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Confusing activity with action

Guest post by: Seth Godin

Article Overview: Thing is, most of the stuff you do online doesn't cost money.

Confusing activity with action

Thing is, most of the stuff you do online doesn't cost money.

In the old days, money added friction. Money made you choosy. Money ensured that you valued your marketing efforts appropriately, because if they didn't work, they cost you money.

Today, reading and posting and linking and networking and connecting and commenting and podcasting and linkblurbling and doseedoing online all feel like essential marketing tasks. They certainly keep you busy.

But is the activity getting in the way of action?

Is the online work you're doing actually leading you where you want to go, or merely keeping you busy?

Dmitri calls this "imitation of turbulent activity" or ИБД, Имитация Бурной Деятельности.

[Flipside: someone sent me a stat that said that 57% of the marketers surveyed hadn't read a blog in the last year. These people are incompetent and should be fired.]

Another way to look at this:

For big brands and marketers with significant budgets, the internet represents a loss of leverage. Money doesn't buy you as much attention, and you have to work much, much harder for every eyeball.

For individuals, the internet represents an increase in leverage. One person with a blog or a lot of followers or friends can reach more people, more quickly, than ever before.

These are colliding. Big brands on the way down, individuals on the way up.

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Article Tags: dmitri, essential marketing, friction, marketing efforts, money, turbulent activity



Related Forum Posts
Re: Quote of the Day - "Don't sit down and wait for the opportun - Opportunity is definitely an action term. Even when we realize a great opportunity, nothing happens unless we take action.
Re: Best way to start a business? - It really just comes down to decision, action and persistence. You can spend a lifetime thinking about doing something, and researching it, to decide if it is the right action to take. Or you can make a decision about something you want to achieve, take action and be persistent. Make a plan of action, and adjust it as you learn more. An online business is something you should jump into straight away. The time it takes to start a new website is minutes, so there is not much of a barrier to entry for you to start a basic website and learn. Obviously if your idea was more specific like starting a review comparison site for laptops then your action would be trying out and comparing different review platforms, classifying laptops etc. But you would still take action and dive right in. If it was an offline business then it would likely mean even more preparation. Say you wanted to start a wine shop, which would eventually become a chain, you would start by taking action and learning as much about wine as possible, networking with people in the industry and generally working to become a win expert, and research locations for your first wine shop. In each situation you make a decision about what you want to do, act on that decision following a rough plan which you adjust along the way, and be persistent in working to achieve what you laid out in your original decision.
Re: I failed woefully in 2011 - Yinka, My favorite advice for taking action comes from Tony Robbins: “A real decision is measured by the fact that you’ve taken a new action. If there’s no action, you haven’t truly decided… The most important thing you can do to achieve your goals is to make sure that as soon as you set them, you immediately begin to create momentum. The most important rules that I ever adopted to help me in achieving my goals were those I learned from a very successful man who taught me to first write down the goal, and then to never leave the site of setting a goal without first taking some form of positive action toward its attainment.” If you've truly decided to make 2012 a successful year for you, don't wait until Sunday. Start today, even if it's a small step. Good luck!
Business or busy-ness !! - Ideally your business is should be able to let go of you after breakeven and a reasonable period of time. Keeping you in chains would qualify it to be busy-ness rather than business. Once set the business systems set should be able to run on auto pilot with you co-ordinating activity rather than you running the activity. If you are at ease with this thought - you could go ahead and think of the second in line. Not too difficult though takes some tact and some practice before you could take the plunge....
Re: Marketing and PR ideas related to a Credit Organization - Hello GT Bulmer! I will answer your questions with great pleasure. As we use face to face marketing, our credit agents meet our customers very often, so it isn't problem to inform them about any action or meeting and stir them to come to the meeting area. And what about visual aids- i think i don't need to use them. Because in my opinion presentation will not be interesting for them at all. I think we have to organize a concert (or an interesting action) for them, to give some prizes, to make them have a wonderful time, but do it in such an original way which will make them to remember our organization and to become very loyal to our services. That is why now my aim is to invent such an original action which will be possible in villages. Thank you very much for feedback!


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