Seth Godin's Top Ten for Business Laggards

Is your business running on all cylinders in terms of new media? If so, you can bypass this one.

Author and internet übermarketer Seth Godin has written up an intriguing list of ten recommendations for businesses (and organizations or clients) that are web laggards. (It's the sick who need a doctor, right?) Those who qualify have:

- No real website
- No social media
- No permission assets
- No real cash

All ten of them are good, but these are my favorites:

- Use gmail to give every person in the organization that can read English an email address.
- Start an email newsletter using Mad Mimi or Mail Chimp. Give the responsibility for the newsletter's creation and performance to one person and offer them a bonus if they exceed metrics in sign ups and in reducing churn.
- Offer a small bonus to anyone in the company who starts and runs a blog on any topic. Have them link to your company site, with an explanation that while they work there, they don't speak for you.
- Start a newsletter for your vendors. Email them regular updates about what you're doing, what's selling and what problems are going on internally that they might be able to help you with.
- Get a white board and put it in the break room. On it, have someone update: how many people subscribe to the newsletter, how many people visit the website, how many inbound requests come in by phone, how long it takes customer service to answer an email and how often your brand names are showing up on Twitter every day.

Here's a link to the rest.

Thanks, Seth.

It stands to reason

If you're working for a monolithic, impersonal, quota-driven organization in these tough economic times, you're aware of the extra scrutiny people doing the "real selling" give to those applying the "marketing spin."  Being under the loop makes it all the more important to stay above the fray, far from the madding crowd and be the voice of discreet but genuine candidness.

Seth Godin (All Marketers Are Liars) does this on a regular basis. So does fellow New Yorker and Pulitzer Prize winner Charles Krauthammer, whom I had the pleasure of meeting in person recently.  No matter which candidate you're voting for next week, Charles has a knack for saying it like it is.  He does it again in last Friday's Washington Post. 

A Big Little Book from Seth Godin

Do you remember Big Little books when you were a kid? I must have had twenty or thirty of them (Gentle Ben, Johnny Quest,...) and dog-eared the pages on every one. There's something handy about a pocket-sized version of a good book.

Seth Godin's new book, The Dip is "a little book that teaches you when to quit (and when to stick)," although it would require a hip-hop size pocket in your britches.

The house was packed this morning for Seth's Chicago installment of the book tour at Maggiano's. The point of Seth's presentation, although he says it's not meant to be motivational, is to encourage you that the "dips" you find yourself in from time to time may be cul-de-sacs where you need to recognize a lack of potential, but more often are setbacks that real visionary success doesn't often come without.

For example, Seth predicts the Zune's failure for not doing what something with real vision, something that's worth the investment of sticking through the dips, does - being the best in the world. It's objective is to be an iPod challenger, but not to be the best. Microsoft is destined for a cul-de-sac on this one, even with the new Halo-3 version.

So pick something you can be the best in the world at and stick to it and work through the dips. Good advice from someone who's the best in the world at writing powerful big-little books on marketing!

Who Is Steven Furtick?

Albert Einstein said the thing he wondered most was, "Is the universe friendly?"

Lately people are wondering why Britney shaved her head, why Brad Delp committed suicide with a note on his shirt about being a "lonely soul," who Anna Nicole Smith's child's father is, and why so many successful people are in rehab.

According to today's blog engine list on Technorati, people are wondering, "Who is Steven Furtick and why is he beating out typical #1 topics like Twitter at the top of the Technorati list? You may be surprised to learn he's the pastor of a church called Elevation in North Carolina who reads Seth Godin's marketing blog among others. Steven's gotten "addicted" to Technorati in the last couple weeks and now that he's at the top, you guessed it, he's in rehab (from Technorati that is).

And then some people, like Paris Hilton (#7 on the list), aren't wondering anything.

Congratulations and best wishes for a happy Easter Steven!

What's After What's Next?

Now that collaboration tools like wikis and widgets of Web 2.0 are established enough for business software companies like SAP and IBM to steer applications in their direction, it's time to think about what might be next.

Predicting the future can be a tough gig. (Even when you know the teams.)
Looking past the shift to collaborative content, what's in the next version of the internet? Or what about Web 4.0? Perhaps it's something as Seth Godin suggests that taps you on the shoulder.

Boost's "loopt" is already heading this direction with cell phones. When you're within range of someone in your network, your phone tells you. It can also recommend (or not) a place for dinner based on your network's comments. Prescient or Citroen? Only time will tell.