by Geoff Livingston
We often talk on the social web about responsiveness and how that means more to a reputation than stumbles and bumbles. Well, there’s no greater example right now than Seth Godin.
Last month Godin had a couple of stumbles, of which he was highly criticized by leading nonprofit and marketing bloggers, including a scathing post and podcast by me. Well, whether or not Seth’s willing to take comments on his blog or Tweet, it’s very clear that he’s listening and responding. Godin’s actions demonstrate it’s not how hard you fall, but how quickly you get up and respond.
Let’s break down the two errors:
1) First up, Godin took an ill-informed swipe on nonprofits. My criticism of his post was that it demonstrated a lack of market expertise and field work. How does Godin respond? He rolls up his sleeves, gets in the field and works with 40 nonprofits. I also understand a Godin webinar for nonprofits with NTEN is in the works, too.
2) The infamous Squidoo “content hijacking” attempt by Godin to charge corporations $400 a month for the right to comment on aggregated content. Seth did an interview once on this blog where he said the marketing blogosphere likes to eat it’s own. Well, he got eaten on this one — and rightly so, it seems like an unreasonable demand or a poorly positioned monitoring service.
Regardless, Godin listened to the feedback and promptly changed the model of Squidoo’s aggregated Brands in Public content. Further, he has been very proactive making calls to the Scott Montys of the world, fortifying his relationships with lead marketing bloggers.
Like or hate his approach to marketing and social media, Godin is committed to the market. You take his advice or leave it (who, me?), but the reality is that Godin is listening, adapting, and acting like a great community member. From one bald blogger to another, I’m tipping my hat in admiration.
Geoff,
Really interesting post. My two cents:
Non-profits understood the power of advocacy and community long before there were any tools called ’social media,’ and Godin is right when says, generally, that they’ve been slower to experiment with the technology than we corporate types.
Where he’s wrong is where all of the social media gurus tend to miss the boat: there’s nothing inherently good or effective about technology tools, whether social media or Technicolor movies. It’s funny that these newbies to the business of making communications into causes have the audacity to lecture anybody.
Successful campaigns and relationships are based on shared PURPOSE, not some abstraction of engagement or conversation. Non-profits are uniquely positioned to bring that meaning to the social media world, which sorely needs it.
I totally agree with the latter point; however, studies have been done demonstrating that nonprofits are getting it quicker than corporate. If Seth had done his homework, and was more in touch with the field he would have known that.
Here’s the SNCR study demonstrating nonprofits accelerating past corporations:
http://tinyurl.com/l7xeeu
Hi Geoff:
Yes, there is a webinar in the works with Seth and nonprofits!
http://nten.org/events/online-chat/2009/11/12/ask-expert-seth-godin-social-media-innovation-and-change