We are efficient and machine-like now to a fault. Is it no wonder we (me, you, your customers) want CONNECTION and MEANING. We are so thirsty we will drink the sand if we think doing so will remove the boilerplate, the templae, the least common denominator, the petty, the small and the uninspired.
We want GREAT and great always implies human fraility, failure and redemption. No one gets GREAT Free or Easy.
Put On the Beret, Clinch the Fist and REVOLT
I love the linked article's feisty "pick a fight" attitude. I also agree that we've lost our way. I'm reading Seth Godin's new book The Icarus Deception and Seth doesn't mince words with how lost we've become.
The irony of having so many "phone home" tools such as social media marketing and becoming even more distant isn't lost on me :). We featured The Great Social Customer Service Study a few weeks ago on Atlantic BT's Blog and the results to Tweets for help were miserable by most major brands.
There are secrets in Seth's book including:
* YOU are the most important "product" you sell.
* YOU are exposed warts and all the time now.
* YOU are in control.
YOU in the bullets above could be your personal brand or the work you do for your company. Your humanity, expressed in real and flawed ways, is what matters now. Greatness is required and only available to those willing to risk, fail and risk more to earn the AWESOME badge.
Internet marketing will beat the perfectionism out of you.
No one can afford perfection's tyranny in their Internet marketing. Sistine Chapel an Internet marketing effort and you lose. To "Sistine Chapel" means you take too much time and become obsessed with every detail.
Create Sistine Chapels and you end up with beautiful chapels no one ever sees because, while you were busy creating perfection, competitors scaled and are now beating you senseless.
The other day I explained the conundrum as, "As perfect as we can be NOW," as a way of defining an Internet marketer's philosophy. You must create great stuff FAST.
The loop back to the REVOLT article linked here is it is impossible to cost reduce your way to greatness. IMPOSSIBLE. Greatness in Internet marketing comes from having the courage to fail, learn and fail bigger.
And the only species willing to do such an incongruous thing is humans. When we do the crazy thing (fail, learn, fail bigger) we express our humanity and THAT is what creates connection in this crazy web world.
Join the HUMANITY Revolt!