Jonothan Stribling

I am a sucker for sentimentality. Like Clint Eastwood, the stuff that gets to me is the stuff that matters, the non-trivial, the stuff that comes from the heart, the stuff I am passionate about.

Simon, my brother-in-law was reading a post I wrote on fabricatedbacon.com about fatherhood and he looked at me with a tear in his eye and said, “You made me cry you bastard. This is much better than all that negative stuff.” He was referring to fucktard, a blog I started out of anger at Stephen Conroy’s Internet filter policies.

Simon’s comments rang true. I started jonstribling.info as a professional type blog where I posted stuff about ecommerce, the Internet, stuff related to my profession. It was intended to let me own my personal brand online just as I told people they needed to do in my work. I think it has been successful in one sense but the problem is that it is completely inauthentic. The singular focus on one topic reduces me to being a mindless commentator, like mashable, rather than a fleshy human with random fits of humour, genius and bile.

The stuff that matters to me is what difference I make in the lives of others, the lessons I learn, the lessons I help others learn, the fights I avoid rather than the fights I start, the joy of seeing something grow that I have started or helped to start, the sound of the Kookaburras on a cold frosty morning, the view from my deck over the city as the sun sets, the faces of my family as they sleep soundly, the love in my wife’s eyes.  It is about creating something rather than complaining about something or destroying something. It is about rising above the stormy seas of life, work and commuting to create something great.

If I look at my life so far, i have built a career, started a beautiful family and had a lot of good ideas. The good ideas are written on the white-board in my study and few of them have seen the light of day because I haven’t been authentic. I haven’t focusing on the creation, on the passion, on the dream. Rather, I have been bearing witness to how life can be pretty busy sometimes, particularly with a long commute, a demanding job and a young child (now I have two young children). Reflecting on this whilst watching Master Chef is not getting things done or ticking off the great ideas on my white-board. It is sitting on the couch being a lazy arse. The combination of the TV and the couch has robbed many a good idea from being breathed into life with a bit of hard work, passion and focus.

So, very soon the design of this blog will change to reflect the change in focus, the change to something authentic that is about my real brand and what matters to me.

Photo credit: Sean Lamb

Way back in the mid 1990′s when the Internet was younger and a little more ragged the pundits were saying “content is king”.

The thought was that whoever owned the best content would own the web.

How we use the Internet has changed a little since, but content is still king. The main difference is that now the content that describes content is emperor.

Google have built an empire on this kind of meta-data and Facebook appear to be about to do the same thing with their Open Graph service.

Clearly content and the content that describes content is central to the Internet.

Without great content the Internet would be a simple request-response medium devoid of the sparkle which gets people online first thing in the morning, all day at work and all night.

With great content the Internet is a playpen, a shop, a map and a million conversations.

Today content production matters more and more. People are still looking at how to create the best content whether it be copy, pictures, video, applications or games.

Apple have built an empire based on the delivery of top content onto a mobile device, Adobe have grown by providing content creation tools, bloggers like copyblogger and problogger are popular because they educate folks about creating stunning copy that works, and of course Google have $26B in the bank because they own the metadata, the content about content.

The art of content creation is more and more relevant today. It is the one thing that continues to hold the web back.

Good content engages, delights, inspires, provokes, pokes and sells.

The businesses that excel on the web are expert content creators or the businesses that facilitate the creation of great content.

The rest of the web is either bad or mediocre.

Buying crap content has never been easier. In places like India and the Phillipines second-rate copy can be bought by the pound. And unfortunately it shows.

Savvy onlinee marketers recognise that without enticing with clever content, buyers will go elsewhere.

So how do you go about creating great content?

Ask your audience

It’s as simple as finding out what your audience are interested in, what beguiles them and what annoys them. If you have a website then take a look at the keywords they use to find your website. If you have an internal search on your site then look at what people are searching for. The difference between what people are looking for and your content is your opportunity. Create this kind of content and your traffic will increase for sure.

Think outside the box

I love words but sometimes a picture will do. Or maybe a video is what’s required. Depending on your audience, your product or services you may be able to entice people with a well crafter product gallery. The great thing about Google images is that there tends to be less competition and thanks to blended search you can often appear at the top of search engines a lot faster. A friend of mine gets heaps of traffic soley from Google images for very competitive search terms.

Gary Vaynerchuk built a million dollar wine business by realising that most wine sites were boring and people wanted to be entertained not intimidated. His website winelibrary.com is a lot of fun and not stuffy and boring.

Study the competition

Your competitors may help you see the opportunity faster. If your industry has always done things a certain way and spoken to customers in a certain way then you could stand out just by being different. Richard Branson’s Virgin are a fabulous example of speaking to customers differently. Who knew that carry-on luggage warnings could emphasise great service and not be authoritative and threatening?

Practice, practice, practice

It’s hard to be great at something if you don’t do it often, so create as much content as you can and if it doesn’t work out, move on and create more. Start the artist pages practice where you write 3 pages every morning. Take a leaf out of the terrific Aspect Jones who shoots and uploads a photo everyday. Practice and you will get better at it.

If you don’t feel confident writing, taking photos,shooting and editing video or spouting poetry at the moon then pay someone who does.

So avoid the crap and get creating. The Internet depends on you!

You see them everywhere – people with their heads down, supplicant hands, silent, staring at a mobile device.

They are praying to the god of the Internet, requesting that the pipes and bytes entertain them, illuminate them and placate the boredom of being alive.

Between 9pm and midnight around the world, the TV sits mute while people hover around the LCD monitor watching a rerun on hulu, or a cat doing backflips whilst wearing a tutu on YouTube.

The Internet has simultaneously gone prime-time and become mobile and this is changing what people expect from their online experiences regardless of a sedentary or nomadic pattern of use. People expect to be entertained, engaged, informed, outraged and delighted from their online experiences. This has implications for online and offline retailers, publishers, bloggers, designers and online marketers.

Everyone needs to be a little more entertaining. Users expect it and businesses creating the best, most entertaining content will win regardless of industry.

Bryan Eisenberg talks about persuasion architecture, I think we should start talking about entertainment experience or lolcats architecture.

I don’t need to be persuaded or cajoled. I just need to be your friend and think that you’re the cleverest, the funniest, the fastest, the most innovative, or the toughest.

Relationships might originate in Facebook, Twitter or YouTube and finish with a purchase being made via a mobile site over a few drinks.

Or a work type relationship with your insurance company might evolve into a casual laugh over madcap YouTube accident videos. CGU are running a pretty good campaign featuring a dancing bricklayer that they are promoting in Facebook.

Seek.com have embraced entertainment commerce offering cute games that are promoted by their job seeker emails.

Google were a very early adopter with their logo memes now widely chattered about and promoted by people.

Zynga have built a billion dollar empire soley on entertaining kids and teaching about raising barns.

Moosejaw, an outdoors brand, made people laugh lots with their break up service that was featured in YouTube.

As the Internet evolves to become an intricate part of people’s social and personal lives, brands need to be smarter at how they reach their buyers.

If the 2000s were all about getting direct response campaigns right in search engines, then the 2010s will be about getting the entertainment experience right and driving new customers to your online door.

Last night I was watching the ABC news and checking our twitter when I was some mention of an #alpspill.

I searched for #spill, tweeted something inane and waited for the ABC to report something.

It came in the 7.30 report and it amounted to guesswork by Kerry O’Brien about Julia Gillard being in Kevin Rudd’s office.

Apart from the Twitter gossip there really wasn’t any news. Crikey was silent, The ABC was relatively silent, The SMage was relatively silent. Some “star tweeters” like @bernardkeane simply said “I can’t comment”.

What there was on twitter though was a lot of chatter. The 50 tweets a second about the #spill were not really news. It was a conversation between a whole bunch of people with very little authority.

The types tweets amounted to:

• An opinion about either Rudd or Gillard
• A joke about Rudd and the world cup or Malcom Turnbull
• A reference to Laurie Oakes who was appearing on Channel 9
• A comment about somepeople being in Rudd’s office

It was beguiling, fascinating and entertaining.

And entirely useless as news.

It wasn’t news it was a meta-conversation in a virtual pub. Everybody trying to be clever, funny and witty at the same time.

Twitter has a long way to go to become a viable news source as it lacks the authority that comes with being an established media institution or blog.

However, twitter demonstrated that it could deliver opinion about the news faster the the news could be published.

What is needed is an authority. What would enable this is a live curation where authoritative tweeters and sources are selected and promoted. This could be because of content or metadata like location, status or relationships with others.

This would mean that when something big happens twitter can continue to be a platform that provides real-time and more importantly, meaningful news.

Of course this could be just sucking the fun out of watching the conversation unfold.

I was watching the Survivor final last week and was amused that the evil Russell thought that he had won “the game” even though Sandra had walked away with the $1 million.

Clearly Russell was playing a different game. He was playing the big man in town game and Sandra was playing to win.

I know which game I would rather be playing.

Often when working in teams to produce products or interfaces you come across someone playing the big man in town game. The thing about them is that they are always right and they can never be told what to do.

And unless they are a genius they are always a destructive force in any team.

So how do you make sure your own big idea can be launched?

Here’s how to cope with the Russell factor:

Don’t work with them
It might seem obvious but not working with Russell types is a great way of avoiding the manipulation and anxiety.

Focus on your idea
Be motivated by your idea and your vision not the politics.

Don’t be intimidated

People like Russell believe attack is the best form of defence and they will do their utmost to attack you and make you doubt yourself.

Don’t play their game.

Ask questions
Asking questions is a great way to make the swaggering big man in town Russell get off the attack and really engage with you.

Use silence
Silence does not always equal consent when negotiating with a Russell. When negotiating, hold back on answering or responding. A Russell will quite often keep talking and dig themselves into a hole.

Don’t lose your temper
Punching a Russell in the face might seem like a very good idea but it won’t help.

Are you a liar?

I am. I lie continually.

I am like that Jim Carrey character who lies so much he is forced to spend a whole day telling the truth.

Lying, whether it be stretching the truth or a bald faced porky pie is an important skill.

Federal opposition leader Tony Abbott has established that he is a compulsive liar. According to Abbott things can be said in the heat of the moment that aren’t true. So if they aren’t true they are lies.

And that’s OK because it happened in the heat of the moment.

With professional and ethical integrity undervalued in corporate life, media, politics, the clergy and sports Abbott has simply told the truth.

The truth, that’s your version or my version, doesn’t matter anymore.

We’re evolving as a species to appreciate and respect passion over integrity.

“Bob lied when he said he would do the dishes!”

“Yes, but he was really passionate about it at the time. He really thought he would do the dishes.”

“That’s OK then.”

Substitute doing the dishes with paying a bill, being faithful, picking the kids up from school and the absurdity is made clear.

A community requires guidelines about trust that help build relationships and made sure everyone can get what they need.

A community that celebrates Tony Abbott for finally telling it how it is, is deeply flawed.

Passion is no excuse for deception.

I really want to delete my facebook account.

I was enthusiastic about the idea after all the changes the Zuck made to “privacy” this year and then I read this polemic by Jason Calacanis about how facebook is evil and the Zuck has Zucked his way to the top.

I was kinda gratified because it meant that my suspicion and anxiety about facebook was felt tenfold over by an industry observer.

It meant that my doubts about the business model were in part justified because eroding privacy for commercial gain is clearly unethical.

And not being transparent about it is very unethical.

Privacy should NOT be opt-in.

A year ago I said facebook was (almost) doomed because of the difference between the sacred and the profane.

After facebook became the most visited US website for a week in March I thought I was completely wrong.

I wasn’t.

Running a massive website is expensive and advertising won’t generate enough of a return for the Zuck so he is monetising his biggest asset – you and me.

I don’t want my private data to be monetised and Zucked up. If I share publicly I use twitter. If it’s a private conversation between friends I might send an email, pick up the phone, send a text or just maybe use facebook.

The problem is that I need facebook. I need to understand if advertising and targeting is more cost effective for certain campaigns than Google.

I need to understand it, to use it for traffic generation, to observe it with a critical gaze.

So I guess I’ve been Zucked after all.

We all have.

Once watching the TV was a complete passive act of slovenly consumption. The evening show was watched while slumped on the couch all senses dulled by the blue rays of the box.

Now watching the TV is only one part of watching the TV. In face “TV events” can be enjoyed by hooking into the Twitter firehose and looking for the right hashtag.

During the Logies, an Australian TV award show for all US folks, I noticed that the digital hipsters at the event were tweeting, that people on the couch were tweeting, that journalists were tweeting.

Everybody was talking at the same time about the #logies. Cracking gags, being outrageous laughing at “the stars”.

And what for?

Comedian Wil Anderson (@Wil_Anderson) attempted controversy by alluding to John Mayer, herpes and his “white supremicist cock”. He passed comment about Michael Slater doing jokes, Sigrid Thornton looking like gollem and something about the Rogue Traders.

It was pretty nasty stuff. Funny when you’re pissed and wearing a dinner suit, not so funny the next day.

Wil Anderson wasn’t the only one trying to be real funny on twitter for free.

Catherine Deveny (@catherinedeveny), Melbourne comedian, satirist and athiest offered such gems as:

“Rove and Tasma look so cute … hope she doesn’t die, too”

“I do so hope Bindi Irwin gets laid”

She now claims that she has been taken out of context.

I am not massively offended by any of the logies comments by Anderson, Deveny or anyone of the other clowns.

In fact I think it’s great that celebrities can be taken down to size by anyone with an attitude, a twitter account and the right hashtag.

And this is just the start.

Twitter TV commentary is taking off in Australia.

The latest series of Masterchef has seen continuous tweeting.

Such was the volume of tweets during ABC’s live discussion show Q and A, that it now publishes selected and topical tweets as a way of engaging the home audience.

It is all a little fun.

What concerns me is that the greater the volume of tweets, the greater the tendency for some commentary to be mindless and involve badly executed irony, cruelty and thoughtless aphorisms.

There are gems to be found, but as Twitter grows they are harder to find.

According to Deveny, Twitter is

“a great challenge for us, to have a sophisticated response to the evolution of communication.”.

That implies that people are actually listening and engaging.

But they aren’t. They are too busy talking shouting.

As a means of cultural commentary Twitter is more like talk radio than the smart coffee chat. They only difference is that rather than being between a moron host and a moron caller there are a gazillion morons all saying the same thing, all crying out for attention, all hoping for a retweet from a celebrity.

If everyone in the room is talking loudly then the conversation is useless and boring.

Perhaps there needs to be a stop tweeting and listen campaign, real-time curation of TV and cultural events and an education program about satire and irony for Twitter to stay fascinating, beguilling and delightfully stupid.

Without that Twitter is doomed to become just a million moronic conversations.

When you’re one of the cool kids, it is pretty easy to forget that not everyone is in the cool club.

In fact, some people are so far removed from the cool club that they haven’t heard of Twitter, social media, ecommerce, WordPress, Android, the Nexus 1, or the RunKeeper iPhone application.

But generally, every human living in an advanced economy who can read has heard of Google and Facebook.

We’re so connected these days that it is easy to forget that there are a bunch of people who are not connected; who are yet to realise the liberating potential of the Internet.

And they know it. They know that no one uses the big yellow book to find a glazier or carpet cleaner. They know that their kids are doing things online that they might enjoy, that might make simple stuff easier but they haven’t made their move yet.

They are scared, intimidated and worried about looking stupid.

And all the cool kids reckon they are “stupid”. That’s why they are cool and not stupid, they are good at trying new stuff, seeing trends, labelling stuff.

Nothing online scares them. Except comic sans, fuscia backgrounds and being marketed to.

To me users should never be thought of as stupid. Rather, it is the marketers, designers and developers who make them feel stupid who are, well, stupid.

So many conversations in the tech, social, online communities concern the known world of tech, social and online.

It strikes me that it is a bubble where the people listening are the same people talking who are the same people publishing aphoristic thought bombs who are the same people reading the aphoristic thought bombs who are the same people thinking of the next aphoristic thought bomb.

It is exhausting, and to a complete outsider completely meaningless and uninteresting.

And because the same people are building the tools and selling the tools and dreaming up the next tools, the kids not part of the cool club are forgotten.

They are left to find their own way with poorly written copy, small fonts, poor documentation, badly handled errors, and unclear instructions.

And for anyone running an ecommerce site, a blog dependent on advertising, a remarketing program, or an online community dependent on user engagement and re-engagement this is not good for business.

Whilst Australia has high number of Internet and mobile users, future growth will come from people changing their habits and behaviours. This means they will go online, start booking stuff and buying online, connecting with friends online.

It is up to the people working to build online experiences on Internet devices to make this journey as easy as possible and remind all users that it is never the user, it is always the tool.

This means talking to people who you might not talk to often to find out how they use the Internet and if not why not.

This means looking outside the closed network for cool kids and digital hipsters to identify wants, needs, desires, fears and anxieties.

It means making sure that your website works for them and meets their needs.

It means having a presence in Google and Facebook which are two of the most common first steps online for a new user.
It means giving a voice to some members of the community who need it most by showing them how to setup a blog and start publishing.

The promise of the Internet and web 2.0 is social transformation for the better and we need to strive to make sure this promise can be delivered.

One of the hardest things to do is get a project, a blog, a business or a wacky plan started when you have a job and a life.

I have fallen in to the trap of creating great plans in my mind and then finding something else to do.

Like watching So You Think You Can Dance, Lost or Mad Men.

Or perhaps the footy game or cricket game just demands watching.

Or there might be a drink at a nice bar with some friends calling your name.

If you have dreams of being a player and work in a job every day then sometimes the nice things need to take a break so you can stop procrastinating and build on those dreams.

I am still working on building mine but here’s what I have learnt so far.

Make a routine of doing stuff

Routine used to sound so, well, routine to me, so boring. I wanted spontaneity, colour, laughter. The idea of a routine was enough to make me quit my job and hitch-hike up the east coast with a beautiful girl from London. But that is for another post.

Now I realise that a good workable routine can help create the space to have all the fun stuff whilst feeling good that I have met my commitments.

To get a routine started write down all your projects in different areas for the next 12 months. Then write down all your free time including time you currently devote to TV, mindless Internet meandering and lying around doing nothing.

For example I have free time whilst commuting, after dinner during the week and Sunday afternoon. This means that every week I can write two blog posts and spend four hours working on my super secret plan for being financially independent.

Don’t be scared

Starting out can be a scary prospect sometimes, chiefly because of irrational fears like “what if I don’t finish”, “what if I fail?” and “what if I am kidding myself?”.

The real question should really be “how much of a dickhead will I feel if I don’t do anything and continue being a lazy arse?”
Fear of failure is actually fear of being successful.

Turn off all distractions

If you’re like me, then you have 16 different things happening at a time including, twitter, facebook, that interesting article, that funny YouTube video, that cartoon I should laugh at, some technical documentation, a email from my wife, an sms from a mate and oh yes what I was meant to do doing.

Turn it all off!

It won’t hurt a bit and you might get something done.

The real answer to getting it done, is just getting it done, or as Gary Vaynerchuk commands, hustle.