I’m giving this one 4-stars out of 5. Godin continues to do what he preaches: get better at what you do.
While I’m still occasionally struck by the thought that Godin’s writing strength is blog-style format rather than full-length books, that’s my biggest complaint about his thoughts and writing.
As someone who finds myself in the role of an accidental marketer for my library, I’ve been following Godin’s advice now for a number of years and it seems to be working. The Spokane Public Library recently passed a $77 million dollar bond measure (with a 65% approval rating). Prior to that we passed a levy lid-lift with nearly a 73% approval rating. We’re doing something right.
I certainly can’t take all the credit (or even just a fraction of it… I have some amazing co-workers) but here are 13 questions from Godin that address how to go about sharing valuable work.
Who’s the work for?
If your answer to this is “everyone,” you’re screwed. Go find the “smallest viable audience” that you can and build something for them. For me, it’s the Spokane business community. And even more specifically, it is the business startup scene in Spokane.
What’s it for?
Shrinking the scope of risk facing startups. If I can throw a pile of data at a new startup and shrink their risk by a certain percentage, that’s a win for them, a win for Spokane and a win for the library.
What is the worldview of the audience you’re seeking to reach?
It’s a mix of folks seeking affiliation/belonging and folks looking to dominate a particular line of business. Mostly though, it’s those looking for affiliation.
What are they afraid of?
Failure. The unknown. Looking dumb. Or the worst: not knowing they are looking dumb while failing.
What story will you tell? Is it true?
That the Spokane Public Library has one of the best business research collections of any library in the nation. You can look it up. And yes, it’s true.
What change are you seeking to make?
The culture that I’m trying to shift is the Spokane business culture. I want to move it from a competitive-minded entity to one more based on co-opetition, with the library firmly rooted at the hub of all collaborative efforts that can benefit the local business community.
How will it change your status?
At this point, I’m not sure. A decade ago I would have hoped to be where I am today in terms of having the library viewed as a trusted and valued community partner. Where it goes from here? Hmm. I’ll have to ponder.
How will you reach the early adopters and neophiliacs?
By showing up, over and over and over and meeting the business community on their turf. I can’t wait for them to find me. I have to go find them.
Why will they tell their friends?
An opportunity to be associated with something unique, uniquely good and uniquely valuable.
What will they tell their friends?
That the library has an amazing set of business research tools and they have a business librarian whose only job is to help Spokane’s businesses find what they need.
Where’s the network effect that will propel this forward?
A number of avenues here, but we’ve moved past the purely word-of-mouth advertising (which continues to be awesome) and are now positioned to be the go-to resource for all things business research related in the Spokane community. Industry trends? Go to the library. Market research? Go to the library. Competitive analysis? Go to the library. Sales lead development? Go to the library. Demographics research? Go to the library. Workforce training? Go to the library. And so on.
What assets are you building?
Right now, the base is spokanebusiness.org. That’s the bread and butter. But I do have plans to pull together my own blog so that I can communicate directly to my users without needing to go through some other platform to reach those who are excited about what the library is doing.
Are you proud of it?
Hell, yeah. And it’s only going to get better.
ReMarkable 