Heidi Cohen Interviews Jim Sterne
New book: The Devil’s Data Dictionary – Making Fun of Data
Q: What was the inspiration for The Devil’s Data Dictionary?
SOOOOO serious all the time! What’s up with that? Data and statistics is dry, dry, dry. I’ve done my best to inject some humor and music into the mix yet everything you read is soooo serious.
But data people are actually fun. And intelligent. And that’s a wonderful combination. They’re great people to hang out with. So I set out to make them smile.
Q: What is the key concept behind your book?
Silliness.
Q: How did you come up with it?
Laughing gas.
Q: What do you want readers to take away from your book
Take away a chuckle or at least a smirk. Lighten up a little!
Q: How do you describe yourself professionally?
A marketing guy who thought the Internet would be cool, tried to help companies make their websites better and finally insisted that they measure the impact of their actions… in order to make their websites better.
Q: What is you elevator pitch!
Not very far – turns out they’re heavy.
Q: What are 1-3 books that inspired your work/career?
- Snowcrash – understanding the future
- Pattern Recognition – confirmation that my world view is shared by at least one other human
- Notebooks of Lazarus Long – format for this current tome
Q: What is the biggest challenge that you’ve had to overcome?
I have faced many problems in my life – some of them actually happened.
Q: What’s something unusual or fun that most people don’t know about you?
I have flown to Macedonia to see Shakespeare – twice.
Q: Is there a piece of content, a social media campaign or a marketing campaign that you worked on that you’re particularly proud of?
This:
Contact information
- Name: Jim Sterne
- Company: Rising Media, Inc.
- Blog: http://www.emetrics.org/blog/
- Book(s): Social Media Metrics: How to Measure and Optimize Your Marketing Investment (2010), 101 Things You Should Know About Marketing Optimization Analysis (2010), Advanced Email Marketing (2003) Web Metrics: Proven Methods for Measuring Web Site Success (2002), World Wide Web Marketing: Integrating the Web into Your Marketing Strategy (3rd ed., 2001), Email Marketing: Using Email to Reach Your Target Audience and Build Customer Relationships (2000), Customer Service on the Internet: Building Relationships, Increasing Loyalty, and Staying Competitive (2nd ed. 2000), Advertising on the Web (1997)
- LinkedIn: jimsterne
- Twitter: @JimSterne
Thanks, Jim.
Happy Marketing,
Heidi Cohen
Heidi Cohen is the President of Riverside Marketing Strategies.You can find Heidi on Google+, Facebook and Twitter.
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