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Thanks for the time to write! 10 Articles which I’m glad I posted

I’ve been working on my annual list of things I’m thankful for and one of the obvious things I am thankful for is being able to sit down and write a little.  While I haven’t had as much time as I would like and I definitely don’t have enough interesting ideas, I was able to find 10 posts which work for me and I now see them in a little different light the farther I am away from the original post date.

  1. Execution and Strategy are not just a function of big ideas, but also principles
  2. Sometimes a target market is small and that’s ok.
  3. Product Management doesn’t need to be hard, but it is more often than not.
  4. Product Roadmaps are typically not more than telling a story.
  5. There are way too many smart people and you need to listen more than you talk
  6. Social Media is changing how most of us are doing our jobs.
  7. You always need to think about how what you do is received by others.
  8. Brands and Products have to be easy to build and buy.
  9. Brands, Products and Cultures are not easily separated
  10. Increasing Market Share is a brand strategy, not a product strategy

Conclusion: It is no longer possible to say ANYTHING original about social media

So it sorta feels like the oxygen has been sucked out of social media or at least the originality.  While I like the slight metaphor twist by Krista Neher and the apparent use of the 5 step approach she undoubtly had ingrained at P&G, where’s the new content?  This isn’t Krista’s fault, the presentation is solid and spot on. The next steps close with connect is classic 5 step, but even with that I still find myself wanting in general for something new to happen in the scene.

Perhaps we are just entering the “no original thought” part of social media.  Pirates, defenders, advocates, rouges, creators, lurkers, trolls, detractors, blah, blah, blah…. Brands in social media need to change their approach to engaging and listening needs to central to the brand’s digital strategy and anyone that doesn’t already know this is just 1 bad quarter from a new job or no job.

Again, NOT to pick on Krista, because she did nail it and is further spreading the word which everyone needs to know, so take a look, since she did get a slot in Vegas which is no small feat:

Brand Management Pubcon Vegas09″>Online Brand Management Pubcon Vegas09

View more presentations from Krista Neher.

Publication: The Strategic Product Manager and the CFO

Volume 7 Issue 5

So you can read the latest piece in print in Pragmatic Marketing‘s The Pragmatic Marketer which I co-authored with John Mecke, take a look.

Give your CFO an opportunity to contribute, participate in the day-to-day workings of your product as a business, and you may just get a business partner who can help you and your product be more successful in the marketplace.

Read More on the Strategic Role of the product manager and the CFO...

Many thanks to the folks at pragmatic for being able to write it and to have it published.