230. Ghost knowledge 👻
How information moves (or doesn't move) through our networks
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Links that are worth your time:
Quiz: Should I quit my job? (The answer for me: No way)
Great guide to the brave new world of Revenue Operations (RevOps)
Hi there 👋
One question I got from last week’s newsletter about amplification marketing: How do you measure the impact of brand? It’s an awesome question — and an incredibly difficult one. My favorite measurements: aided and unaided brand awareness surveys, branded search volume, direct website traffic, social media mentions, and earned media mentions. But I’m sure there are a tonnnn more ways.
I’m excited to share this week’s newsletter with you. Hope you have a great week!
~ Kevan
Ghost knowledge 👻 & the necessity of shared learnings
I had a wonderful conversation the other day with a brilliant tech marketer who helped me out a ton with a problem I was facing.
But then I got to thinking …
Why me?
Why was I so lucky to get to chat to this person?
I’m afraid a lot of it had to do with privilege, networking, opportunity, etc. — things that not everyone has access to. And all those wonderful learnings I collected, they now live within my head, inaccessible to everyone but me.
There’s a term for this: ghost knowledge.
Sari Azout is the one who introduced it to me.
There's a leaky pipeline of knowledge from expert communities to the outside world – too much knowledge remains locked behind in emails and private exchanges or behind company walls.
We call this “ghost knowledge”.
Sari believes in reducing ghost knowledge to every extent possible, and she even built a pop-up, experimental product to help raise the visibility for untold knowledge.
The goal is to have more and more people share what they know. More voices, more stories.
This concept really hits home for me because of the “transparency” DNA that was instilled in me from my days at Buffer. We shared everything at Buffer — salaries, business metrics, strategies, you name it — all in the spirit of helping others to succeed and to learn from our adventure.
I’m just one voice — and you hear my voice often enough that you’re probably craving more variety. But I feel committed to doing what I can to get as much knowledge out into the world as possible.
Here are some steps I’m taking to limit the amount of ghost knowledge I keep to myself:
This newsletter. 😉 I will continue to share all the things I’m learning, as I’m learning them. If there are any topics you’d like to know more about, please reply to this email or sent me a note - hello@kevanlee.com.
Would you like to hear from other voices in this newsletter? I’ve toyed with the idea of every-so-often interviews with great marketers. If this sounds valuable, let me know.
One extra step I want to make in particular today is opening up my personal Notion library so you all can peek inside. Over the next few months, I’ll share some of my Notion articles as newsletter issues here — I’ll cover topics like: metrics and reporting, pricing and monetization, influencer marketing, audience development, and more.
In the meantime, if you’d like access to my Notion space today — in all its messy glory — you can start a paid subscription to this newsletter and get anytime access to these resources, plus all the new pages as they’re added. Today, this includes:
Playbooks:
Hiring
Brand strategy
Marketing career framework
Product launch playbook
People management
Work-in-progress: metrics, product marketing, onboarding, ABM, pricing, case studies, narratives
Templates:
Vision
Goals
Marketing strategy
Campaign planning
DIBBs proposal
Channels:
Works-in-progress: content marketing, audience development, influencer marketing
Notes: Highlights from my chats with some really great folks in tech.
*All proceeds from subscriptions go to IFundWomen, a funding marketplace for women-owned businesses.
**Existing subscribers, look for a separate email about gaining access.
Over time, I’ll share all these same resources to this email list as well, so if you don’t feel like starting a paid subscription today, that’s totally fine. In fact, if there are certain aspects of the lists above that you’d like to see, drop me a note. Paid subscribers get access to actual Notion itself, which helps keep things (somewhat) organized and readily accessible, plus you get to see things early.
About this newsletter …
Each week, I share playbooks, case studies, stories, and links from inside the startup marketing world. If you enjoy what’s in this newsletter, you can share some love by hitting the heart button at the top or bottom.💙
About Kevan
I’m a marketing exec who specializes in startup marketing and brand-building. I currently lead the marketing team at Oyster (we’re hiring!). I previously built brands at Buffer, Polly, and Vox.
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