Categories: Articles

Is Social Media A Farce?

Episode #324 of Six Pixels of Separation – The Twist Image Podcast is now live and ready for you to listen to.

When you publish a book called, Social Media Is Bullshit, it is bound to get some attention (and, some dirty looks, I’m sure). B.J. Mendelson (also known as Brandon) doesn’t hold any punches in this book. He says that, "we live in a world where it’s far easier to make money telling people how to get rich using the Internet than it is to actually get rich using it." Is Brandon wrong? It’s not so cut and dry. On one hand, we do live in a world where any one individual can get a whole bunch of followers and suddenly proclaim themselves as some kind of wizard, but – on the other hand – it’s hard to imagine that Brandon would have been as attractive to a traditional book publisher if he didn’t have close to 800,000 followers on Twitter. Which, in and of itself, is a part of the issues and challenges that we discuss in this episode. Ultimately, the truth may come when Brandon shuts down all of his social media outposts, and can still sell books and create a viable business without them. Enjoy the conversation…

You can grab the latest episode of Six Pixels of Separation here (or feel free to subscribe via iTunes): Six Pixels of Separation – The Twist Image Podcast #324.

Mitch Joel

Mitch Joel lives at the intersection of technology, business transformation and consumer culture. He is the Executive Director of Next Era Institute, a strategic intelligence platform helping leaders understand the forces reshaping business, technology, culture and society. The Institute identifies which shifts matter, explores their wider significance and translates them into strategic direction and momentum. Mitch is also a globally recognized keynote speaker. He has delivered thousands of presentations across both B2B and B2C industries to organizations including Google, Walmart, LEGO, Shopify, Microsoft, Procter & Gamble and Unilever. Strategy Magazine has called him “one of North America’s leading visionaries.” Mitch built his career by working directly inside the waves of change that reshaped modern business. He founded and built a digital marketing agency that worked with some of the world’s largest brands and was later acquired by WPP, where he served as President of a firm operating in 25 countries with almost 3,000 employees. Mitch is the bestselling author of Six Pixels of Separation and CTRL ALT Delete, and the host of Thinking With Mitch Joel, one of the longest-running business podcasts in the world. His writing and commentary appear in outlets including Harvard Business Review, Fast Company and Inc. Magazine. He is a member of Dr. Marshall Goldsmith’s 100 Coaches and was named to the Thinkers50 Radar. Mitch also hosts Groove – The No Treble Podcast, documenting the oral history of electric bass players. Mitch is also Co-Founder of ThinkersOne, a platform that enables companies to bring personalized thought leadership from world-class experts into meetings, events and off-sites in focused 15-minute bursts.