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That's the current motto of the folks over at Motrin. There's been a ton of buzz the last two days about a botched ad campaign they ran, but this post isn't really about that. ...
I had lunch (a big lunch) with a college student last week. An hour later, she got up and announced she was going to get a snack. Apparently, she was hungry.
By any traditional definition ...
Dozens of volunteers, working together, put together this ebook:
Download TribesQA.pdf
Yours to share or print or email, but please don't sell it or change it.
Not only is ...
If not, what are you doing about it?
If so, who do you think you're kidding?
[Interesting side alley: I was talking to a friend yesterday and encouraged her to speak at an upcoming conference. She ...
Scott reminded me of this post today.
If you've been waiting for an opportunity, this might just be the opportunity you've been waiting for.
Every one of them leads a tribe.
Boingboing readers recognize each other at conferences. We use the same shorthand, we recognize the same memes. Huffingtonpost editors don't try to reach everyone. Instead, ...
You probably don't need to read this, but I bet you know people who do. Please feel free to repost or forward:
Times are tough, and many say they are going to be tougher. That ...
Rama wrote in and asked why I mentioned this. What's so hard about selling advertising to bar owners, and what can we learn from that?
My answer:
1. they're not eager to buy new stuff ...
Number one rule for avoiding alligator attacks:
Don't swim in bodies of water containing large alligators.
Of course, sometimes the thing you want is on the other side ...
Traditional job requirements: show up, sober. Listen to the boss, lift heavy objects.
Here's what I'd want if I were hiring a marketer:
You're relentlessly positive. You can visualize complex projects and imagine alternative possible outcomes. ...
What can you assume about your audience?
If you’re running a commercial, sending out a sales letter, making a presentation--what have they seen? What do they know?
A hundred years ago, when people when to see ...
One of the best lines of Animal House, sanitized here for your enjoyment: "You screwed up. You trusted me."
In a world where everyone owns a media channel, I guess that makes us all journalists. ...
Every company that works online today ought to consider hiring three amazing people to lead these projects:
COMMUNITY ORGANIZER. Find and connect and lead a tribe of dedicated users that contribute to and benefit from ...
This map from the New York Times is eye opening.
It shows the counties that recorded an increase in Republican voting. That is, counties with more Republican ...
Doing 4% less does not get you 4% less.
Doing 4% less may very well get you 95% less.
That's because almost good enough gets you nowhere. No sales, no votes, no customers. The sad lie ...
Most hiring managers don't understand organizations that go to extraordinary lengths to find and retain amazing people. And from their point of view, they're completely correct. Pay market wage, run a classified, process the ...
Your customers and employees and investors will remember how you treated them when times were tough, when they needed a break, when a little support meant everything.
No one in particular will remember how you ...
The polls open in a few minutes, and unlike pundits that wait until after the polls have closed, I thought I'd do the opposite. It's obvious that this is the most talked about election ...
Micah points us to the Twitter Vote Report.
If you see something, say something.
The transformation of communication is real, it's permanent and it's more powerful than most of us notice.
Most knowledge workers spend their day doing one of three things:
React (badly) to external situations
Respond (well) to external inputs
Initiate new events or ideas
Zig taught me the difference between the first two. When you ...
Wealth is not created by financial manipulation, the trading of equities or the financing of banks. They just enable it.
Wealth is created by productivity. Productive communities generate more of value.
Productivity comes from innovation.
Innovation comes ...
"He can't be a man because he doesn't smoke [syncopated pause] the same cigarette as me."
When your product becomes the badge for a tribe, you sell a lot of products. The Stones don't mean ...
They give a buck. You can give some too.
"You are right. I screwed up. I'm sorry."
It goes a long way.
Default: when designing a website, make every single button the same size, unless there's a really really good reason.
This is actually a bad foundation for designing a ...
Actual conversation at a local shoe store: "Do you have dress shoes in a size 6?"
"No, I'm sorry we don't."
"We're from out of town. Do you know any place we can get some?"
"I'm sorry ...
I try hard not to keep a running tally of big-time failures in my head. It gets in the way of creating the next thing. On the other hand, when you see failure as ...
I wish I had written this. Sasha did. Check him out.
I’m sick of apologizing for being in charge of raising money.
I work at a great nonprofit organization (1) that is doing ...
Marketing is never about a hammer hitting plate glass.
It is almost always about the accrued power of a thousand drips, drips that accrue, drop by drop until they overwhelm the status quo and break ...
Freshfuel and the Dieline point to some new logos from big players.
Cluelessness on the half shell.
Smart marketers understand that a new logo can't possibly increase ...
The online community I started two months ago (now closed to new members, sorry) has members from the following countries: Austria, Belgium, Switzerland, South Korea, British Columbia, Canada, Greece, Austria, Latvia, China, India, Finland, ...
Trying to convince a CEO of anything is a little like trying to
convince a cop not to give you a ticket. It’s possible, but rarely
worth the effort, given the odds....
The single most important marketing decision most people make is also the one we spend precious little time on: where you work.
Think about this for a ...
Some brand new juicy videos from American Express. Special incredible bonus: Tom Peters, too.
Here's the thing: 4 ounces of plutonium are dangerous and expensive, but they won't build an atomic bomb. And even if you get 400 ounces, you can't build 100 bombs.
Critical mass is what happens ...
It's impossible to see everyone. You can't handle the input of what every consumer is buying or thinking or looking at. So, we resort to signaling strategies.
A ...
I don't know about you, but I'm getting plenty of emails asking for more money for various political campaigns.
That's because the systems in place are good at asking for money, and that's what they ...
One secret of being a large financial institution is that you can take huge risks because you're too big to fail. If you hit craps and lose it all, don't worry, because you'll get ...
How long after getting a big promotion does it take for an executive to get antsy?
Why does a powerful senator take small bribes and risk his entire career?
Why do Amazon customers, with a choice ...
Your career is not a boat. Neither is your business.
A boat with even a small leak is going to sink. You, on the other hand, don't need ...
My reading of Tribes is now available on iTunes as a three hour audio book for less than a dollar.
Or, if that's too much, Audible is using the audio book as a ...
As always, the truth lies in the cliches.
"Having the best of both worlds" is something that marketers shoot for all the time. They want the traffic that a community site will give them, but ...
Yelling with gusto used to be the best way to advertise your wares. There was plenty of media and if you had plenty of money, you were set.
Today, of course, yelling doesn't work so ...
Hand selling
Mass marketing-Billboards-Newspaper ads-Radio ads-TV ads-Banner ads
Direct marketing-Direct mail-Coupons-Spam
Viral marketing
Permission marketing-email-relevant text ads
Is there a pattern here? ...
In honor of today's publication of my new book, Tribes, I asked the people who joined the online triiibe group to write an ebook.
And they did. It's more than 240 pages long, ...
The thing is, it's far easier than ever before to surface your ideas. Far easier to have someone notice your art or your writing or your photography. Which means that people who might have ...
Warning: addictive, disheartening, thrilling or banal... often in combination.
Visiting twitter search will allow you to track what the anonymous masses are saying about you, your favorite politicians, your brand, whatever...
You can grab an ...
Every time you visit a new website, enter a new airport, visit a new store, examine a new book... the question you ask first off is, "what's this like?"
At a strange airport, if it's ...
A bonus quote for a Sunday afternoon:
A rock star is not someone who takes the temperature, who gauges the
marketplace before he creates his "art". A rock star is someone who
needs to create and is ...
Last week, I had interactions with two organizations that did exactly what they said they would do. Thanks to Brad and his team at Catalyst and to Christoper Justice at Sparkskight. Neither ...
From an interview I just did with Hugh at gapingvoidEveryone isn’t going to be a leader. But everyone isn’t going to be successful, either.
Success ...
I figure that the cliche was never, "the last hour," but for a long time, it was, "waiting until the last minute." In our ever-faster society, now we wait for the last second.
Of course ...
After Tuesday's debate, one study of undecided voters showed that 35% of them considered the outcome of the debate a tie.
A tie?
I can imagine believing that Obama won. I can concede that some people ...
Here's a simple quiz:
Can you capture something you see on your screen and paste it into Word or PowerPoint?
Do you have a blog?
Can you open a link you get in an email message?
Do you ...
People really want to believe effort is a myth, at least if we consider what we consume in the media:
politicians and beauty queens who get by on a smile and a wink
lottery winners who ...
Items in the future are closer than they appear.
If you're going across town, you're very specific: "188 Fifth Avenue, on the e
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