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Monday, July 30, 2012

Seth Godin: Linchpin, Individuals Count Today

When we talk about all the big changes in today's marketing, communication and even work habits, there is a tendency to focus on applications, companies and leaders (especially CEOS like Steve Jobs.) Yet we all know real people working every day to create something from nothing. These people keep the big ideas from staying just ideas. Seth Godin wrote a sort of manual explaining what he sees as the key to development in today's world from an individual's perspective. Godin is a new age pied piper, leading the charge into the digital publishing age. His background is reporting, most notably at Wire magazine and San Francisco newspapers. While reporting on the changes in publishing with the digital age he has published a series of books chronicling the changes.

Most of Godin's ideas come from what he sees in the real world. His perspective is a little ahead of the crowd. First of all he is tuned and seeks the technology and media leaders of today. Second, he is situated at the business and technology intersection of silicon valley (technology) and San Francisco (business). Finally, he is both a "victim" and a "beneficiary" of the digital revolutionary. On the victim side, he is a member of the publishing and magazine workforce which has been decimated in the last decade. Especially in the US and especially in the technology sector. If you want to see real shifts in consumer preference go look for technology magazines. They have been practically wiped out, replaced by everything from electronic newsletters, blogs and big portals like newspapers (think NY Times tech blog.) On the beneficiary side, Godin has published and used digital means, today a blog, newsletter and Twitter, to promote his writing and ideas. Out of just about anyone out there, he is probably one of the most successful digital promoter in the publishing industry.

Enough about Godin. Linchpin is a peek into what many pioneers INSIDE today's corporation are doing with digital publication. What Godin tells is the story of connectivity from inside the corporate cocoon. Godin present a new way at looking at corporate success. Since today's world is transitioning to the world of connectivity and information, today's corporate worker needs to use digital techniques to connect and inform. This is a shift from the world where the people with information guarded it from most people. Today, we have too much information, so we need to filter, process and spread it correctly. All this makes sense, yet we are still years away from the effective use of digital tools. Godin essentially seduces people in organizations to start getting digital. It seems to me like a great way to make today's organizations and the people working there a better place. Maybe even a more productive and useful place as well.

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