by Blendtec. On the surface, throwing an iPhone in a blender seems a little gimmicky and shock-jock. But in the end, it's a funny way to demonstrate the remarkable performance of your product and it's unique enough to want to show your friends. I think it's a brilliant idea.

I think this idea exists for our industry and nobody has thought of it yet. I am absolutely convinced that the principles and the mindset that Mitch Joel appears to be promoting are going to lead someone to discovering this idea. I hope I'm the first to get there.

Thanks and keep up the great work!

Brian - excellent thoughts here. It's great to see a company take the "slow" approach and truly be in it for the long haul. I think you are right - that "big idea" is open to somebody in every industry, and the first person to grab a hold of it will benefit immensely. It might be something like "Will It Blend", but more likely it will be something much much different, and far more compelling for your industry. Keep up the great work, and thanks for dropping by with these thoughts!

Thanks Steve. After hearing you describe the basic fundamentals of Six Pixels of Seperation, I finally have a basic road map to use, in order to help me launch a couple of my huge ideas online. I have been contemplating using twitter, facebook and linkdin, but I didn't really understand how to drive traffic to MY ideas. Now, I understand how contributing relevant feedback to other like minded blogs, threads and podcasts, can really help drive the traffic my way. I am looking forward to reading this book, and hearing your synopsis of the next 4 books throughout social media "month". Thanks again.

BTW
Very clever how you enticed us to participate in your forum, after reading these 5 books! Extremely practical.

John - I'm very happy that this gave you the roadmap you were looking for, and I hope you'll let me know what those huge ideas are sometime. I think you'll find a ton of value in leaving feedback for others and truly engaging with like minded people. Thanks for adding your thoughts, and I hope you'll be back in the future.

Loved the review and interview! At very least, it got me leaving a comment! The part in the review (and the words from Mitch Joel himself) about not only reading blogs but also leaving a comment really struck a cord. I read blogs until the cows come home. I may have enjoyed them or even agreed with the subject, but have not really left comments. I know, shame on me, I repent! I repent! From now on I will add my $0.02!

Thanks! Keep up the good work!

Christine - I think the value in leaving a comment is that it truly forces you to think about what you are learning, and put it into your own words. The more you "get it out", the more likely you'll be to apply it to your own life/business. Thanks so much for dropping by with your $0.02, and I hope that means we'll see you back here again!

I've known Mitch for more years than both of us have been blogging. The first time I met him, he inspired me. He was sitting on a panel at the Canadian Marketing Associations annual online marketing conference and his presentation blew me away. It was like he was speaking my language. Over lunch, I stalked him until we got to sit down and have a deeper conversation. What struck me is that Mitch didn't only give a good presentation, but he was truly passionate and knowledgeable about this stuff. Basically, what he talks about in his book, he's applied to his own life and his business has thrived because of it!

I'm glad that Mitch wrote a book on this stuff. His voice is pure and his experience is vast. He won't let companies get away with bringing old (and nasty) practices to this exciting new space. I love the whole metaphor of 6 pixels of separation - it makes me think of my favorite internet rule of all time, "Above all else, don't be a dick."

Thanks for inviting me to participate! I'm in awesome company. :)

Tara - I feel the same way about Mitch. You can sense that he truly believes in what he does. So it shouldn't be a surprise that he's been so successful at it. Who wrote that rule? I think I'll steal that for the next show :) Thanks for adding your thoughts here, and really looking forward to connecting.

Mitch is always inspiring and challenging me to try and keep up with new media. That said, it's been tougher to get the social media train moving at work. People mostly ignore the strategy and make a bee line to the hot new tools. Bad. There's also a rather large issues (or insecurities) about the potential for negative comments, committing to writing a blog, and of course, getting instant gratification. Social media doesn't always lead to sales leads; at least not quickly. These are things people here don't want to deal with, and are promptly swept under the rug. If anything, I'm learning that many companies do not understand most of the main tenets of social media. As an example, we have a CRM system FULL of email addresses. We still email these people with our newsletter, though they never specifically asked for it. People here have NO problem with this (aside from me). Just blast the maximum amount of people possible. "They're customers, partners and prospects, I assure you they want to hear from us". Needless to say, our open rates are quite poor.

I'd like to bring a copy of this book to work, and encourage everyone to read it. Directors need to be aware of the huge shifts happening beneath their feet. They need to be aware that social media is not just the place where their kids upload pictures of their kids' frat parties. It is the place to put down roots and "fish where the fishes are". Even if you granted them that its the place where their kids are, those kids are the future of business, and you'd better be prepared to speak to them on their turf, in their terms, on their watch.

Though I don't have my own business, I have tried to apply the rules of social media concepts to my own humble "personal brand".

I've become a bit of a hockey blogger, and to my surprise, I've had a tiny bit of success. It's partially due to my original thoughts and content, but MUCH has to do with how I present myself and participate in social media. Not surprisingly, Mitch was the catalyst of my social media presence. In March 2008 he gave a seminar that I attended that really turned me on to social media beyond my meager facebook account.

Merçi Mitch!

Kyle - you make a lot of great points here, which is hard for me to believe because you showed such poor judgment in picking your favourite hockey team ;-) Here's a potential challenge for your team at work - what if you had to email that list 52 times a year AND get open rates 10 times the industry average? How might that change your approach? If there's one thing I've found with even the most steadfast "old schoolers", is that they are open to new approaches if they are shown to be successful.

Thanks for adding your thoughts here!

Great information. I am keynote speaker for more than 26 years and I have always talked about my credentials. I just learned from the video "what is it in for the customer." I am now writing for the benefit of my customers and future customers.

Jim - that's a great insight to have, especially after 26 years of doing it the "old way". I hope this brings you success!

We have been blogging as a business for quite some time, but weren't sure how to effectively use Twitter. We also publish a semi-monthly html newsletter for our clients, one objective of which is to keep them abreast of developments in our field of labor relations. We found that we could use tools such as TweetDeck to set up searches on key terms in our space to monitor the conversation, and by strategically following the right people and setting up the right searches, we are often the first among our competition to break new stories or other key developments for our clients. They have responded favorably to those alerts. We know we are just scratching the surface of the full value of social media, and we're continuing to broaden our experiments into the venue.

Greg - you are doing exactly what Mitch and most people in the social media space would tell you to do - listening. It's the first part to any social media strategy, and you'll be miles ahead of your competition if you keep up that practice. Great work!

1. I like the review & I enjoy Mitch Joel's thinking and writing. I believe many companies should buy this book and especially corporations, like the one I work for. Their marketing departments seem stuck in the old ways, oblivious of the shift in consumers' minds. They recently started doing marketing over social networks but it is so dry and not engaging. They just reapply the same old ways to the new medium and it doesn't really work. There is no substance, no real connection, no real value for anybody.

2. When i try to connect & comment via facebook, using the button you made available, i get the following error: Invalid Argument
The Facebook Connect cross-domain receiver URL (http://polarunlimited.com/readitfor.me/wp-conte...) must be in the same domain or be in a subdomain of an application's base domain (www.polarunlimited.com). You can configure the base domain in the application's settings.

It seems it doesn't like the fact that you use http://polarunlimited.com instead of http://www.polarunlimited.com. Or at least this is what i understand from the error.

Ciprian - I think you make a very good point about applying the same old ways in the new medium. Simply taking 30 second spots and putting them on a Youtube channel, for instance, doesn't cut it. Hopefully, books like this one will help them see the light!

Understanding of Social Media is like the weather in Seattle. Rain and Mostly cloudy. Occasional sun breaks. Back to to Rain and Mostly cloudy. The Six Pixels summary is the occasional sun break. Thanks.

So what does it have to do with education. Mitch explains that we are all connected. To paraphrase, everyone is connected, connect your school to everyone. Education is moving through social media and networking sites to a point where we can learn from anyone who is a click away. The point for education and learning is not to just broadcast, but create community and build relationships where we can learn or share what we know. That educational community will exist anywhere and anytime, exempt from the constraints of geographic location. That community will provide value to it's participants. We are connecting through media channels, but we are learning.

We are one click away from each other. We are one click away from learning from each other. Imagine that. One click away from learning almost anything you can imagine through these digital channels. And we are becoming "experts" Tell a student that he or she is an "expert" in their community. They may never hear those words in the classroom, but they can hear in the social media community. That is empowering. The potential to take these networks off line and into touch space for real person interaction is powerful. "Community is the new currency" and we can spend that currency learning in community from each other.

Six Pixels of Separation from your teacher and your student.

Rob - I think that where social media can have the largest impact on society is in education. All I can say to you is this: I just had my first child, and I am thankful that there are people like you out there who are going to create a better education system for her. Thanks for dropping by with your thoughts, and thank you for the important work you are doing.

Social Media and education? Right on! This is a great post and I'd like to hear more on your ideas as I too am looking at social media in education from an organisational perspective.

As Steve often says, feel free to connect

Bill


email: bill@simplifywithus.com; twitter: simplifywithus

The insight that jumped out at me from this review was the subtle campaigning, the 80-90% of your time spent leaving comments, etc. on blogs and so forth. It's crazy how powerful that can be and it's something that I don't do a lot of. Thanks for the reminder. Also, really enjoyed the Footloose undercurrent.

Mike - the whole 80-90% thing was one of the biggest lessons for me in getting up to speed with social media, and certainly challenges the "old" mindset. I'm glad you enjoyed the Footloose - if there was ever a time for that, it was this summary.

Steve, the video you made is absolutely amazing!! I am really blown away and humbled. There is a ton of gold here in the comments as well. When I get a small break, you can be sure I am going to review all of them and try to respond as well. Many thanks for asking me to be a part of this very interesting project.

Thanks Mitch - I had some really great material to work with ;) I'm sure there are a few people here who would love to hear from you, so I'm looking forward to your thoughts.

Great review! Being in social media all day, it's easy to glaze over some of the fundamentals. I think one that you pointed out that's impossible to ignore is how we need to create ripples NOT splashes. And of course it starts with a paradigm shift before you touch the keyboard. It's the difference between building a relationship with your customers instead of it being handed to you by your status. Prove your value and relevance.

Joel - great thought about the paradigm shift before you touch the keyboard. Also so true about proving your value and relevance - which takes time, as all of the people who have been successful with social media would say. Thanks for your thoughts!

Hi Steve,

Another great summary and yet another book to get when its out in the UK!

I was especially encouraged by the four points to consider:

1.What expertise and knowledge do I have?
2. What is the competition doing?
3.Can I help my customers connect?
and
4.How can I use this initiative to stay connected?

I have been working on a "new opportunity" within a market I've a lot of experience and knowledge of and can take this and combine with the experience and knowledge of another market to immediately differentiate from my competitors. Using social media with podcasts and blogs supported with Twitter and Facebook adds to the differentiation as well as meeting a pain point - condensing time (as dicussed by Peter Sheahan in his book "Fl!p") - and was my preferred option, so the 3rd and 4th calls to action immediately dovetail with this.

Now I need the charisma of GV to pull it through! Looking forward to the next feed!

Keep up the good work!

Bill - it's great to hear you are working on a real opportunity with these concepts. I'd love to hear more about it sometime. Seth Godin had a great quote on his TED talk about "Tribes" - he said that you don't need to have charisma to lead - it's leading that gives you the charisma. I think the same could apply here - be the leader you know you can be and you'll have all the charisma you need. If you watch GV's first episodes, you'll see his "charisma" coming out over time.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts!

Who wants a free copy of Six PIxels of Separation by @mitchjoel? Comment here: http://is.gd/3MZ5x. Pls RT

I did not pose, although very funny, this clip did get me thinking. In the last piece of the interview Mitch talks about writing the book in "their media", in hopes of drawing them online to the social media pieces. Working with slow to change educators,this book the Six Pixels of Separation, may help start the shift. I look forward to reading this and sharing the ideas with educators.

Meg - as I was telling Rob Jacobs yesterday, education is the one place where I think these new tools and ideas can really do some amazing work. If we handle it right, it will literally transform the way we education our children. Exciting times indeed. Good luck sharing with your peers, and thanks for sharing!

I really enjoyed your summary of “Six Pixels of Separation” by Mitch Joel. Thank you for making it comprehensive for me. As a newbie to social media and the business aspects that can be applied I have found it overwhelming the number of books and "experts" out there. Your reviews will help with that. “Six Pixels of Separation” by Mitch Joel is at the top of my next to read list now.
Thanks.

Michelle - it is my pleasure - Mitch made it easy by giving us so much great content to work with. It certainly can be overwhelming with all the "experts" out there. Mitch is the real deal - you can't go wrong by listening to him. I think you'll really enjoy the book!

I'm connected to Mitch in the second degree. I haven't yet met him! But I've been really pumped about this book--and with what has been said so far, I can't wait to dig in :)

I can't wait for us to finally meet in person Tamar :)

When do I get to start paying for your service? I feel guilty you are saving me all this time and Money. Some of the books I've listened to here I never would have read but because of your reviews I will buy. Then there is a book or two I wanted to read and realized after your review. It was not for me. Mitch's book has such a great philosophy. So many people need to engage in and listen to the conversation. To often people run around the streets of social media shouting their message failing to ever stop to see if anyone is listening. I am hoping that more of the town criers read this book, stop their shouting and start listening.

Steve thanks you for the time you sacrifice for me. Please give the book to someone else. I am planning on buying my own. :)

Dee - no need to pay, although if you like you can keep spreading the word about the site :) I'm glad it's helping you choose the books you decide to spend your time with, and hope that it will tip the scales in favour of reading more on the whole. You are right - there's far too much talk, and not enough listen. Here's to hoping this will change in the future with guys like Mitch spreading such a compelling message.

Cool!

I want a free copy, I get to see him speak on SUNDAY!

Luke - you were unfortunately a couple of minutes late, but I think you'll still win by seeing Mitch on Sunday. Have a great time, and bring a notebook!

Does it have to be an intelligent/informed comment? I haven't watched the show, or read the book. But I would like to win!

Edit:

OK. So I haven't been here in a while...and just watched your review Steve. I am blown away. Best I have seen you do. And no, I'm not just sucking up because I want a free copy of the book. You've found your voice, to be sure, and have clearly hit your stride. Congrats!

Jon - thanks so much for the kind words!

woohoo... been meaning to pick up a copy of 6 pixel of seperation, free copy, even better, hope i'm not too late

Steve, Mitch ! : So where have you been all of my "searching for a clarified social media strategy life?"
Finally, now I'm beginning to understand & see the rest of the friendly big iceberg beneath the surface of this ocean, after taking in these two reviews of SixPixels. I can see Six Pixels is going to give me the 20/20 I needed all along, and run the relay race with it.

Garrett - you are right - this will certainly get you to a clarified strategy with social media. All the best with it and I hope you'll drop back in to let me know how it's working for you.

I couldn't resist the invitation - even though I haven't watched the video yet. At least I can get the site to load today!

The internet is making our world smaller as we are increasingly becoming more connected. However, it’s a concern of mine that that the more time we as a society spend in front of our computer screens – whether doing work or browsing blogs or on social networking sites - the less face-to-face human interaction we get. Yeah, I know that the internet makes it a lot easier to reach out and connect w/ others, others with whom we probably would have never encountered, but I think the trade-off is pretty big. Our challenge as everything moves online will be to find balance between living in the physical and virtual worlds because at the end of the day, nothing can ever replace real human contact.

…Which makes a resource like MeetUp excellent to connect people in real-life, although I’m not sure if the general public is comfortable yet with the idea of personally meeting new people aka strangers from the internet. If there’s a legit company or organization behind the meetup or event, people wouldn’t be reluctant to attend. But if it’s by a single person with little or no history, many people would probably be creeped out-- I guess this is why having an online presence with at least a blog is important for a person to build a reputation and gain trust.

I just hope that as time goes by, us being separated “six pixels” away from everyone else will enable us to have deeper connections and be happier in our own lives. So bringing it to the real world (step #5) is important!

Snow - what great thoughts, and I think you hit the nail on the head. The ability to connect to people in real life is where this stuff really becomes effective. Which also means that you have to work on your "in person" skills if you truly want to be successful.

Thanks for dropping in with your thoughts!

Great book by a great Canadian. I apply many of Mitch's principles and suggestions in my daily life as a business development professional for a leading email/online marketing service provider. I am continually trying to leverage and participate in social media outlets like Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook to extend my reach and voice, as well as that of my company, and to interact with like-minded people in what is certainly ever expanding sphere of influence. Thanks for the excellent precis of the book...I look forward to reading and learning from it in its entirety.

Jeff - aren't Canadians great? :) I'm glad to hear you are putting the principles to good use.

Steve,
As usual great video. I try not to come to your site too often because I find myself immediately heading over to Amazon to buy the book you just reviewed (in this case, maybe I'll be worthy of recieving a gratis copy). I am really looking forward to the next 4 weeks of Social Media reviews. As for your question... I have struggled to find a way to effectively integrate social media since my primiary customers are age 55+. In the past months as the adoption curve skews older I am hearing more and more from our customers that they are testing Facebook and Twitter. I plan on using the core ideas in the video to build on these initial signs. Leveraging content and trying to move away from the big splash to constant ripples. Additionally, I plan on using some of Mitchs ideas of generating new content and ideas as a means to introduce new customers to our product lines. Thanks again for the great reviews and keep them coming.

Best
-Michael Pizzo
@MichaelPizzo

P.S. I love the Dale Carnegie mention! That should be required reading for everyone getting into social media...or for that matter marketing and business.

Michael - I'm so happy to hear that you are buying and reading the books I'm reviewing - that exactly why I'm doing this. So thank you. I think they key is to be where your customers are - and for some people that means that a social media strategy won't be very effective (yet). The fact that your customers are just starting to get their feet wet with this stuff leaves you in a great position to be a leader in this space with them. Good luck with that, and it sounds like you are going to really nail it.

P.S. I'm glad there's at least one other person out there who agrees with me on the Dale Carnegie mention!

Steve, a truly tantalising review - stimulated but didn't satisfy my appetite. Now I'll have to buy the book.

Full of trigger points which revived forgotten resolutions or evoked new ones, but the most earth-moving was awakening my awareness that the internet (Google) never forgets – very sobering. I have had to put a 3 minute delay in sending my email – to allow me to catch my knee jerk responses. I am typing this comment in Word, so I can have a good look at it before everyone else see it FOR EVER.

Gordon

Gordon - thanks for the kind words. Indeed, we all need to be careful what we say online. I found a tip from Seth Godin very helpful in thinking about this. I'm paraphrasing here - but he said something to the effect of "you can (and should be) critical of ideas, but not people".

Thanks for dropping by!

Hi Steve,
I manage a private school in Indonesia, and i just wanted to say how much i enjoy your reviews and how much i learn from them. Keep up the great work!

I have a question for you related to the connectedness of netusers. I wonder if you could point me in the direction of some actual quantitative studies showing the benefits of commenting on others' blogs. I blog and only occasionally leave comments (and not many people follow my blog). If I can be convinced (by data, not just gut feeling) of the value of commenting then I will certainly act on this recommendation.

By the way, after listening to your review of Three Laws of Performance, I immediately tried to buy the book. It wasn't available in Jakarta, as someone had snapped up the last copy before me. So, I'm currently awaiting a new shipment to my favorite bookstore.

Doug - I don't have any hard data for you about commenting on other people's blogs. I can tell you that many people have come back here and subscribed to my feed/email list because I took the time to reach out to them on their slice of the web. Here's my suggestion - first figure out what your goals are. Then, if getting more people to read your blog will help you meet your goals, do a test by commenting for a week and see if you get a spike in traffic and subscriptions. Then you'll know for sure.

Good luck, and let me know how it goes!

Great review & presentation Steve!!!

Its working... I am a guy who has been on the sidelines for the past couple of years & recently participating more online. I actually got connected to you & this site / review through a twitter post from Gary Vanerchuck who I have be observing / following the past month. So I checked it out & very happy I discovered your site / service. Gary seems to be a living example how to make social media work for your business.

I have followed Mitch a bit as well & he has great podcasts.

I look forward to checking out Gary & Seth's book reviews next and being a regular visitor.



Thanks for sharing with us your reviews and interviews with the authors.

Happy reading,


SAL ( now wading in the shallow end of the online pool ;-)

Mitch is a friend. Don't trust me. Or do. Mitch knows what the heck he's talking about. Since meeting him at the first ever PodCamp, Mitch has been a constant read in my feed reader, a constant source of eyebrow-raising explanations, and a friend that I love collaborating with when we get the chance.

I love this book and feel it's a great distillation of Mitch's view of the importance of networked individuals.

I trust you Chris. I trust you.

If you really learn how all the dots link together, you should read "Six Degrees" by Duncan Watts and "Linked" by Barabasi.