Start With Why

What Successful Night Owls Get Done Before Bed Early birds get all the credit. Research indicates that morning people tend to be more active and goal oriented, and such larks as Steve Jobs, Craig Newmark of Craigslist, and 25-year old David Karp, founder of the Tumblr blogging platform suggest that climbing the ladder of success is easier before breakfast. So does that mean night owls are at a disadvantage? Research by Satoshi Kanazawa and colleagues at the London School of Economics and Political Science suggests no. The group discovered significant differences in sleep preferences and found that people with higher IQs are more likely to be night owls.

Start Here By Leo Babauta I know a lot of people who fall into a slump, losing the habit of exercise, procrastinating with work, slipping into a bad diet, and generally not feeling motivated. It’s hard to get out of a slump like that. It’s hard to get going again, to get started when all the forces of inertia are against you. Here’s how to get started, in just a few easy steps. The 3 Worst Ways to Use Social Media to Grow Your Business (And What You Should Do Instead) New media has changed the way we interact and communicate. To understand and adapt to these changes, "social media experts" popped up to help organization's evolve their marketing communications accordingly. But while their intentions might be good, their results aren't.

How to Boost Creativity & Innovation in 10 Minutes Trying to be innovative feels, at least for most people, nearly impossible. Don't believe me? Try it. Hate Small Talk? These 5 Questions Will Help You Work Any Room Let’s be honest: Many folks in tech take a dim view of marketing. Very early in my tenure with Mutual Mobile, an Austin-based app developer, I was told no one in marketing could produce anything as compelling as the engineering team. To a degree, that opinion was right, but only if you’re talking about typical marketing--chest-beating blog posts, superficial banner ads, and other forms of hyperbole. But that that sort of marketing didn’t interest me either.

5 Ways To Foster Fanatical Brand Advocates Zappos, Trader Joe's, Amazon.com, Method, Red Bull, The Body Shop, Google, and SodaStream all built their brands without advertising. Their brand advocates are their marketing department. "We've built this entire business, and an entire category in fact, on the power of our brand advocates," says Kristin Harp, U.S. marketing manager at SodaStream, which turns tap water into sparkling water and soda. In fact, the three most powerful social media companies--Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn--never spent a dime on advertising or paid people to recommend them. They didn't need to. Advocates used social media to recommend them to their friends.

7 Basic Types of Stories: Which One Is Your Brand Telling? Droga5 turned Prudential's retirement story from rags-to-riches into one of rebirth. You think you're being all clever and original with your brand storytelling. In fact, you're not. From Shakespeare to Spielberg to Soderbergh, there are really only seven different types of stories, an Advertising Week panel hosted by TBWA suggested on Wednesday. The challenge becomes finding which one best suits your brand, and then telling it skillfully, believably and—if you're going to invite consumers to join in the story—extremely carefully. 5 Ways Instagram Can Boost Your Marketing Plan From Levi’s to the local craft foods shop, businesses of all sizes are flocking to Facebook’s free photo-sharing app Instagram, hoping to get noticed by its 80 million active users and expand their reach. What makes Instagram different from other social media sites such as Facebook, Pinterest or Twitter? It's almost entirely photo-based and available only on Apple iOS and Android mobile phones and devices. Instagram has emerged as an effective marketing tool because companies can quickly build brand recognition and consumer loyalty through an ongoing stream of photos that help personalize their brand. That Greek yogurt brand Chobani for example.

Instagram Announces Web Profiles & What This Means for Marketers Instagram announced yesterday that they are rolling out profile pages on the web within the next week or so. When launched, you will be able to view your profile by typing instagram.com/YourUserName in your browser’s address bar. From a design standpoint, profile pages will feature a selection of your recently taken photos arranged in a collage above your profile photo and bio that is highly reminiscent of Facebook’s cover photos.

HOW TO: Land a Job at Google Google is having a big hiring year — its biggest ever, in fact. This week we spoke with Bryan Power, a people operations manager at Google, for advice on getting hired by the tech giant. Power oversees sales hiring in the North and South America regions.