…and started a new job

As of April 1 I am Editor in Chief of the Enterprise IT Group at FierceMarkets!

The group consists of six titles:
FierceCIO
FierceCIO:TechWatch
FierceEnterpriseCommunications
FierceMobileIT
FierceContentManagement
FierceBigData

We’ll be making lots of improvements to the sites and the content itself. Big plans. Great fun.

I really like the company and the people. I am probably better suited to a smaller company that is willing to take more risks. The whole job change experience has me mulling over the nature of organizations and the things that can happen culturally as they grow, impeding both creativity and teamwork. Doesn’t have to be that way, but you probably have to do some work and be very mindful as a company to prevent it.

I also think a willingness to embrace change has become a core professional ability, certainly in my line of work anyway… Sad leaving CSO after a decade’s work, but it was time for new challenges, and a great decision.

Between this and the content marketing book, it’s been quite a year so far. With even more changes in store.

I wrote a book

Online Content Marketing in 30 Minutes, published by i30 Media, is available in all kinds of formats: PDF, Kindle, hardback, and others.

Content marketing has taken the business world by storm over the last few years. The basic idea is to stop bombarding potential customers with ads, and start providing them with the kinds of information that they need and can use – establishing your company as their indispensable information resource, ideally.

My book weaves together useful techniques for content marketing drawn from my journalism experience as well as from other disciplines including SEO/web analytics, inbound marketing, content strategy, and more. It’s got lots of good information for marketers who are new to content, journalists who are moving into marketing, small business owners, etc.

It was quite fun to write, in the exhausting sense of the word “fun” <g>. That’s how I spent my Christmas holidays.

So now I no longer have book envy. And if any of you have an opportunity to read the book, I’d love it if you could link to the website and/or offer an *honest* review on Amazon.com or GoodReads (no fake/spam reviews please, however well-intentioned). Thanks!

What the … knights can move BACKWARDS!?

…but it’s not an obsession, honestly

This is from a different hotel.

I can’t help reading it in a Damon Wayans voice.

…but I’ll admit I’m curious

.

Artisans

A certain massive donut retailer has been advertising “artisan” bagels. As Inego Montoya would say, I do not think that word means what they think it means.

Here is the work of a potter,  my friend Doug Law. We have a couple of Doug’s pieces in our house, and they’re just wonderful. And I’ve had the treat of touring his workshop (i.e. basement) and listening to him describe how he works with the clay, how he dries out a piece (very slowly) before firing it, what he’s learning about the chemistry of glazes and colors.

It’s creative and meticulous work.

His website, The Modern Reason, is at www.douglasmlaw.com, and the home page shows lots of interesting pieces.

 

 

 

Here is a handmade leather tote bag by Stitch and Tickle, aka Sophie Truong.

My wife and I got to watch Sophie painstakingly create a couple of bags like this over the course of a long weekend. No machines involved, just hand tools like an exacto-type knife for cutting pieces from big leather sheets, an awl for punching the stitch holes, and a needle for hand-pulling heavy-duty waxed thread.

The result is beautiful, durable, very stylish, unique. Sophie has a store on Etsy as well as a blog full of great visuals. (And an excellent white dog named “Oops”.)

These folks are truly artisans. Part of the pleasure of their products is the effort and care that goes into them.

The Fixx

People of a certain age probably remember the song “One Thing Leads to Another”. It was the breakout hit of The Fixx in 1983, from the second album Reach the Beach.

They actually did a lot more good stuff than that, and occasionally I listen to various Fixx tunes while I work. I’ve always been a fan particularly of the bright guitar sound and style of Jamie West-Oram.

So when (to my great surprise) an offer for tickets to a Fixx performance came around the office this month… “VIOLET JAM! A cocktail party featuring The Fixx, playing all the hits…” said the invite. At a hotel 3 minutes from work.

Sounds like another sad 80s revival, eh? These guys opened for The Police on their (final) Synchronicity tour. Now they’re playing cocktail hour at the Natick Crowne Plaza. More than likely, in fact, one imagines one or two original band members dragging the Fixx moniker around to try to cash in on nostalgia one last time.

Not so fast, sonny – or as Cy Curnin said (tongue in cheek) after blazing through a particularly powerful tune at the show, “STILL SOME JUICE IN THE OLD LEMON, WOT?”

What an awesome show!

Same five musicians who cut Reach the Beach. Played plenty of new music, and it sounded GREAT. They’ve been playing together and releasing new albums ever since the 80s. New album Beautiful Friction drops July 17th.

They’re way out of the spotlight, indeed – for me that just meant I got to stand next to the stage.