Here’s what I have queued up for you today (er, tonight):
“Room at the top”
Seth’s blog
Seth Godin needs no introduction. Many entrepreneurs, and in turn many of our readers, have read at least one of his books (Purple Cow, anyone?). I’ve actually never read one of his books, but I’ve kept up with his blog for years and I can say that his stuff is always of the head-nodding, “right-on” nature–more than any other blog I read consistently. He is just good. “Room at the top” is short but worth sharing with you. It reminds me of the landscape industry because one of the challenges we hear about so often from landscape company owners is how saturated their markets are. Seth reminds us there’s always a place in the market for the “best.” Although he doesn’t offer any secret formula for what exactly that is…
“A New Map Of The U.S., Created From Where We Get Our Water”
FastCoExist.com
What if states were formed around watersheds, rather than arbitrary political boundaries? This is what the U.S. would look like–much different from how we look today.
“Why Facebook Is In Decline”
Forbes.comI have to admit, this is a bit of a self-indulgent link. As someone who has covered essentially two different markets during her trade publishing career–the landscape and board converting (translate: box making) industries–I find it a fantastic coincidence that author Gene Marks casually works references to both into the main point of this post about how Facebook may be becoming uncool to the younger set. Emphasis added by me:
[Facebook is] a wonderful platform for advertising your business, building a community, reaching new customers and providing excellent customer service. That is, as long as your customers are on Facebook too and you’re willing to invest the resources necessary to create and maintain an active site. So if you run a yogurt shop, a landscaping business or you’re a stand-up comedian it’s a great place to find new business and stay close to your friends/customers. But if you sell corrugated containers, industrial piping or fabricated sheet metal then you’re not going to have much of a community on Facebook. And believe me when I say that most of the companies that employ people in this country are making unsexy, non-consumer-facing products like corrugated containers, industrial piping and fabricated sheet metal.
In any case, it’s a good read about the future of social media and what kind of staying power these platforms really have. It’s also of particular interest to me because we’re in the midst of amping up our own Facebook strategy, and it’s paying off. Then again, I believe we fall into the former category laid out by Marks in the excerpt. With that, I can’t conclude without a shameless plug: Head over to Facebook and “like” us if you don’t already!
