Hi, my name is Uwe. And I’m addicted to fixing things.
I look at a website and have immediately ten quick fixes in mind to improve it. A friend tells me about his relationship troubles and within minutes I develop a strategy how to get his love life back on track. I enjoy a dinner in a restaurant and spend my time improving the menu, interior and overall service.
And most of this is not my damn business.
But I can’t change it. It’s in my blood. And I’m sure many of you feel the same.
Why, oh why, is it so easy for us to fix other people’s problems but we can’t fix our own? We are often clueless when it comes to our own work. We lose all our objectivity when it comes to improve ourselves.
Maybe the best thing to do is assemble a group of fellow addicts and let them loose. Have them fix your business. Have them fix your life. You might not take any of their advice. But, at least, you get some outside opinion. A fresh perspective. Allow yourself to not know all the answers for a change.
And, we should resist the urge once in a while to fix things. Most of the time, nobody asked. Maybe better to just keep on walking and keep our insights to ourselves.
I’ll do that right after I fix this damn Wordpress blog. Why not drag and drop pictures? And…
It was Second Life at one point. Foursquare. The newest object is Quora. 2011 will deliver more bright, shiny objects. And many of us will lament the marketers attraction to them.
Marketers love bright, shiny objects because it’s easy. It’s hard to come up with a landing page that stands out. It’s hard to develop a Facebook strategy that is more signal than noise. It’s hard to develop an innovative SEM strategy. You’re fighting for the attention with thousands and thousands of other brands and people trying to do the same. And it’s harder to succeed with proven marketing tactics.
Bright, shiny objects are much more forgiving. It’s easier to stand out, it’s easier to get recognition in the marketing echo chamber and nobody faults you when you fail. (Just ask all the agencies that developed Second Life islands.)
Nothing against trying new things, exploring new tactics. But it should be based on solid insights and ROI. Not because it was easy.
Walk down Broadway in downtown Los Angeles and, hidden behind atrocious swap-meet-like stores, you’ll see facades of unique and astonishing architecture. Neighborhoods used to have their own character. Their local grocery store, book store and tailor. Now everything is Starbucks, Old Navy and Pizza Hut. Wash, rinse and repeat. I could be in Dallas, Boston or Los Angeles. Everything looks the same. Just the palm trees tell me I’m in Los Angeles.
I fear the same is happening to the Web. Strip Malls make sense. They scale nicely. Companies love scale. It makes businesses predictable. And more effective. Meaning: more profit.
Problem is, Strip Malls are de-humanizing. They don’t add anything to the neighborhood, they just add to the consumption culture. And they are an annoying eyesore.
And while we add ‘Like’ and ‘Twitter’ buttons to everything, retweet another link to the echo chamber, we should ask ourselves if we are committing the crime to change the Web to another Strip Mall. Boring, predictable and very much scalable. What’s in it for us?
Personally, I’d rather have the Wild West on the Web and not another outpost of scalability. Maybe that’s just me.
