You don't NEED me to do ANYTHING

Roger Hislop

It’s really simple. If you want someone to do something, you ask them. If you insist they do something, insist. If you hold power of life or death over them, order.

But stop 'needing'. An awful, passive-aggressive and underhand construction has leaked into our language in the past few years, and it is (as our marketing brethren like to say) ‘gaining traction’.

You’ve heard it already – first on American TV shows, where a bossy air hostess (oops, sorry, cabin attendant) tells the lantern-jawed hero trying to save the plane from the Ukrainian hijacker, “Sir, I need you to sit down and fasten your seat belt,” in a flinty voice that brooks no correction for diction or grammar.

Then it started to spread to almost every walk of life. I need you to send this fax for me. I need you to tell me where the gents’ toilet is. I need you to stop drinking because your boss is rolling his eyes.

Old way: “Please fill in this form.”

New way: “I need for you to fill in this form for me.”

One is a polite, but direct, request. One is passive-aggressive instruction.

One says you’d like someone to do something, one is basically a pseudo-order using a grammatical flick-flack to hide its basic bad manners.

So if you want me to approve a doc you’ve just emailed, say “Can you review this doc for me?” If you’re my boss, say “Please review this doc for me” (because even when you’re using the imperative voice you can still be polite). If you’re Kim Jong-Il, you can say whatever the hell you want. Or need.

• 2010/05/31
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They are in the marketing - not miracles - department

Sarah Rice

I have been noticing a scary trend – if a complaint comes in via a social media channel the problem is a marketing one rather than a business one. 

Lets break that down.

A disgruntled customer tweets to say "@[companyname] product broke, call centre can’t help. I want my money back. You thieving rogues. #brandfail"

If this had come in as an email, it would be escalated to product division and be dealt with. But suddenly in the new 2.0 world the problem has nothing to do with the company and everything to do with the communications team.

The comms team is running around trying to make it better, fix the problem, learn about the issues and communicate with the customer. Operationally the business steps back because it’s a ‘marketing issue’.  It’s totally crazy.

Communications can only do so much. The business has to do what the business does. Just because social media was embraced by marketing doesn’t mean that everything that happens online is a marketing issue. Sometimes it is a business issue.

Marketing people - Push Back!

 

• 2010/04/20
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What does a Social Media professional do?

Roger Hislop

 Last week Sentient was invited to speak to a conference for Property Professionals... estate agencies, property managers, developers, and companies that provide online platforms to the industry. It was an interesting group of people, because the property industry was one of the first in South Africa to understand that the Web could do an awful lot for their businesses. Needless to say, online sites for buying, selling and renting property (commercial and residential) exploded all over the place over the past decade. 

Now the property industry is faced with a new challenge... Social Media. How does it fit with their online strategies, and how do they make the most of it? 

We took a bit of a different tack from the usual "OMFG but Social Media is SOOOOO rad"... we talked about what a Social Media person does during the day, from the moment they arrive at work, to the moment they leave. We also looked at the skills and qualities of a good Social Media professional, and what you should consider when hiring one. Lastly, we repeatedly thumped the tub about one key recommendation: don't do Social Media unless you put the people resources in place. It's a full time job, not a cheap way to do PR or advertising.

So - here's the presentation, in all it's glory, on Slideshare.

http://www.slideshare.net/SentientCommunications/social-media-in-real-life 

 

 

• 2010/03/17
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