Mario Sundar's Speakeasy

I had to share this terribly useful focus methodology that’ll help you get stuff done at work. This is of particular significance to those who are drowning in social media (hint to self). But, I digress.

Here are some useful tips in maintaining a zone of concentration while at work.

While you’re enjoying the thought of such a simple/effective workstyle, go grab a print-friendly PDF of these simple productivity tips that you can hang in your work cube.

[Hat tip: Caterina Fake via Practicalist]

Filed under: Miscellaneous

Seth Godin argues that smart marketing comes before the product. Blasphemy! But, I concur. Here’s Seth’s rationale:

Well, if you define marketing as advertising, then it’s clear you need the product first. Marketing is not the same as advertising. Advertising is a tiny slice of what marketing is today, and in fact, it’s pretty clear that the marketing has to come before the product, not after. As Jon points out, the Prius was developed after the marketing thinking was done.

Now, that’s how Steve Jobs probably thinks before he creates the next Apple wonder of the world! But, interestingly enough, I just realized that movie marketing functions in exactly the same way. You dream up the movie trailer with its target audience in mind before you even attempt to put together a movie.

The producer Brian Grazer, whose films include “Frost/Nixon” and “A Beautiful Mind,” mentioned a potential remake of a James Dean film: “I have the book ‘East of Eden’ and a script by Paul Attanasio”—an A-list screenwriter—“but I don’t know how I’d ever make it, because I don’t know how I’d sell it. With this material, I can’t reach you emotionally, tell the story, or be visually transcendent in a thirty-second TV spot. And there’s no ‘Holy s#$!’ moment for the trailer.”

Some laws are universal.

Filed under: Miscellaneous

How many of you have a friend who has lost a job recently? I’m sure many hands were raised as they read this. It’s unfortunate that the recent spate of layoffs continue unabated with Macy’s laying off 7000 employees today; an unfortunate follow-up to last week’s record setting 75K layoffs in one day.

I know of at least 5 friends who have lost a job in the past month. So, expanding on Guy Kawasaki’s post from earlier today (10 Tips to use LinkedIn to find a job), here are three quick tips to use the social media tools at your disposal to find that elusive dream job.

1. Use social media megaphones to update your status

Depending on the social media channels that you engage in, update your status on all of them that you’re looking for a job. In my case, my obvious choices would be LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, and of course my blog. In addition, you may want to use a service like ping.fm that updates a slew of social networks’ status (all of the above 4) from one place.

2. Do smart research

But random status updates alone can’t do much good. Use all the company research goodness that you can find on LinkedIn to find the right people in your dream companies to network with. For e.g. find our historical career paths at companies, info on hiring managers, etc.

Read more tips #s 4 – 8, in Guy’s post

3. Build your networks

And, finally, do take the time to build your online networks (social or professional) if you’d really like to benefit from the many applications and tools that a site like LinkedIn affords. Remember: the bigger your network is, the more chances you have at reaching the right people. Size does matter.

And, the best part is it’d take you just a few minutes to build out your professional network. So, what are you waiting for…

Are any of your friends looking for a job? Share these 10 tips.

Filed under: Miscellaneous