For a number of reasons 2010 has been a woeful year for my health and maintaining regular blog posts has been difficult. For anyone who struggles to keep on top of their social media output, be aware that it’s a job. You need to allocate the time to maintain consistency. If you don’t have a lot of time, allocate as large a block as you’re able and schedule your posts/tweets/status updates. It’s a small, obvious thing to do that will make a huge difference.
Earlier this year I wrote a post about being a transitionist and my dislike for the so-called business profession of futurism. Here it is again:
I can’t claim to have invented the word ‘transitionist’, but I’m going to try to make its usage more common.
I’m tired of so-called futurists espousing how the creative industries need to conduct their business in the 21st century, rather than actually explaining the means by which gigantic corporations should transition their businesses from offline to online models.
This is a big step for me. I used to consider myself a futurist. I even successfully predicted a range of music industry trends well ahead of the curve:
- Major record labels moving to all-inclusive investment models (they call them 360° deals) — predicted in 2002. The majors started moving in this direction around 2006/07 and made public pronouncements in 2008.
- Apple controlling digital distribution, exercising pricing control and unbundling the album format, precipitating a consumer move to buying singles — predicted in 2002. The majors realised too late that their business model had been fundamentally undone, and then waged a public PR campaign against Apple in an attempt to introduce variable pricing, which occurred in (get this) 2009. The sale of singles on iTunes has been on a per unit decline since …
- Talent managers, if they played their cards right, would inherit the music business — predicted in 2003. This one is yet to play out fully as most managers still look to record labels to finance their deals. However, it is safe to say Irving Azoff (via Front Line Management and Ticketmaster) exercises significant control in the North American music biz (lots of people will disagree, but they’re in denial).
And that’s just three of many …
Let me tell you, working out what was going to happen was easy. But my predictions don’t include transitional solutions: that’s difficult.
Yes, book publishers need to move to new distribution methodologies, production workflows and pricing models. Yes, authors need to integrate collaborative technologies into their writing ‘workflow’. But how do we as an industry achieve this without destroying 99% of our current revenues? The answer is that we don’t. We can’t. We need to transition our industry from a model that worked for a very long time to a new one that will undoubtedly serve us well into the future.
That’s why I say ‘futurists be damned’. It’s easy — if I can do it, anyone can. We need transitionists. Count me in!
Facebook friends. Twitter followers. Neither guarantee you’ve got a fan, that someone who will invest cold hard cash in your business.
You might have lots of friends, but how many are actually customers?
There’s so much information around nowadays that I ignore most of it. I’m not alone. There are very few non-business emails I receive that I actually read. Again, I’m not alone.
There are only two people on my current list for whom I will stop what I am doing and read: Seth Godin (who sends a daily email) and Jason Calacanis (who sends an irregular but lengthy email). Sensible people have a similarly small list.
This from Seth Godin:
As digital marketers seek to increase profits, they almost always make the same mistake. They continue to add more clutter, messaging and offers, because, hey, it’s free.
Once you overload the user, you train them not to pay attention. More clutter isn’t free. In fact, more clutter is a permanent shift, a desensitization to all the information, not just the last bit.
More is not always better. In fact, more is almost never better.
If you’re using social media it is tempting to ratchet up the quantity. If you really want to be a tastemaker, or information curator as some bods like to be known, how about focusing on the quality? I’m far more likely to listen, which means I’m far more likely to be engaged in what you have to say.
If one of the biggest and most successful tech companies in the world gets its presentations wrong from time-to-time, why not cut yourself a little slack?
I’ve been away unwell. Back on deck. Must try to get more posts in the queue.
Techcrunch noted in a recent post that the US Patent Office had approved a trademark application by Facebook on the word “face”.
Working in the creative industries as I do the one thing that constantly amazes me is how few participants understand the central economic principles of their industry: IP. Unique trading names go un-trademarked, processes without patents, brand equity not well managed (if at all).
Those who protect their work control their work.
Seth Godin is running a very limited publishing event in New York early 2011. At $650 it’s not inexpensive but it looks like great value.
The new dynamics of book publishing, a practicum with Seth Godin.
Copyright law has abandoned its reason for being: to encourage learning and the creation of new works. Instead, its principal functions now are to preserve existing failed business models, to suppress new business models and technologies, and to obtain, if possible, enormous windfall profits from activity that not only causes no harm, but which is beneficial to copyright owners. Like Humpty-Dumpty, the copyright law we used to know can never be put back together again: multilateral and trade agreements have ensured that, and quite deliberately.
— Bill Patry
I’m not always on the same page as marketing guru Seth Godin, but I am always challenged by his writing. If you’re the type of businessperson looking to transform your thinking about how you engage your audience you really should subscribe to his list. An email a day, seven days a week.
Our normal approach is useless here.
Perhaps this can be our new rallying cry.
If it’s a new problem, perhaps it demands a new approach. If it’s an old problem, it certainly does.
And if you’ve read his book Linchpin you might like to attend one of his global Linchpins are everywhere events on December 7.