Posted by Mary Ellen Miller, Director of Marketing
“You must unlearn what you have learned.” -Yoda, Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back(as quoted by David Meerman Scott at the Hubspot Inbound Marketing Summit, Boston, MA September 8, 2008)
All of us in marketing/PR these days are in the process of unlearning.
What were once tried and true methods of reaching an audience are now becoming the ways of the past. As PR folks, we no longer have a target audience of just a few key journalists. Likewise, as David Meerman Scott told us at the Hubspot Inbound Marketing Summit, marketers used to focus on nameless, faceless prospects. Today there is no such thing. There’s a human being connected to each personal engagement out there and as Scott says, one can become 80,000.
Scott told us to “think differently” and be “willing to lose control.” This made me think of Tiger Woods. He attained some of his greatest feats after stepping back, and along with his coach, breaking down his swing and unlearning it. Each time he broke it down, he would go through a lull only to later achieve even greater victories with the new swing.
For those who haven’t read Scott’s book “The New Rules of Marketing and PR” as the cover states, it discusses using news releases blogs, podcasts, viral marketing and online media to reach buyers directly. No more middle man. We all must think like a publisher. I read the book just before joining n-tara earlier this year. I knew that it was time to step into a new world and break down my swing after years of traditional marketing and PR.
I’m still in the process of unlearning but the conference made me realize we are all unlearning together. This blog is just one part of my new swing. Fore!