I was listening to the Future of Marketing Virtual Conference on Tuesday and was hearing a lot of brilliant people talk about, um, the future of marketing, actually. So that was apropos. It got me thinking though about the new year coming up. Although I am not a fan of New Years Eve, I am a big fan of new years. I think it’s a great excuse to shed off things you don’t need, build things up that could improve you or your life, and just really start off on the right foot.
To that end I am already compiling some wish lists for 2011. Part of my wish list is that the following categories of blog posts, which are everywhere here in 2010, pass away peacefully, only to be reviewed as relics of the past. And I’d totally hope that they would rest in peace.
1. Blah blah blah is dead. Stop killing things. Please. Advertising is not dead. Print is not dead. Websites are not dead. I’d be so happy, though, if posts about things being dead could be dead.
2. Blah blah blah is the new marketing. I’m not really sure why we need to rename marketing. Do we even know how we define marketing? I find these posts perplexing, so I would not be sorry to see them go.
3. I am too popular to blah blah blah. I appreciate the fact that as the powers of influence increase, so too do time commitments, travel expenses, and interactions with icky people. Therefore, your ability to follow, comment, write, breathe, eat, sleep decreases. If you have time to post about how you don’t have time to do other stuff, you probably have time to do other stuff.
4. Blah blah blah Zappos. Please understand, I totally get why there is so much buzz about Zappos. I think the company and Tony Hsieh are respectively awesome. However, there has to be at least one other company (Okay, other than Ford) who is doing good things. Right?
5. Why aren’t you doing blah blah blah?: I love advice, but the incriminating, “Hey you, weakling, do this now or else” kind of post is something that I think should be very retro as opposed to very nowtro.
So what are five topics you’d love to see nevermore starting in 2011? What posts are driving you crazy these days?
Image by Roger Kirby. http://www.sxc.hu/profile/theswedish
Marjorie, I’m with you on the “next shiny penny is the new black b/c so-and-so says it is” posts. Read another good post http://linkama.wordpress.com/2010/11/15/is-insert-any-traditional-marketing-device-dead/ that said the same, NONE of the old marketing ways are dead. It’s all just changing, adapting.
I kinda like the “you’re doing it wrong” post, because I write them. Or at least, I rant on things I don’t like such as automated social media or bad advertising choices. Posts like that show how mileage will vary, everyone’s perspective on marketing communication and what works for some may be fail for others. FWIW.
Well, there’s the calling out of improper behavior post and there’s the “OMG if you’re not using Gowalla you are probably really stupid” post. I was speaking more of the latter 🙂 I think that call-out posts, as I call them, can indeed be very helpful for all of the reasons you mention!