We’ve all probably wondered it a million times (that is if we even care).  Why is Paris Hilton famous?  Most of us don’t give it more than a moments thought because the question doesn’t really warrant any more.  After all we are busy in our daily lives and if we stopped to give time to (apparently) meaningless questions we would never get anything done.

If this is you, don’t worry, you’re not alone.  To tell you the truth I couldn’t give 2 hoots about Paris Hilton.  With all the drama swirling around currently you can’t turn left or right without hearing or seeing something about her.  This makes me even less likely to give any time to stories about her.

That is until…
That is until while reading an interesting article about SEO (Search Engine Optimization) the author brought up the point ‘Why Paris Hilton Is Famous’.  If it had come from anywhere else I would have discarded it but because it came from an author I respect I thought it worth a read.  The aritcle referenced the blog from Chartreuse on the same subject (which I also recommend you read by clicking here) which talks about Paris and her habit of casually and freely plugging the goods and services of other businesses.  Even when she was arrested for DUI she still had the presence of mind to mention why she was speeding (she was hungry)  and where she was heading (In-N-Out Burger).  To my knowledge she did not have a pre-standing relationship with this company she just choose to release to the media where she was heading and why.

This in a nutshell is why Paris Hilton is Famous.  It’s not why she became famous (as most of us know her initial fame was the result of a sexually explicit video being released) but it is why she remains famous years after the fact.  Paris Hilton is famous because she has learnt that by mentioning others even during bad media coverage that companies love her.  These companies get free media coverage and as a result Paris gets the fame and fortune she craves.

So how does this relate to me?
So you are probably wondering how this relates to you?  Well it relates to us all because by the act of linking herself or her actions to others Paris creates a hightened profile (and thereby positive relationship) with big and profitable companies.  It’s the old ‘What you give out comes back to you’ idealogy.  In our daily lives whether it be striving for a job, selling a product to prospects, or even running a business if you give something first without the thought of return we always fare better than just pushing our own ageda.  I know from a web point of view that the easiset way to get websites to link to us is to link to them first and not ask anything in return.  Then sure as I am here within a few days or a week I notice links coming back to us.

 If I were going for a job the first thing I would do is find a way to casually (and sincerely, it cannot be fake) complement my prospective employer.

We’ve all had sales calls where someone (usually telemarketers) has a script they are selling from and tries to talk there way into a sale.  Then compare that with a call from someone we know and trust recommending a service we may benefit.  We can’t stand the sales call but are usually genuinely thankful (even if we don’t need the service recommended) for the friendly call.  Why?  Simply because the friend is offering us something with no thought of return to themselves.  Our protective walls are down and we are open to the suggestion.

If all of us can remember to live our lives with the thought of giving credit, or thanks, or promotion, or anything for that matter with this same ideal I am positive we will see our returns increase as well.  This might sound a little idealistic in such a gimme gimme world but i believe it to be true.

Thanks
Adam. 

I just read a cool blog post over at the Big Marketing for Small Business blog.  It’s about Craig Newmark the founder of Craigslist.org.  Just in case you haven’t heard of it Craigslist is a community website featuring free classifieds advertisements among other things.  It was founded in the mid 90’s and is now officially in the top 10 most trafficked websites in the U.S. with an astounding 5 billion (yep billion) page views per month.

Now the founder of Craigslists seems like a really genuine guy.  I have seen him quite a few times on TV and everytime I do I am inspired by how the simple notion of putting the user (customer) first really does work.  Craigslist and Craig Newmark are the perfect examples of this.  The blog I mentioned above goes on to say that on his business card Craig has as his title “Full-Time Customer Service Representative”.  Here is a guy running one of the largest websites in the world that when compared to the traffic of sites like YouTube when sold could make many billions of dollars.  Despite this success he still has the humility to consider himself as a Customer Service Representative.

While the rest of the world is doing everything they can to make as much money as they can here is a wonderful example of somone who’s set his mission (and his companies’) to something more honorable.  Furthermore Craig is following it to the letter even when he could so easily sell-out and go live on his own island somewhere.

I find that very inspiring.

Thanks
Adam.

Seth Godin has a great blog that every business owner should read.  It’s full of little gems that can help give you as the business owner a greater understanding of what you should be doing to grow your business.  In a post from the other day he talks about an experiment run by The Washington Post to see if anyone would take any extra notice of someone busking in a subway station if they happened to be one of the top violinists in the world.  Instead of trying to relay Seth’s post I have included it below.

“I got more mail about this story in the Washington Post than any other non-blog topic ever. I saw it when it first came out, but didn’t blog it because I thought the lesson was pretty obvious to my readers. [World-class violinist plays for hours in a subway station, almost no one stops to listen]. The experiment just proved what we already know about context, permission and worldview. If your worldview is that music in the subway isn’t worth your time, you’re not going to notice when the music is better than usual (or when a famous violinist is playing). It doesn’t match the story you tell yourself, so you ignore it. Without permission to get through to you, the marketer/violinist is invisible.

But why all the mail? (And the Post got plenty too). Answer: I think it’s because people realized that if they had been there, they would have done the same thing. And it bothers us.

It bothers us that we’re so overwhelmed by the din of our lives that we’ve created a worldview that requires us to ignore the outside world, most of the time, even when we suffer because of it. It made me feel a little smaller, knowing that something so beautiful was ignored because the marketers among us have created so much noise and so little trust.

I don’t think the answer is to yell louder. Instead, I think we have an opportunity to create beauty and genius and insight and offer it in ways that train people to maybe, just maybe, loosen up those worldviews and begin the trust.”

Thanks for the post Seth.

And thanks for reading.
Adam.