As someone that covers all things social media, it was almost my job — adult homework so to speak — to go out and see The Social Network, aka The Facebook movie. For me, it didn’t disappoint. I thought it was great. In this podcast, I highlight the theme of product vs. money.

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Like many others, I rushed out to see The Social Network on opening weekend. If you recall, back in July I gave 7 reasons why ‘The Social Network’ Facebook movie will be a huge success. And while the $23 million opening weekend wasn’t spectacular (Inception did $62m it’s opening weekend), it did land at #1.

So after viewing it as a movie-going FAN, it was time to look at it from a business and marketing angle. What I came up with was:

How The Social Network highlights the struggle between focusing on the product vs. focusing on the money in a startup business.

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I’ve had a few good bosses in my life. Let’s take a quick look back at some good examples.

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I talk a decent amount about career advice on the blog, such as resumes, interviewing, salary negotiation, and internships. But one key factor is the importance of a good manager.

My original topic today was going to be the BMW Magazine app on the iPad, — and I do feel there’s a great story there how car makers can reach consumers via the Apple tablet — but the story needed a lot more research.

So pressed for time, I thought about a story or two I could tell on the podcast. But that got me to thinking about cars and bosses.

A good manager is like a good set of tires
Sometimes people really underestimate tires. It’s more fun to talk about how a car looks, the 0-60 time, the 300 watt stereo, or the 405 horsepower. But tires play a HUGE part in the enjoyment, and safety of a vehicle. They control ride, handling, steering, braking, cornering, acceleration, and traction.

If your tires are old or balding, it can ruin a lot of other good things on car. Just being a few pounds over- or under-inflated can be a serious hazard.

The same goes for your boss, although it’s perfectly ok for him to be getting old or starting to bald (hey!!!).

What I’m saying is, a boss that isn’t very good can make even the best job suck, and a really bad boss can permeate everything you do and make you hate your job. They can stall your career, prevent you from getting raises and advancing, and create office politics.

In story one on the podcast, I pause 30 seconds for a shameless suck up to my current bosses. As recent readers know, I have a broken arm. This happened while on my (deservedly earned) 7 business days of vacation, so I was out of work during that. But then add time missed during my subsequent 2 surgeries, leaving for appointments, coming in late after physical therapy, and working at about half speed. Even though I was working remotely, jumping on conference calls while on buses, and consistently on email, tack on nearly an additional 10 business days — that’s a lot of missed office time.

Not ONCE has anyone said anything besides “do whatever you need to in order to get better.” From my immediate boss, to our department VP, to coworkers, to the President of Conde Nast Digital (who I saw in the elevator and who is also a competitive athlete and biker), nothing but concern and well-wishes. I am thankful that these people have my back.

The other four stories I cover:

- The New York Move
My VP at ESPN had to make some hard decisions when moving the team from Seattle to New York. Also listen how he handled the “coaching” of his employees during the free-reigning late 90s dotcom era like Jim’s childhood Boston Celtics teams.

The Startup Guru / Bartender / Softball King
Has one of YOUR bosses ever served you drinks, hit the game-winning home run, and kick started the second half of your career?

The Female Assassin
Hear how a quiet supervisor reacts like a violent Grizzly defending her cubs when an employee is attacked by an outsider.

Shin Yoshino/Getty Images

The Scoutmaster
A fatherly figure saves Jim’s college party plans and prevents a poor, dark, winter.

What are some of the things a manager needs to do to have their employees backs?
1. Filter and disseminate information
2. Have a grasp of email etiquette
a. On vs off the record, forwarding, proper CC: and BCC:
3. Gives credit in public, criticizes in private
4. Steer their careers, ask them about next steps
5. Protect and defend against other departments
a. Too much work, annoying employees, giving credit

Ask yourself this:
- As an employee, take a look up the chain of command. For the most part, will your supervisors be there for you?
- If you’re a manager, are you doing everything you can to instill confidence in your employees?

Thanks for reading

Follow me twitter.com/hopkinsonreport

Jim can see the next big trend, and he’s not going to let it go by.

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I get asked the following question quite often:
“Jim, what’s the next big trend?”

Sure, the internet is always growing, and social media, Facebook, Twitter, geolocation, group buying, online video, and mobile are still at the top of everyone’s list. But I think there’s something bigger. Am I qualified to guess at trends? Sure, why not.

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Can a broken arm kill Jim’s love for technology and social media? Stay tuned:

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Loyal listeners of The Hopkinson Report know a few things about me:

- I never miss a week (once in the last 118 episodes)
- I love technology, being online and all things social media
- I love mountain biking (I compared the ‘flow’ of biking to a business in Episode 113)

So when I was away for the first part of my vacation while mountain biking some epic trails in Seattle, the capable Brandon Werner filled in. But then the unexpected struck when I came back to the east coast to go biking in the rocky trails of the Pocono mountains.

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On this special edition of The Hopkinson Report, Jim is on vacation, so I, Brandon Werner (Intern 1.0 for long time The Hopkinson Report listeners) guest-hosts. I explain why Social Media is the new dividing factor between Generation Y and their Baby Boomer parents.

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On Hopkinson Report Episode 102, Jim interviewed me on my research on my generation, the millennial AKA Generation Y. This group is also called the echo-boom, as they are the children of the famous Baby Boomers. Since recording that episode, I had a revelation that will be the topic of this episode.

When I was a child, I remember my parents (baby boomers/teens of the 60′s and 70′s) used to tell me stories of how their parents ‘just didn’t get it’. Their formative teenage years were filled with Woodstock, the anti-Vietnam movement, Nixon… These were the years of Rock ‘N Roll and there was a sharp divide between the baby boomers and their ‘Greatest Generation’ parents.

Through my teenage years, I never really felt that level of misunderstanding between my parents and I. In fact, my parents ‘got-it’ almost too well.  I wanted to learn drums and be in a band, my dad taught me how to do it from his own experiences, If I tried to dye my hair, my mom would show me how. The classic parent/son anti-piercing or tattoo fight? They actually encouraged them (so I didn’t really have any drive to get them). I would say I wanted to go to a Green Day concert, and my dad would ask to come with me.

From talking to my friends, this is pretty standard. Where was our rebellion or revolution?  Where was our Rock ‘N Roll? Recently, after a few failed attempts to communicate exactly what I do for a living, I think I found it. Our Rock ‘N Roll is Social Media.

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Do you have “computer skills” listed on your resume? Get rid of it, it’s obsolete! I explain in this week’s podcast, or the blog post below.

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Over the weekend, I met with a person I’m mentoring. She went to the same college as I did, found me through our alumni network, and wanted to talk about her next job and look over her resume.

One of the things that I saw on there that was interesting, was a section called ‘Computer Skills.’

I went through each of the items and called her on it:
- Adobe Bridge Software?
What is that? Is it important? No. Take it off.
- iMac basic programming?
You mean, you used an iMac computer and did some things? She nodded hesitantly. I asked her, do you REALLY know how to program? She shook her head no. Gone.
- Datanet and Filemaker?
OK, so you used these programs to maintain some files. But are you an expert at it and did you really use them all the time? Not really.
- Google Apps
I don’t mind that it’s on there, but she already used it earlier in the resume, so that one gets removed as well.
- Lastly, Microsoft Office
You graduated in 2008 with a Bachelor of Science degree. You live in New York City. You speak French and Italian.  You’ve managed to send me your resume converted into a PDF. Proving you know Office is pretty much understood.

So that got me to wondering.

For anyone that graduated with a Bachelors degree from the year 2000 and beyond, is the ‘computer skills’ section of your resume completely obsolete?

And if the answer is yes, what goes in its place?

To answer that, we have to go old school for a minute. This is when having myself as your Generation X host comes in handy.

Need I remind you, I graduated in 1991, when there were NO cell phones, NO internet, NO email, and Photoshop 2.0 had just been released. For those keeping score, the concept of Photoshop layers wouldn’t be invented for 5 more years, and they’re basically up to version 12 now.

In my junior year Microsoft Windows 3.0 had just been released, along with Office version 1.0.

Social media? Ha!  Mark Zuckerberg was 7.

So as someone that legitimately graduated with a degree in Computer Information Systems, putting a ‘Computer Skills’ section on your resume really meant something.

When I started doing most of the hiring for the multimedia startup I worked for in 1994, it was a real challenge to determine which people had true computer skills, and which had played a few hundred games of Solitaire on their computer and claimed they knew Windows.

Thus, I came up with a computer test that I gave during interviews to see how people shaped up. It became legendary around the office, as no candidate had ever received a perfect score.

What’s interesting is back then, typing speed was a huge differentiator. You could sit in the conference room with someone in their brand new suit and listen to them smoothly talk about their tech skills, but when you sat them down in front of a keyboard and asked them to drill down into a subdirectory and alt-tab to another open application, you knew right away.

Dug into the archives and actually found my resume from 12 years ago:

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Today I’m going to talk about a concept that stems from a single word called ‘flow.’ I’m not going to get too deep or spiritual with you, but I think it’s a very important state of mind to recognize and strive for, both in your life and in your work.

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It’s approaching August here in New York City, which means it’s hot as hades, things are starting to slow down a bit, and in the next few weeks, both the city itself and the offices around town empty out as people end the summer with much-needed vacations before cranking things back up post Labor Day.

Quick flashback on my life … I lived in Seattle for 3 years and just about every Thursday after work when the weather was good, friends and I would head to a trail called Tiger Mountain just outside downtown to go mountain biking. It was the perfect release after 4 rough days of work, with a brutal 40 minute uphill climb the second you left the parking lot, followed by a 45 minute descent through rocks, roots, and flowing singletrack trails. On the weekends we’d venture further from the city and find other amazing trails. It was some of the best times of my life.

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Jim’s guest is Deanna Zandt, author of a social media book. They talk about how she got a book deal, raised money to fund it, and how she got free pizza.

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Deanna Zandt is the author of the new book, “Share This! How You Will Change the World with Social Networking” which you can find out more about at her website, DeannaZandt.com.

During our interview, we talk about the following topics:
- How the former corporate employee and self-proclaimed ‘webmonkey’ went from independent consultant to author
- The process she took to turn her training seminars into a book idea
- The “Jedi Mind Trick” philosophy her publisher uses, and how she used “the force” of social media to raise funds in order to work on her book
- How she used crowdsourcing on everything from the title to the cover — and how people reacted to it
- The free software program she used to dramatically ramp up her productivity during the writing process

And yes, she explains how she scored a free eye exam and free pizza along the way.

Give a listen.

Twitter: Deanna | HopkinsonReport

Apple’s iPad is flying off the shelves. Jim gives his real-world results after 30 days with it, reviews the Wired Magazine app, analyzes market share trends and asks, can it be beat?

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iPad iPad iPad.
Everyone is talking about the iPad, and so am I. Lets take a look at three things today:

1) My experience with the iPad 3G after one month with the iPad
2) My thoughts on the Wired Magazine iPad app
3) Analyze Apple’s historic marketshare and drill down to see the future of tablet computing and if the iPad can be beat

Note: All thoughts are my own opinion and not that of Wired or Apple. I have no affiliation with Apple and was not compensated.

Summary of the podcast below. Listen to the entire show for the full experience.

OK, so I’ve had the iPad for 30 days of real world testing.

I’ve installed various apps: the Entertainment Weekly Must List and Weather Channel (good, but could use some work), ones with solid functionality (Kayak, Pandora, MLB at Bat), ones that I normally wouldn’t use (Marvel’s comic book reader and games such as Asphalt 5 and Labyrinth), and Conde Nast’s own (Epicurious, GQ, and Wired).

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Jim talks about what Sting and The Police can teach us about finding your voice when blogging or podcasting.

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Passion.
Millions of teachers, authors, parents, friends, clergy, poets, and musicians have tried to help others find their passions. But I’ll tell you where you can find yours.

In your voice.

When you’re speaking about something you’re truly passionate about, there’s a change in your tone. Your heart beats a little faster, your eyes get a little wider, and sometimes the thoughts and ideas cascade from your brain so quickly that they trip over themselves in a rush to exit your mouth.

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