Is Anyone Out There Listening? - Febuary 12, 2010

Is anyone out there listening?

Even the most fervent believers in free markets need to be a little skeptical when it comes to the claims that companies make about their products and services. And that goes not only for their commercial advertisements, but also for their  social media presence as well.  So despite the standard advice being given to firms to “be real” and “listen to your customers,” are we really supposed to believe that they want to be our “friends”?? Even public relations firms struggle with the idea of how to create online “community” so don’t be surprised if your real-life friends turn out to be more loyal and compassionate than the company that built your car.

Marketing is dead. Long live Marketing.

I have to admit that as a professional communicator, I think there’s great value in the kind of work that people in my field do every day.  And like the proverbial swan gliding across the pond, I think the marketing team is often the one paddling like mad out of site to keep things looking serene and beautiful up on the surface.  So when I eagerly clicked on a link this week about how to respond to objections to using social media in the workplace, I was disappointed in what I found – a blog whose background colors and typeface rendered it illegible.  Traditional marketing channels may disappear (newspaper, tv, etc.), but the need for clarity, beauty and legibility are here for the long run, no matter how people want to communicate.

Capitalist. Punishment?

A long-trending topic in the Information Age has been how to maximize the value of the workforce in the face of huge changes in technology, the marketplace, and in the way products and services are consumed.  On the one hand is the age-old survival of the fittest mentality, in which the workforce is something to be tamed, exploited, mistrusted and  kept to a bare minimum. On the other is the gentler, kinder approach that advocates motivating people through empowerment, teamwork, and positive rewards.  In the midst of a Great Recession is  money to be made by being cruel or by being compassionate? 

Dumb Down or Get Smart?

As a young man, I kept a clipping in my dresser that explained how to tie a bow-tie, since it was something I did so rarely that I could never remember how to do.  Once I lost that piece of paper, however, it was the end of bow-ties for me.  With the advent of the internet, of course, it soon become possible to find instructions – which was a good thing.  But now I don’t even need those.  I can just pull up Youtube and watch a how-to video.    Information technology is clearly changing not only the way we behave, but also the way we think and interact with the world.  Is that for the better? Or should I have just switched to turtlenecks like Steve Jobs?