Teri Lussier paid me a very high compliment today in email, although I’m sure that’s wasn’t her intent. I expect she was just being matter-of-fact. Here’s what she said:<\/p>\n
You don’t do anything without a purpose.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
She was asking why I phrase so many headlines in the form of a question, assuming correctly that I do so for marketing reasons. Questions are a pretty common arrow in the copywriter’s quiver. Properly constructed, they are inherently interesting and instantly involving. I’m not as good at this as I plan to be, but one of things I’m looking for in a good question is something that incites at least as much curiosity as it satisfies. I give you the headline of this post as an example.<\/p>\n
But Teri’s off-hand remark — “You don’t do anything without a purpose” — means everything to me, because it’s a completely true statement about everything I do — and everything I’ve ever wanted to be.<\/em> I can’t promise you that I always know what I’m doing, but I always know with perfect certainty what it is I intend<\/em> to be doing — what objective I hope to achieve by my efforts.<\/p>\n
So we’ve been playing this scenius game since<\/a> Thanksgiving<\/a>, really since<\/a> Swallow<\/a> Hill<\/a> Road<\/a>, and it’s fun to explore how much we understand of what we’re doing, and, fun, too, to understand how much there is that we’ve never thought to explore.<\/p>\n
Both Cheryl Johnson and I have been rebuilding our “Current Listings” content as Scenius scenes. Why? Because a content management system like a weblog is the perfect way of organizing frequently-edited copy — provide that you have some way of delivering the content in a form you can stand, once you’ve edited it. This is what Scenius — the software praxis, not the social process — is all about.<\/p>\n
Stop.<\/p>\n
A scenius — lower case — is a metaphor for a kind of communal genius. The word comes from “scene” plus “genius”, and the best example of a scenius that I can offer is the birth of Bebop jazz<\/a>. When you put smart, well-informed, passionate people together, the synergy of their Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Teri Lussier paid me a very high compliment today in email, although I’m sure that’s wasn’t her intent. I expect she was just being matter-of-fact. Here’s what she said: You don’t do anything without a purpose. She was asking why I phrase so many headlines in the form of a question, assuming correctly that I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,24,6,5,19],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-6010","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"hentry","6":"category-blogging","7":"category-egoism-in-action","8":"category-marketing","9":"category-real-estate","10":"category-technology","12":"no-featured-image"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":13237,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/13237\/marketing-is-what-you-communicate-not-what-you-say\/","url_meta":{"origin":6010,"position":0},"title":"Marketing is what you communicate, not what you say.","author":"Greg Swann","date":"September 13, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm sorry if I seem to be neglecting folks here, but I'm sure you can guess why. Plus which, at Day 13 of our goal-questing, I'm five for five most days, and days without appointments are the only holes on the calendar. But I'm done for the day, and I'm\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Egoism in Action"","block_context":{"text":"Egoism in Action","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/egoism-in-action\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":13002,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/13002\/me-and-claudia-and-php-using-internet-real-estate-marketing-to-you-know-sell-real-estate\/","url_meta":{"origin":6010,"position":1},"title":"Me and Claudia and PHP: Using internet real estate marketing to — you know — sell real estate…","author":"Greg Swann","date":"August 15, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"So, the Arizona Republic ran an article yesterday on on-line real estate marketing and you will never in a million years guess who they did not call. I never get called for any of those kinds of things -- the RaiseTheBarTab kinds of events -- even though we're doing cooler\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Flourishing"","block_context":{"text":"Flourishing","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/flourishing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":513,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/513\/getting-thousands-of-dollars-in-real-estate-commissions-back-getting-the-idea-across\/","url_meta":{"origin":6010,"position":2},"title":"Getting thousands of dollars in real estate commissions back: Getting the idea across . . .","author":"Greg Swann","date":"October 5, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Okay, let's play. I'm building marketing materials around the flat fee buyer representation idea, and you can have a look at them -- for a price. What's the catch? Tell me what I'm missing. What I'm getting wrong. What could be better-handled. Witness: That's an ad. It may run as\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Disintermediation"","block_context":{"text":"Disintermediation","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/disintermediation\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10494,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/10494\/embarrassing-confessions-marketing-memory\/","url_meta":{"origin":6010,"position":3},"title":"Embarrassing Confessions & Marketing Memory","author":"Sean Purcell","date":"December 4, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Two quick confessions: I can't throw a baseball. I'm pretty sure I just scared a potential client away. I used to be able to throw a baseball.\u00a0 I played little league and pony league with some success.\u00a0 There weren't any pro scouts putting radar guns on me or anything, but\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Casual Friday"","block_context":{"text":"Casual Friday","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/casual-friday\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5675,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/5675\/the-just-exactly-how-clever-are-you-marketing-spam-of-the-morning-supercuts-shows-you-how-to-cut-your-database-marketing-costs\/","url_meta":{"origin":6010,"position":4},"title":"The just-exactly-how-clever-are-you marketing-spam of the morning: SuperCuts shows you how to cut your database marketing costs","author":"Greg Swann","date":"November 17, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"This is pure spam, as far as I know, completely unsolicited. I read it and loved and now I'm sharing it with you: Here's a web-based version, if you're having trouble reading it. I read this as Harrah's-style database marketing at its best: I'm offering you an incentive to sign\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Marketing"","block_context":{"text":"Marketing","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/marketing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8063,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/8063\/social-media-marketing-homework-for-bloodhoundblog-unchained\/","url_meta":{"origin":6010,"position":5},"title":"Social Media Marketing Homework for BloodhoundBlog Unchained","author":"Brian Brady","date":"April 24, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Ready for the big week ahead? I'm Brian Brady, one of the co-founders of BloodhoundBlog Unchained.\u00a0 I'm that guy with the suspenders on Facebook, LinkedIn, ActiveRain, et al.\u00a0 My goal (and yours) will be to establish a ubiquitous presence on these sites so that any past or potential customer can\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Marketing"","block_context":{"text":"Marketing","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/marketing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6010","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6010"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6010\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8646,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6010\/revisions\/8646"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6010"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6010"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6010"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}