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Seth Godin:小岛营销欢迎你

28/07/2009

原文链接:Welcome to island marketing
作者:Seth Godin
译者:Esther

版权声明:本文可以任意转载,转载时请务必保持作者、译者署名的完整性。

如果你在小岛上做生意,每个互动都举足轻重,每位客户都弥足珍贵。

你能够兜售的人数有限,你接触的每个人都认识所有其他人,所以你随时都得拿出最好表现。你不能说句“难缠”,就去找下一个客户。你不能经营反反复复提供无穷无尽幼稚前景的广告。你只有一次机会留下第一印象,而在岛上,这个印象至关重要。

想想芝加哥的航空公司,由于不缺公务乘客,该公司就店大欺客,利欲熏心,再把他们和玛莎葡萄园的短途航空公司两相对比,后者知道人们总可以选择其他短途航空公司或坐轮渡,他们也知道自己的服务对象都很强,因为他们可不是源源不断。

可能你已经猜到了,正如我们这个日益缩小的世界上的大多数东西,所有营销者如今都在岛上了。

小岛营销观点正是Zappos模式。每次互动都很宝贵,同时也是让人愉悦的机会。市场营销人员不再用钱或平台耗尽市场来干扰或促进他们的成功。实际上,我们得像在岛上争取并悉心扶植许可经营一样。

从这个角度看,标题广告和各种弹出信息比从前更无意义。外包随机拨打电话来进行电话营销也是不明智的举措之一。很早以前,我们就已用尽了这些资源。

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yancey:Kickstarter和1000位超级粉丝

28/07/2009

原文链接:Kickstarter and the 1,000 True Fans
作者:yancey
译者:Esther

版权声明:本文可以任意转载,转载时请务必保持作者、译者署名的完整性。

在讲述如何成为明星,如何拥有粉丝的灵丹妙计中,Kevin Kelly的 1,000 位超级粉丝 一文脱颖而出。用Kelly的话说:

创作者,如画家、音乐家、摄影家、手艺人、表演家、漫画家、设计师、视频制作者或作者——换言之,任何创造艺术品的人——只需1000位超级粉丝,就能谋生了。

超级粉丝的定义是购买你创作的所有东西的人。他们会开200英里来看你的演唱。他们会买超豪华高分辨率的新版本,哪怕他们已有低分辨率的旧版本。他们在Google提醒上专门关注你。当你绝版的东西出现时,他们在eBay页面上设置书签。他们来到你的开幕式。他们请你签名。他们买T-恤、杯子、帽子。他们等不及你出新专辑。他们是忠贞不二的粉丝。

我们完全相信这个——毕竟,Kickstarter其实是创造者和超级粉丝之间的互动轴心。它把艺术家和粉丝(或更广义地说,生产者和消费者)之间的障碍挪走了,创造了交流的可能性,这种交流比大生产所带来的交流更充实、更有效、情感上更容易引起共鸣。哪个更重要:《在彩虹里》的音乐质量还是Radiohead与超级粉丝面对面(在此过程中,培养新的超级粉丝)地直接发行?

这是一条我们都想相信的煽动性理论。当我们满耳充斥着互联网如何扼杀艺术明星,你的iTunes音乐资料库会在法庭上对你不利时,这个理论听上去那么简单,那么可行,甚至令人感到奇怪。不可能是真的,对吧?

根据Kickstarter推出以来前三个月的数据,看上去还不止这些。迄今为止,如果一个项目能够达到其资金目标的25%,它就有94%的成功率。以下有图示。X轴代表资助的百分比,Y轴显示已达标的百分比:

truefans

点击看大图

我们已经假设存在项目机会能够显著增加的某个临界值,可怎么只有25%?怎么这么低?

有很多因素起作用,包括公开确认(想起了这段视频) 和传统要素。不过,比这些更重要的是超级粉丝:如果基础工作已经做好,建立了直接关系,你的粉丝可以确保你那94%的成功率。又如Kelly所说:

这个可以让你谋生的忠贞粉丝小圈子被次级粉丝的同心圆所包围。这些人不会购买你的所有东西,也不会追求直接接触,但是他们会买你生产的很多东西。你供给超级粉丝的过程也同样滋润着次级粉丝。随着你获得新的超级粉丝时,你也可以增加更多次级粉丝。如果你不断继续,最终你就可能有几百万粉丝,大获成功。

若说起来——那是关键——超级粉丝是重头戏。宣传(不仅仅是粉丝们;也是社会资本)的动机很清楚,没有什么比把别人变成你的事业更让人开怀的。所以,像Kelly说的那样,超级粉丝吸引次级粉丝,后者在一切如计划进行时,会被同化为超级粉丝。如 Borg

Kelly表示,类似我们25%的东西增加了,94%的成功可能会出现:

所需超级粉丝的数量并没有爆炸,而是缓慢按比例增长。最后,根据媒体的不同,实际数量可能不尽相同。可能画家有500名超级粉丝,而视频制作者有5000名。在世界各地,各个数字也不同。不过,其实,实际数据并不关键,因为除了努力尝试,无法确定该数据。一旦你处在那种方式,实际数字就会明显。那就是适用于你的超级粉丝数量。我的公式可能偏了一个数量级,即使如此,也比100万少得多。

从一开始,我们就鼓励创造者尽可能开拓自己的网络:很显然,观众需要更多互动,更多接触,需要更亲密的关系。Twitter已经证实了这一点。所以Kickstarter所做的是回答那个问题的下一步:一旦你有了10个、100个或1000个甚至1,000,000个超级粉丝,接下来会怎样?

您请他们在桌上有一席之地。您邀请他们成为你的赞助人。你给他们机会产生影响,这不再是你的故事了,也是他们的。这种成功才会持久。

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John holt:您是狱警还是向导?

26/07/2009

Author: John holt
Source: What Do I Do Monday
Translator: Esther

1. 老师是狱警

What teachers ought to do, all over the country, and what schools of education ought to be encouraging them to do, is quite simply to refuse to fill out these forms. If the schools want to run a jail business, let them find their own jailers, let them devise meth-ods of punching in, as at a factory, let them handle their self-made problem any way they want. But it is not the proper business of teachers, and we ought not to have anything to do with it. Mean-while, mark everyone present. Or if this arouses too much suspi-cion, mark only one or two people absent each day. We can hardly suppose that it is good for children to be in this kind of school or classroom, or that in setting the law on them we are doing them a favor.

全国各地的老师们应该做的,也是教育学院应该鼓励他们做的,就是拒绝填写这些(记录学生出勤)表格。如果学校想经营监狱,让他们自己去找狱卒,让他们自己设计打卡方式,就像工厂一样,让他们随心所欲地处理自找的麻烦。但那不是老师该做的事,我们不应和它有任何瓜葛。还有,给每人都记到。如果这引起太多怀疑,每天只记一两个人缺席。我们无法设想孩子们在这种学校或教室有任何好处,或认为把法律强加于他们,是为了他们好。

The place is mad and absurd, all right; but I am afraid noth-ing in it is as mad and absurd as this poor young teacher who after all is only trying to do the absurd things her absurd bosses have told her to do. Going to school, as she goes, is indeed going to war. But we, the adults, started the war, not the children. They are only fighting back as best they can. We promise poor kids that if they will do what we want, there are goodies waiting for them out there. They know that these promises are false. All this stop, stop, stop. Why is it so necessary? A child will open a notebook when he has something he wants to write in it. If he doesn’t want to write anything, what difference whether the notebook is open or not? “We have not started to learn yet. . .” The teacher certainly hasn’t, though the children have probably learned a good deal about the teacher, at least how to bug her. Why must all these other things be done before the learning starts? Let some worthwhile activity start, and is it not possible that many of these other things will gradually stop, just because they are less interesting? Is it not at least worth a try? Worth some thought?

这个地方荒谬可笑,那也罢了;不过我担心没有什么比这位可怜的老师更荒谬可笑,说到底,她不过是努力做她那荒谬的老板让她做的一切。像她那样去学校,其实是上战场。不过,是我们大人引发了战争,而不是孩子。他们只是竭力反抗而已。我们对穷孩子们保证,如果他们做我们希望的事情,就会有好东西等着他们。他们知道这些承诺都是空的。这些都得停、停、停。为什么必须这样?如果孩子有东西要写,他会打开笔记本。如果他不想写,笔记本摊开合上有什么区别?“我们还没开始学呢……”老师当然还没开始,虽然孩子可能已经对老师了若指掌,至少知道怎么跟她捣乱。为什么在学习开始之前,必须完成这些事情?让有价值的活动先开始。难道没可能这些事情因为乏味就逐渐停止?难道不值得尝试一下?不值得思索?

2. 老师是向导

We talk a lot about teachers “guiding” in schools. Most of the time we just mean doing what teachers have done all along—telling children what to do and trying to make them do it. There is, I sup-pose, a sense in which the word “guide” can mean that. If I guide a blind man down a rough path, I lead him, I decide where he is to go, give him no choice. But “guide” can mean something else. When friends and I go on a wilderness canoe trip in Canada, we plan our trip with a guide who knows the region. We know what we are looking for—fishing good enough to give us a chance to catch our food, a chance of good campsites, trails not too rough to portage and not too obscure to follow, not too many people, no airplanes dropping in, no loggers. We discuss this or that lake, this or that alternative route, how long it would take to get from this place to that. Eventually, using the guide’s answers to our ques-tions, we plan our trip. He, knowing the landings, the places— often hard to spot—where the trails meet the lake’s edge, comes with us, to help us get where we have decided we want to go.

我们经常谈论老师在学校“引导”。大多数时候,我们只表示老师们一直以来所做的事情——告诉孩子们做什么,努力让他们完成。我想,在某种意义上这正是“引导”一词的意义。如果我引领一位盲人走很崎岖的道路,我领着他,我决定他往哪走,不给他任何选择。但是,“引导”可以表示其他意思。当我和朋友在加拿大旷野乘独木舟时,我们和一位了解该地区的向导一起计划我们的旅途。我们知道我们要什么——多钓鱼保证我们饿不着,合适的野营地,路线不能太崎岖不便于水陆接驳,也不能太偏僻难以追随,人不能太多,没有飞机,没有伐木者。我们讨论这个湖那个湖,这种那种备用路线,从这到那要多久。最后,根据导游的答案,我们计划行程。他了解各个码头,了解道路和湖边接头的各个地方——通常都难以发现,和我们一起,帮助我们达到我们想去的地方。

Or, as a friend of mine put it, we teachers can see ourselves as travel agents. When we go to a travel agent, he does not tell us where to go. He finds out first what we are looking for. Do we care most about climate or scenery, or about seeing new cultures, or about museums and entertainment? Do we want to travel alone or with others? Do we like crowds or want to stay away from them? How much time and money do we want to spend? And so on. Given some idea of what we are looking for, he makes some suggestions. Here is this trip, which will take so long and cost so much; here is this one, here is that. Eventually, we choose, not he. Then, he helps us with our travel and hotel arrangements, gets us what tickets and information we need, and we are ready to start. His job is done. He does not have to take the trip with us. Least of all does he have to give us a little quiz when we get back to make sure we went where we said we would go or got out of the trip what we hoped to get. If anything went wrong he will want to hear about it, to help us and other clients plan better in the future. Otherwise, what we got out of the trip and how much we enjoyed it is our business.

或者,如我的朋友所说,我们当老师的可以把自己当作旅行代理。我们到旅行社时,旅行代理并不告诉我们到哪里去。他首先看看我们想要什么。我们最关心的是气候或景点,或者欣赏不同文化,或者参观博物馆和游乐场?我们想独自出门呢,还是结伴而行?我们喜欢热闹呢,还是想远离人群?我们准备花多少时间金钱?诸如此类。在知道我们想要什么之后,他会提出建议。行程是这样的,时间多长,费用多少;这是行程A,那是行程B。最终决策的是我们,不是他。然后他帮我们安排旅程和酒店,帮我们获取需要的各种票和信息,我们准备好出发。他的工作完成了。他不用和我们一起旅行。他也绝不会在我们回来时给我们测验,确保我们去了我们说了要去的地方,或者从旅行中获得我们希望得到的。如果任何事情出了差错,他也愿意听我们说,下次帮我们和其他客户更好地计划。否则,我们的旅行收获如何,我们是否喜欢这次旅行,都是我们自己的事。

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灵感来源:生活指南

25/07/2009








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双重束缚

22/07/2009

犹如双重思想(double think),双重束缚(double bind)是一种将两个原本矛盾的情境强加于人使其精神分裂的残忍手段。

如果说独裁政治是双重思想的培育皿,那么当代学校便是双重束缚的滋生地。

在学校工作、学习的教务人员、学生们都希望将自己的学校打造成为一个快乐的学习圣地,这是不需要被怀疑的,但是,传统学校先天的下部构造(infrastructure)注定那将是白日做梦。

为适应现代社会舆论的监督,学校确实在一点点地改变,体罚基本被杜绝了,书包与作业在适当地减负,部分学校已经禁止公布成绩排行榜,不少学校正逐步关注个性化教育,不仅有数理特长班,也有艺术特长班,每个学校课后的文娱生活也都有各自的特色,学生们仿佛真的如官方宣传得那样——我们在快乐地学习。

事实真是这样吗?

曾经解释过,为什么升学率是每个学校的命根,只要影响升学率的标准——分数——不改变,学校就不会获得根本改变,反而会滋生一种可怕的东西,即本文的主题——双重束缚。

那么,学校中的双重束缚又是如何作用于每一位学生的呢?John Holt是这样描述的:

Most of our schools convey to children a very powerful mes-sage, that they are stupid, worthless, untrustworthy, unfit to make even the smallest decisions about their own lives or learning. The message is all the more powerful and effective because it is not said in words. Indeed—and here is the double-bind again—the schools may well be saying all the time how much they like and respect children, how much they value their individual differences, how committed they are to democratic and human values, and so on. If I tell you that you are wise, but treat you like a fool; tell you that you are good, but treat you like a dangerous criminal, you will feel what I feel much more strongly than if I said it directly. Further-more, if I deny that there is any contradiction between what I say and what I do, and forbid you to talk or even think about such a contradiction, and say further that if you even think there may be such a contradiction it proves that you are not worthy of my loving attention, my message about your badness becomes all the stronger, and I am probably pushing you well along the road to craziness as well.

试译:大多数学校都在向学生传递一条强有力的信息,即你们是愚钝的、无用的、不可信赖的,你们没有能力为自己的生活或学习做决定,哪怕需要做决定的事情小之又小。这一信息之所以是强大的、有影响力的,是因为它并不通过言语传递。双重束缚尽显于此,学校确实善于并常常说这一类话——我们是多么地喜欢你们(指学生)、尊重你们,我们是多么地了解个性化差异的价值,我们在教务管理上是多么地民主且重视人性价值,等等。假如我一边告诉你你是多么的聪明,一边又像对待傻瓜一样对待你;假如我一边告诉你你是多么的优秀,一边又像对待危险罪犯一样提防你,你能感受到的一定比我直接用语言来传递要强烈得多。除此之外,假如我否认我所说的和我所做的存在任何矛盾,并且禁止你谈论甚至思考我们的矛盾之处,更进一步讲,如果你怀疑我们言行不一,那只得证明你个人不值得获得我们的关爱。来自我对你的不良评价将愈加强烈,你没准会被我推向通往疯癫的不归之路。

最后,我只想与各位分享一处个人感受,上午我读到上面那段原文的时候,我是边起着鸡皮疙瘩边读完的,我想,如果当时屋里开着空调的话,定是会冒出冷汗的。

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灵感来源:重构学校

20/07/2009




















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学习方式之二,定位

20/07/2009

接上一篇:学习方式之一,交流

谷歌地图搜索某个地址后,它都会让你选择是【前往此处】还是【从此处出发】,这便是定位。没有准确的定位,我们就无从知晓自己正在哪、要去哪以及如何到达目的地。

【前往此处】即目的地是应事先明确的,请各位反观自己是否已经找到了人生目标,如果仅仅随波逐流于传统教育的既定轨道上,自己将愈加同质化,变得毫无竞争优势,那是十分危险的。

【从此处出发】即起始地是随时变化的,客观地讲,大部分人都在以不同方式努力奔向各自的目的地,但很少人主动检查自己正处于哪里,如果描述不出自己的现有状态,其他人就无法帮助你指明方向,同时,自己也会陷入迷惘,失去方向感,无法继续前进。

John Holt是这样诠释【定位】的:

In How Children Fail described some of the incredible con-fusions about numbers in the minds of my fifth graders. For years their teachers had tried to teach them arithmetic from where they thought they ought to be, instead of finding where they were and beginning from there. The children had learned nothing. If we don’t let a child move from where he is, he can’t move at all. All he can do is try to fool us into thinking he is moving. Indeed, he can-not even hold the ground he has. Jose was far less able to learn at twelve than he had been at six, and so were many of the supposedly bright suburban children I taught. We cannot stand still in the world. Only by moving out into the world do we keep it real. If we do not grow into it, it closes in on us, and turns, as it does for so many, into a haze of fantasies, delusions, nightmares.

试译:在《孩子们如何失败》一书中我描述过小学五年级时自己对数字的那种超级混乱的感觉。多年来数学老师一直试图想当然地把数学传授给在她们脑中虚构的想当然的我们,而不是先去了解学生理解吸收的程度分别到了哪里。因此孩子们什么都没学到。如果我们不能帮助孩子从他们各自的起始位置开始移动,他们就无法移动。孩子们唯一能做的就是给老师们幻觉,让老师误以为他们理解了、移动了。事实上,孩子们甚至已无法平稳地站立于原先位置。十二岁的Jose的学习能力已经远远不如他六岁的时候,还有很多我教过的本该聪明伶俐的孩子们,学习能力却在逐步退化。我们不能静止不动,只有通过移动、融入才能让我们的世界完整真实。即使我们不主动融入,这个世界也会逼向我们,化作一团由幻想、错觉、梦魇构成的薄雾。

这里补充一点对十二岁的Jose的描述,有助于理解上文:

[Jose] could not believe, for instance, that anything contained in books, or mentioned in classrooms, belonged by rights to him-self, or even belonged to the world at large, as trees and lamp-posts belong quite simply to the world we all live in. He be-lieved, on the contrary, that things dealt with in school belonged somehow to school. . . . There had been no indication that he could share in them, but rather that he would be measured against them and found wanting. . . . Nor could he see any con-nection between school and his life at home and in the streets.

试译:比如,Jose无法相信,那些在书中或课堂上被提及的事物,是与现实中的他息息相关的,甚至还与这世界具有联系,就好像大树与路灯都属于我们生活的这个世界。相反,他(Jose)认为,在学校学到的东西貌似只属于学校本身……没有迹象表明他能够将知识与现实融为一体,抑或去对照它们并找到不足之处……他也无法看到学校与他自己的生活(不管是在家里还是在大街上)有任何关联。

很显然,Jose被那化为错觉与梦魇的世界扰乱得不轻,在他的世界里,学校就是学校,放学后就是放学后,在学校学到的知识也只属于他的另一个世界——学校,他脑中的世界是分裂的,而客观的世界是统一的,不断经受着来自两个不同世界的刺激,作为家长你想让自己的孩子也享受享受Jose的分裂感和挫败感吗?你必然是不肯的,但事实上很多家长(很可能包括你哦)确实这样去做了。

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