Open up your mind and say, ahh...

“Mark Zuckerberg” has become a codeword for the truly gifted exception, the wunderkind freak of nature for whom traditional rules don’t apply.

Well, sure, Mark Zuckerberg can drop out of Harvard, but you’re not Mark Zuckerberg…

Here’s the thing: Even Mark isn’t Mark Zuckerberg.

This notion that there’s a one in a billion alignment of DNA and experience that magically creates an exception is just total nonsense. Mark is successful because of a million small choices, not because he, and he alone, has some magical properties.

Mostly, the best way to be the next Mark Zuckerberg is to make difficult choices.

I’ve been writing furiously for a few weeks, and I have another few weeks ahead of me before I turn in the completed manuscript, but now is evidently the right time to announce that my next book will be Google+ for Business: How Google’s Social Network Changes Everything. I’ve written quite a lot here on chrisbrogan.com about Google+ and I’ve created paid informational education about the service, as well as posted several thoughts, ideas, and more about the product. Frankly, I’m smitten with Google+ and the potential it brings as a business communications tool. So, Katherine Bull at QUE (part of Pearson) was kind enough to let me pen a book about it (and by “kind,” evidently turning a book around in six weeks now qualifies as the hardest thing I’ve ever done professionally), and so I’m happy to share that it’s available on Amazon already for pre-order, both as a physical book (affiliate link), and also for Kindle. It’s also available at Barnes & Noble (where I’ve actually sat in their cafe and written at least one chapter so far on it), and on Nook.

It’s tricky writing a book about a technology, but not unlike what Julien Smith and I did with Trust Agents, I’ve written the book to be more about the thoughts, the strategy, and the human business perspective that goes into using Google+ to drive potential business (whether you’re a small business or part of a large one). We’ll see how current I can keep it with my amazingly good team of editors and the help I’m getting from Katherine’s team. In my mind, it’ll be a pretty useful book for anyone who wants to get started with Google+, but also useful for people looking for some tips and tactics to get even more out of their efforts on Google+ for their business.

So, that’s my news. If you’re in the market for a Google+ book, it comes out very early in November (which is a lot closer than you think), and is available for pre-order now.

Ticketmaster, the event ticketing property of Live Nation, is enhancing its interactive seat maps Tuesday so that ticket buyers and event-goers can see where their Facebook friends are sitting, and tag themselves into their seats.

With the upgrade, Facebook members can now connect their accounts to view a Facebook-infused event seat map that highlights where friends at sitting with miniature Facebook flags.

The feature is live for more than 9,000 events on Ticketmaster and Live Nation sites.

The idea, says Ticketmaster executive vice president of ecommerce Kip Levin, is to return the ticket-buying experience to its pre-web social origins. “Online took away from the old experience of going down to the record store to purchase tickets,” he says. “This is a way to go back to that.”

The interactive seat maps experience is now designed to help Facebook users see where their friends are sitting, purchase nearby tickets, tag themselves into their seats, nudge their Facebook friends to do the same and share their seats with friends on Facebook.

A filter on the left-hand side of the map populates with friends attending the event in question. Facebook friend flags are situated on the map to denote their seats. Users can click on names to zoom into a friend’s seat location, or hover over flags to view who is sitting where.

Ticketmaster rolled out the first iteration of interactive seat maps, minus Facebook seat-tagging, roughly one year ago. The first release, says Levin, was one of the company’s most significant product launches in the past five years.

“We studied the way people bought tickets,” he says. “People said they would buy tickets … because they knew where their friends were sitting,” he says.

Ticketmaster’s research suggests that every time a ticket buyer shares his purchase with friends online, the activity converts to $5 in additional ticket sales. The hope, says Levin, is that Facebook seat-tagging will encourage ticket buyers to more frequently share that they’re attending events, and drive up ticket sales as a result.

Twitter co-founders Biz Stone and Evan Williams have announced their first project since leaving Twitter: a partnership with Lift, a new app designed to unlock the human potential.

The project falls under the domain of Obvious Corporation, an entity founded by Williams in the mid-2000s to support his various projects. Obvious was revived earlier this year with Biz Stone and former Twitter VP of Product Jason Goldman as co-founders.

“Our approach is threefold: Build, partner, and invest,” Stone said in a blog post. “We’ve started working on some ideas ourselves, we’re researching how best to create an investment vehicle, and today we’re thrilled to announce our first official partnership.”

Their first project is a partnership with with Tony Stubblebine (CrowdVine, Odeo) and Jon Crosby (Path, Songbird). Their new startup is Lift, “an interesting new application for unlocking human potential through positive reinforcement.” Stubblebine and Crosby will be the driving forces behind the project, while Obvious will help with design, strategy, funding and recruiting. In return, Obvious will own equity in Lift.

Obvious and Lift aren’t releasing any more details about the app — it is in private Alpha — but as the first Obvious company, it will have to live up to high expectations. Lift boasts an all-star team, and the support of Twitter’s co-founders will give it an instant audience.

Lift may be Obvious Corporation’s first startup, but it won’t be its last. Williams, Stone and Goldman are just getting started.

John Corpus is the founder and CEO of Milyoni. Milyoni helps companies monetize fan pages for live concerts, movies or sporting events or by selling merchandise. Follow the company on Twitter at @milyoni.

Facebook Credits are hot. More and more businesses — both large and small — are exploring how they can incorporate Facebook Credits into their overall social strategy. But they all have the same question: How?

The most common use of Facebook Credits has traditionally been to purchase virtual goods in social games, such as Zynga’s FarmVille and Mafia Wars. New digital content from entertainment and lifestyle companies such as movies studios, concert promoters and sports teams has created an even greater awareness for how to use Facebook‘s “social currency.”

Universal Pictures just launched a campaign offering cult film The Big Lebowski for rent directly through the movie’s Facebook fan page. It was made available to rent on-demand for 30 Facebook Credits.

Other retailers are issuing Facebook Credits as incentives in exchange for some type of action, like social engagement, online purchases or brand loyalty. Shoebuy.com, for example, ran ads on Facebook offering 50 Facebook Credits with any purchase from their site. The GAP UK also provided Facebook Credits to customers who signed up for its email newsletter.

As your business looks to get into the Facebook Credits game, here are some things to consider.

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1. Sell Digital, Not Physical Goods

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Facebook Credits can be used to purchase virtual goods, digital goods and Facebook Deals. They still cannot be used to directly purchase physical goods or redeem anything outside of Facebook. Now, however, there are a variety of digital goods and content available (Skype calls, music, movies, additional ammunition for game battles, etc.). There is an endless list of opportunities to monetize.

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2. Incentivize Fan Engagement

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While the real value of a Facebook Credit is 10 cents, the perceived value is much more. As little as 30 Facebook Credits can give users access to movies, live concerts, dozens of games and more. Additionally, there are some events and entertainment where Facebook Credits may be the only currency accepted. Credit are a lot like “airline miles” that fans will seek out and accumulate from issuing companies.

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3. Think Globally

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Facebook Credits are an international mode of payment available in more than 47 currencies. Whenever possible, incorporate the global community in your promotional efforts. While the U.S. still makes up a large portion of the Facebook population, there is significant growth in other countries. Live concerts on Facebook, for example, have drawn participants from more than 25 countries. Recent success stories include concerts by Widespread Panic, David Gray, and even new bands like The Parlotones.

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4. Deploy Digital Content

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Over time, users accumulate Facebook Credits from many different brands. Think about simple ways to offer fans valuable digital content. Why not host the launch of a new music video or movie release to reward existing fans and recruit new ones? While the average Credit balance may be low today for Facebook users, expect it to grow significantly as Facebook Credits become more mainstream as the social currency of choice.

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5. Be a Sponsor

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If your app is consuming Facebook Credits, seek out brands and partners that will sponsor or promote your app and offer Facebook Credits to their fan base as an incentive. If you are planning on offering Facebook Credits to entice new fans, consider finding a relevant movie, concert or other credit-based event that you can promote alongside it to make the offer more appealing.

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Facebook Credits may seem like uncharted territory, but that also means there’s a wealth of opportunity. With 750 million users, Facebook is the must-use vehicle for companies looking to connect, engage and monetize fans. Those who take advantage of it early can look forward to better relationships with current fans and a valuable tool for earning new ones.

Image courtesy of Flickr, Jakob Steinschaden

Twitter conversation surrounding HP’s ill-fated TouchPad has increased from just 2,000 tweets a day one week ago to more than 50,000 tweets as of August 22.

Social analytics firm Simply Measured created a chart outlining the rise in Twitter conversation surrounding the TouchPad and its associated terms.

Looking at the data, early discussions concerned the future of webOS in the wake of TouchPad’s discontinuation. By Friday, however, the conversation shifted to blowout pricing of the device. This continued throughout the weekend, as would-be buyers scrambled to find devices on the cheap.

Source: Simply Measured

The TouchPad may not have been a success before HP decided to pull the plug on the device — lowering its price 80% to clear out units — but on Monday, it managed to top Amazon.com’s bestsellers list.

Rather than pontificate on what the success of a $99 tablet says about the market in general, we’ll just agree with Ian Betteridge.

Still, it’s fascinating to see the huge juxtaposition in social activity before and after the device’s cancellation. Does this suggest HP dropped the tablet too quickly? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.

Barnes & Noble has added six Time Inc. magazine titles for Nook Color users, including Time, Sports Illustrated and People.

The interactive versions of the titles will be free to those who already subscribe to them. The bookseller now offers more than 200 magazine and periodical titles for the Nook Color. By the end of the year, Barnes & Noble plans to make all 21 U.S. Time Inc. titles available, and they’ll be available on other top tablets as well. The Nook magazine special editions include extras like video and audio podcasts, photo galleries and other features. Nook customers who don’t have the Color device can also access Time and Fortune‘s E-Ink versions.

The announcement coincides with new editions of Meredith Corp. titles Parents and Fitness for the Nook Color. Meredith also plans to make Better Homes and Gardens available to Nook Color owners this fall.

The expansion of titles for Nook Color comes after publishers of women’s magazines like O, The Oprah Magazine and Women’s Health have seen sales of their Nook Color editions match and even beat sales of iPad versions.

The following is something I’ve come to realize about myself, and by sharing it, I hope that if some of you have felt this way, maybe you’ll see how I got through it and take a similar path. If not, hey, it’s a blog post. Another on Monday.

The Builder

Imagine you’re a builder – not an architect, but someone who’s handy enough to put up a wall, make a room, maybe cobble together a shack. The thing is, you built your home on sand. You figured this out after the fact, and it wasn’t your intention to do so, but by doing so, you’ve made it much harder for anyone living in that house. Sometimes, a room tilts and becomes unusable, so you nail shut that door and you make a new room somewhere else. Other times, the stairs don’t go where they should any more, so you have to throw together a ladder or some such.

And as things shift, you’re thinking, “God, this house wasn’t built on the right foundation. I built on sand! I’ll never be able to fix this, but if I don’t keep on trying, I’ll die.”

I’ll Die

In this story, you are possessed of a great fear. You see all that you’ve built as temporary and not good enough, and you realize that for all you’ve done, it’s still going to crumble, but that you’ll die if it does, because it means that you couldn’t do it all, that you weren’t the great builder you hoped to be, or worse, that you knew all along that you weren’t the best builder, but that you could do enough to keep things going, as long as you could work fast and hard enough.

But That’s Not Really What Happens

When you stop building, the house will fall apart. That part is true. But the thing is, everyone will get out. You’ll get out. You’ll have no house for a little bit. But that’s also temporary. You’ll have to find a better foundation obviously. Only the crazy would try and rebuild on sand again, right? But everyone will make it out alive. Some new kind of house will be built. You will learn how to build again. And no one dies.

Because Death Is a Stand-In

That fear of death is actually misplaced. The Builder thinks its death he or she fears. But what he or she fears is truth. “Death” isn’t death in this story; it’s the truth. The Builder did it wrong. The Builder couldn’t sustain what he or she built. The Builder was going to let some people down, was going to face disappointment from all over the place. That truth often gets confused with death in one’s fears. And if not death, than something equally painful and worth avoiding.

But We Always Live

What the Builder does next is what matters most, I would think. Because we all live. We can feel anger, sadness, grief, disappointment, inadequacy, and a whole raft of other emotions. They pile up beside us like every cracked shingle and every warped frame we ever built with before. But when we inspect those feelings, when we look at where those feelings take us, when we make amends with some of how those feelings came to be(those bad building materials), then the obvious next step is to build with better material, and to build with good, solid, strong, love-worthy materials. And in this, we should almost always seek out better teachers, because we probably have learned a bit from the house that fell down, but we have a lot more to learn, and we can use help.

I’m a Builder. I suspect some of you are, too. And I’ve let a few of my houses fall down lately, as maybe you have. It’s what I do next that I hope gives me a legacy worth passing on, and it’s how I help us all live that will bring me my best joy. I’m still possessed of many fears, but for each one I find, I toss that board in the fire, and I seek out stronger building materials. I suspect you do the same, don’t you?

I’m writing a book and the deadline is looming. I was given six weeks to write it, which is the tightest deadline I’ve ever had. The work of doing this requires a great deal more discipline than I typically afford myself.

At the same time, I’m working with a renewed vigor on my fitness and health. With eating, that means being diligent at every turn, because a busy lifestyle plus travel makes it so easy to justify stuffing any old thing in your mouth to quiet your belly while you do “what’s important.” It means doing the work of exercise all the time, instead of just every now and again (I’m still not there on this point).

All of this makes me think about discipline, especially what’s untrue about it.

Discipline Isn’t Willpower

Rob Hatch and I were talking about a guy who wanted to practice his guitar more (I think this story is from a book, but I forget the book). He put little notes on his calendar to remind him to play guitar. Yet, after a busy day at work, he would come home and watch TV. One day, he realized that the reason he wasn’t reaching for the guitar he intended to practice more was that it was in the closet. He took it out and placed it between the couch and the TV. Pow, instant improvement in how often he practiced guitar.

Discipline isn’t willpower. Discipline is setting up the perfect environment to achieve the goals you have. If you want the perfect book for this, read Switch, by Chip and Dan Heath. If you read it already but still haven’t changed your environment to accomplish what you want to do, then read it again.

Success Breeds Success

Once you feel great about adhering to a better diet, you feel more inspired to work out more often. Once you get your writing into a steady flow of 2000 words a day, you expand your goals to accomplish something else, like resolving to record one video a week, or something. Success breeds success. So, find something simple to start with, build the appropriate environment to succeed, and then feel super excited that you hit something.

Beware Justification

The biggest enemy of your work on discipline is using your early successes to justify slip-ups and slacking. “I went to the gym two days in a row. I can take a break.” That will derail you faster than anything else. Doing what you’ve set out to do is not a badge you can wear. Imagine flossing your teeth once and deciding that you’re done. Discipline is a routine, not a single goal. Discipline is the power that fuels the systems that LEAD you to larger goals.

So make justification the enemy. The minute you hear yourself saying that inside your head, say, “I’m going to do something right now to counter that justification.” Do it. Without a quick snip, that justification will have you in the “I used to do that…” category faster than you think.

Discipline is the Ladder

Discipline is the ladder that gets you from where you are to where you want to go. Once you can write 2000 words a day without flinching, you can take on bigger projects. Once you can work out four times a week, you can take that trip to the mountains without worrying, or you can apply all that extra energy to doing more work (working out has given me more energy to make more money-making projects). Discipline is the ladder you can set against the wall that is between you and what you want. It’s not something to be longing for; it’s something you can accomplish by starting small, setting up the best environment, being consistent, pushing away justification, and then building on your previous successes.

So, where would you want to place that ladder? And what are you working on, discipline-wise? What are your challenges?

When someone speaks about you to someone else, what do they say? How would they refer to you? What would be the brief way they sum you up?

When we talk about Apple, we often talk about design. Or maybe we say “it just works.” When we talk about Zappos, we think of customer service. When we talk about Seth Godin, we might say “purple cow” and tell people to be remarkable.

What’s Your Single Strand?

I’m asking because I’m thinking about my own right now. What would sum me up? And usually, when people try to answer this for someone else, they tend to speak from their past. For example, if I say “Zappos,” lots of people say “shoes.” But that’s not how Zappos wants you to think about them, because they sell a lot more than shoes. If you think of me as that Twitter guy or the Trust Agents guy, then that’s from stuff from over a few years ago.

So strands have to go a bit deeper than the project of the moment, and one hopes that they do.

What’s your single strand? How do you represent yourself in that way? What does it change about what you choose to do or not do with your business?