Mike Seidle ...notes from the road

First, this post isn't about supporting the war in the Middle East. By now, you either believe it's the right thing to do or you do not. I'm not going to convince you one way or the other.

I'm hearing more and more people say "I DON'T SUPPORT THE TROOPS OR THE WAR." Usually, this is followed with something like:

"Why should I support some kid who doesn't know why he or she is being shot at who is is fighting a war I don't want fought for people I never supported to begin with?"

Anyone else noticing that the new hotness in the media is labelling "tea partiers" anyone who shows up to protest something that is so stupid that the only thing more ridiculous is to show up and protest it? Opposed to a lesbian going to prom? Must be a tea partier. Opposed to feeding the hungry? Tea Partier. Problem is that none of the issues are connected to the issue that is the Tea Party movement's central focus:

High Taxes

Everyone in the book business is trying to replicate Apple's iPod/iTunesTake success with a gadget (Kindle, Nook, iPad) and company store strategy.

It's a silly strategy that has little future because books and multimedia are very different technologies.

You can't escape the BP oil spill in the news. As of today, the Drew Curtis press cycle is stuck in the analyzing how bad the news is phase. That means we get all kinds of speculative doom and gloom stories about the situation.

It's a real disappointment to see the Catholic Chuch continuing to be lambasted by the media over child sex abuse scandals. The latest issue appears to be Cardinal Ratzinger's handling of abuse investigations prior to becoming Pope Benedict.

Short term success should never be confused with excellence. It's easy to prop something up and win quickly. It's much harder to build for a sustained long term winning effort.

Last year in Indiana sports provides some insight:

On Friday my friend Erik Deckers posted about how Cumberland Pointe Apartments was abusing the flag. Erik's post really hit a nerve: I wish people would get a brain about the flag.

Ever wonder why the news cycle keeps getting more and more fear-centric?  Why do political special interest groups spend so much on creating alarm?  It's pretty simple:

Marketers, the media and politicians are hacking your brain.

Before you get out the tinfoil hat, let's discuss the security hole they are exploiting:

Your built-in capacity for all-or-nothing responses to fears and pre-wiring to overreact to threats.

It takes a year or more to get results.
Building up the relationships you need takes a lot of time. Most people buy into a social media program thinking it's going to happen by tomorow morning. It will not. Profiles and pages on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter take time to grow (especially Twitter.com since it's now rate limited). Blog audiences take time to develop.  Facebook pages, LinkedIn groups also take time to develop.

Blogs are the center of the universe when it comes to social campaigns

There's a reason things are a mess in Washington, and it's not necessarily the White House.  Finally, the American People are on to the source of the odor: the Congress. 57% of Americans would like to dump every last member and start over according to this Rasmussen poll.  Here are some gems from the survey indicating that we the people have figured out what ails our nation: