Home
About
About Me
Contact
Resources
Advertising
Terms
Write for PB

The Only Thing That’s Dead Is Your Everything Is Dead Spiel

I’m a little tired. Not physically. I could always do with a little more sleep, but then so can everyone.

No.

I’m more tired about the constant “The End of PR”, “The End of Marketing”, “The End of Blogging” and “The End of Advertising” missives  that seem to be flying about at the minute.

I can’t open my email subscriptions without the latest link shouting out “The end of…. Where now for Industry X?”.

It seems that there’s an “End of…” blog post for every *normal* one at the minute.

Why?

Why do we have to bang the nails into the coffin of industries that are still very much alive?

Why do we have to look at an industry that’s been around for years as “ending”, just because there are new tools available?

Is there really such a thing as an ending, anyway?

End or Mend?

Instead of saying an industry is ending, how about we say it’s mending instead? If an industry is really viewed as being broken, should we be closing the door on it or helping it back on its feet?

If your pet breaks its leg in an accident, do you immediately want to  put it to sleep or do you love it back to health?

If you break the point on your trusty pencil, do you sharpen it or throw it in the bin? Even when that pencil eventually writes its last word, you don’t stop using pencils – you start afresh.

But it’s still with the same type of pencil.

When you’ve taken your last step on a particular journey, it doesn’t mean your travels are over – it simply means there’s a new journey to  begin.

It’s easy to say something is finished – you don’t have to worry about it anymore as it heads for that big garbage bag of irrelevance.

The harder part is making irrelevant into relevant.

It’s not easy, but if there are solid enough foundations already there, isn’t it better than starting again?

By Danny Brown

Husband. Father. Optimist. Pragmatist. Purveyor of not settling for the status quo. Aspiring to be many things. Never says no to a good single malt.

Comments (24)
  1. Mark Longbottom November 17, 2015 at 12:12 pm

    The end of……….is this the new Black?

    Great post, love the ‘end or mend’ point must fit that into a conversation as soon as possible, after all today was the end of………

    • Danny Brown November 17, 2015 at 12:22 pm

      Ha, the only end I’m interested in is the end of the commute home, so I can finally relax for the evening.

      It’s tiring to see so much lack of originality. Can’t we do better than this? Arik Hanson shared a presentation on his post the pother day, that looked at content trends. One of the slides was from his RSS feed, and an=bout 75-80% were all listicles.

      Top 10 this, 50 Ways to that, etc. It was disheartening. It’s like we’re still in 2012 or something. 😉

      • Mark Longbottom November 17, 2015 at 12:28 pm

        Lists and slideshows

        In the end all the audience and the presenter then do is read

        Online slightly different but still top ten this and that, what about that 11th one not so good or better, struggling as people say to me now start blogging about the benefits of instagram to create traction and connection, it won’t be a list instead short sharp injections and natural insights.

        Writers and many in business just work on what;’s worked and let the risks be taken by creatives and by the time they pick up on them the creatives are ten years ahead always lol

        Hop you get home soon my time is over for now 5.28 commuting downstairs

        • Danny Brown November 17, 2015 at 12:33 pm

          It’s so true, and a big reason I wish more creatives would get into content creation. Heck, it doesn’t even have to be “traditional blogging” – the medium is always changing anyway, so create something truly new and cool, and let that speak for you.

          Oh, my commute doesn’t start for another 4 hours or so yet, but I’m sure it’ll be as fun as ever…

          • mark longbottom November 17, 2015 at 3:23 pm

            Let’s see what we can create that doesn’t ever die just evolves, something that business people fear – evolution. As it means they have to relearn

  2. Mallie Hart November 17, 2015 at 12:23 pm

    Indeed! The first of my “More Mallie” publishes was on this very topic. Every flipping time I turn around there’s someone else calling out for the end of this, that or the other. Print ain’t dead. Social media isn’t scuttling off into the dark ages of digital marketing. Heck, we’re still plugging away every day.

    It’s almost as prevalent as labeling everything “easy.” I can’t really say which trend I despise more!

    • Danny Brown November 17, 2015 at 12:26 pm

      How about “50 Easy Ways to Know Blogging is Dead, by 50 Marketers Who Took the Easy Route to Topic Creation”? #meta

      • Mark Longbottom November 17, 2015 at 12:29 pm

        top ten ways to not die off……

      • Mallie Hart November 17, 2015 at 12:31 pm

        If you published that, it would get more shares than you could possibly imagine. It would become the holy grail of easy marketing mythology!

        • Danny Brown November 17, 2015 at 12:36 pm

          It’s funny you say that. I once published a post on my own blog titled, “52 Content Marketing Experts Share Their Top 100 Content Tips”.

          There were zero content marketing tops. Nor was there any advice from one content marketing expert, let alone 52 of the buggers. Instead, it was a post railing against easy linkbait content, and why we support it by sharing blindly.

          The post has received more than 4,200 shares of of writing this reply. Oh, the irony of your statement…

          • mark longbottom November 17, 2015 at 3:25 pm

            Might just test out the top ten how to die as a linked in post tomorrow, of course i will credit you Mallie and Danny for the inspiration. As ever it will be short and sweet lol

          • Danny Brown November 17, 2015 at 5:25 pm

            Look forward to reading it, especially on LinkedIn Pulse. That’s almost rebellious.

          • Mark Longbottom November 17, 2015 at 6:08 pm

            Haha I’m testing out what my 1700 connections will view there at present, from being ultra active on Linked In a few years ago to being less so now it’s intriguing me how they’ve messed up by trying to be like others. Instead of working on strengths, the pulse section is a joke unless you’re top 500 – that said it’s not dead as it can get good interaction but only like here if people believe in you.

            I’m using medium.com too, maybe I will write articles on my Tumblr site/blog too if really pushed haha

          • mark longbottom November 18, 2015 at 10:52 am

            In case you and Mallie missed the Tweet here’s the Top 10 Ways not to Die
            https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/top-10-ways-die-off-mark-longbottom – stick with me one day I’ll write 200 words 😉

      • Mark-John Clifford November 17, 2015 at 12:40 pm

        How about “50 Easy Ways to Know Blogging is Dead, by 50 Marketers Who Are Now Dead”?

  3. Mark-John Clifford November 17, 2015 at 12:38 pm

    Hey There Danny,

    We are not in a zero sum game or economy any longer. We are now in the negative sum era. It seems everything has to be negative even when it’s positive.

    The ending as you state could be restated as it’s mending, but in this negative world to what end. The “negativiters” as I call them will turn the mend around and they’ll make it sound like the end even with light at the end of the tunnel.

    It’s about news as far as I can see. It’s about people wanting to read “Dirty Laundry” (thanks to Don Henley of the Eagles). If it isn’t bad then what good is it? How are we going to get our stuff read if it isn’t negative?

    I talked to a news guy a few months ago locally and he basically stated that without negativity the world would have no news. So if G+ is doing well it is still going to end soon. SEO is going down hill no matter what we hear. Blogging is out and podcasting is in, for this moment. Tomorrow it will change like the weather in New England.

    I say toss the negativiters to the wolves and see what happens. Let’s have the end “of the end and the end of negativity” and embrace mending and rebirth. Embrace the positive even when negative so there is still a chance that it won’t end.

    • Danny Brown November 17, 2015 at 1:11 pm

      It’s so true, mate – you only need to look at the mainstream media and where they focus the attention of their “news” to see where the allegiance for reporting lies, and that’s in the negative stock.

      It’s afr easier to look at the motives and lives and portraits of the attackers in terrorist attacks – but what about the heroes who ensured there were less deaths than even the horrendous amount already reported?

      Sadly, that gets less traction – but, ironically, is the very news those who would harm us don’t want to see. They want to see confusion, fear, hate – and if we play into that, they win, we lose.

      And round the circle goes…

      • Mark-John Clifford November 17, 2015 at 1:14 pm

        And that’s the issue. How many people play into that way of looking at things. Whether the news, social media, blogging or worse the family.

        Negativity breeds the thought of the end. So many people that kill others and kill themselves. It’s out there.

        People who write about the ending of blogging or social media like the world is collapsing. What’s next?

  4. Mark-John Clifford November 17, 2015 at 12:46 pm

    On the topic of lists I think we should publish the “Top 10 Ways to kill the Top Number of Anything Lists”

  5. Cendrine Marrouat November 18, 2015 at 3:10 am

    I have noticed a tendency from bloggers to be overdramatic to get views and “engagement”. You forgot to mention the sacrosanct conversation on the end of Google+ as well. 😉

    • Mark Longbottom November 18, 2015 at 3:34 am

      ahhhhh the end of G+ wasn’t that 2011 Cendrine, only joking for many it has value like anything may.

    • Danny Brown November 18, 2015 at 8:47 am

      Haha, yeah, that sucker just won’t quit, eh? It’ll be interesting to see how their Communities and Collections focus works out. I can’t see it making too much of a difference in user-base, personally, but never say never, right?

Leave a comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *