Comments on: Where Do You Belong?

By: Tim Jackson

Tim Jackson — Thu, 08 Mar 2007 23:20:42 +0000

Jeesh… you make me sound like the attention-starved shameless self-promoter that I actually am.
Thanks!

By: Gavin Heaton

Gavin Heaton — Thu, 08 Mar 2007 10:54:32 +0000

Tim is always upstaging me!
Though I think I am more of a one-on-one hugging kinda guy

By: Ann Handley

Ann Handley — Thu, 08 Mar 2007 03:48:33 +0000

Great post, Gavin, and well-stated. Anyway, my favorite families are dysfunctional!
However, I think Tim might have upstaged you with this line, though… “Gavin, I am a little upset that you are trying to take over my position of Group Hug Guy.”

By: Paul McEnany

Paul McEnany — Thu, 08 Mar 2007 02:29:51 +0000

Gavin- Damnit, I think at some point we’re just going to have to have a full fledged get together, and figure out how the hell to get you stateside.
I’ll promise you this, you get stateside, and I’ll get to you, man.
Deal?

By: Tammy Strnatka

Tammy Strnatka — Wed, 07 Mar 2007 22:24:33 +0000

First, Congrats Tim!!!!
I spend my day writing copy hoping to get the consumer to buy a Valentine’s Day gift or a Mother’s Day gift at various different shopping malls. I don’t represent individual stores, just the mall as a whole. I think about the demographics and try to appeal to their shopping cravings. I’m not a mall person so it’s weird to imagine myself talking to someone that wants the latest fashions or got-to-have-it gadgets. Sometimes find myself wanting things I don’t need when I try to get into that mindset. I write for many malls all over the U.S. so I’m not sure how to address my customers (as opposed to clients) about shopping preferences while remaining within the boundaries of professionalism. Do you guys think I could start a blog aimed at shopping mall addicts? I say addicts with admiration and respect. Could I get intimate with these people? I know you’re going to say yes so how? My blog so far has been a mishmash of nothing in particular – It’s an exercise in descipline to post something.
I love the people on this blog – group hug
By-the-way I got an email from Ben Davis appologizing for turning me off to LESS. I haven’t responded yet. Just another example of how people on-line reach out to each other in unexpected ways.
Thanks, I hope this makes sense within the context of this blog. I find the intimacy I have experienced since I began trolling blogs has been relatively easy. Most people are friendly and open. It’s very refreshing in an often sad and cruel world.

By: Toby

Toby — Wed, 07 Mar 2007 18:39:50 +0000

Gavin, I love your line – “The meeting place for Tim’s family is not the dining room table or the campfire, but his blog.” For me the light bulb moment, that blogs could be more than just a vehicle to exchange a few ideas, came at BlogHer 2005. I saw (and was one of) the many women (and men too) who ran to hug people ‘met’ online. The realization that a group people who (for the most part) ‘only’ shared an online exchange could feel so connected was a big surprise.
As a marketer, my thoughts were this might be a way to rebuild, what I call, the ‘corner grocery store relationship’ if it can carried over to the way we market brands and build loyalty. We still have a long way to go to convenience many that social media is a credible and important strategy that should be given a place at the marketing table. Thank you Ann for building a safe community that encourages dialogue around those issues.
Tim – congrats! on year 2 of blogging.

By: Tim Jackson

Tim Jackson — Wed, 07 Mar 2007 17:32:50 +0000

Wow, Gavin, I am totally and sincerely touched and honored to be listed in the same post as David and John. In the same week that Toby mentions me too… if I wasn’t such a total dork, I’d have a huge head right about now.
Blogging has been one of the highlights of my professional career. I have gotten so much from it and have grown professionally from it. I can never see not blogging (or whatever it morphs into in the future).
I have learned, and really believe it to be true, that it is the human touch that has helped me in my job. Blogging has given me the chance and avenue to relate on a very personal level with my customers/ community and get very useful feedback for developing the brand. It’s been perfect.
Gavin, I am a little upset that you are trying to take over my position of Group Hug Guy.
Thanks again for the mention.

By: Lewis Green

Lewis Green — Wed, 07 Mar 2007 13:48:51 +0000

Gavin,
Links, I think, fulfill your writing schema of offering surprises. So I clicked on the link above and was delivered to definitions of authenticity and sincerity. Without revealing the surprise, I suggest that sincerity absent authenticity is fake and will not deliver the goods for marketing.
If it is true that marketers don’t seek to understand their customers’ innerselves or to reveal their own, the job of meeting customers’ wants and needs falls into the hit or miss category and customers will create their perceptions of our business without enough information to form an honest perception. That can’t be good.
Finally, I believe making friends online is just as real as making them in a bar, on the court or at the beach. If we speak with an authentic voice.