I had a great conversation recently with some of my dear friends from the marketing world that essentially turned into a nice little Marketers Group Hug....


A few days ago I commented on David Armano's post, Finding Your Voice (Again), and mentioned a series of posts I have been running on my blog site that I call the Daily Drive. These posts are quite literally just a picture that I snap of myself driving to work each day, along with an accompanying shot of my sock choice for the day (it's a bit of thanks to the guys who make the socks and provide me with tons of them, as well as being friends).
It's a very silly space filler that I came up with as something of a way to send a snapshot of my day/ life. Truth be told, they also serve as "filler" between bigger, more substantial posts. Much to my pleasant surprise, these "filler" posts have proven to be quite popular and the readership has not only stabilized, but grown. What started as a way to simply stay in the habit of posting regularly, regardless of how busy I am with other projects, has turned into something of a great cult-builder. (I still don't exactly know why, but I'm not complaining.)
So anyway, the other day I got a comment from a reader of the blog who is up in Canada about a post from the previous day;

Sara B said...
Hey,
I'm a fan of your site.
Never posted before.
But I'm a Canadian girl and those socks just compelled me to write.
Thanks for the shout out to us Canucks :)

When people ask me why I blog, this is one of the number one reasons. Comments like that just send me through the stratosphere!
Almost without skipping a breath, after finding her blog and giving her a big thanks, I forwarded the comment to some of my favorite marketing friends from here at the DF and elsewhere. Why? Because I knew they'd "get" why it made me so happy to get the comment.
And they did!
The simple email to these fine examples of new marketing smart-folk resulted in a great dialog about marketing and how it is evolving. A while back I put up a post here titled Is Marketing a Four-Letter Word? In that post I talked about how Marketers tend to get a pretty bad rap, similar to lawyers (not that I'm making commentary on lawyers). In the conversation thread with my fellow marketers, I made the comment "these are the moments as marketers that I wish other folks could see." By that I meant I wish non-marketers could see the kinds of moments that really matter to some of us and how Marketing is not some evil program run by soulless demons.
The conversation produced some incredible quotes that I just felt compelled to share with all:
Mack Collier- I think it goes back to us all being lucky enough to be associated with other marketers that honestly care more about the people than the money or the job or whatever. I think we see marketing as an empowerment tool, not as a 'necessary evil'. At least that's my story ;)
Ann Handley- I'd rather have a comment from someone for whom my blog matters, rather than Someone Who Matters.
Toby Bloomberg- I love these types of stories! Who needs to be a Technorati A lister or have a high Alexis ranking when you're actually making a difference in someone's life?
And my personal favorite quote of the day comes from none other than CK- There's never been a better time to be a better marketer. (Oh, that is pure gold there.)
I don't mean to repeat myself too much, though I will and do, but marketing has come a long way and continues to develop into really amazing things with the work of many amazing people... many of whom are contributors here. Marketers are helping people change their lives and their worlds, not just selling more widgets. We have a lot to be proud of.
Consider this your group hug!
(And a special thanks again to Sara B for getting the conversation started!)

Enter your email address to continue reading

Can You Feel the Love?

Don't worry...it's free!

Already a member? Sign in now.

Sign in with your preferred account, below.

Facebook Sign In Google Sign In Twitter Sign In
Did you like this article?
Know someone who would enjoy it too? Share with your friends, free of charge, no sign up required! Simply share this link, and they will get instant access…

  • Copy Link

  •

    Email

  •

    Twitter

  •

    Facebook

  •

    Pinterest

  •

    Linkedin

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Tim Jackson rarely writes about himself in the third person, so he is going to take the opportunity to do that now. Tim is a bike geek, first and foremost. This geekdom has taken Tim to the helm of a small, but respected bicycle brand- Masi Bicycles. This has proven to be Tim's dream job and has given him the chance to experiment with previously unconventional methods of marketing, such as blogging and other social networking, to try and reestablish the name and reputation of his beloved Masi brand. In the past year, Tim has been very lucky to meet and learn from many different marketing professionals who have been kind enough to validate some of his marketing ideas and embolden him to keep pushing ahead. Tim is a battle hardened marketer, educated by the school of hard knocks, as opposed to any professionally accredited institution... which is a bummer because that would probably get him a better paying gig somewhere. Tim will likely be a somewhat infrequent contributor here because he keeps his hands pretty busy fighting in the trenches each day, but he'll stick his head out in the air long enough to fire off some half-baked theories from time to time. He apologizes in advance, just for the record.

We're baaackk! Join us in-person this October at B2B Forum: Boston!