adamyntium

Category: business and consumers

  • BLADAM is a best-of-breed, scalable end-to-end Web 2.0 solution

    That was a pretty obnoxious title, wasn’t it? String a few more sentences like that together, add a bogus (completely fabricated) self-congratulatory CEO quote or two and voila, you have a typical press release. Including something like this:

    “We’re proud that BLADAM is offered in a cutting-edge delivery system that reaches a diverse mix of savvy consumers” notes BLADAM CEO Adam Lasnik “And we’re confident that our unique, patent-pending ContentTextual(tm) presentation will provide a rapidly growing platform for future advantageous growth in this medium. Oh, and did I mention that BLADAM is Web 2.0? Web 2.0! We’re hip! We’re like Zimeebratr, but better!”

    * * *

    You’d think that companies would be more clueful today, but alas, even some overall clued-in companies I’ve worked for (and generally admired) spew e-xcrement like this.

    I was reminded about how press releases should look when I read this clued-in comment from an entry on Jeremy Zawodny’s blog:

    There’s somewhat of a convention and a pack instinct to press releases. Shame someone doesn’t learn from the Jesus and Mary Chain approach approach to concerts – play for 10 minutes and then walk off.


    It would be refreshing to see company dare to do one paragraph press releases. Couldn’t some PR company introduce “2.0” PR and make its name by completely revolutionizing press releases.


    Perhaps the new rules could be:
    – no declaration of “[company], the global leader in …” or “a leading … company”
    – absolutely no buzzwords
    – no warm, fluffy exec quotes
    – say exactly what it means
    – be concise in the extreme
    – if necessary provide a supplementary FAQ for each release
    – if you’ve got nothing to say don’t feel the need to fill the silence (mind you if your company hasn’t run a release in 3 months it’s a clear sign your revenues are going south)


    This new generation PR company should promote itself via a press release analyzer – drop your press release into a textbox on a form – the analyzer scores it for buzzwords, meaningless fluff and makes recommendations. A top/bottom 10 list of major Internet companies scores is maintained.

    This commenter’s suggestions were triggered by Jeremy’s article, which in itself was in response to the thoughtful rant by Tom Forenski. I’m not sure I agree with Tom’s proposed remedies, but I do believe that something must be done. After all, when even casual bloggers like me are getting sent cringeworthy press releases (seriously!), you know there’s something wrong with the world.

    * * *

    So here, let me take a stab at a press release for a new product:

    “Hi Walt,

    Just wanted to give you a heads-up on our newest product. I know you’re swamped, so I’m just sending you this plain-text e-mail with the basics, and I welcome you to click through for more details or call/e-mail/IM me anytime with questions! Thanks so much for your time, and have a good week.

    Regards,
    Adam
    [contact info]

    INDUSTRY SPACE:
    PRODUCT (and version #):
    WHAT IT DOES: [short bulleted list]
    WHY IT MATTERS: [<30 words]:" * * * On a related note, can you imagine the impact if press releases were sent on handwritten (ahem, normal-sized) postcards? No, really, I’m serious. This would accomplish the following:
    – It’d demonstrate that the release wasn’t blasted to 47183782835 journalists.
    – This would force writers to be concise. And recipients would breathe a sigh of relief upon seeing such brevity.
    – PR folks would actually develop decent handwriting (and, hey, let’s face it… most of us can’t handwrite worth a darn anymore… it’s a lost art!)

    What do you think? 🙂

  • Optimism from marketing execs: "People are living lives of desperation."

    From CMO magazine comes this gem, talking about the opportunities and benefits of using “real people” (I presume this means non-professional actors?) in advertising.

    The Dove campaign for its firming cream, for example, has proved popular with consumers, but industry experts disagree on whether the ad is effective. “Using the average person won’t sell anything,” says Gerald Celente, director and founder of Trends Research Institute, a consultancy. “The purpose of advertising is to create desire beyond what the product can actually deliver. Do you want to see the floppy Big Mac that the fast food worker actually packages up and hands to you, or the perfect airbrushed billboard version? People are living lives of desperation; they don’t want to be themselves.”

    This comment is so sad, I’m not quite sure where to start.  Indeed, there’s undeniably an element of fantasy involved in advertising; this explains Bud’s attention to buxom bikini babes breasts’ rather than beer drinking guys’ bodaciously bursting big bellies.  With that said, however, I resent and reject the implication that:

    – All of us consumers are desperate, lonely, pathetic souls… deriving happiness and self-worth only from airbrushed airheads shilling soap.  Speak for yourself, Celente!
    – Such condescending and pittying attitudes from overpaid marketing morons will endear consumers to any brand.

    I can only hope that consulting firms such as Calente’s AND the advertisers that believe in such self-defeating tripe will themselves end up living lives of career desperation.

  • Useful corporate autoreplies

    I just got an autoreply after submitting a suggestion to a company:

    Thank you for your note. We appreciate your helping us test out […]

    This is just an autoreply to let you know we received your email.
    We’re putting most of our energy into improving [widget], so we can’t
    promise a personal reply to every question.

    That said, user feedback is very important to us, and your comments and ideas will be used to improve [widget].

    That’s actually not so bad… but it could be better. Here are my thoughts on what makes for a good autoreply:

    1) Have one!
    Okay, that’s the simplest but most important. I know some folks disagree with me, and find autoreplies to be annoying. However, particularly in the area of HR, I think autoreplies are essential.

    2) Acknowledge and show appreciation for the note.
    If it’s HR, include something like, “We appreciate your interest in [companyname] and thank you for taking the time to apply for a position with us.” If it’s a customer-service-reply note, then “We appreciate you using [product]…”

    3) Set expectations.
    Don’t plan on replying to feedback notes? State that. Got a backlog due to a recent huge product release? State that, too. Be specific, if possible… e.g., “For simple tech issues, we’re typically able to reply in one business day. More complicated tech issues may take us 2-3 days; thanks for your patience!”

    4) Explain what happens next.
    For HR, let the applicant know that their resume will remain on file for [x] months. Explain how long the process may take (“Selected applicants will typically be notified within 2-3 weeks”). Note whether or not they can expect to receive a rejection letter if they aren’t chosen for the position.

    For customer service, note whether the person can expect a call or an e-mail. Give the knowledgebase URL (your company DOES have a knowledgebase, right?!).

    5) Sign it from a person!
    In the note I received above, there was no closing whatsoever. Blah. At minimum, have something like:

    Regards,
    The [widget] team

    or

    Regards,
    WidgetCo Inc.

    But much better than that would be:

    Regards,
    John Smith
    Product Manager of the WidgetCo Widget Team

    Yes, a real name. Maybe it’s just me, but I feel a lot more affinity for a product, a company, a process when I have a greater sense that there’s a real person or persons behind it, not just some monolithic MicroWidgets Inc. label.

    * * *

    As noted earlier, I know that not everyone loves the concept of autoreplies… but I firmly believe that good autoreplies can solidify a consumers’ relationship with a brand, make them feel better about what might be a frustrating situation, and so on.

  • Best Buy has Worst Survey (and more)

    I swear, don’t companies bother actually putting ANY of their stuff through QA? Or even CSF (Common Sense Filters)?

    I recently bought something at Best Buy locally (darnit, I needed the item immediately, or I would have amazon.com’d it), and while that immediate experience was generally decent, the followup has been so bad it’s laughable.

    The checkout process was actually delightful, in whole part due to the cashier being swooningly charming and funny. I’m used to a surly and/or robotic attitude, whereas had this woman been a waitress, I’d have given her a 30% tip. And as I’ve done in the past with other servicemen and women, I had planned on writing a quick note to Corporate praising an employee… but weirdly this person didn’t have a nametag. That’s strike number one: service folks in nearly any industry (credit card, restaurant, hotel, etc.), IMHO, should always introduce themselves by their first and/or full name or wear a name tag to foster accountability. (consumers should also, ideally, take 5 minutes a week to write or call in notes of praise for sterling bus drivers, waiters, nurses, etc… since these folks typically only get COMPLAINTS in this context, but I digress).

    * * *

    On my receipt, there was a huge portion dedicated to bribing me to take an online survey. Here’s what I noticed:

    1. It included a Web site but not a phone number. That’s likely a barrier for many folks (not everyone likes filling out surveys on the Web… heck, not EVERYONE, believe it or not, even has Web access… even folks shopping at Best Buy).
    2. Best Buy follows in the footsteps of other lamebrained companies by procuring a separate domain (not just a subdomain) for a help/survey site. I admit that this might be a smidgen more customer-friendly, but it is, IMHO, a really bad practice overall (what next… bestbuyreturns.com? bestbuysaleitems.com?) Among other things, the proliferation of extra domains per company makes it more difficult to tell which domains are legit (and makes it easier for phishers to ply their viruses and spyware and such).
    3. It includes three “groups” of numbers that I have to add in, Group A, Group B, and Group C. Maybe I’m really missing something, but how hard would it have been for them to have algorithmically created a simple hash of sorts like “plays43deck” or “spicy19book” etc. That’s a LOT more user friendly than asking a survey taker to input three separate sets of 4-7 digit numbers!

    * * *
    When I made it to the survey site, I had a choice of selecting one of four cute colored blocks:
    – Purchased an item
    – Purchased an item AND visited the customer service desk
    – Visited customer service desk
    – None of the above, just shopped

    Aside from the minor possibility that it’s too easy for someone to quickly see “visited customer service desk” and click that without viewing the other options, I have no major gripes about this opener.

    * * *

    But on one of the (too) many pages of this survey, I’m asked:
    “If you visited the Customer Service & Returns counter, please rate your satisfaction with this experience:” [satisfied, very satisfied, etc.]

    Well, as I noted in the very first screen, I only “purchased an item” so I left this section blank (there was no option for “n/a”)

    Of course — you guessed it — the system complained that I hadn’t answered the customer service & returns counter questions and insisted I did so before continuing. So I’m putting “extremely dissatisfied” for all of those questions, just out of spite.

    * * *

    In fairness, Best Buy did a few things right:
    1) They’re conducting a customer service survey.
    2) They’re offering a (ridiculously small but still something) prize to a random lucky sap who takes the survey.
    3) They have a free-form box at the end for letting us write comments. A perfect place for me to leave them the URL to this blog entry 😀

    * * *

    So why am I so annoyed by what’s seemingly such an minor issue? Because, as someone who has worked in customer service before, I’m sick of customer service being often treated like a money sinkhole, something to be “dealt with,” a grudging necessity. Customer service is the lifeblood of a company, and deserves to be addressed front and center… on at least equal footing with Product, Development, R&D, Engineering, etc. And, along those lines, customer service surveys should not be an oft-untested afterthought, dangit. Too often, it’s clear that few if any folks have reviewed the questions being asked… the surveys are too long, too unfocused, and feature too many ambiguous questions or questions for which the answers will not and cannot drive smart policy decisions.

    In other words, I’m sick of customer service being second fiddle. It’s time for companies, large and small, to realize that they need to structurally and financially plan for top notch customer service needs from the get-go, not the day after a crisis or the day before a major roll-out.

    Whew. Thanks. Now I feel better 🙂

  • Click-to-call is the next big thing in Web advertising… but with a twist

    I just read on Darren’s Problogger.net site (via Threadwatch) that Google is testing out a pay-per-call feature in its AdWords program.

    The way it works (so far in testing) is that Google places a little phone icon next to specific trial text ads where text AdWords ads are normally placed on the righthand side of Google search results pages.

    When someone clicks on the phone icon, they get a call from Google and Google then connects them to the advertiser free of charge… of course, charging the advertiser an amount up to their max pay-per-call bid price.

    IMHO, though, this is one layer away from being humungously useful to advertisers. As it’s currently implemented, I think a lot of folks (like me!) would be apt to read the small text ad, click through to the site, and then decide whether to call the company from *there* or not.

    And by that point, there’s no easy way for the advertiser to know that I came via AdWords… which means that it’s basically flying under the ROI radar. This may not seem like a horrible problem, but let me tell you… for some advertisers (like one of my clients, who spends over $150,000 a month on AdWords alone!), it’s quite painful to wonder whether that cost-per-lead is unduly inflated because lots of customers are calling in their high-ticket orders rather than placing them on the company’s Web site directly. With the latter, this client can see the conversions via Google’s conversion tracker. With the former, the best the client can do is ask the purchaser “Where did you hear about us?” and 9 times out of 10, the person will say “Um, somewhere on the net” or maybe even “Google” but they’ll hardly know whether they spotted this firm via a natural or AdWords listing!

    * * *

    So here’s my idea: One of these companies… Google, Yahoo!, or Microsoft (with its Ad Center, not yet released in the U.S.) should implement a special javascript code that displays — on the advertiser’s site! — a tailored-per-client toll-free number when the referrer is a ad-click from Google, Y! or Microsoft. If the visitor isn’t from one of their respective PPC programs, then the javascript code would default to simply showing the company’s own default toll-free number.

    And one of the coolest things about this is that it’d be VERY hard to game or click-fraud. If the engine set, for instance, a minimum call length before charging (say, 15 seconds), you’re not going to get random “calling farms” in India making 16 second calls, IMHO :-).

    Of course, really cheap-ass companies participating in the program could say “Oh, hi! Let me quickly get your number and call you back…” but — especially when high-ticket items or subscriptions are at stake — I don’t think such behavior is likely. The annoyance of that would likely offset too much potential revenue from customers.

    * * *

    From at a technical perspective, I think this would be pretty easy to do. I understand that there might be some referrer-acknowledgement issues (e.g., people surfing in high-paranoid mode with referrer stuff turned off), but on the whole, I can imagine that advertisers would be willing to pay a premium for a visit + call… and consumers would be well-served, too.

    What are your thoughts on this? Am I missing a key problem here?

  • Helpful numbers to save in your phone!

    I invite you to go grab your cell phone / mobile phone / home phone whatever and program the following numbers into it:

    – 1-800-555-8355 (“555 TELL” — TellMe)
    – 1-800-373-3411 (“FREE 411” — Free411)
    – 1-888-392-7563 (“EZ ASK ME” — AskMeNow – Initial signup on site required)
    – 46645 (“GOOGL” – Google SMS beta – Google via Text Messaging)

    NOTE: One or more of these numbers may be U.S.-only… sorry 😐

    For details on each service, read on…

    TELLME
    I’ve been using this service for ages, and it’s really gotten me out of some tight jams!

    Via interactive voice menus, callers can easily get weather reports, serious and entertainment news, movie info, and much more. But the butt-saving features I’ve particularly appreciated are TAXI and DRIVING DIRECTIONS. The former will connect you (free of charge) with a local cab company, and the latter gives you step-by-step spoken driving directions between any two points in the U.S. (powered by “Microsoft MapPoint Technologies”)

    Supposedly, TellMe is ad-supported, but I have yet to hear any ads on the service.

    * * *

    FREE 411
    Tired of paying $1.25 and up to your greedy mobile or landline phone company for directory assistance? Then you’ll especially love Free 411! Not only does it find residential and business phone numbers for you, it also connects you free-of-charge (even to long distance numbers!) This service is apparently ad-supported (e.g., ask for Dominos Pizza, get a 15 second ad for a competing pizza place), but I’ve never heard any ads during the 3-4 times I’ve used this service.

    Voice recognition is pretty decent, but the one time I stumped it, I was transferred to a human operator who was able to promptly get me the number I requested.

    Frankly, though, I do wonder how sustainable this is. Will enough companies really pay to have folks redirected to them? If people are asking for Smith Window Washing services, will they really be so easily swayed towards a competitor? I have my doubts. But in the meantime, I’m happy to use this very convenient free 411 service!

    * * *

    ASK ME NOW

    Need to know the capital of Wisconsin? Or find the phone number of a particular Citibank branch? Sure, if you’re near an Internet-connected computer, you could probably quickly and easily find this info yourself. But what if you’re busy or not near a computer? Yes, I have a Web browser on my Treo phone, but it’s slow, the screen is small, and it’s generally just a miserable experience trying to navigate Web sites with it.

    Well, Ask Me Now is indeed a viable alternative. You call their number, leave a message, and 1-3 minutes later, you get back text messages with the right answer. Or at least AN answer. In my minimal testing, Ask Me Now gave me the right answer to “What is the Capital of Wisconsin?” but gave me the wrong answer to “What is the phone number of the Citibank branch located on Diamond Street in San Francisco?” The person (apparently located in the Philippines) who answered my query clearly just quickly googled for the answer and didn’t bother checking on Citibank’s Web site, since the correct answer is available in the latter, not the former.

    This service costs 49 cents per query, billed to your cell phone account. Supposedly you can get free ‘automated’ answers, but it’s not clear to me what qualifies as free and not-free, even after looking on the company’s Web site.

    * * *

    GOOGLE SMS
    Another option is Google’s SMS service. Text message GOOGL (46645) to get driving directions, movie showtimes, weather reports, price comparisons, and more.

    I’ve found this service to be both wonderous and frustrating. For instance, when I asked it [What is the capitol [sic] of wisconsin?] it replied back “Did you mean CAPITAL…” and gave me an appropriate Web page… when I would have preferred for it to actually include the answer, not just a link, in the reply. Additionally, when I asked it [Phone number for Citibank on Diamond St in San Francisco CA] it replied unhelpfully: “Looking for map of [query]? Unfortunately map information is not available through Google SMS.”

    I had better luck with other queries, such as [weather 91360] and [what is the population of belgium].

    * * *

    YAHOO SMS
    Despite multiple attempts, I could not get this service to work. I kept getting an “Invalid…” message, with instructions relating to Y! Messenger, after even using the exact queries listed on this page. Bummer. Any Yahoo people out there wanna help me figure out what’s going on here? I’ve heard good things about Yahoo’s mobile offerings and perhaps there’s just something small / obvious I’m missing?

  • Ridiculously insane Web hosting deal… 77 cents a month

    First, let me offer a sincere disclaimer: I’ve debated whether or not to post this, because I’ll get free Web hosting credits when people sign up with the link below.

    But I’ve decided that this deal is simply too amazing not to share, and I just can’t feel that guilty for using an affiliate link (when being up-front about it) in this context. I’ve already set up an account for myself, urged my good friends to get accounts, etc.

    Here’s the deal:
    – 4.8gb of space (increases weekly by 40mb)
    – 120gb of monthly bandwidth (increases weekly by 1gb)
    – Plus shell access, mySQL, mailing lists, ftp, etc. etc. etc.
    – Free 1-year registration of a domain
    – Unlimited domain/subdomain hosting

    …for $9.24 *TOTAL* for the first year (77 cents a month).
    After that, it’s $7.95 or $9.95/month (still a fab deal), and perhaps even cheaper by then.

    Here’s how to sign up:
    1) Click here.
    2) Click on “Managed Web Hosting.”
    3) Click on the “signup now” button under “Crazy Domain Insane.”
    4) Select the 12 month term.
    5) Make sure to enter promotion code 777 to receive the special pricing!

    * * *

    I do welcome your frank thoughts both about this post and about DreamHost. My experience with DH so far has been generally good… a relatively straightforward signup process (with my account active in under 2 minutes), a friendly forum… but on the flip side, my control panel was initially slow, and I find the CP to be a bit unintuitive. Site speed, thankfully, seems pretty fast.

    Lastly, I’d like to give a hat tip to the fabulously cool and useful deals site SlickDeals.net, from which I initially learned about this offer.

    UPDATE: Comments closed on this entry due to the enormously lame spamming by tons of competing Web hosts… not actually offering any particular deals, just glomming onto any mention “Web host” in a blog entry. Losers.

  • Pricey hotels… sometimes you DON’T get what you pay for

    A few weeks ago, I decided to splurge and book a night at a “four star” hotel via Priceline so I could get a good night’s rest before taking a long bus ride to Swing Out New Hampshire.

    If this Hilton Hotel in Manhattan is four stars, I’d hate to see what a one star place is like.

    Okay, so I got at least the ‘bare minimums’:
    – A clean room
    – A decent shower
    – A relatively comfortable bed

    But beyond that… I fail to see why anyone would pay an arm and a leg to enjoy the “four star’ness” of this hotel.

    Here’s the skinny on my Hilton hotel stay:

    • The check-in folks were helpful but not all that friendly.
    • My room completely lacked any interesting d?cor or character. Worse yet, there were no blinds to keep out the sun, making a mid-day nap after a red-eye quite unpleasant.
    • I gritted my teeth everytime I went to and from my room due to the fricking elevator TV screen blaring CNN’s Katrina disaster coverage. I hope you’ll forgive me for digressing for a moment… but CNN is to a thoughtfully informed citizenry what spam is to one’s diet. We may think we want it, we may even think it nourishes us, but in the end it makes us feel bloated and sick. CNN is just a teensy tiny bit less evil than Fox, IMHO. Both are Infotainment and Shock Schlock masquerading as news and real debate, and having the former blared in the Hilton elevator made me want to shatter some glass and/or shout “I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore!“
    • $1.50 to place a local call, $2.50 to call Directory Information, $5.25 for half a grapefruit, and $5.95 for hot oatmeal (no, I wasn’t stupid enough to actually rack up any such expenses).
    • $20 for one day of Internet access, despite being assured via their corporate number that Internet access was complementary. I successfully contested the charges.

    Yes, I know that the sort of charges mentioned above are typical for “high end” / business hotels, but beyond the possible “because people on corporate expense accounts don’t flinch,” I fail to see WHY this situation exists. Usually when I pay substantially more for a particular level of service (e.g., Business Class on an airplane), I expect not only a higher level of amenities, but also more complementary perks, not fewer.

    Contrast this Hilton experience with my evenings spent in a Best Western, which typically costs less than half what I paid:
    – Free breakfast
    – Friendly service
    – Cheerful, if somewhat kitschy room d?cor (not to mention actual window shades)
    – Free Internet access
    – Affordable in-hotel dining

    And mind you, it’s not just the Hilton that deserves slogging, IMHO. I stayed at the uber-trendy Hotel 71 in Chicago a while back on company business, and was thoroughly unimpressed with that place, too. Uncomfortable chairs, sterile styling (though I suppose that’s quite a matter of personal taste), no hot tub or swimming pool, and a concierge that was no more helpful than those I’ve dealt with at budget hotels (who often seem at least more eager to please).

    I don’t care if I win the lotto tomorrow. Next hotel stay, I’m being a cheap-ass bastard… and I’m sure I’ll be rewarded for it in more ways than cost-savings.

    * * *

    Related links:
    – New York Times: “If Parks Offer Free Internet, Why Can’t Pricey Hotels“?

  • Installing software is often a miserable experience (even with Apple!)

    This entry about a fella’s (nasty) experience installing Quicktime made me both chuckle and nod in understanding.

    Apple has a reputation of being so easy to use, so consumer friendly, so I gotta ask: what the $&@#! were those folks smoking when they went ahead with this install process? This is about as consumer-hostile as you get. It’s annoying and downright rude.

    In fairness, Apple’s not the only company that should be forced to sit in a corner and repent. Other misbehaving miscreants include AOL and Real; I installed the most recent beta version of AIM only so I could play with the new Plaxo integration (which is actually slick and damn cool [see disclaimer]), but I sure as hell didn’t want a stupid Web browser (“AOL Explorer”) piggybacked on top, nor did I ask to have AIM sit in my system tray and be present upon every Windows startup. And regarding the Real Player, well… despite being very tempted to install it so I can watch some in-Real-format-only clips on the Web, I’ve put off sullying my new computer, ’cause I remember what a splatting mess the install was last time.

    Look, companies, I know many of you have quasi-monopolies or oligopolies, but these are fleeting. Honest. I truly believe you’re going to get your butts kicked on the ground if you continue to treat your users — especially influential geeks — like saps who are expected to just roll over and accept all of your default system changes and detritus.

    There are lots of awesome programs that do behave themselves: asking the user if they’d like to have things run at startup or if they’d like icons placed here or there. Some of the install processes even include prominent AND NON-LEGALESED terms of service, so we don’t have to either scroll through 478 lines of gooblygook or worry about what happens if we just ignore it.

    * * *

    It may take a while, but we users will win in the end. So, dear companies, now is the time to do the right thing… before it’s too late. Earn our trust, serve our needs and (maybe) then we’ll be amenable to your upgrade offers and cross-promotions. Get us to love, not hate, your brand and you’ll be rewarded in the long term.

  • Tips for corporate wannabe bloggers

    Jeremy Zawodny recently posted that he’s going to be speaking about blogging at the Direct Marketing Association’s annual conference, and asked his readers what he should tell those folks.

    Many people, understandably, responded that he should basically tell them to drop dead. Given the DMA’s, ahem, relationship-challenged practices in the past (e.g., supporting opt-out, rather than opt-in e-mail lists), that’s hardly surprising.

    With that said, though, I figured it’d be worth it to suggest a few more friendly guidelines for the DMA folks, at least those genuinely interested in communicating decently and effectively with others online. Specifically, here’s what I commented on Jeremy’s blog:

    * * *

    Tell them to ask themselves this before they ever post anything on a blog:
    “If you were out having a beer with someone you’ve recently become friends with, would you say this to their face?”

    For instance, when you’re (appropriately) talking a friend, you generally don’t:
    – shout
    – hype
    – badger
    – monopolize
    – ignore
    – use fear

    You do (or should), however:
    – Talk like a human
    – Listen
    – Listen some more
    – Respond appropriately
    – Be sincere. No, *really* sincere, not faux sincere.
    – Know your relationship-type. You don’t hug and kiss a new friend and say “You’re my best friend EVER!!!”

    And the hardest, but IMHO most important:
    Know yourself, know your limitations, and don’t pretend to be someone you aren’t. If you’re a 300 pound frumpy housewife, you don’t show up at a bar in a miniskirt and halter top to meet a friend. You’ll embarrass yourself, you’ll embarrass your friend, and no one will want to be seen with you, much less listen to you. For companies, this means that you shouldn’t sweep who you are and what your history is under a rug; if you’ve had problems with a product or customer relationships, enter into a conversation humbly or even with an appropriate apologetic introduction. “We realize we haven’t always worked with our customers in a way that would make our founder proud. Here’s what we’re doing to change that… and why we respectfully ask you to give us another chance.”

    Humility, thoughtfulness, subtlety, humanity. All attributes that the spam-defending DMA, sadly, seems to have in very short supply.

    * * *

    RELATED ENTRIES:
    – Blogger Don’ts [from the consumer-side of blogging]