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.

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.

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!)

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?

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.

“I agree and disagree. You only get as much out of an experience as you put into it…

Even if you have a McJob, try and do something innovative; if you see an inefficiency or a problem come up with a solution and present it to your manager. You never know what could happen.

Bottom Line:

Sometimes you have to get a McJob; Do your best and try to create a valuable experience for yourself.”

- Daniel Axler, TalentEgg’s operations and client services manager on Why I’m avoiding fast food jobs at all costs

My dad and I were having a conversation recently about what I want to do in my future and he was telling how my current state determines my future, but at the same time, it doesn’t.

He worked lots of odd jobs and did a lot of things that were irrelevant to his career but they were the building blocks to his future. They showed his determination and integrity, and even though it wasn’t related and wouldn’t help him in his future, it eventually paid big dividends in his life.

Right now, things are not as important as they seem and you should not be afraid to change; you are not a politician so no one will condemn you for it. What you are doing today does not determine your future.

What you MAKE of today does.

Chris Anderson of Wired didn’t start in business but moved into it from a background of science. Andreas Duess of Fisheye would not be in marketing if he never took an internship at a marketing firm.

What have we learned?

1. Our past does not matter as much as we once thought.
2. Any and all experience is relevant. (To a point)

My challenge to you:

Learn about something that is (seemingly) unrelated to your field of study or work and see how you can apply to what you are doing right now.

Connect with some unusual people and try something new because you will never know how you can use it in your future.

If you think reading books, blogs and following news only in your industry of interest will give you and advantage and be able to think better, you are wrong. You will be inside the box and reading the same thing as everyone else.

Put your feet in someone else shoes and step outside of your comfort zone.

One of my classes called The Modern Age: Shapers and Definers has been tackling what Modernity is and what it is not and what this means for us. Ironically enough our study of the ‘Modern Age’ started in the 1650′s. (Looking at our past shows us our future so I am going some where with this). Our first (of fifteen!) books is, On Crimes and Punishment by Cesare Beccaria and translated by David Young, is really interesting read on how law and freedom should coexist.

My favourite quote from the text comes near the end of the treatise where he says, “The evils that come from knowledge decline with its diffusion…”.

Just as this quote was true in 1764 its relevancy has only become amplified in the Digital age that we now live in where both the access and quality of information that we have at our fingertips has dramatically increased.

The top-down system of the past in areas such as information, media and thought are no longer true. We live in a time know that many have dubbed a ‘knowledge economy’ where knowledge is abundant and readily available to all those that seek it.

Large institutions and organizations of the TV industrial complex have less power and less control than they use to. The difference between those in power and those that are not is empowerment. Some one or some thing has empowered them.

Knowledge is power.

This ‘diffusion’ of knowledge has empowered everyone.

Everyone can, and should, share their knowledge and anyone can go and find knowledge. You now have no excuse for ignorance and no excuse for not gathering all the facts and making your own interpretations. Beccaria wanted people to think rationally for them-self and challenge what they have been taught all their life.

Now the business applications.

1. Make a great product. (People do not talk about average things)

2. Teach and empower people with your knowledge. (Knowledge, NOT information about you, your product or company because no one cares about you.)

3. Encourage people to share their knowledge. (You cannot tell people what to do with this power because they are self-interested, so make you share in THEIR best interests)

Knowledge and the Internet has turned the gravity that forces information down upon us has been turned off.