Teaching Old Dogs New Tricks

Don Thorson is a new-found friend. I am consulting him on a project that I cannot yet openly discuss. But, as is nearly always the case, it's about business blogging. Don has been a traditional marketer for a very long time, pre-dating his work on the legendary Apple Newton. He's fond of grids and processes as are most marketers.

But for the past month or so, I've been meeting with him and talking about blogging and how it works and why, Krugle the company he's working with, can launch itself without the expense and fuss of traditional marketing tactics.  He's also had the supreme accelerated course in the form of a session with the legendary Doc Searls.

More and more, day after day, Don gets it. He sees the power of it.  He sees how Krugle benefits from moving the customer from the edge to the center of the company through blogging.  He sees how blogging's Google juice is more powerful than a press release. Don's been in tech marketing almost as long as I have and its just a joy to see the twinkle in his eye as he starts seeing something completely new and superior to doing things the way they have always been done. For old dogs like Don and me as well as Krugle CEO Steve Larsen--it's like lapping water from the Fountain of Youth.

Comments

[Don Thorson]

Thanks Shel,

Yes, I have been doing technology marketing for years, and I love it. I love it for the right reasons (I think) – it’s about bringing invention to people so they can use it and ostensibly make the world a better place. An exciting part about what Shel is talking about is that blogs and other Marketing 2.0 dynamics, do this in new, powerful, viral, infectious and relevant ways. This is certainly what we are trying to do at our new company that Shel is referring to above, Krugle . We are trying to embrace a new way of doing things, including marketing. We are trying to invent a product which by it’s nature is embraced, "owned", modified, improved AND marketed, mostly by the people who use it. Is it still marketing? You bet. Just a new and better approach.

Don Thorson

[dog beds]

You're never too old to learn new tricks, especially in marketing!