Jim Rossi's keynote talk at the inaugural LinkedIn Masters Summit at the Los Angeles Endowment Center, May 10, 2018. For more information, contact Jim at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cleantechconartist/

1. LinkedIn Masters
Los Angeles
May 10, 2018
Jim Rossi
LinkedIn Top Voice | Historian
upcoming Cleantech Con Artist: A True Vegas Tale
Linkedin.com/in/cleantechconartist/

2. My Business Problem…
& our existential one:
News Media Dumpster Fire
Jim
Rossi
May
10,
2018
*
Dropped
a
lot
in
3
years!
“Lefty good, Righty bad.”
*

3. Jim
Rossi
May
10,
2018
• FB Lookalike Audiences
• Cognitive Dissonance, Framing,
Anchoring Biases, Sunken Costs,
Groupthink…
• “Digital Maoism” (2006) by Jaron Lanier
• Jaron Lanier TED 2018
Problem | Echo Chambers
- Marshall McLuhan

4. Jim
Rossi
May
10,
2018
Echo Chamber?

5. “The more frequently you look at data, the
more noise you are disproportionately
likely to get… Which is why
anyone who listens to news
(except when very, very
significant events take place)
is one step below sucker…”
- Nassim Nicholas Taleb
Jim
Rossi
May
10,
2018
Fake News | Signal vs. Noise

6. Post-Truth?
“The period of time that corresponds to
reliance on one-sided accounts such as
television and newspapers, which can be
controlled by the mandarins, lasted from
the middle of the twentieth century until
the US election of 2016.
At that point, social networks, allowing a
two-way flow of information, returned
the mechanism of tidings to its original
format…”
- Nassim Taleb, Skin in the Game
Jim
Rossi
May
10,
2018

7. Jim
Rossi
May
10,
2018
“The entrepreneur always
searches for change,
responds to it, and exploits
it as an opportunity.”
“Entrepreneurship is
neither a science nor an art.
It is a practice.”

8. TREND | Cut out Middleman
Jim
Rossi
May
10,
2018
“It’s not information
overload. It’s filter failure.”
- Clay Shirky
“The medium is the message… Global Village.”
- Marshall McLuhan

9. Jim
Rossi
May
10,
2018
“It is a double pleasure to
deceive the deceiver.”
- Niccolo Machiavelli
Coming out in 2018….

10. From Campus Editor to LinkedIn Top Voice
World’s Best-Dressed Homeless Man?
Jim
Rossi
May
10,
2018

11. Jim
Rossi
May
10,
2018
“Information wants to be free.
Information also wants to be
expensive… Each round of new
devices makes the tension worse,
not better.”
- Stewart Brand
founder, Whole Earth Catalog
Paradox of Information

12. Jim
Rossi
May
10,
2018
Content Marketing
Niche Marketing ~ Literary Genres
Customers = Readers
Q: Across “Verticals”?
A: My vertical is human
curiosity.

13. Jim
Rossi
May
10,
2018
“Verticals? We don’t
need no f____g
verticals!”

14. Quality vs. Quantity
Jim
Rossi
May
10,
2018
Wasting…
People’s…
Valuable…
Time. “The purpose of business
is to create and keep a
customer.”
- Peter Drucker
Signal vs. Noise
aka
Creating Value vs.

15. Quality vs. Quantity
Video, Short Posts, etc.
Jim
Rossi
May
10,
2018
Masturbatory (adj.) –
excessively self-indulgent
“You might try a bit less ass-kissy.”

16. Network Effects | Strong & Weak Ties
• Granovetter, “The Strength of Weak Ties:
A Network Theory Revisited”
• Don Peppers
• Network Effects: resist equilibrium, +/-
Jim
Rossi
May
10,
2018

17. Jim
Rossi
May
10,
2018
Listen > Talking |Brand, “Thought
Leadership,” Lead Generation
• Follow/Read/Comment/Share
• Frequency?
• Creating Value (Professional)

18. Standing on Shoulders
of Giants
• 4:1 Pulizzi? More like
20:1… 90:1
• Don’t copy, Emulate…
• Don Peppers, Tai Tran
• Standing on the
Shoulders of Giants
Jim
Rossi
May
10,
2018

19. Jim
Rossi
May
10,
2018
• People > Data
• LI can be hard to “monetize”/ ROI
• Likes, Views, Comments… ?
• Followers?
• Measure but conclude cautiously…
• Theory X Practice
Metrics in the Age of
False Precision

20. Jim
Rossi
May
10,
2018
“Marketing is seeing your
business through the
customer’s eyes.”
– Peter Drucker

21. Jim
Rossi
May
10,
2018
I try to be…
entertaining, fair,
accurate &
concise.
Readers: How am
I doing?
Brand & Reputation
Same person on
LinkedIn I am
in person.*
*PG-13 version
Conversation: Relationship between Equals

22. Jim
Rossi
May
10,
2018
”It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin
it. If you think about that, you’ll do things differently.”
Brand & Reputation
Good vs. Bad Viral

23. Jim
Rossi
May
10,
2018
• Promoting by not promoting?
• ”Creating Value?” Let’s be clear…
• Only 1 good reason to write a book?
Branding Paradox?

24. Best Practices (for me)
• Business casual
• 1st person
• Concise, entertaining
• Edit! Trade edits.
• Sleep on it.
• Soft Sell
• How often to post?
• Tags – be strategic AND thoughtful
• Attention spans shorter?
• Politics & Brand?
• Google Trends?
Jim
Rossi
May
10,
2018

25. Pro Tip: Disruptive Marketing
…against the Herd…
Puncturing Echo Chambers
• Geoffrey Colon, Don Peppers
• Juxtaposition, Uncertainty Flexibility
• Debate à Dialogue
• Argument à Conversation
• Win/Lose à Win/Win
• Friend + Enemy = Frenemy
Jim
Rossi
May
10,
2018
“The opposite of courage is not
cowardice. It is conformity.”
– Rollo May

26. Pro Tip 2 | Virtues of Trolling &
Piñata Maneuver
Jim
Rossi
May
10,
2018

27. “Skepticism vs. cynicism…
Optimism does not guarantee
success, but pessimism
guarantees failure.”
- Jim Law
Jim
Rossi
May
10,
2018

28. Jim
Rossi
May
10,
2018
The Adventure Continues…
To Boldly Go…

29. Addendum: Learning More
Media implosion & Evolution:
Clay Shirky, Here Comes Everybody: the Power of Organizing Without Organizations
Ryan Holiday, Trust Me, I’m Lying: Confessions of a Media Manipulator LinkedIn Top Voice
Sharyl Attkisson, The Smear: How Shady Political Operatives & Fake News Control What You
See, What You Think & How You Vote
Cohen, Drucker on Marketing
Geoffrey Colon, Disruptive Marketing
Joe Pulizzi, Content Marketing Institute: Content, Inc. & Epic Content Marketing
Don Peppers & Martha Rogers, Extreme Trust original LinkedIn Influencer
Mark Granovetter, “The Strength of Weak Ties.” Peppers, “How to get the Most Out of
LinkedIn…”
Jonah Berger, Contagious
David Meerman Scott & Brian Halligan, Marketing Lessons from the Grateful Dead
Steven Pinker, Enlightenment Now & Better Angels of Our Nature
Nassim Nicholas Taleb, Antifragile & Skin in the Game.
Jim
Rossi
May
10,
2018

30. Jim
Rossi
May
10,
2018