A Geek Who Talks Like a Marketer
Back when I was working at York, somehow -- and tracing the exact details of how and why and when is a difficult task -- I became very interested in marketing. Specifically, online marketing, customer relationship building through the internet, that sort of thing. It was somewhat shocking, this new interest of mine, simply because it was heading in almost the opposite direction of where I thought my interests would lead me. I mean, I found the idea of getting a business degree actively repellant, not to mention somewhat confusing (why would anyone want such a thing?), and yet there I was, taking marketing texts out of the library on my spare time.
When I left York, I sort of left that aspect of my interests behind -- with the rare and fun exception of a few in-depth conversations with my father. Though I brought all my work bookmarks home with me to transfer to my home computer, and though I set up my personal Bloglines account with a Marketing/Blogging folder that contained all my favourite daily reads on such things, once I was home I very easily fell back into the behavioural patterns of Karina, writer girl and SF fan. I never visited the websites; my marketing subscriptions cue up, unread.
Yet recently, at a job interview, I jumped at the mention of the possibility of my being a Marketing Assistant. Though I ultimately chose not to interview for the position when asked due to other reasons entirely, my own reaction got me to thinking: marketing, huh? Still?
My mental answer was yes, very much yes.
So this evening, on a whim, I visited what was perhaps one of my very favourite sites, a daily read every morning, top of the to-do list when I reached work: the blog
Creating Passionate Users. I didn't let myself read much of the new material, but instead dug through the archives for a single picture at the top of one of the entries.
Here it is. When I first found it, I laughed for a good minute and then declared it the funniest thing I'd seen in a long while. I made it my desktop at work and every time I saw it, I'd smile. Why? Because I new exactly what it was talking about and it felt like me -- like I was one of those people, chatting about that transparent Cluetrain and influencing the sneezers. Because I was. Much to the perpetual confusion of my coworkers, that was me.
A geek who talked like a marketer. And oh, how I loved it.
Staring at that picture, and all those lovely references to Scoble and Cluetrain and Seth Godin and all the rest, I remembered how it felt to be that person, the absolute thrill it gave me.
I'm still very happy being Karina, writer girl and SF fan, but if I can I think I'd like to add Karina, geek marketer back into the mix. As I scour the job boards these days, I think that that's the job I'm looking for.
