sentientbeing

You don't NEED me to do ANYTHING

Roger Hislop — 2010-05-31T15:26:31+00:00

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.

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They are in the marketing - not miracles - department

Sarah Rice — 2010-04-20T16:08:32+00:00

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!

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What does a Social Media professional do?

Roger Hislop — 2010-03-17T16:54:52+00:00

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

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New service - social media policy development

Roger Hislop — 2010-02-03T16:23:29+00:00

We've launched a packaged service called "Social Media Policy Development", as seen on BizCom. This is not something new to a number of Sentient's clients -- we've done a bunch of social media policies, strategies, workshops, call them what you will, over the last two or three years. These range from simple "how to use Twitter" or "why you shouldn't blog if you're had half a bottle of wine" to all-singing, all-dancing strategies + policies + resource allocations + hands on training.

But any number of South African corporates are looking at Social Media, and wondering what they should be doing. Our "policy development" service is designed to give them a roadmap, a plan of action, and some Golden Rules to work within.

This is how we position the service:

"Sentient’s Social Media Policy Development programme is a thought-provoking and thorough examination of a business and how it can navigate the online minefields of LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Yammer and others."

Key topics that we examine when developing a policy:

audiences and channels: who are you talking to, and where are they online
monitoring and tracking techniques and standards*
who responds to what, when, and why
response times and escalation paths
best practices in the various SM channels
tone, language and content
organisational structures and allocation of responsibilities

Sentient has developed online policies and best practices for many clients over the years as part of broader communications strategies. These include digital business-to-business strategies for local enterprises, blogging and social media guidelines for a leading advertising agency, and Sentient led the online communications policy work for the ruling party during the 2009 national elections.

The core social media policy should be simple, outlining a few principles and defining a voice. The Internet changes so quickly that a cook-book approach becomes outdated within weeks or months. A policy should be short and sweet: Coca Cola’s policy is three pages long (see interview with Coke SM head here), as is Sun Microsystems (here). But behind this policy, a great deal of thinking needs to be done, as enormous brand damage can be done with a few clicks by an over-zealous individual (such as a junior at Habitat using Twitter hashtags on political crisis in Iran to build rank). Part of this thinking involves legal or HR implications, training requirements for those who want to be online ambassadors, monitoring and tracking, and more.

So there you have it. Have policy, will travel the corridors of social media. Bravely. Confidently. Correctly. Entertainingly.

* Check out Klout for establishing Twitter influence, it's pretty powerful.

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Hamster Wisdom

Roger Hislop — 2009-12-15T14:24:00+00:00

I really want a big screen TV. A big flat one. One of those new ones that have a bazillion to one dynamic contrast ratio, and sixty trillion ANSI lumens, with four HDMI ports and the ability to play video directly from a USB drive.

Right now I have a really crap TV. It’s big and bulky, with a tiny screen. The controls on the front don’t work, I had to pull the thing apart to disconnect them after an unfortunate incident involving Cape Town winter dampness and a weeping salt crystal lamp.

This is an old, tired, small, crap TV. I want a new, big, slim-line, awesome TV.

And I plan to continue to want this big screen TV for a long time to come.

It’s healthy to really want a cool new TV. It shows you’re a real guy. It’s not healthy to actually buy a cool new TV. Because once you’ve been to Game and selected your hi-def goodness, and got it home, and mounted the bracket on the wall, and hung it up, and connected all the cables, and played with the remote, what then?

You watch a couple of episodes of Dexter. You browse your media player (because you can finally read the file-names from across the room).

What then?

Then you start to think, “Hmm. The speakers sound a little thin and boomy. Maybe I should look at a new set.” You start to think, “A media tank that lets me pull torrents down via WiFi from the comfort of my couch. That would rock.”

It’s a hamster wheel. Every step you take takes you a step closer to the next step. You will never get there, because the only way to get there is to get off this hamster wheel to nowhere.

So I will not buy that big screen TV. But I will continue to want to. That’s healthy.

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Perfecting your PR campaign by jumping on the Social Media bandwagon

Tyrone van Heerden — 2009-11-30T10:27:02+00:00

We all know the impact that social media has had on the general public, not only from the way people communicate and network but also from the way they perceive a particular brand.

Although many communications professionals have acknowledged the importance of social media (some even claiming to be experts) they tend to focus on one specific medium- Twitter being a particular favourite at the moment.

Twitter is a great medium for certain brands as a support function but focusing all your attention solely on the one platform can be a waste of a PR’s efforts as it should be merely supporting other social media activities such as your blog, Facebook page, company profile on Linkedin, etc. Social media is of course all about interaction- captivating a community of interest and not playing with, but understanding and supporting their views- why not tap into these emotions and put a name behind your brand over multiple platforms?

For me, Adam Singer from Top Rank's Marketing blog put’s social media into perspective for PR pro’s by providing readers with three steps for effectively using social media for PR.

Although Singer acknowledges Twitter as being the social medium of choice for PR and Marketing pro’s he also shares the view that Twitter shouldn’t be one’s sole medium- “instead of putting all your mediums into just one basket or network, focus on owning your niche across web platforms,” he says.

My concern in the South African market is that a lot of PR’s don’t realise how easy it is to send a message across multiple platforms targeting different communities by the click of one button. Singer say’s, “There is very little value in being a brand or a person who is popular in network X or Y.”

PR people need to stay committed to their social media plans explains Singer. “Push through the dip. In other words, outlast others who aren’t as serious or committed as you are.”

By staying consistent on your social media platforms, you going to stand out amongst the clutter on the web, creating a community who respects your insight and see’s a value in your views.

Singer appeals to PR people not to forget the role of SEO in your social media activities and to find the link between PR, social media and SEO. He makes a great point by explaining that if you participate in the social web with the goal of PR, you’re going to inspire attention for your brand. In turn, attention on the web equals to links, which can boost referral traffic and improving the general SEO of the particular brand.

I feel that South African PR’s are slowly coming to terms with the role that social media plays in building a brand. One can just look at social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook and Linkedin, and can see the increase of visibility of South African brands and products daily. To me, it’s up to the PR’s to make sure that these brands are placed on the correct mediums, that they have continuous interaction with the network of people on the mediums, and that they build a reputation for the brand that will beat the clutter of it’s competitors on the web and attract a reputation of them being the better brand than that of their competitors.

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Don’t Cry Over Bilked Milk

Roger Hislop — 2009-10-01T14:45:57+00:00

Nestlé is having a torrid time. It’s the kind of story every news journalist loves. Global multinational! Profits at the expense of the poor! Grace Mugabe! Chocolate! As a PR person, I can even envy a little the PR people that are having to deal with it – it’s like being the SWAT team newbie who finally gets to put his hard-won skills to the test. Corporate communications crisis! Brand image at risk! Snowballing negative coverage! Chocolate!

As it unfolds, it’s attracting its fair share of hand-wringing, finger-wagging, horrified hissing, angry denunciation and just as angry rebuttal.

It’s also absolutely lovely to see a multinational organisation shatter into national stereotypes:

Swiss Government: Has the letter of the law been broken? No? OK, no problem.
“Nestlé confirmed that no individuals or companies in Switzerland were in any way involved in the relevant transactions... Therefore, no further investigations are planned at the moment.”

Nestlé Zimbabwe: Think of the children! Oh, the humanity!
“Had Nestlé decided to close down its operations in Zimbabwe, the company would have triggered further food shortages and hundreds of job losses among its employees and milk suppliers in an already very difficult situation.”

Nestlé Switzerland: Ve did nothink wrong, and even if ve did, you can’t touch us.
“We are not obliged to comply with the (European Union) sanctions because our headquarters were in Switzerland and we have not broken any Swiss laws.”

Nestlé South Africa: We stand up like a man and take it on the chin.
“We do not have any kind of business relationship with Nestlé Zimbabwe.”

Afriforum set up a protest site, nestlebloodmilk.com. Nestle SA was once again steadfast in its principled position: “We have not received formal notification of the campaign.”

UPDATE 1/10/09 -- Nestle SA suddenly seems to be talking for Nestle Zim after all ... it announced at a press conference that it will stop buying from Auntie Grace, because while implicitely supporting a murdering despot is OK, a consumer boycott is not.

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Glossy Women’s Magazines. Where Feminism Goes to Die

Roger Hislop — 2009-09-25T16:18:46+00:00

Why are mass-market women's magazines in South Africa so uniformly awful? With a few exceptions, it's just dross, dross and more dross. I'm a bloke, so maybe I'm not qualified to comment. So I checked with female friends and colleagues: professional, successful women, some with kids, some without. All despair. They pick up a women's mag occasionally, more from a fading habit than because the expect anything special.

Glamour. Cosmopolitan. Awful. Awful. Awful. Tedious. Repetitive. Synthetic flavouring and non-nutritive sweetener.

Fairlady. Femina. Little better. More pretentious, with more "serious issues" handled in the same lightweight, bite-size chunks, referencing the work of so-called topic specialists that are at best dial-a-quotes, the journalism equivalent of Heinz two-minute chicken noodles.

I pick up the international versions of these titles sometimes, and while they're hardly Vanity Fair, there is at least a sense of journalism, of editorship, of respect for the reader (that being said, they vary wildly - maybe I just struck it lucky).

The women's mags take fluff, and dumb it down even more. It's a monthly compendium of regurgitated pap. Flat tummy now! Better sex in five steps! What your lover never told you that would blow his mind! Stand up to your boss!

A litany of trivial, senseless nonsense. The editors are saying in 45-point sans serif font on every cover: "SA women? You are pointless, helpless and hapless, and even though you know you will never be Charlize Theron, Maria Ramos or Wendy Luhabe, the neediness and inadequacy that suffuses your needy and inadequate being is catnip for our advertisers."

God help SA women if these magazines are really a pfenster on their lives. More like a raphaeling for bankruptcy.

There are a couple of mags that are trying. Destiny tries to give the professional, intelligent woman something that talks to the real life she leads, rather than the stereotype-smothered vanilla Twinkie of a life that editors of the rest of the women's mags project onto their readers. For good or ill, though, Destiny has zoomed in on the urban black career-women living in Jo'burg. We need more.

There is a massive market opportunity in women's mag publishing for something a little smarter, a little less addicted to taking the safe, easy editorial option, and a lot more readable.

The glossy women's mags don't have features, they have compendia of soundbites and fact files loosely organised around the tepid opinions of the month's tame psychologist/style consultant/life coach. These magazines don't have points of view, they have top tips. The only principled stand they take is a grovelling adoration of luxury brands. They don't contain information, they polish turds.

I can forgive creative work many things (and a popular magazine is, at it's essence, a creative exercise, not intellectual) - bitchiness, bias, bitterness...

But I can't forgive them for being stupid, and I can't forgive them for being dull.

More than anything else, I'd like to see a few of the many talented, smart, informed, no-bullshit women journalists get together, pull in a couple of good men (to keep the womenfolk from straying back to make-up secrets and vacuous dissection of relationships), and veer off the well-trodden trail of current convention to produce the women's magazine that South African women deserve.

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Accidental Truthiness

Roger Hislop — 2009-09-11T12:10:18+00:00

“Opposing Yet Unified”.

One of the taglines on the promo game Website for Dan Brown’s new book, “The Lost Symbol”.

My first reaction? Noooooooo, nooooooo, no more of Dan Brown’s abysmal psuedo-factual tripe! Second reaction? What the hell does that even mean? Bricked Yet Slippery. Manifest Yet Lemon-Scented. Artful Yet Spastic.

"Opposing Yet Unfied" turns out it’s a cryptic description of the Yin/Yang sign in this “guess the esoteric symbol” game. Which is actually just a little bit addictive, even though you know it’s a complete waste of time.

Which is Dan Brown’s novels to a T. Addictive Yet Awful.

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Poker is the new golf

Sarah Rice — 2009-09-03T14:47:28+00:00

Sitting in a client office’s last week I heard one of the sales-droids seduce a prospective customer into a game of poker.

There was a discussion about whether it was for money (deep masculine laugher), whether any women were playing – turns out this was a (chortle, chortle) night-with-boys game and (much hilarity) what kind of whisky would be on offer.

“What the hell…?” I was thinking. “What is this? A bromance?” And it suddenly dawned on me. Poker is the new golf.

And y’know, It makes sense. Its perfect for those who want to ‘build relationships’ with people they work with, but aren’t high enough up the corporate hierarchy to take a Friday off to ‘network’.

Poker has a lot going for it. You don’t need daylight, you don’t need to buy any expensive kit, you don’t need to know that much to play and have fun and you aren’t limited to a foursome. Add a bit of competition, some Patron (the new Jagermeister) and I think we have the makings of the credit-crunch networking dream.

Poker has an edgy-glam feel. You get the feeling there are passwords, smoky-eyed girls, endless shots of hard liquor (yes – when playing poker everyone uses the word liquor), sweaty losers and calm collected winners.

For not much money/ matchsticks you can make friends and influence people. All the while discussing that big job…

I guess this all means one thing - its time to trade up to a better set of clubs.

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