I’m not a particularly visual person — I much prefer words to pictures — but even I can see there are times when a picture is indeed worth a thousand of my beloved words.
And yesterday was one of those times — some marketing cretin on LinkedIn writing about his fucking “new paradigm” for marketing. While the precise details escape me (which shows you how fucking inane he was), I seem to recall it was something to do with building relationships on Social Media.
My response?
The eye-roll emoticon, because brevity is beautiful, and that summed it all up perfectly.
It’s highly unlikely there’s any shocking new paradigm in marketing sitting there waiting to be discovered.
Why?
Because of how we’ve evolved and how we relate to one another has evolved with us. Cockwomble marketers are fond of raising the flag of the latest new bright shiny platform and claiming it’s a “new way” of marketing…
… but it never is.
A new platform, a new technology, a new channel, whatever… they’re all just communications channels allowing us to perform the timeless dance of seduction with the same old messages and motivations.
Why can’t these people see this?
Because they’re ignorant, stupid, or plain dishonest, is my best guess.
Yesterday, on the podcast I was a guest on, I used a phrase I don’t recall ever using before myself: grass roots marketing.
But it was accurate, because that’s exactly what the Ground Zero initiative is about at its core.
Sure, we’ll share with you how to use the tactical new-fangled platforms as part of your strategy, but we’ll never let you make the mistake of confusing and conflating the two.
And if you don’t grok what that means, then Ground Zero is gonna be right up your high-street; and if you grok what it means but can’t see how important it is… then it’s gonna be like intensive care for your biz… and you need it, no question.
Click here for Ground Zero details
Witheringly,
P.S. I was reminded of a quote this morning. The timing was perfect because I’ve been a tad stressed these last fews days.
“You’re a ghost driving a meat coated skeleton made from stardust. What do you have to be afraid of?”
Indeed. It nicely sums up Seneca’s Stoic view of dealing with adversity: “Draw further back and laugh”.
Meaning, if you step back far enough, everything and anything can become absurd and hilarious, and what seems like life and death today will be ridiculous tomorrow (even if we remember it).
Anyway… those are just philosophical ramblings apropos nothing of consequence to anyone but me, I guess.
Although you’ll do well to remember while the discomfort you’ll feel doing all the shit you need to do to revolutionise your business is enough to give you the willies right now…
… when it’s all behind you and you’re revelling in the results (and spending the money on drugs ’n’ hookers), you’ll wonder what the fuck you were worried about.