A few months ago, I attended a release party for a new Craigslist competitor. Of course, anytime someone claims to be the ‘new’ anything (usually it’s Facebook) I immediately raise a red flag or two. Pageantry and gagging jargon were bountiful; several clichés were thrown, tossed about so flippantly that the English language was reduced to nothing more than the replay from a voice recorder hidden in David Ogilvy’s codpiece.
The crowd was comprised of local tech bloggers, journalists, connoisseurs, and wannabes; the vast majority of whom ended up becoming a critical force in driving the presentation. The site performed poorly in a live demo; the presenters were ill prepared to discuss the future of their business, and worse, the snacks weren’t brought around the crowd at a brisk enough pace.
The presenter and CEO of the site unraveled and began to disclose much more than his release detail. It was his core marketing understanding and belief. At least 4 straight questions were answered by a resounding “Because we think that Seth Godin would do the same.”
At the fourth such response, one of my cohorts leaned over to me and said: “This company is running face first into a brick wall with both hands behind its back.”
For starters, if your business model is to hang on every word of a single Marketing Philosopher - no matter how talented or successful he or she may be - you are doomed. The body of knowledge in marketing, and particularly internet marketing, is simply too broad in discipline and knowledge for a single person, no matter their amount of appearances as a talking head, or published books, to be a sole provider of theory.
Marketing and the Internet is bigger than the brain power of one person.
If you use Twitter as your source of Marketing study then I strongly recommend you expand your followership to 100 or more people of various disciplines (SEO, Print, TV, PPC, etc.), with varied follower counts, levels of notoriety, and published works.
The power of group-sourced intelligence on Twitter will act as a balance board for your personal development. Your followed list should not look like an Ode to Gode; rather, it should resemble a technicolor Lego boogie board.
Below is a list of people noobs should avoid as a sole marketing resource. Though all brilliant in their own right, they are mere micro chasms of the entire scope of the worlds digital marketing brain trust and will give you an awkward slant on life if read out of context (140 characters at a time). Building your business around persona twitter timelines would be like trying to jump the Grand Canyon with a rocket strapped to your back.
1.@Chrisbrogan
2.@briansolis
3.@dannysullivan
4.@randfish
5.@thisissethsblog
6.@lisabarone
7.@jackiehuba
8.@danzarella
9.@avinashkaushik
10.@cliqology
