Time for Me to Appreciate Marketers

There is a lot of social media guru's and it can fill up an entertaining hour of put downs and laughter at the expense of people who are ridiculed in this new area, but that kind of humour does not help me to become wiser about the profitable path of social media and it takes me off the road of learning when there are good minds that one can learn from - even if I may personally object to a form of marketing that is now called social media.  That is where Gary Vaynerchuck comes in :

This is not the main part of orange intelligence but it is the most popular part for those who are seeing the link between marketing and social media.  Vaynerchuk is not one of those people who come drinking kool aid - he simply points to what he has achieved and there is absolutely no argument at the level of success he has achieved. 

Personally for me, my ire should never have been directed at amateur marketers using social media to be the online version of snake-oil salesmen, it actually should be directed at the concept of "following", WHERE the goal is self-directed learning, with capable self-directed learners.  As a self-directed learner my problem is not following great quality, it is knowing that there is SO MUCH GOOD CONTENT - passes me by because I have no time to access it.  The problem isn't one of not enough time to access this content, it is changing completely how it is I learn online - and here in this instance or case, following gets totally in my way.

Curation is a totally different value than following the path of randomness, because if we don't make our own learning path, we are engaged in absolute randomness of following.  The problem here is that following is not a euphemism for learning.  Assuming that online properties are a complete match to our own individual learning styles is not just naive, it is wasteful.  Others copying my learning style is just as wasteful because they are then assuming I have discovered the silver bullet for learning online.  Maybe I have but learning styles are different, we are all different.

Why is what Gary Vaynerchuk compelling in this interview?  It is because he knows his learning path and he discovered it because he pursued it and a part of his earning path is teaching others and this is where his desire to give back becomes a virtuous cycle for him, because he has also prepared for receiving.   I am only interested in the learning path, without having followers who are trying to learn an earning path - so that kind of following is not muscle to me, it is pure fat.  For Gary Vaynerchuk, even he is talking about "doing" and he values his following.

I have the ability to be a good marketer but Orange Intelligence is building up an appreciation for marketers, branding experts, salespeople and other commercial activity - and by simply paying attention without going overboard, there is sufficient exposure to Orange Intelligence that I believe will be great for my own learning journey.

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