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  • Seth Godin on Market Creation

    Sometimes creating markets for products can be a lot more difficult than creating products. Seth Godin says that "buying something for the first time" is a fairly recent phenomenon. Before the second half of the Twentieth century, we bought what our parents bought, who bought the products their parents bought. So the challenge for getting consumers to buy new things, even when those products could really truly make their lives better and healthier, remains quite high in parts of the world where people are still buying what their parents bought. Godin discussed this challenge at the Acumen Fund's 2011 Investor Gathering :

  • Godin: Perspective and the Evolution of Digital Media and Devices

    Seth Godin provides this simple, low-resolution representation of the Internet, the web, and digital devices. And it neatly sums up the progressing relationship between the user/consumer and the larger world. Read Godin's explanation here .

  • Godin on the Future of Labor

    Seth Godin uses Labor Day to write about the "future of labor," which he says "belongs to enlightened, passionate people on both sides of the plant, people who want to do work that matters." In a world where labor does exactly what it's told to do, it will be devalued. Obedience is easily replaced, and thus one worker is as good as another. And devalued labor will be replaced by machines or cheaper alternatives. We say we want insightful and brilliant teachers, but then we insist they do their labor precisely according to a manual invented by a committee... Companies that race to the bottom in terms of the skill or cost of their labor end up with nothing but low margins. The few companies that are able to race to the top, that can challenge workers to bring their whole selves--their human selves--to work, on the other hand, can earn stability and growth and margins. Improvisation still matters if you set out to solve interesting problems. Read Whatever happened to Labor , here .

  • Understanding the Cost and the Value of Being First

    Seth Godin says "the cost of being first is higher than it's ever been." But is the payoff worth the rising cost? Godin suggests it is not: Have you noticed how often stock analysts quoted in the news are wrong? Wrong about new products, wrong about management decisions, wrong about the future of a company? In fact, they're almost always first and almost always wrong. Rule of thumb: being first helps in the short run. Being a little more right than the masses ultimately pays off in the long run. Being last is the worst of all three. A few people care a lot about scoops. Most of us, though, care about alert people making insightful decisions. Decide who you're trying to please, then ship. Read the full post at Seth's Blog, here .

  • The Smart Play for Marketers

    Seth Godin says most marketers operate with the idea that the less customers know, the better: Ask them for advice about their competitors, they turn away and say "I really wouldn''t know." Ask them for details about their suppliers, and they don't want to tell you. Ask them to show you a recipe for how to make what they make on your own, and "it's a trade secret." Their perfect customer is someone in a hurry, with plenty of money and not a lot of knowledge about their options. So, Godin argues, this opens up great opportunities for marketers who want to make their customers smarter. Read Betting on smarter (or betting on dumber) here .

  • Godin: 16 Questions for Freelancers and Entrepreneurs

    Do you hate the question "what do you do"? If you are an entrepreneur, get over it. You need to be able to answer that question, or you need to get into another line of work. Seth Godin provides one path to an answer for that question. All it requires is for you to first answer these 16 questions .

  • Godin: The Levy Flight and Understanding Customer Behavior

    Seth Godin shares this diagram at his blog , and tells us it can provide some valuable insight for small businesses: That's what plotting the Levy flight looks like. Godin explains: An animal that forages will hang out in a small area, looking for nuts or berries, then will realize it has used up all the likely sources in this spot. It will then head off in a random direction, walk many paces, and start foraging again. Think about the animals as customers/visitors to your site, and you'll begin to understand what Godin is getting at. Read his take here .

  • Graph of the Day: Viral Growth vs Faux Followers, from Seth Godin

    Small business owners may have been wise to rack up followers via social media sites last year. But Seth Godin argues that a good idea trumps a large number of followers. A lot of followers are what he calls "faux followers"--they sign up to follow but aren't really there when you need them. Instead, it is better to have fewer followers and an idea that is good enough for those followers to spread it around. Here's Godin's graph: Godin: The curves represent different ideas and different starting points. If you start with 10,000 fans and have an idea that on average nets .8 new people per generation, that means that 10,000 people will pass it on to 8000 people, and then 6400 people, etc. That's yellow on the graph. Pretty soon, it dies out. On the other hand, if you start with 100 people (99% less!) and the idea is twice as good (1.5 net passalong) it doesn't take long before you overtake the other plan. (the green). That's not even including the compounding of new people getting you people. But wait! If your idea is just a little more viral, a 1.7 passalong, wow, huge results. Infinity, here we come. That's the purple (of course.) Read Viral growth trumps lots of faux followers here .

  • Seth Godin: Hunters and Farmers

    Seth Godin believes there are hunters and there are farmers in every group of people--even if they aren't exactly hunters and farmers. And, he writes, we would all be well served to recognize that treating both groups the same is a mistake--especially in business: Marketers confuse the two groups. Are you selling a product that helps farmers... and hoping that hunters will buy it? How do you expect that people will discover your product, or believe that it will help them? The woman who reads each issue of Vogue, hurrying through the pages then clicking over to Zappos to overnight order the latest styles--she's hunting. Contrast this to the CTO who spends six months issuing RFPs to buy a PBX that was last updated three years ago... she's farming. Both groups are worthy, both groups are profitable. But each group is very different from the other, and I think we need to consider teaching, hiring and marketing to these groups in completely different ways. I'm not sure if there's a genetic component or if this is merely a convenient grouping of people's personas. All I know is that it often explains a lot about behavior (including mine). Read Hunters and Farmers here .

  • Seth Godin Shares a Lesson from the Smallest of Small Businesses

    Seth writes about two different lemonade stands (run by kids, of course). One charges a dollar for its lemonade (made from a mix). The other doesn't charge, features hand squeezed lemonade, and probably take a fair bit longer to serve customers. Which do you think is the better "business"? Read The lesson from two lemonade stands here .

  • Seth Godin's New Free eBook: 'What Matters Now'

    Seth Godin has compiled expert wisdom from 70+ authors, innovators and small business thinkers in the new eBook, What Matters Now . Here are the names, as he shares them on his blog: Godin's idea was to get each of these "big thinkers" to share one idea for the new year. The ideas, in turn, should serve to inspire you to think differently and try new approaches to your work moving forward. From Godin: Here's the deal: it's free. Download it here . Or from any of the many sites around the web that are posting it with insightful commentary . Tweet it, email it, post it on your own site . I think it might be fun to make up your own riff and post it on your blog or online profile as well. It's a good exercise . Can we get this in the hands of 5 million people? You can find an easy to use version on Scribd as well and from wepapers . Please share.

  • Seth Godin's Tips on How to Lose an Argument Online

    Seth Godin shares a lot of good advice for business owners at Seth's Blog on how to communicate. Today he gives some good advice on how NOT to communicate, by listing effective ways to lose an argument online. For example, Tip#1: Have an argument. Once you start an argument, not a discussion, you've already lost. Think about it: have you ever changed your mind because someone online started yelling at you? They might get you to shut up, but it's unlikely they've actually changed your opinion. And #4: Question motives. The best way to get someone annoyed and then have them ignore you is to bypass any thoughtful discussion of facts and instead question what's in it for the person on the other end. Make assumptions about their motivations and lose their respect. For the full list, and Godin's ideas on what actually works, click here .

  • Lessons from Small Businesses

    It isn't only always (or maybe even often) that the big guys know what's best. Seth Godin shares five key lessons from the smallest of businesses: 1. Go where your customers are. 2. Be micro-focused and the search engines will find you. 3. Outlast the competition. 4. Leverage. 5. Respond. Read Lessons from very tiny businesses here .

  • Amazon Acquires Zappos--and the Zappos Culture

    Shortly after Amazon 's acquisition of online retailer Zappos became public, Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh sent an e-mail to all Zappos employees explaining the move and what it means for the company and all of them--the employees. The apparent candidness and clairty of Hsieh's communique seems telling. Zappos has become a customer favorite largely because of its service and open culture ( The Consumerist shares a couple of examples, here and here ). And Hsieh's writes that Amazon values Zappos for that reason: Our culture at Zappos is unique and always evolving and changing, because one of our core values is to Embrace and Drive Change. What happens to our culture is up to us, which has always been true. Just like before, we are in control of our destiny and how our culture evolves. A big part of the reason why Amazon is interested in us is because they recognize the value of our culture, our people, and our brand. Their desire is for us to continue to grow and develop our culture (and perhaps even a little bit of our culture may rub off on them). They are not looking to have their folks come in and run Zappos unless we ask them to. That being said, they have a lot of experience and expertise in a lot of areas, so we're very excited about the opportunities to tap into their knowledge, expertise, and resources, especially on the technology side. This is about making the Zappos brand, culture, and business even stronger than it is today. Seth Godin writes--in a short, sharp post--that the Zappos sale contains a key lesson on what creates real value in companies today. Godin says that "what matters is..." -A corporate culture that's not the same (and where great people choose to work) -A tight relationship with customers that give you permission to talk with them -A business model that's remarkable and worth talking about -A story that spreads -Leadership Read his post here .

  • Seth Godin on the Power of Tribes

    Seth Godin is many things: internet guru, entrepreneur, best-selling author, blogger. In the past, we would have said he "wears of many hats". But in the web 2.0 world, it might be better to say he is a member of many tribes. He is especially adept at sharing ideas--whether his own or those of others. And he says that in today's world of growing social media outlets, tribes--groups of people founded on shared ideas and values--are back. And thanks to the growth of tribes, the age of mass marketing, he says, is dead. Here is Godin speaking about leadership and tribes in a TED Talk :