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The most surprising thing I found about business was the large concern for finance and low concern for service.

–Henry Ford

Not being concerned about service is a great way to make finance concerning.

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What sticks out attracts attention. Which is kind of the point.

Don’t smooth the edges of your marketing.

Polished surfaces are hard to hold onto.

from Luke Geddes via Austin Kleon

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This is handy

Here is a quick look at the differences in post life on some of the major platforms:

  • TikTok:  0-2 minutes
  • Twitter:  15-18 minutes
  • Facebook:  5-6 hours
  • LinkedIn:  24 hours
  • Instagram:  48 hours
  • YouTube:  20 days
  • Pinterest:  4 months
  • Blog Posts: 2 years

(The page does not load properly for me on mobile. I recommend desktop or using the Wayback Machine to grab a cached version.)

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Ben Thompson on Meta:

Market = time & attention

Differentiation = horizontal services that capture more time and attention than anyone

This is what makes the Zuck’s Bucks machine run.

It also means whatever captures attention and increases time spent gets rewarded.

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The Chick-fil-A Play app will launch on Nov. 18 and will feature a variety of content, including an original animated series, scripted podcasts, games, recipes, and e-books — all designed to entertain families

“We’re not looking for heads-down, solo screen scrolling,” said Dustin Britt, Chick-fil-A’s executive director of brand strategy. “Everything on the Chick-fil-A Play App is designed to encourage more talking, laughing, and playing together both online and in-person.”

I still don’t know what to make of this, but it could become a trend for major brands.

Streaming splintered the media landscape (and Netflix has won). Could the next wave of entertainment platforms be brand extensions vs standalone brands?

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The differences between the most and least productive companies can be startlingly high. By one estimate, in the US alone the most productive firms in a sector can be more than two to four times more cost-effective than the least productive ones.

No company is owed an ongoing existence simply for existing before.

With each interaction, it is earned or lost.

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I’m always looking for ways to do keyword research “better,” so I like this

A simple technique for more search traffic:

  • Find a subreddit related to your business.
  • Pop the subreddit link into Ahrefs (our go-to keyword generation tool) and look for the keywords that the page ranks for.
  • Take the list of keywords and use them to optimize your content.
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If a jacket is made by Patagonia or a piece of hardware is made by Teenage Engineering, you can probably tell who made it the first time you see it, even without a logo.

When your brand has fingerprints, don’t do things that require you to wear gloves.

-Seth Godin

Build a brand that doesn’t need explicit branding.

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From Forked Lightning:

the U.S. economy added 19 million total jobs between 2013 and 2023 but lost 850 thousand retail sales jobs.

Retail sector employment is shrinking.

Based on the two graphs below, I’m guessing e-commerce is a big reason why. Along with in-store automation.

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This quote from Ben Thompson triggered a thought

distinct nation-states, with their own languages.

This is basically what fandoms are.

The nation-state of Taylor Swift.
The nation-state of Formula 1.
The nation-state of Tolkien.
The nation-state of Star Wars.
The nation-state of Disney.
The nation-states of sports.