A big part of marketing is promoting an idea, a product or a service. It usually takes the form of a message that has to be delivered in a way that it will reach the right audience, moreover it will call for action. The virality of such messages was always an important metric to consider, however it continuously gains a lot more of attention in the Social Media Marketing Era, where the ability to share, connect and link is tremendous and most importantly easy.

And if there’s something that no one in marketing could ignore about Social Media, is the enormous potential of viralizing a message. According to Torsten Henning Hensel, a Creative Consultant from Berlin, the virality power of Social Media comes straight from the power of Links. The more you can link people with messages, the more your message becomes viral. And then, the Matthew Effect comes into the game to play its own role: “The rich get richer and the poor gets poorer”

So, what about your message? Is it rich or poor?

If you were planning to watch a DVD tonight, or going to a movie, or watch a couple episodes of your favorite series, cancel it! Well, I am not going to tell what to do, I’m joking of course, but if you haven’t seen this video before, please consider do sometime. It is 1:15 hours long and I know your time is valuable, but so does the learning that comes out of this piece of inspiration. Personally I have seen it for 3 times! 3 times and believe me, I am not that famous for having a lot of free time.

In brief, this is the last lecture of Professor Randy Pausch, a Carnegie Mellon Professor of Computer Science and Human-Computer Interaction, where he describes how can anyone of us really achieve his or her childhood dreams! Besides being shocked after realizing what this video is all about and under what circumstances it was recorded, you will be more amazed of how your childhood dreams have been realized throughout your life, moreover how important and feasible it is to chase the rest of them!

Enjoy…

Well, I guess I have so many dreams in life that I shouldn’t be so excited for just catching another one. But this one was very exciting! I finally met the one and only, the most influential and “remarkable” marketing guru of our times: Seth Godin!

On Monday 2/8/2010 I attended a signing event at Borders in NYC. Seth Godin and Steven Pressfield were there to promote their new books “Linchpin” and “The War of Art” respectively and to share some thoughts and ideas about being indespensable and dealing with resistance. The authors initiated an open and interesting discussion with the audience that luckily was as crowded as it allows to have a calm and personalized chat with them.

As always Seth had a lot of things to say with his unique philosophical way and great sense of humor. The one that really intrigued my thinking was when he made some points about what it takes to become successful. As he quoted “After 20 years of research on successful people I found out that all of them have one thing in common: They are successful…”

Think of this for a moment… Does it sound weird to you? It did for me for about a moment, but then I realized the wisdom behind this quote. If you want to succeed go for it, and succeed! No one can stop you, there is nothing you can’t do and there are no limits if you really want it. You just need to find what you want to do, what will make you happy and stick to this! Stick, stick, stick! Stick to this till you succeed!

Beyond the joy to meet with Godin and have a chat with him, this event gave me so much inspiration that I can’t wait to share with you on the following posts… Keep in touch…

Don’t you think that the word “fun” is sort of underestimated in the business world? I guess there are some reasonable connotations to this word that do not allow its popularity in the business dictionary, but having fun in business and of course in life, is probably one of the most desirable conditions and a definite factor of success.

Fun is a state of mind that brings out a lot of creativity and motivation, inspiring people to act and perform:

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TheFunTheory.com is a website dedicated to the thought that something as simple as fun is the easiest way to change people’s behaviour for the better. It shows how a simple but creative  idea can transform the way we do things, making them more desirable and exciting.

There is a great business lesson here: Whatever you do in business or life, make sure you have fun! Fun is what will keep you up and running everyday. It is what will help you overcome any kind of challenges fearlessly. It will make you more appealing and remarkable, attracting the people around you to play your game.

…and I’m not kidding…