Seth Godin
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Seth Godin ( GO-din) (born July 10, 1960) is an author of business books and speaker of the late 1990s to the present. His first book to achieve mainstream popularity was on the topic of permission marketing.
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[edit] Background
Godin graduated from Tufts University in 1982 with a degree in computer science and philosophy, and he earned his MBA in marketing from Stanford Business School. From 1983 to 1986, he worked as a brand manager at Spinnaker Software.
In 1995, Godin founded one of the first online marketing companies, Yoyodyne. He sold the company to Yahoo! in 1998. As a part of the sale to Yahoo!, Godin became Vice-President of Permission Marketing at Yahoo!.
For a period of time, Godin served as a columnist for Fast Company (magazine).
In late 2005, Godin founded the "recommendation network" website Squidoo.
[edit] Author
Godin has written many books, including several that have nothing to do with marketing. However, he is most famous for his marketing ideology. His marketing books include:
- The Big Red Fez
- eMarketing
- Permission Marketing
- Survival is not Enough
- Unleashing The Ideavirus - Detailing the idea of Viral marketing
- Purple Cow
- Free Prize Inside
- All Marketers Are Liars
- The Big Moo
- Small is the New Big
- The Dip
[edit] Philosophy
Godin’s ideology combines three elements. First, the end of the TV-Industrial complex means that marketers no longer have the power to command the attention of anyone they choose, whenever they choose. Second, in a marketplace in which consumers have more power, marketers must show more respect; this means no spam, no deceit and a bias for keeping promises. Finally, Godin asserts that the only way to spread the word about an idea is for that idea to earn the buzz by being remarkable. Godin refers to those who spread these ideas as "Sneezers", and to the ideas so spread as "IdeaViruses". He calls a remarkable product or service a purple cow.
Seth Godin is known for a very visual, personal, and dynamic speaking style that has earned him a large following. He is the author of a popular blog and several books on how ideas spread.
Godin is also becoming known for his philanthropy work. In 2005 he spearheaded The Big Moo project, for which he brought 32 other popular or nascent business thinkers together to write a book, sending 100% of the book's royalties to charity. Together they donated approx. $200,000 to JDRF, Room to Read and the Acumen Fund, at last report. Godin's work on his new project Squidoo.com is also focused on making it easy for everyday people to support charities for free. The company sends 5% of its revenue straight to charity, and encourages its users to donate the royalties their single pages earn to the charities of their choice.
