Seth Godin is an entrepreneur and prolific business-book author who specializes in marketing in the digital age.
Why you should listen to him:
"Seth Godin may be the ultimate entrepreneur for the Information Age," Mary Kuntz wrote in Business Week nearly a decade ago. "Instead of widgets or car parts, he specializes in ideas -- usually, but not always, his own." In fact, he's as focused on spreading ideas as he is on the ideas themselves.
After working as a software brand manager in the mid-1980s, Godin started Yoyodyne, one of the first Internet-based direct-marketing firms, with the notion that companies needed to rethink how they reached customers. His efforts caught the attention of Yahoo!, which bought the company in 1998 and kept Godin on as a vice president of permission marketing. Godin has produced several critically acclaimed and attention-grabbing books, including Permission Marketing, All Marketers Are Liars, and Purple Cow (which was distributed in a milk carton). In 2005, Godin founded Squidoo.com, a Web site where users can share links and information about an idea or topic important to them.
"[Godin] is a demigod on the Web, a best-selling author, highly sought-after lecturer, successful entrepreneur, respected pundit and high-profile blogger. He is uniquely respected for his understanding of the Internet."Forbes.com
Blog Posts on TED
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Intriguing launch from Seth Godin – October 10, 2005
Marketing guru Seth Godin , whose 'Purple Cow' talk was a hit at TED2003, has launched an ingenious new site called Squidoo.
It plans to accumulate content from anyone willing to play where each page (he calls it a lens) is a self-contained piece of expertise on a single topic. Seth believes this will help make searches much more productive and allow an army of individual mini-experts and bloggers to promote their wisdom to the world. About.com meets wikipedia.
The free e-book accompanying the launch is a great, fast read with real insights, I think, on the future of search. Whether or not Squidoo gets to critical mass, the concept is cool.
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