What a contrast! I was reading Seth Godin’s latest, Meatball Sundae, on the plane last night and then my email points me (thanks Caryn) to Gene Marks’ Tech ‘Solutions’ Your Small Biz Can’t Use, on the BusinessWeek site.
Gene Marks has a delightfully contrarian view of RSS and blogs and such for small business. I think I disagree with almost all of what he’s saying, but that’s okay, because his side of it needs airing too. Disagreeing is fun.
But seriously, Gene, dump spam filters? What a nightmare! And search engine optimization not important? What? Or how about this advice: dump the anti-virus protection. No, Gene, not good advice. He’s also against blogging, CRM software, online video, and … well, read it yourself.
What’s fun is how much these opinions can turn on their end because of the context. Who you are and what you do determines what you need. Note that I’m a software entrepreneur and Gene is an accountant, and maybe that’s why what works for him wouldn’t work for me. But I don’t think it will work for you either. Of course, that’s just my opinion.
Seth’s book is about how a new industrial revolution builds businesses around and for and because of the essential differences that make “remarkable” marketing valid. In other words, old style businesses don’t have as much to gain from new style marketing as new style businesses. Sort of. I mean it’s a great book, and I’m only halfway through it, so I apologize if I oversimplify.
The contrast here — between Seth talking about a fourth industrial revolution and Gene talking about “highfalutin software and gadgets … not suited for small business” is just plain interesting.
Also — re my last post — I’m only half here, I spent last night on a plane.
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