On Words and Business

Thanks to the advertising agency who came up with this idea for Zappos, the online shoe store: ads for Zappos in the bottom of the bins at airport security check points. Now…I can be just as flummoxed and annoyed with ads filling every available space as the next person. But I also can appreciate a creative spin on the idea. And, let’s face it, this is truly targeting a market.

Now, if the TSA could only get it consistent across airports–shoes in or out of those bins?

Long copy. Short copy. Diminishing attention spans. Need for detailed information.

It can be hard to balance it. After all, something that I may need details about might be something that you already know everything about. You just want the bullet points. I want the depth. Isn’t that the beauty of the internet–its layers, pages, linking, its interconnectivity?

I’m not against long copy. Just against needless long copy. Here’s a nice perspective, from Michael Fortin’s blog.

Recently, it was suggested that I add a photo of myself to the top of my website and to my blog page. If people can get a better sense of who I am, the theory went, they’ll be more likely to do business with me. As a service provider and sole practitioner, this is important to me. I want my customers to trust me, and feel they can work with me. This sounds like a good idea to me.

A quick review of websites of other writers and similar businesses reveals many photos (including one very awkward one that I can’t see helping). A small survey of friends reveals a split field.

So I ask you.

If you were in the market for the services of a writer, would a photo help you decide for or against someone? Would it make you more or less likely to believe in the professionalism of the service provider?

Any thoughts are most appreciated, especially from those readers who aren’t my mom. (Let’s face it, she already knows what I look like, and would probably do business with me if she ever needed a writer!)

Guess what…today I got an email telling me that I’ve qualified for a free John Deere tractor lawn mower. No worries that my lawn is the probably the size of the tractor and we pay someone to maintain it anyway. The link to sign up for my prize (participation required) was going to take me to mankeep.info (whose WHOIS information did not jive with the information given in the email. Surprise, surprise.).

This was in my spam folder following the email filled with nonsense sentences and nary a link to be found.

I understand that spam is unsolicited email. But is an email from a legitimate company with whom I’m not interested in doing business really the same as garbage email messages (whose purpose must be to just stuff an inbox?) or phishing for personal information?

Dutifully, I put “blog entry” in my calendar. My alarm goes off and it’s time to write my entry. Then I write it. Usually. Last week, though, I was overwhelmed with deadlines and hit “repeat in 20 minutes,” then “repeat in 1 hour,” and so on until now it’s today, five days later and the alarm for today’s entry went off.

A friend just bought Clocky, an alarm clock that runs away and hides if you hit snooze. So you have to get up to turn it off. Clever idea. Although I’m not sure I could handle that. Unless they could make one that would run away and write my blog entry if I can’t get to it. And while it’s at it, perhaps it could bring me a snack…

Frank Luntz wrote a pretty good book: Words That Work: It’s Not What You Say, It’s What People Hear

For some people, this can never be a good book; the author has not successfully communicated with them. Their own beliefs and understanding of Mr. Luntz and his political affiliations dominate the view. And that’s fair; we all read books through our own lens and the lens of understanding the author’s biases.

If his political affiliations are bothersome to you, don’t read the book. But if you can get past his past (or don’t care all that much about him or his past), there are two positive ways to absorb the content in this book.

1. Appreciate his advice as a wordsmith and take to heart what works for you.
2. Appreciate his advice for insight into the political climate and how words have been used to persuade and convince.

It’s not what you say, it’s what people hear.

You can have the best message in the world, but the person on the receiving end will always understand it through the prism of his or her own emotions, preconceptions, prejudices, and preexisting beliefs. It’s not enough to be correct or even brilliant. They key to successful communication is to take the imaginative leap of stuffing yourself right into your listener’s show to know what they are thinking and feeling in the deepest recesses of their mind and heart. How that person perceives what you say is even more real, at least in a practical sense, than how you perceive yourself. (…from the Introduction)