Marketing Ninja

One of the advantages of changing Marketing Ninja to a personal format instead of an instructive format is that it allows me to discuss issues that are important in the scope of marketing but not wholly marketing unto itself. The meat of this post is an issue that is tremendously more important than marketing can or ever should be; the issue is human decency and the dearth of it in the blogosphere.

A Man in Full is a famous satirical novel written by Tom Wolfe. It documents and satirizes the social dynamics of Atlanta across all divisions of class, race, and other veritable dimensions comprising the diverse socioeconomic strata of the New South. The hero of the book is Charlie Croker, a real estate mogul whose hand has exceeded his grasp and finds himself in a battle to preserve his personal wealth and self-worth against a pack of rabid bankers out for revenge and personal gain, self-serving politicians, and citizens on both sides of the racial divide who each have a stake in the outcome of a city-wide race scandal. Charlie’s very faith in himself is shaken by the sheer ferocity and volume of the attacks on his property and person, but he never relents and never gives up.

Today I read a post by recently-returned-from-hiatus TechCrunch proprietor and co-editor Michael Arrington that inspired me, quite frankly. Mike didn’t inspire me by writing about some new technology or service that is going to change my life; he didn’t inspire me by sparking some great business idea that I’m going to use to become the next Microsoft or Google; and he didn’t inspire me by making me see the world differently than I did before I made my visit to TechCrunch today.

He inspired by reminding me something that I have long been cognizant of but had simply forgotten. Mike reminded me what it’s like to be a human being who’s poured his heart into something only to see it poked, stabbed, and kicked every which way. Mike’s post, entitled “The Rules Apply To Everyone,” reads on the surface like a condensed self-defense against all of the angry, bitter people who have attacked him, his employees, and his work at TechCrunch. But if you read a little deeper into it you can see that it’s a muffled expression of Arrington’s hurt and pain over all of the negativity and vitriol that led Mike to take his much-needed hiatus in the first place.

I am sorry to admit that I have long been one of those people who thought lowly of Mike and company. I thought he was arrogant, I thought he was corrupt, and in general I thought the man was an asshole who cared more about breaking a story first than he did about getting his facts straight. If you look through the TechCrunch archives I’m sure you’ll find many comments authored by yours truly attacking him and his employees for factual mistakes, misrepresentation of facts, and any number of things. I resented the man because I thought it arrogant for one man to dub himself a kingmaker and act accordingly. Consider this an admission of my wrong-doing, unjustified resentment built upon distorted premises, and guilt to that end.

My oft-unexpressed opinion of Mike and company has evolved considerably over the past months, not because of any substantial changes in the demeanor, tone, or content of TechCrunch, but because of the events in my own life.

In May of 2008 I started working as a full-time content marketer, and being the passionate person that I am, I have poured my heart into everything that I do even if it isn’t apparent or obvious to the casual observer. I write much of the new marketing content, including our blog, and I fuss and stress constantly over getting details right and doing the best job I can under the constraints of time, money, and life in general. If I can successfully educate at least one person on the benefit and value of using a product like ours, then I feel like I’ve done my job – but obviously the constraints of cost-effective marketing demand that I educate several hundred at once (damn those constraints!) Although I do a good job of not taking things personally if a single entry falls flat, I would be crushed if for some reason I had to abandon my company’s blog or do away with it otherwise.

In the past year or so I’ve learned what it’s like to bear your soul into an ongoing, indefinite project that is all-too-often underappreciated compared to the amount of effort that the project demands. It’s like being father or mother to an idea only to watch that idea get kicked and smashed by its peers in the playground. It’s an effort that can be as rewarding as it is despairingly soul-crushing.

The most offensive thing above all others that I and anyone else have ever called Mr. Arrington is a “hack.” Michael may or may not be the things that I listed earlier, but the one thing that he most certainly is not is a “hack.” The one thing about Michael Arrington’s character that is plainly obvious is his passion for his work on TechCrunch and his endless pursuit of stories in the rapidly-changing world of high technology. It is clear that TechCrunch is, if nothing else, a reflection of the totality of the character of the man who fathered it. It’s edgy, it’s detailed, it’s on the cutting edge, and above all things it clearly represents the passions of the people who slavishly devote themselves to it. To us it may just be a blog, but to Arrington it’s his life’s work, whether he’ll admit to it or not. To call the man a “hack” you’d have to ignore the mountain of evidence to the contrary – hacks don’t care about the truth nor do they care about their reputation beyond when it is merely convenient for them to do so. Michael clearly cares about both.

From my own experience working on a blog that would be lucky to have one one-hundredth of the readers that TechCrunch has I’ve learned to empathize with the man. I’ve learned what it’s like to see something you love dismissed with outright disdain and scorn from people who appreciate nothing about the monumental effort taken to give them value in return for their attention. Worst of all, I’ve realized that I myself had acted the part of the disdainful, scornful ingrate when I had no right to do so, and it took being in Mike’s shoes to realize it. Well, probably a much smaller pair of shoes than Mike, but you get the idea.

I doubt that Mike will ever read this, but I just wanted him to know that he is truly a Man in Full in the sense which Tom Wolfe intended it – he’s a man who constantly stands up the strain and scorn of the masses and retains his self-worth contrary to the routine presentation of abrasive criticism, much of it unwarranted, from people who would kill to have a sliver of what he has built from scratch. TechCrunch was not the same with him gone and I found myself reading it less and less until he returned. I appreciate Mike’s thoroughness, his passion, and the entertainment that he provides to me and my co-workers, friends, and family free of charge.

I’m a person who’s naturally quick to anger, quick to cut someone down, and even quicker to cut someone down behind the comfortable anonymity of the Internet. That kind of vitriol does us no good – we must never forget that behind every blog, behind every business, and behind every social media identity there is a group of people who are trying as hard as they can to provide some value or a service. All too often I attack those blogs, businesses, and amorphous social media identities for being sloppy, careless, or any number of easily pardonable mistakes. When I attack those things I’m attacking a person, like Mike Arrington, and in the future we would all be served well to remember that.

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