Proximity + People = Profit

I was talking with a friend recently about a friend I had known for twenty years who passed away last summer. Many of us who hadn’t kept in touch got back in touch.

Proximity is a strange thing.

Sometimes you feel close to people, then you move apart. Life and lame excuses get in the way.


As we navigate all the new gadgets and social circles, argue over usb connectors and web browsers, stand on the PC or Apple side of the room, it all make sense. Without us, this is irrelevant. Without people, your business or circle of influence is vapor.

Your customers are not revenue, they are people. Your business is not built with bricks and mortar and desks and chairs, it is built by people.

The next time you get caught up in all the stuff we talk about here and many other places, think of the people you work with or work for you. They are not numbers, they are not cogs in the wheel; they are people.

Gadgets and doohickeys are fun - I love my new smartphone - but without the people, who really cares? Technology has given us instant proximity if we want it - to other people!

If we paid closer attention to people, wouldn't that improve the bottom line?

@knealemann
strategy. marketing. social media.

photo credit: skydiveorange

Are You Open or Closed?

PCs Need Not Apply

Until the introduction of the iPhone, in order to get inside the walls of Apple Inc., you had to work at Apple Inc. and pass a vigorous series of tests. Body fluids were drawn, brain and fingerprint scans were performed. Even your mother was called for a reference.

There were unconfirmed reports of weeping and crying and …okay, they didn’t call your mother but the wall to climb over was rather high. That was intentional. Okay, and the claim about body fluids and scans was a bit of a stretch too. But not by much.

Feel Free To Promote

No one was allowed in, unless they were invited. Those on the outside were free to promote the great things happening within the kingdom du Jobs but opinions were neither requested nor accepted.

Apple decided while the rest of the world was building open platforms, Mac et al were to be closed. Closed. CLOSED.

Laugh and Point

Many of us PC's drool from afar. Few days go by when I don't hear the snicker in the voice of a colleague when I shamefully tell them my laptop is not an Apple. I know, it's pretty bad.

What often follows is something like: "Dude, you don't have a Mac?!"

What About You?

Is your offering so kick ass that people wait patiently for the drawbridge to lower for the privilege to walk across the mote into your kingdom? Some claim they "own" the social media space or marketing world, others say they have created a community of influence.

Even Apple had to lower the wall eventually.

Can you and I afford to create closed platforms?

@knealemann
knealemann at gmail dot com

Helping clients better utilize all media.
Building experiences, not campaigns.

photo credit: herstmonceux-castle.com