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I don’t think I’ve ever read a book with a finer comb. Although written seven years ago, Mitch Joels’s Six Pixels of Separation stands the test of time.

Sure some of the stories and references are a bit dated, but his fundamental premise - that everyone is connected and it’s time to connect your business to everyone – is even truer today than it was in 2009.

This being my final post on the subject, I’ll leave you with my top Six Pixel take-aways:

1)    Go digital or go home: it’s not a matter of choice, it’s a matter of survival

2)    Be prepared to listen to those who share your passion to find out where and how to capitalize on the opportunities available to you in an online universe

3)    Start small, think different and expand your digital footprint gradually over time

4)    Good things come to those who give their knowledge and expertise away – for free

5)    Be honest, be yourself, mind your manners and always respond … quickly

6)    It’s all about building trust, relationships and adding real value to your community

7)    Doing business online is an interactive sport that everyone can play

8)    Personal brands are alive and well in the digital age

9)    The good guys online outnumber the bad guys but be careful nonetheless

10)  Those who evolve with technology will survive and thrive, those who don’t won’t.

11)  Going digital may not be as scary as I thought.

Salut!

Advent calendars have been around for hundreds of years. According to Wikipedia, German Lutherans were the first to use them in the 19th and 20th centuries to mark the 24 days of Advent leading up to the holiest day of the year for Christians around the world.

By now, you’d think we would have seen every possible iteration – just check out Etsy’s stunningly creative collection. So you’d think that when award-winning author and journalist, Michael Hingston went looking for advent calendars with a literary bent a couple of years ago that he’d find what he was looking for. He searched high and low, but to no avail.

So, he made a mental note of this void in the marketplace, and the following July, he decided to create a literary advent calendar with book designer and his co-publisher, Natalie Olsen. He gathered some of his stories and put a call out to his writer friends and colleagues who eagerly agreed to contribute a short story and voilà – the first Short Story Advent Calendar rolled off the presses in 2015. The newly minted calendars, which were available for purchase online and at major booksellers across Canada, sold out quickly. The 2016 SSAC went on sale earlier this fall.

True, the product itself is old school – the stories come in printed form in a beautifully designed gift box. But being able to buy it online and have it shipped all over the world is making good use of today’s technology. So is building a community of writers keen to contribute, and people who love the written word and sharing some quiet family time together. I know in our house, the 20-minute -a-day reads have started a whole new holiday tradition. But I do think the creators could make better use of their social networks to really bring this new venture to life - maybe next year.

A new take on a centuries-old tradition, but admittedly not the best example of what Joel calls Digital Darwinism. Like the famous scientist’s Theory of Evolution, the digital landscape is evolving with new bells, whistles and apps being added all the time. Those who can harness these new-fangled tools to truly and meaningfully engage people, and create and evolve a satisfying online experience for their online community will survive. Those who don’t, won’t.

I have recently started following a blog titled "Six Pixels of Separation" written by Mitch Joel. As the tag line says Mitch is the "Twist Image President...Brings you digital marketing and media hacking insights and provocations from his always on/always connected world." Enough to already catch my attention. 

In his blog post titled "Self-Promotion and Self-Loathing in the Digital Age" he basically goes into how he feels about the social websites out there. He comes right out and says he doesn't like the digital you or me and his reason why are pretty simple. He gives two. One, "We publish things in hopes that people will think our lives are more interesting than theirs." Two, "We publish things in the hopes that people will think that our lives are actually more interesting than they actually are.

True story. The article proceeds to go on in how we need to utilize what is available through these social sites and make an impressive digital "me." He gives simple reasons to do so: there is time for courage, something to always think about, no shame, and the Internet is a thing of beauty.

Similar to some of the conversations that I've had in my class, we talk about creating something that creates an image of who we are and create a type of presence. To create a digital "me," you need to create a presence in different forms through Facebook with a Page, create an informative Twitter account. Hell, this Tumblr is a perfect forum to create that digital "me" with a little writing and a little creativity and BAM. There you are. Like Mitch says, there is no shame, take a chance and be courageous. If someone doesn't like the digital "me" you have created, there is no harm in feedback, so take it.

All of this can be applied to a company as well, although there may be a little more restrictions as to what is allowed to be said and mentioned but that is for a ton of other reasons that I currently have no desire to delve into. Maybe later.