Would Chris Brogan Take It Back If He Could?
December 19th, 2011
It’s gotta suck sometimes being one of the top social media gurus on the planet.
I mean, sure, your Twitter feed gets a coupla hundred thousand followers. You get to do keynote speeches at big conferences. Your book gets ranked in the top 100 of Internet Marketing books on Amazon.
Ah, yes. The books.
I got an email the other day from Amazon telling me all about Chris’ new book: Google+ for Business: How Google’s Social Network Changes Everything. On the one hand, I respect anyone who manages to crank out a book and make a decent buck doing so. On the other hand, I really feel sorry for Chris on this one.
I can only imagine how it all went down. Step one: Google+ debuts. Step two: There’s all sorts of excitement about Google+. Step three: The book deal is made. Step four: The book is written. Step five: The book gets published.
Somewhere between steps four and five, though, something went askew. What, you ask? Well, check out these posts, for example:
Google+ Pages Officially a Failure (So Far)
Google Engineer Calls Google Plus a ‘Complete Failure’; 5 Reasons We Agree
Well, you get the idea.
So where does this leave Chris? I have no idea; my guess, though, is that it’s either hoping Google+ turns around so he’s proven correct (not likely), wishing he’d never written the book in the first place (maybe) or hoping the next big thing comes along and people forget about Google+ and his book (most likely).
(Of course, not having read the book, maybe it’s a screed about how the failure of Google+ changes everything. If so, ignore everything you’ve just read in this post.)
I do think it’s all a good example of a general tendency toward hyper-accelerated expertise these days. Anytime something slightly significant happens in the world of digital communications, it takes about 12 seconds for there to be dozens upon dozens of blog posts analyzing why that slightly significant something will be the complete game-changer everyone’s been waiting for. After 37 seconds or so, there are probably book deals being discussed.
My advice: Calm down. Let the slightly significant something be absorbed by both the marketplace and the marketplace of ideas. THen step back and take a look and see if it’s worth all that and a bag of chips.
Takeaway for marketers: Sometimes being the best is better than being the first.
December 24th, 2011 at 10:45 am
Thing is, the service is gaining users every day. Their curve is up huge. It was great that you found all the negative death knell posts, but there are even more positive posts, too.
Where am I? I’m doing awesome. This book will position me for a really great 2012. : )
December 24th, 2011 at 11:47 am
So I guess the answer to the headline is “no.” Hey, thanks for stopping by, Chris — no matter what happens to G+, here’s to a healthy and successful 2012
December 27th, 2011 at 4:09 pm
Not sure what you’re talking about here Craig. Google+ is growing and pushing forward. They’re going to win 🙂
January 8th, 2012 at 10:27 pm
I won’t try to talk for anyone in particular, but if you’re a successful author and entrepreneur, you’re likely to be looking 8 steps ahead, never dwelling on anything from the past. If a previous production was actually a failure, you learn from it. Very successful people would tell you it’s an amazing opportunity to get better. I would be surprised if any author or artist who produced something would ever “take it back if they could”.
I can see where you’re coming from with the article, and your right that people jump the gun to get quick success but I think you need to take the name of the author into consideration and realize that this is someone who is a true leader and not someone who would go at it for a quick buck. Big names are big names for a reason and wouldn’t “stoop” because it’s not in their DNA, if it was they would never have had the opportunity to begin with. Cheers!
January 9th, 2012 at 2:25 pm
Thanks for the comment, Mitch — I certainly wasn’t trying to suggest that Chris is in it for a quick buck, and if that’s what came across allow me to apologize for that. I do think, though, that as you say: people jump the gun to be first in line with the blog post, the book, or whatever it may be. Given that this online communications world in which we live can change so profoundly so quickly, it’s inevitable that some of those front-line analysts will get T-boned by circumstance from time to time. I suspect that may be the case with G+, but as the cliche goes: time will tell. Certainly an enthusiastic thumbs up from someone like Chris will encourage many who otherwise might not look closely at G+ to do so, and in that respect he’s helping further G+ and his own position. Then again, Google Wave got a lot of enthusiastic support for a while, too. We’ll see!