Observed

Today’s “AFTER DEADLINE” post offered the following example of the misuse of the word “like” along with a suggested fix:

At times it seems like the mayoral race here between the two front-runners — Mayor Adrian M. Fenty, who is seeking a second term, and Vincent C. Gray, the City Council chairman — is boiling down to a personality contest.

Make it “seems as though,” “seems as if,” or simply “seems that …”

I’ll go one better.

At times, the mayoral race here between the two front-runners — Mayor Adrian M. Fenty, who is seeking a second term, and Vincent C. Gray, the City Council chairman — seems to boil down to a personality contest.

I call this editing by subtraction.

When Odysseus left for the Trojan War, he realized he needed help while he was away.  So, Odysseus asked his friend, Mentor, to be in charge of his son, Telemachus, and his palace until he returned.

While the meaning has changed a bit, we still seek and offer mentoring.

What’s the best platform for such a trusted relationship?  According to my friend, Nick Gargala, Ed.D., the best results occur when the mentoring happens face to face.  In interviews for his recent dissertation, Nick found that over the phone is a distant second, and e-mail mentoring is the weakest.

Where trust is important to a relationship (e.g., in business development), the more personal the better.

Seth just posted a thought about the importance of relationships and how to build/maintain them.  “The experience I have with you as a customer or a friend is far more important than a few random bits flying by on the screen.”

My advice?

• Be tangible.
• Be tangible.
• Be tangible.

So, touch somebody.  Do something tangible.  Any questions?

The Andon cord is central to Toyota, Opel and other Deming-esque management models.  It’s the cord you’ll find throughout the factory and at each work station, ready to be pulled if the production process must be immediately stopped.

Who may pull the Andon cord?  Anyone may, even the lowest-ranking member of the team.

That’s part of the beauty of the system.  Anyone is empowered to pull the cord.

The real beauty of the Andon cord, however, is that it’s so very there — whether it’s used or not.  By its physical, tangible presence, everyone is constantly reminded that they matter.  The Andon cord is a clear and constant tangible symbol that they are part of.

Which, Toyota’s recent troubles notwithstanding, seems to work really well.

Why all the fuss about intimacy in marketing communication and, especially, sales?  Does it really matter whether you stay in touch with a client or prospect via Twitter or something more personal?

I believe it does.

Sure, it depends on the stakes.  In my case, I’m a freelance writer selling into a mature market.  If I want someone to hire me, I must offer them something more than my experience and credentials.  Something more than the promise or intention that I’ll be accountable.

So, here’s a re-frame for my last few posts on memorable communications from my own business development perspective…

• In order to hire me, a prospect must first trust me.
• In order to trust me, they must believe I care.
• In order to believe I care, I must demonstrate that I care…not merely assert that I care.
• In order to demonstrate that I care, I must be as tangible and personal as possible.  The more I sacrifice (e.g., my time, money and the like) in communicating that, the greater the value and impact.  The more I prove I care.

What I’m seeking is to be in relationship with someone.  Because I’m asking them to trust me with their baby.

Back when I was in-house, I got hundreds of messages a day and was striving to stay connected to a couple hundred clients.  And that was before Twitter and other social media.

There were often times I felt that a shovel would have been more effective than my keyboard.

Know what I mean?  Was any of that promoting intimacy?  Or, was I doing more good by putting on my suit coat and taking a partners’ walk?

So, we know that repetition is key to having a client or prospect remember you.  Furthermore, it’s a blend of the quality of what you say and the frequency of the impressions you make on your target.

What, however, about the delivery platform?

My sense is that the more personal the impression, the better.  After all, which are you more likely to remember?

• One of the hundreds of text messages you might get in a day? or
• A face-to-face meeting?

I can offer only a little research to back this up.  Here’s one item .

Actually, what caught my attention was the comment:  “Is twitter nothing but a series of text ads put in the context of perceived intimacy?”

The Battle of Jericho, Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld, 1851-60. Joshua and the Israelites marched around the walls of the fortress seven times before blowing their horns and bringing down the walls.

Looking for a good way to be remembered?  One route is literary.

Another way is more quantitative than qualitative.  More about deployment than style.

I’ll call this one The Rule of Seven.

Most behavioral psychologists will tell you that it takes between about five and seven impressions for most humans to store anything in their long-term memory.  Short-term memory, BTW, lasts about 18 seconds; long enough to remember, for example, a phone number. Read the rest of this entry →

OK, maybe the only place where size counts is in sumo wrestling.  After reading a reporter’s account of what it took to cover the Tour de France, however, I was reminded of the size of the platform it takes for some stories to get told.

It’s not that newpaper reporters are typically smarter or harder working or whatever than bloggers and others in the non-MSM. Read the rest of this entry →

It’s not that crowdsourcing news doesn’t have its benefits.  Before it released its Afghan War Diary, however, Wikileaks first shoveled the unfiltered secret documents to three mainstream media — The New York Times, The Guardian and Der Spiegel.

Was it because the three papers have a reputation for leaning to the left and might, therefore, use the leaks to bash the war effort?  Maybe, though I hardly think opponents of the war need much help in that regard.

A more plausible explanation is that Wikileaks went to the MSM because that’s where the reporters are.  The ones who, by and large, make a living out of gathering, processing and synthesizing lots of information.