Chris Brogan has an excellent blog for people trying to keep up-to-date with all things social media. What caught my eye this morning was a link to a series of videos that Seth Godin posted at the AMEX Open Forum – and a gentle reminder to actually watch them. I did just that, and highly recommend the three, in addition to the full series that is up there – instead of having to slog through a single, long video clip they are nicely segmented. Here’s a few of my favorites:

http://www.openforum.com/marketing/video_socialgood.html

The question in this first one if the value of social networking to business (particularly small business). Seth gives a relatively entertaining answer that focuses on how many of the “relationships” people have on social networks aren’t real – rather just a collection of people that didn’t want to offend you by turning down your friend offer. While the bar of “people I haven’t met in person on the other side of the world being willing to let me sleep on their couch” seems a tad high, the notion of focusing on real, high value relationships resonates.

http://www.openforum.com/innovation/video_noonecaresaboutyou.html

The question is how to put the 5 billion monthly videos viewed on YouTube to work for your business. This is a particularly interesting topic for me, as I’m currently researching the role of prosumer-generated content in the creation of YouTube’s iconic success. Seth’s immediate response is an important reminder that “nobody cares about you” – basic idea is they don’t watch the YouTube video because they care about you, but because they care about me (themselves, not Denis Hancock ). Implicit in his response is the importance of entertainment value, as he indicates nobody will watch your companies video about being 12% more efficient this year. Though if “efficiency” is determined from a green angle, you never know…

http://www.openforum.com/leadership/video_delicatebalance.html

This one focuses on a true or false question: business is not a democracy – there is only one boss. Seth’s response takes a Coase-ian angle: any business is just a series of small businesses, and each of these small businesses has only one boss. The most important lesson from this – if all you want your employees to do is follow a manual, someone else can always find someone else to follow the same manual a little cheaper.

You can find plenty of other great snippets from Seth in the videos listed here. Anything jump out at anybody?