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In a recent article in The Atlantic, Kate Lindsay wrote that Instagram is over.
And then, she promoted her article on TikTok.
The complaint boils down to this: Instagram, like Facebook, used to be a place that you could go to exchange photos with family and friends. Now, you can’t find the posts of people you know amidst the sea of algorithmically-generated content from strangers.
Read MoreEarly on in The Marketing Seminar, participants are asked what change they are trying to make and who they are trying to change.
Seth Godin’s definition of marketing is to make a change happen. Therefore, your marketing needs to change somebody. Who? And how?
Faced with these questions, a lot of us go big. “I want everyone to participate in this initiative!” “I’m trying to end loneliness forever!” “I want to change the world!”
Read MoreIt’s pretty hard not to care what people think.
For deep, evolutionary reasons, we humans associate rejection with death. No one wants to be abandoned by the tribe and left cold, hungry, and alone in the forest.
But caring how many people are paying attention -- that’s a modern phenomenon. Our ancestors, living in small groups, probably wouldn’t have been able to conceptualize metrics like Amazon sales rankings, subscriber count, or ticket sales.
Read MoreAmong Aimee Mann’s many beautifully poignant songs, there’s one called “Save Me,” that includes the lyric, “Can you save me from the ranks of the freaks who suspect they could never love anyone?”
And there’s a similar sentiment expressed in “Ray,” from her 1995 album “I’m with Stupid”: “I think I know another lonely exile when I see one/And you appear to be one.”
Read MoreAt the 1997 MTV Video Music Awards, Fiona Apple, at not quite twenty years old, accepted her award for Best New Artist with a speech that earned the criticism and derision of many.
“This world is bullshit,” she said, her choice of words bleeped by the censors. “You shouldn’t model your life about what you think that we think is cool and what we’re wearing and what we’re saying and everything. Go with yourself. Go with yourself.”
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