I found this video, below, made by Shawn Collins (who I've met a few times) pretty funny; it would have been even funnier is he'd been just a little better with his lines - but I like the parody of Seth Godin (who I've also met briefly).
Funny thing - but the scene with Jason Calacanis at LeWeb3 - I was there, sitting right behind the camera that took that footage (and right behind Robert Scoble, too).
I liked Seth Godin's post today on Blogs and self promotion as it clears up a question I've had - what's more effective..self promotion or having others promote you? Seth Godin provides a convincing argument of having one's work and name promoted by other bloggers is much more effective to sell works than an author (or artist) promoting themselves. It's also possible to pull in Viral Marketing and apply it to Seth Godin's post about Blogs and self promotion:
"…Clearly, just about everyone who reads my blog enjoys my writing. You'd think that a significant percentage would then hustle over to buy a copy on Amazon the moment they heard about it. But, just as Oprah is at her best when she's talking about somebody else's book, something funny happens when a blogger talks about his work.
Cory and Mark both have terrific books out. And as co-editors on the world's most popular blog, you'd think that they could use boingboing to sell a ton of books. But it doesn't happen. Lucky for bloggers, if you write a good book, a few other bloggers will write about you and then the sales start happening.
That example came to mind today when a friend of mine told me her work was being promoted on a French Blog and I wrote about it in Amy Crehore Slide show by a French Fan. I looked at the slide show and decided I liked it enough and put it on my own Art Blog …. I imagine other people might do the same thing … Fans.
But here's the thing - I think having Fans is a sign of success - some people think you can manufacture Fandom, but I don't think you can, at least, not that effectively.
When you have people, spontaneously, often unconnected, talking about work they admire, that's genuine - it's a sign of quality….and i think, that kind of Fandom and Emulation does more to boost one's reputation, one's trust, than anything else.
Now, can that lift to one's reputation be measured? Absolutely, it's doable. Fandom is measurable and one way to measure success, is to observe what happens as a result of having fans vs. were none to exist. What happens as a result of having a Slide Video Show embedded in several blogs vs. not having it?
Gee, can I get one made for me…. how'd he do it? There's actually a Seth Godin Action Figure …as mentioned in Hey kids! It's finally here… on Seth's blog.
I hope, in 2008 we have the capability (it probably exists already) for anyone to have an action of themselves, or some significant other, made in lots of 100, 1000, etc. Here's what Seth Godin wrote:
Yes, the Seth Godin Action Figure, with built-in Brandomatic® and PurplePower® is finally ready and you can be the first on your block to have one.
IMPRESS the Harvard MBA down the hall! VANQUISH low-cost imports and cost-cutting impostors! DOMINATE emerging markets! FLOOD your site with web traffic! DEMONSTRATE a sense of humor!
Not only that, it makes a great paperweight.
Seth closes out the post with this:
"….Need an idea? Rub my head.
And here's the best thing: It only costs $9. Which is like 30 cents for people with euros.
And an even better thing! All my proceeds, every penny, go to the Acumen Fund. Not suitable for children under three or for cynics.
Full disclosure: They only did me because David Sedaris turned them down and Steve Jobs, who occasionally has better judgment than me, wouldn't even consider the idea. Who's next? Michael Crichton is too tall (plastic costs too much), so I'm hoping for Malcolm Gladwell."
“..Use it as an internal diary, a way of tracking each day so that a month or a year from now, you can look back at where you were and how you dealt with the issue of the day. Even if no one else on your team reads your blog, the act of creating it will be worthwhile.”
Outside of a security issue (someone hacking into the blog) it seems like a good idea, as long as the content can really not be accessed by anyone else.I enjoy posting my thoughts about Web Analytics here but it might be that some good content, dreams even, come to us that don’t belong in public blogs but should be in a journal – an online Journal that only the writer can read.
What I like about the idea is you can post ideas and perceptions to the blog from pretty much anywhere you are, as along as you have an internet connection.
Can relate to Seth Godin's post on Permeability because I see it around me all the time at work. The higher up managers go, the more removed they are from the actual stuff people do who work for them.
"…Years ago, I took a friend to a chicken slaughterhouse in the Bronx. You pick a chicken, they bring it into the back room and bring you back fresh chicken parts. The thing you notice when you are walking to the car is that the bag is warm. A little different from the supermarket. Something you never forget, actually.
That's how most CEOs and top managers make decisions. Not based on unemotional data, but on emotion-rich, experience-based stories. And if management isn't permeable to the outside world, the whole organization is going to suffer, isn't it?"
But in most large corporations - the decisions are made in a very depersonalized way and while the lower level managers, who are familiar with more of the details of their groups, impalement (decide who is going to stay/go).
Posted by Marshall on September 16, 2007 | Link It
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I just got done reading Sweet spot marketing in Seth Godin's blog and was thinking about the Sweet Spot as being synonymous with doing you own thing, or "following your bliss", whatever.
"…My point isn't that you shouldn't try to get these middlemen to broaden their horizons or to give up on something you're passionate about. It's just that it might be easier to build a new sweet spot than it is to persuade an established middleman to change his rules for you."
I guess my mind is jetting back 150 years to the French situation in painting; as I recall, Manet and a bunch of other artists were banned from the French Salon….and instead of trying to change the Salon, they ended up, with help of the French Emperor, Napoleon III, of having their own Salon of the Refused. Eventually, the French painters of that time had created their own schools of painting and being accepted by the French Salon, became almost irrelevant.
My feeling is that people succeed because they are "plugged in" to their dream and they follow their bliss, they don't try to make the New York Times like them, if it's not their inclination to, as Seth notes:
"…If you want to get reviewed by the New York Times Book Review, don't even consider self-publishing. Don't write a how to book. Don't write something particularly funny, either. But it sure helps to be published by Knopf. Literary fiction by respected writers published by Knopf is the sweet spot (history comes in a close second)."
Right, follow gut feelings and if your plugged in ….. end up as someone's Sweet Spot eventually.
Social Networks don't work when you invite everyone to the party
the Web is a lousy marketing medium if your just shouting at everyone
Building relationships is Web 2.0; it's the relationships that lead to value, customer satisfaction, engagement and sales down the line
Social Networks don't work when everyone can join; that's why I like what I did with the little white label social network I built for my committee at the Web Analytics Association - if I did it on Facebook it would have been much harder to make it focused. Seth thinks that Social Networks grow fast and Die fast. I also think a Social Network just for just the Web Analytics Association members is a good idea.
I also like how Seth Godin mentions the Web is a lousy marketing medium, the worst, if you just trying to get people's attention as they can also tune you out - which is what has happened.
Finally, I like the idea that building relationships is what web 2.0 is all about - and were value is being built (get you fans to blog and talk about you).
All and all, a good video which I can't seem to embed here (weird, I have no problem embedding YouTube videos, but Google Videos are rough to embed in Movable Type now…I wonder that happened - I used to be able to do it last year).
I don't believe that marketing will fix hundreds of billions of dollars (perhaps a Trillion Dollars worth) of almost worthless ARM Subprime Mortgage Securities that no one now wants to trade or buy?
I like the idea - but it's one thing to apply it to a Ferrari that people aren't defaulting on (in huge numbers) and a housing market where the value of the house is going to go down in California but close to 30%, adjusting for inflation.
"…The shared belief about real estate might be in danger. The facts changed this month for the first time. The question that those that market real estate have to answer is this: will people treat a bounce in real estate the way that they think about a drop in the stock market (a chance to profit) or will it lead to a long-term reevaluation of what it means to own a house?
It's interesting to note that insurance on a Ferrari isn't as expensive as you think. That's because fixing a million dollar Ferrari doesn't cost nearly a million dollars. It's the serial number that you're buying–the right to sell that car later for a profit."
I believe there's a role for real estate marketing - to make sure people still see the value of owning a home (it appreciates in value …even if it does go down somewhat over the next 3-6 years) but it's hardly the solution to a much more complex problem - what are we going to do with all those worthless securities or the glut in real estate that now exists?
It's not like there's 50,000 more Ferrari cars than buyers for them - or the Ferrari value is going down daily because those who have Ferrari's took out loans whose interest appreciated too quickly for them to make monthly payments on it.
So, the idea is good, but how does the Real Estate Marketer make sure people think the houses are still a sure security blanket when ……more and more evidence is being produced to show they're not.
In every age, in every situation, only a few people stand out - that's probably always going to be true. What you have to do to "stand out" or "stand apart" will differ, depending on the time you live in and the situation your in.
I've known that for most of my life and what it took to stand out, say …. in the Paris Salon of 1830 vs. The Whitney Biennial in 2006- (two examples) is totally different; but only a few will stand out and that never changes.
And then there is a long tail - of really good content - and then after that … The Longest Tail … the one where it's impossible to evaluate the quality of what your looking at because there's no frame of reference.
Seth Godin writes how hard it is to evaluate Music CD's when there's no frame of reference in his The longest tail post. Here's the entire post:
"..I stopped by a garage sale today. The guy had thousands of CDs, most of them in their wrappers. $3 each. I was excited.
Two boxes in, I felt like I was in a different universe. Every single artist was someone I had never heard of. After 25 years of buying CDs (a lot of CDs) I had come face to face with a huge Dip. It's almost impossible to buy music with no frame of reference. There were no hits, no recommendations, no "if you like x, you'll like y". I realized that the time it would take to decide if I liked an album was probably worth more than the $3 it would cost to buy one–in other words, not even worth it for 'free.'
Musicians, bloggers, writers–if you're toiling in the long tail, getting stuck at zero is now a real possibility. Being just like the other guys but trying harder is less of an effective strategy than ever before.
The end result of the Long Tail is a lot of content that's too difficult to categorize - and as Seth Godin points out - being stuck at "virtual zero" is a very real possibility.
That's why I believe in standing apart - I try to get my clients to do the same thing.
And as far as being stuck at Virtual Zero and the end of the Longest Tail - I'd say that happens when people are not in any way extraordinary - or at least, not able to manifest it in a way that works in their careers.
"..It would help if that person understood technology, at least well enough to know what it could do. They would need to be able to write. But they also have to be able to seduce stragglers into joining the group in the first place, so they have to be able to understand a marketplace, do outbound selling and non-electronic communications. They have to be able to balance huge amounts of inbound correspondence without making people feel left out, and they have to be able to walk the fine line between rejecting trolls and alienating the good guys.
Since there's no rule book, it would help to be willing to try new things, to be self-starting and obsessed with measurement as well.
If you were great at this, I'd imagine you'd never ever have trouble finding good work."
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