Great ideas are polarizing. You either love ‘em or hate ‘em.

Mediocre ideas are satisficing. They appeal to everybody and nobody all at once.

The problem is that great ideas often never see the light of day. Focus groups, committees and myopic thinking often win the battle against.

Imagine a sculptor bringing a work of art to be reviewed by a committee. He pulls it out onto the table and everyone goes ‘oooooohhhhh’ and they are delighted. “It’s a masterpiece they proclaim!”.

Then after the excitement dies down, one person proclaims, “I like it but…”

Soon, everyone reaches into their pockets and to pull out their block of sandpaper. The first person takes the sculpture and sands off a rough corner. Then the next person sands away the little bit of unevenness. The third person tries to work out a divot or two. This sculpture gets passed around the table and one at a time the committee manages to turn the piece of art into a wooden ball. “That looks better” they proclaim.

Of course it isn’t’ better at all.

If you’re in a room full of people reviewing an idea and the room starts to form camps, you are onto something. Resist the temptation to pull out your sandpaper.

Nobody has time for boring anymore. We’d rather spend time on interesting.

It’s not sufficient to post just any Youtube video. You need to post a video that is interesting if you want to be garner attention in the  24 hours of video being uploaded every minute.

It’s not sufficient to post just any photo to Flickr anymore. Your photo needs to be interesting to be discovered in the millions of photos being added daily.

Interesting is the act of holding somebody’s attention. And, interesting is highly subjective (we all have different tastes right?)

Here are two things I find interesting:

1. Novelty – Is the concept really new? It’s rare to find new ideas so when I see one I really take note.

2. Craftsmanship - I’m not interested in spending time on lazy. I appreciate and reward care.

Please add your own thoughts in the comments. What do you find interesting?

I’m a loud mouth. I love to talk. And, even more so, I love to tell stories. Love it or hate it, it’s who I am.

But always talking has a down side. It means the people who you are talking to cumulatively listen less.

It may seem counter intuitive, but for every message you send (to the same audience) you are decreasing the probability that your message will get heard.

The speed at which your audience ‘tunes out’ is inversely proportional to the relevance of your message to the audience.

If relevance is high then the impact on your audience ‘tuning out’ will be lower. Conversely, if relevance is low then your audience will tune out faster.

This sounds dire. What’s a marketer to do?

1. Talk Less

Recognize that for each message you are sending you are killing your ability to be heard. So, ensure that you don’t waste this precious resource. Talk less and your audience will be there for when you really need them.

2. Be Relevant

The boy who cried wolf couldn’t save his flock because he had sent to many irrelevant messages.  Before you hit send ask yourself, ‘does my audience really care about this?’

3. Listen

Listening is a way to increase your ability to be heard. The more your listen to your audience the more they are going to be willing to listen to you.

Any other suggestions?