The Thoughts From series of interviews are simple: I ask someone ten questions and they respond. It works very well and I hope that you’ll learn some new things from the people featured in these interviews.

Mitch Joel is the President of Twist Image, a digital marketing agency. He also writes the Six Pixels of Separation blog and creates and produces the Six Pixels of Separation podcast (which currently alternates with the MediaHacks podcast) , which will be celebrating its 200th episode this year. He has also written and published the Six Pixels of Separation book, which hit the virtual and physical book stands in 2009.
In honor of the fact that Mitch is one of the hardest working guys in social media and digital marketing, I figured that ten questions would be far too easy for a guy with Mitch’s mojo. Therefore, for the first time ever in our history of E-Mail interviews, Mitch got a special 11th bonus question.
As the saying goes, if you want to get something done, give it to a busy person!
In your dealing with your peers from the US or other countries, do you ever get labeled as “that Canadian digital marketing guy” (emphasis on Canadian, of course)?
Eh? LOL. I’m not sure that happens all that much. I’m pretty international and I pride myself on being a Digital Nomad. I don’t think the context of my content is geographically-centric at all. Most people would have to dig a little bit to even know that I’m from Canada. It’s not that I’m not proud to be Canadian; I just don’t find it relevant to the conversations and communities that I’m nurturing in the Digital Marketing space.
Further to the above, do you find that being based in Canada means that you have work harder to compensate for the geographic distance from the US market? Is it any different than, say, a professional who might be based in the middle of Montana, west Texas, or Alaska? Or have the Web and social media levelled the playing field?
I don’t think the Web has totally levelled the playing field, but I do think that has played a small role in making your physical location less important. I’m based in Montreal, which puts me in New York City, Boston and Toronto in about 60 minutes, Chicago in 90 minutes and over on the West Coast (or Europe) in about 6-7 hours. For me, airplanes have changed the dynamic just as much as the Web. I often laugh at how I’m the first guy to show up at meeting in NYC while others complain that they were stuck in traffic (and I came from a different country!). That being said, as we manage our two offices (or, as we call it, “one office with multiple locations”), it’s always interesting to see how people connect and communicate through video conferencing (like Skype) even when they are in the same physical location.
Can you describe for us your first experience with a tape recorder? Did you use one a lot as a kid, making your own audio programs and such?
My first memory goes back to owning one of the first Sony Walkman’s. I remember taking the family dog for a walk and listening to Michael Jackson’s Thriller on it and KISS’s Dynasty (don’t judge me!). ED: which one should we judge him on, anyway?
That being said, no, I never really made my own audio programs or had any desire to be a Radio DJ. I was always more inspired by the music journalists in magazines than on radio. The people on radio always sounded fake and insincere to me (they still do).
What inspires you more, words or music?
Had you asked me this over a decade ago, I might have said music and that would have been a mistake. It is words. 100%. I’ve finally begun coming to grips with the fact that my art is, indeed, putting words around business and marketing thought. It makes me comfortable and it’s warm… what more could you want?
Are games like Rock Band and Guitar Hero helping or hurting music?
Without question, it’s helping. In fact, it’s probably one of he few ways left to get people to pay for music. :)
It’s also great because you see eight year old kids getting introduced to bands like The Beatles and Iron Maiden, which is pretty cool. I’m sure there’s also some research being done into how playing these games (which, let’s face it, is the same thing as when we played Simon growing up) is getting kids interested in picking up real instruments. In the end, it’s going to be interesting see how these video game franchises (Guitar Hero, Rock Band, etc…) keep themselves relevant and interesting. Just adding new songs doesn’t seem to be the only thing, but innovating with new titles and gameplay is going to have to happen.
What do you think of Andrew Keen’s central argument in Cult of the Amateur? Personally, I found it to be a one-sided argument that seemed to be more concerned about making a particular point than rationally exploring an issue. Nonetheless, is the proliferation of amateur media, of varying quality and veracity, a major concern for the media or society in general?
The hope here is that one doesn’t force the other one to have less valuable content. The thought here is that “all ships rise.” If traditional media has to up their game to stay relevant, the consumer wins. If those who create consumer generated content see traditional media upping their game, hopefully it will push them to be that much more professional (or better, because “professional” might be the wrong word here). So far, it looks like this is the case. We are seeing better and better content rise to the top and it’s forcing both the individual content creators and the big media channels to compete against each other for mindshare. Consumers always win when the competition is fierce.
If you could be a super-hero for a day, which one would you pick? Villains are valid choices, as well.
I always had a soft-spot for Batman, and I don’t really know why. The truth is, I don’t like violence as a means to get a result and, as much as I love reading comics, I don’t think I’d ever want that kind of lifestyle. Is there a super-hero who gets a chance to think about solutions in peace, and spend their public time with some of the smartest minds in the world? That’s who I would choose. Maybe, a kind and gentle Lex Luthor?
Speaking of which… do you think that the comic book industry is missing opportunities to use their characters and concept in different media and different settings? I think there’s intellectual property that could be used for than just entertainment, but I think differently about that kind of thing than other people do.
Brand extensions are always smart, important and critical. I think they’ve been making the right moves in terms of movies, toys, games, etc… I’m not sure I see that many bigger options that they’re not entertaining. Most of the comic book publishers seem to really understand the entertainment business. You would think that less and less kids are reading comic books simply because they are on paper. I don’t know/have the research behind this, but I’d be hard-pressed to think that these publishers aren’t looking at what a comic book will look like in the next decade.
Do you have any difficulties in relating to Generation Y (I’m pretty sure that you are Gen X like I am), a generation that has known the Web and mobile technology since infancy whereas some of us didn’t really see it unfold until our late teens/early 20s?
Not really. I think, if anything, Gen X probably understands what Gen Y is going through. We had computers (that changed everything) and they have the Internet (which is changing everything). I think we (Gen X and older) need to better understand what their world of privacy looks like and how we’re going to do things going forward. I always laugh when people from our generation say things like, “don’t these kids realize that it’s going to be hard for them to find a job if they’re constantly posting pictures of themselves drunk on Facebook?” When the real question is: “who do we think we’re going to hire is everyone has pictures of themselves drunk on Facebook?”
Pretend that the Internet is destroyed overnight with no hope of recovery. What do you do when you wake up the next day and hear the news?
Where would I have heard the news then?
Any parting thoughts for our readers?
Our world is a different world. I wrote the book, Six Pixels of Separation (my shill moment), because now that we’ll all connected, the rules of business and marketing have changed (in a good way). I’d love for Marketing to be seen in a positive light and not lumped into the same category as “used car salesperson.” Marketing can (and is and should be) great… those are my parting thoughts!