Pundit Seth Godin hit a homer yesterday with his blog post about the trade offs of pursuing the mindless masses of speed clickers vs. seeking small groups of folks who are really paying attention. Sayeth Seth…
The net has spawned two new ways to create and consume culture.
The first is the wide-open door for amateurs to create. This is blogging and online art, wikipedia and the maker movement. These guys get a lot of press, and deservedly so, because they’re changing everything.
The second, though, is distracting and ultimately a waste. We’re creating a culture of clickers, stumblers and jaded spectators who decide in the space of a moment whether to watch and participate (or not).
Imagine if people went to the theatre or the movies and stood up and walked out after the first six seconds. Imagine if people went to the senior prom and bailed on their date three seconds after the car pulled away from the curb…
If you create (or market) should you be chasing the people who click and leave? Or is it like trying to turn a cheetah into a house pet? Is manipulating the high-voltage attention stream of millions of caffeinated web surfers a viable long-term strategy?…
My fear is that the endless search for wow further coarsens our culture at the same time it encourages marketers to get ever more shallow. That’s where the first trend comes in… the artists, idea merchants and marketers that are having the most success are ignoring those that would rubberneck and drive on, focusing instead on cadres of fans that matter. Fans that will give permission, fans that will return tomorrow, fans that will spread the word to others that can also take action…
About 45% of Burlington households subscribe to Front Porch Forum now, which is amazing considering that about 85% have access to the internet. So, that leaves about 40% of the city who has access but has not subscribed to FPF yet. How might we lure in the remaining 40%? Must we go the flashy and shallow route described by Godin? That would be a poor approach… one that might attract, but wouldn’t likely retain, subscribers. Plus, as Godin points out, “coarsening of our culture” locally would not be far behind.
Ghost of Midnight is an online journal about fostering community within neighborhoods, with a special focus on Front Porch Forum (FPF). My wife, Valerie, and I founded FPF in 2006... read more
Coincidentally, I came to this post just now after bailing on several YouTube videos after just a few seconds. They were videos of various robots, you see, on a blog I subscribed to about robots, and I only watched each one until I got the idea of each robot and saw it moving around a little. Now that I’ve gotten to this post, though, I’ve read it through carefully, read Godin’s post that you reference carefully, and I’m taking the time to compose a response. I think you might agree that I’ve made the right choice in skipping carelessly over those random videos of robots in order to have the time instead to value what you’ve said. Everyone pays attention to different things, at different levels, in different ways.
What I would suggest to get FPF into the stream of more people’s attention is to broaden how it’s available. Places on the internet other than email, for instance, or posting or displaying it somewhere in the real world. Any particular medium or style won’t attract everyone’s attention, because for many people it won’t fit the pattern of their life. We all have blinders shutting out almost everything; you must put things in front of our noses.
Interesting points, Brett. I certainly skim often… online and off.
FPF member postings are available on our website to members, BTW. But we’re not inclined to change our approach and make each neighborhood forum open to the world. When we’ve asked subscribers about this idea, they say that they’ll post less or not at all. That is, they like FPF to feel more like a block party than not.
Brett,
I agree with you. What I do not understand is the relationship between the people of BTV and the main topic Seth is talking about “marketers and idea merchants”. It sounds like that if the medium is changed, people will suddenly become shallow and flashy.
The ultimate challenge in any community is to engage people, where they are comfortable. The secondary real challenge is to fund the project, and a recent study shows where and how small businesses are engaging – http://bit.ly/aviZPk – They are moving away from TV, Newspaper and email because these are one way channels, impersonal.
I am waiting the ‘Amen’ 😉
Interesting Mitch.