I Have Officially Moved My Blog

I have officially moved my blog over to posterous.
I have went from tumblr, blogger, wordpress and now posterous.
I have commitment issues.
Hopefully it last this time. I am looking to add a lot of different types of media and I find it easier to just use Posterous as it is better for that type of stuff. Everything from short Twitter like thoughts to pictures, videos and blog posts. We’ll see how this goes.
I AM NOW HERE

What A Prediction

For centuries a small number of writers were confronted by many thousands of readers.

This changed toward the end of the last century.

With the increasing extension of the press, which kept placing new political, religious, scientific, professional, and local organs before the readers, an increasing number of readers became writers – at first, occasional ones. It began with the daily press opening to its readers space for “letters to the editor.” And today there is hardly a gainfully employed European who could not, in principle, find an opportunity to publish somewhere or other comments on his work, grievances, documentary reports, or that sort of thing. Thus, the distinction between author and public is about to lose its basic character. The difference becomes merely functional; it may vary from case to case. At any moment the reader is ready to turn into a writer.

As expert, which he had to become willy-nilly in an extremely specialized work process, even if only in some minor respect, the reader gains access to authorship. In the Soviet Union work itself is given a voice. To present it verbally is part of a man’s ability to perform the work. Literary license is now founded on polytechnic rather than specialized training and thus becomes common property.

Walter Benjamin, 1936

Wow.

Consumers Are Dead.

Consumers do not exists anymore. They’re extinct. Dead. Gone.
Well, actually, they have just EVOLVED.

You are on the internet reading blog, on Twitter and most of all getting informed. WE Google before we buy, read reviews and talk. Once we make a purchase we respond. We blog, Twitter, write reviews and recommend to our friends. We can make comments and get responses from company representatives and we can even become fanboy’s.

We do not consume. We interact. We are interactionists.

So why does this demeaning word still exist?

That old style thinking of find, control and solicit marketing is still too prevalent. We still think people fit nicely into segments and if we build it they will come.

We are not like that anymore. We want participate and be heard. Now we listen, talk and interact with brands and with eachother.

Stop referring to us as consumers. We are interactionists.

They Aren’t Who We Thought They Were

I just finished reading The Long Tail by Chris Anderson (This is an old draft) and I am big fans of both the book and the writer. Like most business books I have read to date the beginning and the end are the meat of the book, but I am someone who appreciates the nitty-gritty details of the middle.

Aside from the obvious topics that Mr. Anderson (Matrix Fans?) covered in the book the thing that stood out to me, and a trend that I am finding in my own life, is that not only are people moving towards more niches but more diverse unrelated niches. People are not who you think they are.

Let me explain. People that listen to single genre of music, let’s go broad and just say jazz. Just because someone listens to jazz does not mean that their iPod cannot be loaded up with U2. This can be applied to other industries and sub-genres but I decided to keep it generic.

I may enjoy one particular niche category but that does not mean I do not enjoy other genres. The problem lies in exposure. We are now all grouped in smaller boxes sheltered from what we do not know. The internet, however, breaks down these walls even further where I am no longer only exposed to a single sub-genre but to many unrelated categories all of which I may enjoy. You can no longer judge a consumer from a single product.

People who associated with like minded individuals almost never learn and never expand. It is why we love traveling, and why exotic and rare things are so sought after. It is because things that are not like us are just as intriguing.

People are complex and you may never fully understand your consumer. But do not box them in and assume anything. Do not box yourself in either, try a new restaurant or a new band, you might like them!

This type of diversity should be encouraged and stereotypes and raw assumptions should be cut out of our thinking and language.

If the future of business is collaborative and participatory we have to be ready to meet all kinds of people with outrageous ideas that cannot be shunned. It is reason like this why marketers are reaching out to psychologist, designers and writers; they all offer a unique perspective. No one is who you think they are.

This forces business to actually get to know the people that interact with their brand. (Not consumers, interactionists. More on that in another post.)

Likelihood of this actually occurring is low but it is happening more frequently than ever before.

I listen Flyleaf, T.I., Shekinah Glory and many other bands and sub-genres that are completely unrelated just because i like them and Youtube helped me find them.

(I had to do it again!)

Itay Talgram: On Leadership

*Aggressive Patience

I know aggressive patience sounds like a bit of contradiction but it is actually a better way of being patience and allows you to effectively (and productively) wait for what you want.

There is a personal matter that I was waiting to be resolved and I was basically waiting for a solution to fall from sky so I can move forward. However, after a conversation with a friend I realized that this is the wrong way to go about things.

I need to be setting myself up for the outcome I want right now. Best case scenario.

The reason why worst case scenario does not matter is because you have no choice but to continue what you were doing before. If you did not have a job you still will not have one. If you did not get the funding or investment, you never had it before anyways. You have no choice but to continue doing what you were doing before.

However, if best case scenario happens to be the result you have to be ready to change. Change is what you must be prepared for.

I am not yet ready but I am still working towards it.

You have dreams, desires and goals but are you setting yourself up for them right now? Are you ready if it were to happen tomorrow? Do you know what it will take?

Today and this week you should be working towards answering those questions. Not only knowing what it will take but equipping yourself for with those things. The world that we live expects more from you then ever before. You should be going above and beyond.

Success is where opportunity and preparedness meet.

Are you prepared?
Are you aggressively patience?

That is what I learned this week. What did you?

This Is Content, Not An Ad.

There was a lot of talk on Twitter about sponsored blog posts and FTC rules that got the blogosphere all in a tizzy about what may happen. I am here to say that: We are worried about the wrong things.

There should be rules about sponsored blog post because it is ‘advertising,’ but I think it should be publicity.

Let’s take Twitip for instance.

If I write a book about Twitter, that book should be good enough, and have enough value that Darren Rowse is compelled to tell his community about it because he knows they will love it.

“You can’t afford what you can get for free.”

Bloggers should charge so much for a sponsored post that it is better for the business to just make the product better. If I have a community you are trying to reach I should want to talk about you, not forced to.

What I write is valuable content, not an advertisement or an advertorial.

The best marketing is none at all. The best marketing is when the product is so remarkable that people are compelled to talk about it, they are compelled to share it. Great products build communities, not consumer segments.

We should not have sponsored post because we should not need them.

That is the difference between publicity and advertising. For bloggers, the difference between being trusted or resented because your community feels used because you put you before them.

Everyone wins.