- New Definition of Torture: Sitting on long conference call while you have a bad cold. #
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Monthly archive: February, 2010
Weekly Tweetfest
Today's Google Buzz(kill) Lesson: Be Careful What You Recommend
Much of the online universe woke up last week to discover Google was involuntarily disclosing the names of their email contacts to the world, and if there’s a lesson here, it could be this: Making wads of money on other people’s content doesn’t necessarily render you omnipotent.
For marketers, there’s also a larger lesson.
The buzz about Google Buzz isn't great.
Within hours of first seeing Google Buzz (I didn’t like what I saw and turned it off), I received two emails from online marketing “experts” (note the quotes); both were positively glowing about Google Buzz, and neither seemed aware of the firestorm brewing – or of the privacy risks to their clients.
Simply put, it’s never been easier to pass information to an audience.
Which is a poor excuse for passing bad information to that audience.
Especially if that audience is paying for your expertise.
Succumbing to social media’s “get it while it’s hot” time pressure entails some real risks – especially for marketing consultants.
After all, we’re supposed to know this stuff.
Which precludes recommending (or hyping) services solely because they’re a trending topic on Twitter.
It also forced me to ask myself if I ever recommended a product or service to client without wholly knowing the ramifications of that endorsement.
And sadly, the answer is yes.
Keep writing, Tom Chandler.
UPDATE: The Good Morning Silicon Valley site offers up a compelling argument explaining how Google might seem surprised by the frankly predictable reaction to their Google Buzz fiasco…
Weekly Tweetfest
- My web host down yet again (as are hosted client sites). This time they lost recent content. Now searching for new reseller host. #
- Why do etail sites feature "Live Sales Chat" when it takes five minutes to answer each question? #
- Got in email spat with my Web host's tech support, and all my sites go down (again). Coincidence? Or Payback? #
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Writing the Perfect Comment? After The Deadline Offers Grammar Checking Right In Your Firefox Browser
It’s every writer’s “gotcha” moment. You’re in a hurry, yet you’ve written a comment/review/post so brilliant, it’s likely you’ll win the Pulitzer – assuming you’re not made absolute ruler of the planet first.
Except you edited it like you were on crack, mucked it up, and didn’t notice until after you hit “post.”
Damn.
Now it sits for all eternity – an embarrassing piece of text with the name of a supposedly professional writer attached to it.
There is, however, hope.
After The Deadline is a Firefox plug-in that offers “Spell, Grammar, and Style Check” right in your browser.
After the Deadline Firefox plugin
According to the site, it offers a more powerful spell checker than Firefox, and flags misused words, grammar issues, etc. (Remember when browsers didn’t even offer spell checkers? Oy.)
It’s a given that everything that flows from my fingertips is perfect just as it is, yet I installed AfterTheDeadline for testing (everybody has an off day).
It’s too early to rave, but I figure it’s never too early to stop making embarrassing mistakes.
Keep writing (error free), Tom Chandler.
Weekly Tweetfest
- Congratulations – you landed the BIG writing project. Here's how to avoid getting screwed: http://tinyurl.com/y96xreo #
- The open-air office every writer should own: http://www.baumraum.de/index.php?pid=5 #
- Things You Learn When You Have a Kid: I am powerless to resist Cheddar Bunnies #
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We Know All About Social Media's Strengths. What About Its Pitfalls?
Social Media is the subject of a great deal of hype, though less-explored are its downsides.
These include employee oversharing, the need to “Feed the Monster” – and an increased risk of malware and spam attacks (the new social disease?).
From the Good Morning Silicon Valley site:
More businesses may be incorporating social networking into their internal and external communications, but that doesn’t mean the cranky guys back in the systems room are happy about it. A new report and survey of 500 companies by security outfit Sophos found a 70 percent increase last year in the number of firms reporting spam or malware attacks via social networks. Almost three quarters of the companies surveyed believed their employees’ behavior on social networking sites endangered security, and 61 percent named Facebook as their biggest worry among the social sites.
Obviously, every media channel has its pluses and minuses, and they need to be weighed against the potential benefits.
Outside of concerns about malware, I speak candidly with my consulting clients about the dangers of employee oversharing. Social media fanatics are often quick to call for transparency and unfettered employee access, but frankly, some folks shouldn’t be allowed near a Twitter client or a blog.
More than a decade ago, I gave a vendor direct access to my client. It was a tough project (an ad/show campaign), and to my horror, that vendor immediately got into a nasty email flame war with my key client contact.
By the time I found out, the damage was already done, and though I made amends, I (understandably) lost the client.
Oddly, I’d worked with that vendor for years, and their actions never suggested a tendency towards corporate suicide (with their clients or mine).
The moral here is that you can’t simply hand each everyone access to direct media channels like social media. The above exchange took place via email – but imagine if the flame war had taken shape on a Facebook page or even a blog – for all to see?
Too many social media projects begin on a seemingly ad hoc basis – lacking a plan or even a clear idea of the goals, means, and yes – potential pitfalls.
Keep your eyes open about the pitfalls, and you’re a lot less likely to have a bad, bad day.
Keep writing, Tom Chandler.
The Secret To Success (or, Why You Never Set Foot In The Same Copywriting Market Twice)
A couple weeks ago we experienced what the local paper termed “The Storm of a Lifetime” – which left six feet of snow on the ground, many of the trees on my wooded three-acre lot broken and toppled over, and the power out for the better part of a week.
That it happened while I was running headlong into several copywriting and consulting deadlines is likely proof of a vengeful god, and – like the snow-shattered trees in the yard – I’m still cleaning up the mess.
I’m also making big changes to my business model, and if it’s one lesson I’ve learned over the years, writing your own copy and consulting on your own marketing plan are much, much harder than doing it for others.
As several other bloggers have noted, the copywriting world is changing fast, and not always for the better. I’m simply recognizing those differences.
The new venture is the logical outgrowth of my focus on the value-added copywriter, and while I’d suggest I’m taking a bold new step, the reality is less hyperbolic; I’m hurrying the transition that’s been occurring for the last handful of years.
I’m a fly fishermen, and given water’s tendency to flow downhill, I’ve always known that you never foot in the same river twice.
Given the nature of our times, it’s equally true you never step out of bed into the same world you left when you crawled in.
Ignoring that reality is a prescription for something other than fulfillment, gratification and success.
We’ll resume normal function here soon – once the trees are off the roof (and the porch, and the driveway, and the…).
Keep writing, Tom Chandler.
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