If you have an idea and you keep it to yourself, it is most likely going to die in a sea of distraction, busyness, and contrasting opportunities.
If you have an idea and you share it with someone, it might still die, but it might also grow stronger and find a sounding board.
If you have an idea and you make it public, it will stick around and eventually find its way to those who care.
Everyone can do marketing.
It’s something most marketers have heard at one point or another of their career.
Of course, what that means is that everybody can do marketing tactics. Or even better, everybody can think of marketing tactics.
Because marketing tactics are intuitive and they are something we are exposed to (as consumers) every single day.
Where marketers can get a real edge, though, is using those tactics within the framework of a marketing strategy that fits the specific market. And do that consistently and over time, measuring results and getting better.
That’s not something everyone can do. It is actually something most people struggle to wrap their minds around.
You might think about it this ways.
On one side, you have the day when you just open the fridge, pick whatever it is that is in there, and try to organize some decent food for you lunch.
On the other side, you have the day when you plan your meal, you do grocery shopping accordingly, you follow a recipe a dear friend shared, and you end up with exactly the dish you wanted to eat.
I know which one I prefer.
It did not work.
Ok, but how long did you try? Was it ten minutes, two weeks, three months, one year?
People are not always immediately ready to respond to whatever it is you have on offer that will change their lives (for the better). Patience and perseverance are as important as ideation and execution.
Google’s mission was to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful. Today, 81.3% of their revenue comes from advertising, which admittedly has little to do with making information universally accessible.
Facebook’s mission was to give people the power to build community and bring the world closer together. Today, 97.7% of their revenue comes from advertising, which admittedly has little to do with giving people the power to build community or bringing the world closer together.
If you don’t measure the right things, it’s very easy to end up in a very different place from the one you initially had in mind.
Should you use social media to give away value or to drive traffic to one of your properties?
Marketers are so resistant to the idea of using social media to establish brand and reputation (i.e., give away value, with no direct measurement), and therefore companies often end up with marginal distribution (social media don’t like that you drive traffic away from the platform) and engagement (people don’t like to be driven away from whatever platform they are using).
This is a fantastic thread on the matter.. by somebody who has established their brand and reputation consistently giving away value.
You've got this 