Reading Roundup: Scorchers, Gut Checks and The Change Up

Happy Friday! I hope you’ve had a good week and that you’ve survived this crazy heatwave. The temperature hit over 100 degrees in Nashville, and the humidity is enough to make you melt. If you are in the southern half of the U.S., you know what I’m talking about. Hopefully, it cools off soon!

I wanted to try another Reading Roundup this week. I read a LOT of great stuff across the web and I wanted to share some of my favorite articles and highlight some smart folks that you might not know yet.

I hope you find this useful. I’ve done a few of these recently and I’d love to know if you want to see more of these kind of posts on a regular basis. Let me know in the comments.

Without further adieu, here is this week’s Reading Roundup!

  • Your Insatiable Appetite for Recognition is Costing You – How’s that for a headline?! Jon Buscall offers up this awesome gut check that calls us all to the carpet for trying desperately to get noticed by guest posting and commenting all over the blogosphere. While there’s nothing wrong with that, he argues that there might be better things we can do to drive business. He’s right. Don’t miss this one.
  • 4 Big Social Media Mistakes SMBs Make – If you’re a small-to-medium businesss getting started with social media, you need to read this one. Lisa Barone over at Small Business Trends offers up some great pitfalls to avoid with your social media strategy.
  • The Haters – Whether it’s blogging, social media or some other marketing tactic, there will always be haters who say it can’t work. Mitch Joel does a great job of putting “the haters” into perspective. Here are my two favorite line from the post: “The Haters aren’t looking for progress. The Haters are looking at the averages… and who wants to be average?” Pure gold, right? It’s no secret that Mitch Joel is one smart dude. So, check this out.
  • Want Business? Every Person is One of These – Kaarina Dillabough gives us an excellent reminder that everyone you encounter (yes, even the person you flipped off in traffic) has a potential impact on your business. Every person you encounter could be a potential client, vendor or even your biggest champion. Good stuff.
  • The Curious Marketing of the Changeup – Yesterday, on Google+, my pal Tyler Clark shared a YouTube video of Jason Bateman and Ryan Reynolds cutting up and dissing on their new movie, The Change Up. It appears their marketing approach is to admit how stupid the premise is, but encourage people to see it anyway because Jason and Ryan are two funny guys. However, the video feels forced and very scripted. This article thinks this approach is genius. I don’t agree. But then again, I doubt I’m their target market. What do you think of this approach? And, will you go see the movie?

What were your favorite articles this week? Feel free to add them in the comments. And don’t forget to let me know what you think of the Reading Roundup. Want to see more of these?

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Laura Click

Laura Click is brand strategist, speaker, podcaster and the founder of Blue Kite. Learn more about Laura and her work at Blue Kite.

14 replies on “Reading Roundup: Scorchers, Gut Checks and The Change Up”

Thanks so much, Laura, for the very kind inclusion of my blog post.
  I appreciate it!

I like the Reading Roundup concept: it’s always great to have someone you “know, like and trust’ refer you to other sources and resources: makes you a great Connector, Laura!

I’ll be back later to include some of my fave articles from this week.
  Thanks again:)
  Cheers!
  Kaarina

Hi Kaarina! Thanks for stopping by. I was happy to include your article – such a great reminder for all of us.

I’m glad you like the Reading Roundup. It’s funny – I did this almost two years ago when I started blogging (before I launched Blue Kite), but let it go. I thought it might be time to bring it back since there’s SO much out there. And, I like shining a on folks doing good things – like you!

Yes, please share your favorites. I’m always eager to see what other folks are reading. Thanks!

Thanks Laura, and I’m grateful for that light:)

I also wanted to mention: I like the fact that your roundup is manageable, in terms of numbers.

Sometimes, when I hit a site that has a lot of suggestions, I get through a few, take a break, and sometimes never get back to the original site.
  Even a roundup of 3 or 4 is a good number for me…keeps me engaged to check them all out at once.
  Just my two cents, FWIW.
  Cheers!
  Kaarina P.S. I’ll be back with those suggestions later…promise:)

Thanks for the shout out! I found the “Change Up” video at Mediaite (one of my favorite political media sites) of all places. They have a really good analysis of it.
 http://bit.ly/oDd63i

Sure, Tyler! Thanks for sharing this interesting discussion with me. Love the article over at Mediate. I think it articulates exactly how I feel about it. I guess we’ll see what happens with the box office numbers over the weekend. The real question is – are you going to go see it?

As an aside, I should check out Mediate more often. Good stuff there. And, I love Dan Abrams. 😉

Being a cheapskate, I rarely see movies in the theater. I’ll probably see it when it’s on DVD. As a diehard “Arrested Development” fan, I’m a big Jason Bateman fan.

Hi Laura, thanks SOOOO much for the link. It’s funny how a headline can drive the creative process. I was thinking through some headlines and “wallop” — there was the idea.
 

Happy to share it, Jon! I loved that post. And yes, the headline made it. I think headlines are often the hardest part, but yes, sometimes when you create an awesome headline first, the rest of the post falls into place. Job well done!

Thanks for sharing “The Haters,” Laura, I like his thoughts about changing the mindset about social media from “how can this do what regular marketing does” to “how can I take advantage from it from a marketing standpoint–without necessarily using it as a marketing tool.”

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