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My personal favorite is Tip #1

1. FIND YOURSELF A GENIUS.

–Aaron Koblin, digital-media artist

They say an elephant never forgets. Well, you are not an elephant. Take notes, constantly. Save interesting thoughts, quotations, films, technologies . . . the medium doesn’t matter, so long as it inspires you. When you’re stumped, go to your notes like a wizard to his spell book. Mash those thoughts together. Extend them in every direction until they meet.

Your notebook is feeling thin? Then seek assistance and find yourself a genius. Geniuses come in many shapes and colors, and they often run in packs. If you can find one, it may lead you to others. Collaborate with geniuses. Send them your spells. Look carefully at theirs. What could you do together? Combination is creation.

Beware of addictive medicines. Everything in moderation. This applies particularly to the Internet and your sofa. The physical world is ultimately the source of all inspiration. Which is to say, if all else falls: take a bike ride.

So true

http://www.fastcodesign.com/1670869/what-digital-designers-can-learn-from-a-master-motorcycle-builder#7

(Side note to marketers who are not yet completely invested in social media: wake up – your pants are on fire).

And, as if that number weren’t impressive enough, it turns out that out of all internet users (thats a capital A), 44% of them are Facebook users. (pausing again to let that sink in). What are the implications of THAT number? Can we safely extrapolate that 44% of your online target audience – whoever they are – are also Facebooking? Or maybe somewhere close to that?

To be sure, engagement and user experience vary widely but that number should make your media buyers’ bones shiver. Not since the early days of radio, and then after that, the early days of TV, has one medium commanded such ubiquity and thus, weight.

But somehow, if you take a step or two back from the numbers, and take an admittedly broad view of what we marketers are doing to leverage this awesome opportunity, it looks like many of us are still stuck in the era of dancing cigarette boxes.

I want to posit some thoughts here.

What if you (we, all of us marketers) were granted 3 genie-style wishes for any medium you could think of? What would you ask for? You only get three so consider them well. What would they be?

• Reach?
• Engagement?
• CPM?
• Frequency?

Go ahead. I’m not sure but I think you just asked for a Facebook.

If you (ok, we) were just given the golden keys to major mindshare, do you think we could maybe, finally come up with something a wee bit more effective than banner ads? than “likes”? than “follows”?

Something in me is telling me to start thinking bigger. You?

Props to JeffBullas.com for the smart thinking.  You can read his article here.

http://www.fastcompany.com/3001732/princess-bride-and-man-blacks-lessons-competitive-strategy

http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2213413/10-Conversion-Boosters-for-Ecommerce-Pages