Ian M Rountree

Copywriter, Project Manager, Digital Marketing

Archives for September 2009

Always Have Something To Say

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“If you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all.”

Sometimes I come across old adages like this and can’t help but call bullpucky. How much does this apply?

Yesterday, I was at the store and we had a customer come in to ask for a World of Warcraft time card. My coworker shook the box, it rattled, and the customer said “Yep, sounds like it’s in there.” Naturally, me, being the person I am, I had to pipe up with what I thought was a joke and say “Yeah, sounds just like yet another Onyxia Instance.”

To which the customer replies “Pfft, so easy. ”

I had been called out. It happens a lot, so thankfully I had the grace to explain that the quip was all I had, I don’t play WoW, I don’t think I’ll ever bother learning anything more than one or two facts about the game mostly because I simply cannot stand being unable to say even one thing about a given subject. I always have to have something to say about anything, even if it’s insignificant.

This is an important thing to recognise. People generally need to feel like they’ve got all of their ducks in a row, but the urge to say something specifically to prove you’re either not an idiot or to prove you’re paying attention needs to be recognized for what it is: participation, not a claim of xpress or espert knowledge.

Chris Brogan just wrote a post about “Feeling the Community” that I think is bang on. Specifically, he mentions that you can’ fake community – and man is that timely. ProBlogger had a guest post from Robby G of Shite I Like.com that talks about the same thing as applies to blogging; if you’re not really into it, don’t bother mentioning it.

It’s good feeling like you know what you’re doing. But it’s also important to recognise and admit when you’re blowing smoke. There’s no problem with bullpucky, so long as you don’t take it seriously; it’s posturing, self-inclusion, and unimportant unless someone’s insisting that their BS is truth. Then it gets dirty. And becomes no fun for anyone.

Service vs Customer Service

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I’ve had a day to think about it, as have some others, and I’m unsure what to think of Seth’s new toy.

I left Squidoo after it was apparently penalised by Google – I can do all of the same things it can do through WordPress anyway, with enough pages and plugins. But Squidoo provided an interesting and, at the time, recognizable platform to get my stuff “out there” – now I’ve got had whyreadthemanual.com, which I’m considering shutting shut down in part because I haven’t got the time I used to to play about with it, and in part because Envato (the jolly green Australian giant) started up workawesome.com, which is essentially what I wanted to do, but with backing. Envato communities and netizens number just shy of half a million; I have eight subscribers and no time to write.

However! When I first read the post about Brands In Public, I thought it was a good idea. When people want answers about something, they go to destination sites, like CNet for technology reviews, or Consumer Reports. Kind of a good idea, right? Well, I muse have missed the part about charging extraneous fees for companies in the interest of doing PR. I know sites need funding to remain online, but this service is leechlike. Just like Squidoo, any company tht wishes to could do all of this stuff already if they have a PR department who are at all good with the net and/or social media.

Which means instead of acting to create positive, validating change in how companies operate, Godin’s new peoject appears to provide a bandaid solution? Why bother? It doesn’t help that Godin’s other projects are getting flack from Google to begin with; the negative netstorm this has just caused will likely do more to hurt him and the work he does in the future.

Convergance and Blogs

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The first three blog posts I read this morning are all about problems with scaling public image. Is there a trend I’m missing, somewhere? Ok, example:

Chris Brogan, Chewbacca of Marketing – “How Frameworks Improve Your Business Thinking”

Mitch Joel, Han Solo of Marketing – “The Irresponsible Marketer”

Seth Godin, perhaps Yoda? – “Launching Brands in Public”

Now granted, Seth’s post is about a new service, but it raises a valid point about controlling versus organizing public opinion. Mitch, as always, has some good insight into the shift between old-format and new-format, which ties fairly well to Seth’s idea about aggregating information and providing it to people who are actively looking for it. And then, of course, is Brogan, naturally providing a layman’s perspective on business.

So what’s my point?

If you want to learn about business, read a business blog. If you want to learn about better business, find a number of different voices and read all of them, at once, daily. It’s like a focus group, only it’s free, and you’re not paying top dollar for recognized experts.

It’s even better when you can pull convergance out of the air like this. I know Chris and Mitch have some ties – but their sites and their clients are their own; and I’m fairly sure Seth doesn’t interact with them often enough for there to be real association. But sometimes, they all build on each other’s work. Can you spot the co-operative point? I’ll check in after the break to see if you’ve done your homework.

Do All Your Own Stunts

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When a Hollywood actor does an interview and says, with a straight face, that they trained for months, punished their bodies and learned new skills to bring you the best on-screen experience they possibly can by doing every scene featuring their character in a given movie, how much more do we respect them for it? In an industry when CGI and actor-replacement is so common it’s actually cheaper, in some instances, than featuring a big-name for an extra thirty seconds, doing all of your own stunts is unnecessary and, as such, remarkable.

It’s no different in any other business. How often do we see executives step up and see a fix for a problem from discovery to implementation? How often, when you call technical support, do you speak to the same tech the entire time, without starting to fee like a ping-pong ball, being bounced from department to department?

And if you’re in client support? How often do you, when a client has a problem, work with your client straight through to resolution, without passing it off to a supervisor or manager? How big of a deal do you make out of anything that comes your way? Is this an action you’re willing to take?

We miss a lot of opportunities behind the counter. We miss chances to not be like the other guys, to go above and beyond. Sometimes its as simple as offering free high fives to customers. Other times, it’s ruining our own weekends (because we’ll always have more) for the sake of making an experience for others extraordinary.

I demand you ask of yourself: How often do you do your own stunts? How many times in a given month do you jump off the plane and make an experience remarkable for the people you’re serving?

If you answer is anything less than “every time” you’re just like everyone else. That’s not a bad thing. But I challenge you to do better, because I know you can.