Today again, I thought I would share with you four “must read” articles that will make you rethink — rethink marketing, rethink business, rethink work and rethink life. I read a lot of great content online. I share a lot of it on LinkedIn, Twitter and Google+, but today I’ll share four that I think are particularly amazing. They’re not necessarily articles that are related to marketing, business, work and life, but you can apply it to those areas.

I hope you enjoy them as much as I did

• [Rethink Marketing] Lead up: Are you happy with your customers? How are your projects? What about the last campaign’s results? Why is that? Is the customer difficult? Maybe the project manager didn’t cut it? The campaign didn’t work as well because the email marketing tool didn’t do what you wanted it to do? It might be time to lead up. “In many ways, we get the bosses and clients we deserve. If they’re holding you back, change them.” I think marketers often spend way too much time complaining and not enough leading, changing and making.
• [Rethink Business] Facebook is about to launch a huge play in “big data” analytics. I’ve been thinking a lot about Facebook recently. I’m not sure why exactly. I’ve actually been spending a lot less time there and more on LinkedIn and Twitter. But the company fascinates me. How could it not, 1 billion users sharing some personal information without always realizing it. During my University days one of my marketing professors said about McDonald’s — “basically what they’re telling their customers is this: ‘you’ll come in, wait in line for food, eat it in uncomfortable chairs and then clear your own table.’ If you told anyone this was your plan for a restaurant, they’d tell you you were crazy.” That’s exactly what Facebook has done. “We’ll give you a place where you can share and interact with your Friends and favourite brands 24 hours a day and in exchange we get all your information…more than you can imagine.” Right now, “[m]ost ordinary Facebook users don’t realize how ambitious these plans are. If you bought something with a credit or debit card in the last couple of years, you’re probably in Facebook’s data pool right now.” They’re betting that there’s a clear, important and valuable connection between impressions and purchases. I think business can learn something about setting down a path that, on paper, makes no sense.
• [Rethink Work] Barron’s: Facebook is still overvalued: Let’s stick with Facebook for a bit. According to the financial newspaper Barron’s, Facebook stock is still overvalued despite recent gains. At the time the article was written, Facebook was trading at more than 75 times its earnings (compare that to Google which trades at 20 times), this despite warnings that some of its ad revenues might drop. And that’s exactly the problem “Facebook seems more focused on barraging subscribers with ads to meet Street profit expectations.” They compare that with Google’s initiatives — they’ve been “investing in a range of products, from YouTube, self-driving cars, interactive eye wear, maps and Android software.” I’m not sure if it’s a fair comparison considering Google is 14 years old, but it does pose an interesting question: is it better to be a one trick pony with a laser focused drive or kind of play in different sandboxes to apply and integrate learnings? Is it even an either/or type of situation?
• [Rethink Life] Meditation produces opposite effect of “fight or flight”: I’ve been meditating semi regularly since my meditation challenge (part of my Hack Your Life Project). Yes it does reduce anxiety and stress. But did you know it can actually change your gene activity? “Specifically, genes associated with energy metabolism, mitochondrial function, insulin secretion, and telomere maintenance are turned on, while those involved in inflammation are turned off.” That’s pretty much the opposite of the “fight or flight” mechanism. In more scientific terms, “[p]eople who practice simple meditation aren’t ‘just relaxing,’ explained the study’s senior author, Dr. Herbert Benson. Instead, they’re experiencing ‘a specific genomic response that counteracts the harmful genomic effects of stress’.” I’m guessing that means meditation not only helps you deal with daily stress by helping you focus your attention, it physiologically helps you deal with it.

What are you reading right now?

(Photo credit: David Sifry)

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Tagged as: android, big data, change your boss, change your customers, david sifry, Facebook, fight or flight, genes, Google, LinkedIn, mcdonald's, meditation, one trick pony, overvalued, stocks, Twitter, YouTube

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