Yes, it’s true! We’ve moved everyone over here to Substack.
Happy Sunday, Pixie Friend. While we have foregone the super personalised greetings afforded by traditional email marketing providers, we’ve gained an online archive, better sharing functionality, visibility to others, and are able to give you access to better perks.
On Friday night I was lucky to attend the 100th Annual Ball for Civil, Environmental and Mining Engineering at the University of Adelaide. A centenary is nothing to sneeze at, and it was wonderful to be able to celebrate such an amazing milestone with one of our clients.
This week there is some important reading, most notably about the latest Facebook hack. That is critical because, if you were affected, and you used the “sign in using Facebook” function (known as single-sign-on or SSO) for any other platform, then your ecosystem is at risk. This is a really big deal if you’re in law. I didn’t include articles about it here, but if you Google it you’ll find it. :)
Some outstanding reading this week - particularly in Article #5. It turns out that Tim Berners-Lee (the man who invented the world-wide-web) is on a mission to give your power back to you.
Have a sparkling week this week. :)
~ Leticia
Queen Pixie at Brutal Pixie
Tip of the Week
Sometimes in deciding what and how to publish, you have to make decisions that run against the grain of everyone else around you.
The Sunday Five
Here are the best articles we’ve found from the past week. If you find any gems during your week and would like to see them included, email them to hello@brutalpixie.com.
1. [ Strategy ] Apple wants to be Disney
This author talks back to an article published in the Wall Street Journal on 22 September, that talked about Apple’s reluctance to produce streaming television or movies that offend people. This piece is a detailed examination of Apple’s video streaming strategy; the author suggests that maybe Apple ought to have acquired Disney before they decided that licensing to competitors like Apple is off the table. It is a great examination of a decision to move into an area that isn’t core capability, and doesn’t even really fit. Read this here.
Key takeaway: If content isn’t your core capability, why pursue it?
2. [ Publishing ] How one article capsized a New York literary institution
Jian Ghomeshi is a broadcaster who is accused of sexual assault by more than 20 women. So when Ian Buruma decided to publish a contentious piece written by Ghomeshi, he was writing his own resignation letter. The backlash has been so severe that not only did Buruma end up resigning, but it’s also caused The Guardian to ask some really important questions about what is appropriate. If angry digital flash mobs dislike something, what action is appropriate? And if the actions you take fly in the face of your own mission, is that ok? Essential reading - you can get it here.
Key takeaway: For your content to become a big issue like this, the root cause is in your management and editorial process, not what you publish. If the former is tight, the latter is not a problem.
3. [ Marketing ] How to use social media monitoring as more than a listening tool
This is a longish article, but it gives you 6 clear ways of using social media that you may not be using at the moment. It appears to be heavily weighted towards Twitter, judging by the screenshots that illustrate it, but the principles apply in almost any platform. It’s a really good start for improving your presence and interaction - and potentially sales out the other side. Read this here.
Key takeaway: Taking advantage of what social media allows you to do proactively is beneficial for your business development.
4. [ UX ] Personas make marketers stupid: It’s time to embrace the complexity of human behaviour
Michelle Gilmore argued at Mumbrella this week that building buckets of attributes does not allow you to understand your audience. In fact, she says, ‘personas are fundamentally flawed in their assumption that these factors are the things that define and differentiate people’. Instead, she advocates for behavioural profiling - something that is much more flexible and much more accurate. Would have been nice to see her advocate for actual research instead of profiling, but I guess you can’t have everything. Read this here.
Key takeaway: You can use all the metrics you like, but if you aren’t spending time to understand your market, you’re just building stereotypes.
5. [ Tools ] Tim Berners-Lee tells us his radical new plan to upend the World Wide Web
The creator of the world wide web has dived head-first into his new company Inrupt, which is giving you the individual control over your data. In a bid to wrestle power out of mega corporations like Google, one that is decentralized and personally controlled, Berners-Lee is on a mission to make this fly. Why is he doing it? Because it’s a ‘historical moment’, one with urgency. It’s outstanding - I encourage you to see it here.