Just 2 days ago one of the big Web Gurus, Seth Godin, launched a new use case for his out-of-the-box website/publishing toolbox squidoo.com. He called it "Brands in public", basically an aggregation of brand mentions over the web, all neatly put together on a single page with huge SEO power. He wanted to sell root access back to the aggregated brands for 400 bucks a month.
Of course, we over at sixgroups are big fans of this idea offering a similar product, the brandfeed. Seth is rightfully a very important and famous person on the web (read his books!) and I would have expected all kinds of reactions to Brands in public. Brands going crazy, legal actions, consultants in fear, etc. But very interestingly, the sentiment out there is far worse. People have decided to call him out for "brand hijacking" memeing it the "seth godin fail". This is really weird to me.
We are in the groundswell, people talk about brands all the time, everywhere, online and offline. Take the infamous Dell Hell as an example. Clever brands will listen and engage, others will die. Brands have manipulated our decisions with Googillions spent on TV ADS, press armadas, shopping center optimization, etc, etc.... Brands have hijacked our opinions over decades feasting on the unconnectness of people. Brands are the roots of the freakonomy. Now we have the potential to change all this. The technology is here, people are using it. Brands are reacting, spending less on advertising, more on product and communication. "Brands in public" could be a great accelerator. One resource which tells me in seconds if the brand is good or evil, if its products rock or suck. Where i can go to seek help and support. Where the brand learns about my behaviour and connects to me directly.
Sometimes revolutions need to be forced. Seth forced it.
Unfortunatley for him, people are so good at heart that as soon as we see pushing and punishing we often take the stand of the wrong party. Sometimes we solidarize with the big evil monster although it threatens our society. In this case we should rethink our response. One great commenter, @brandcowboy points out on techcrunch: "To me, having a brand is like running for public office. As soon as you’re out there selling, you’re at the mercy of the people you’re selling to. The idea of ‘control’ is absurd at least, evil at worst." Just like that.
Seth by the way has already backed away from his early strategy making the service opt-in now. Very wise a man he is. If people are not ready for this radical approach you better listen and adopt.
