Comments on: Confessions of a Long Tail Prosthelytizer http://www.chancebarnett.com/confessions-of-a-long-tail-prosthelytizer/ Curious Connections of People, Marketing & Technology Fri, 20 Jan 2012 01:41:00 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1 By: Kris Keimig http://www.chancebarnett.com/confessions-of-a-long-tail-prosthelytizer/comment-page-1/#comment-4 Kris Keimig Tue, 27 Jan 2009 20:24:43 +0000 http://www.chancebarnett.com/?p=13#comment-4 Back when I worked in an actual office (...who does that nowadays?), I did a rant on "What Tail Terms Mean to Us (as a business)" in which I literally flipped the frequency distribution graph (of the Long Tail) upside down. My point was - OPPORTUNITY. Truthfully, I could care less whether something is head/tail. What I care about is the opportunity of success and the margins of those opportunities. All else ceases to matter. And the nice thing about flipping the graph upside down is that it takes you out of the tunnel vision of trying to subscribe to the importance of tail terms. That allows you to do just as you say and "crafting [sic] personal and relevant communications in order to get a desired outcome." I stand behind this viewpoint and after working inside a ton of companies I can confidently say that chasing the tail has worked wonders for some of them and it's blown up in the face for others. Business model and the meaning/intent of the tail terms you choose will determine the success/failure. I have no problem providing specific examples - but I didn't want to ramble on too long... Back when I worked in an actual office (…who does that nowadays?), I did a rant on “What Tail Terms Mean to Us (as a business)” in which I literally flipped the frequency distribution graph (of the Long Tail) upside down.

My point was – OPPORTUNITY.

Truthfully, I could care less whether something is head/tail. What I care about is the opportunity of success and the margins of those opportunities. All else ceases to matter.

And the nice thing about flipping the graph upside down is that it takes you out of the tunnel vision of trying to subscribe to the importance of tail terms. That allows you to do just as you say and “crafting [sic] personal and relevant communications in order to get a desired outcome.”

I stand behind this viewpoint and after working inside a ton of companies I can confidently say that chasing the tail has worked wonders for some of them and it’s blown up in the face for others. Business model and the meaning/intent of the tail terms you choose will determine the success/failure.

I have no problem providing specific examples – but I didn’t want to ramble on too long…

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