Communicating in the City

I feel old

I'm only 38 but today I feel like I'm 68.

It used to be I was the youngest one in the crowd - among friends, family members and in the office. But now...I'm the old one.

In the workplace, I'm surrounded by youth - colleagues in their early-to-mid twenties - full of new ideas and passionate about shiny new tools to introduce inside the company. It's all good, of course. Fresh ideas are always a good thing. But these days, it's all just too much.

Every time we get used to using a new tool or platform, another one comes along that's better and faster. There's no time to enjoy or appreciate a tool; it's bang -- on to the next one! Yet another thing to learn and adapt to...in addition to our normal every day activities.

And with all these new tools, I don't even think my staff reads my emails anymore.

Companies like Atos and Volkswagen are cutting down on internal email to reduce overload and it's giving people ideas. Sure, we all suffer from electronic noise but like I said, these alternative tools in themselves are noise.

Whatever happened to a good old-fashioned phone call?

Long live the blog

I can't help but to chuckle at the name of my blog this evening: 'Communicating in the City'. Hell, no one communicates in New York anymore. Unless you want to call an occasional text communication. Or maybe a quick email. Or a fast Skype call. Or a Twitter message. Or a Facebook wall post.

Everything is lightning fast these days; we want to be able to log onto a website quickly and get the info we need to know; we want to hear instant responses from those we (actually) attempt to contact. Sure, social media can do that...but there's no emotional connection.

People use Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, etc to brag about their cute kids, the posh restaurant where they ate dinner, the cool city they're traveling to next, etc, etc, etc. It's merely a status thing. Look at me, I'm cool. But hey, are you really calling any of these 'friends', sending them a decent-sized email? Probably not.

Social media has made people more and more vain. No one really wants to be social. If they did, they'd pick up a phone and say 'happy birthday'; not write it on someone's wall. 

It's actually kind of refreshing when I come across people who refuse to conform to the times. The guy I've been dating for the past several months doesn't even own a computer; and his cell phone is from the dark ages. He's pretty much intimidated by the whole technology and social media scene...which might not be a bad thing if I ever want to mouth off about him on Facebook.

The social media tool that I think is the most valuable? Blogging. Hence, what I'm doing right now. People have the chance to write multiple paragraphs and spread knowledge, viewpoints and information. Blogging can be social if people decide to leave comments and interact with you. But if they don't, blogging can be an extremely personal, therapeutic way to express your thoughts. Who the hell needs an overpriced therapist when you can have an inexpensive platform to rave, vent...and dare I say it, communicate?

Thanks to sites like Twitter and Facebook, I'm seeing more and more communicators fall off when it comes to keeping up with their blogs. Hell, if people are so busy typing out their 140 characters and linking to articles and videos, and if they're spending tons of time 'checking in' to venues and posting Facebook photos, when does that leave them time to blog a good 5-8 paragraphs?

That said, I'm happy to say I'm gradually getting back into the blogging groove. It's a precious tool - one that people need to remember and embrace once again.

Don't people know how to spell?

Maybe it's because I'm an Editor, maybe it's because I'm a former Spelling Bee champ, but typos really annoy me. And it's amazing how many there are in the business world.

I'm so revved up about the topic that I'm actually blogging after a six month hiatus. In case you're wondering, you will not see any typos in this blog entry.

Sometimes I'm not sure whether it's people's inability to spell certain words or just plan laziness (have you heard of spell check?), but these days, more and more documents (and e-mails) are coming my way with mis-spelled words. Some common mistakes - "your" vs. "you're" and "tomorrow" vs. "tommorrow".

A friend of mine is doing online dating and is amazed at how many women e-mail him with typos and misspellings. Gee, that's such a turn on. If the women are that careless with spellcheck, imagine how flaky they might be in real life. I'm just saying...

And don't get me started with text messages. While they're great when you're in a hurry or if you want to send quick bursts of information, they're doing a number on our grammar. People are now beginning to abbreviate in every day life.

A recent "Curb Your Enthusiasm" episode was particularly hilarious because it dealt with a character who said "LOL" rather than actually laughing. And let's not forget LMAO, OMG and TTYL. If we're abbreviating so much, how on earth are we going to become good spellers?

Society is getting so lazy that I think we're going to stop talking altogether. We'll continue to text and e-mail each other when we're sitting in the same room, and we'll continue to zone out while listening to our iPods on the train or when we're reading our Kindles or playing with our iPads. Gee, during a time when everyone can't wait to connect, no one is really physically interacting. I can't remember when someone actually looked up and made eye contact on the train. Maybe that's why so many people are single in New York and in other cities. We have too much other cool stuff to focus on; instead of wanting to meet sexy people, we're obsessed with our sexy gadgets. It's amazing that you still see so many pregnant people around; obviously some people are putting their Kindles down long enough to procreate. Must've been that long, hard winter we had...

In any event, while it's great to embrace technology, we mustn't forget the basics: how to spell, how to interact and how to truly communicate. And with that, I say GN for now...

 

Whatever happened to...

...commercial jingles?

Remember during our childhood, when catchy jingles dominated the airwaves? We were encouraged by AT&T to "reach out and touch someone" while San Giorgio boasted that "New York loves San Giorgio/great spaghetti in a great spaghetti town."

Thanks to Big Red gum, we could "say goodbye a little longer" and dare we forget those adorable Oscar Mayer jingles? Or how we wanted to buy the world a Coke?

Advertising back then just seemed so much catchier. Commercials were nostalgic; jingles stuck in your head for days. Brands truly had a distinctive feel.

These days - much like feature films - everything is about glitz and special effects. Ads are noticeably shorter to keep up with shrinking attention spans. While some commercials get an occasional chuckle out of me, I find myself fast forwarding through most of them. Most ads just aren't memorable anymore, unless there's a big-name celebrity endorsing a product or if the spots air during the Super Bowl.

It's been awhile since an Average Joe like Jared became a spokesman sensation or when the late Clara Peller asked "Where's the Beef?"

So what's my point, you may ask? Advertising needs to come up with new gimmicks, more creativity if it wants to sell products. 

Companies should take a cue from Old Spice who relied on the power of the internet and viral marketing. Their spokesman - Isaiah Mustafa - became a national sensation in the US last year.

Maybe it's because it's 10 degrees in New York right now and I've been cooped up inside watching one too many crappy commercials these past couple of days, that I've decided to comment on the state of advertising. Or perhaps it's because I'm procrastinating and avoiding the remaining mound of work that lies before me. Nevertheless, I think external advertising needs to step it up a bit these days. After witnessing (and judging) some of the excellent internal videos and campaigns that companies are producing, let's hope their original sources of inspiration get better themselves.

Simplytv is on the air - and so is our NY studio!

Last month, we at simply-communicate stepped up our webinar platform and introduced simplytv, enabling attendees to not only hear us, but see us - thanks to the technology provided by MediaPlatform. I met those guys at Streaming Media East awhile back, and after a few conference calls, we were hooked on their video capabilities.

November's broadcast was soley fed from London; in yesterday's December installment, we unveiled our New York studio - or actually - my apartment, but with a neat New York backdrop.

As viewers took in all the content (consisting of some really cool internal communication case studies), they were treated to a view of the Empire State Building and the Chrysler Building on a sunny day. Sure, I'm patting myself - and simply - on the back, but I must say, it looked really, really good. CNN and NBC have nothing on our backdrop. And the beauty of it is, I found a terrific vendor out in California (Blue River Digital) who took care of everything - from the stock image to the retractable stand.

Sure, simply has always provided excellent content and best practice tips on social media, intranets and employee engagement to name a few, but the extent to which we've grown is more than admirable.

And the innovation will continue in 2011! I'm off to the mother ship - our London office - to do some forward planning with the team, and of course, some Xmas shopping at Harrod's!

I'm back, back in the New York Groove

Actually I never left. But you'd never know it from the lack of blog posts lately. Sorry about that.

The truth is I've been very busy - not just editing and writing for simply-communicate and producing our monthly webinar, simplylive; I'm now overseeing our weekly news feed, simplynews - where we aggregate the top stories making headlines in corporate communications.

I must say, thanks to our new feature, I've never been this well-informed in my life. Not only has monitoring news across the world enabled me to stay on top of current events, it's also given me a new appreciation for Twitter. I'm sorry I ever doubted this social networking tool. Keep those valuable tweets coming, communicators.

Speaking of valuable information, I'm now putting together our coverage of IABC's recent corporate communications and social media conference in New York. Stay tuned for interviews and case studies that you won't want to miss.

With that, I'm now off to enjoy the season finale of "Mad Men". Gotta love that DVR.

That ship has sailed

How do you know when you've "made it" as an on-air personality? When you get your first negative comment from a listener.

In my case, it was a rather nasty piece of criticism from a Canadian guy defending Tony Hayward (if you can believe that). During yesterday's simplylive webinar, I made a reference about the BP CEO relaxing on a yacht in England a couple of weeks ago while oil continued to spill off the Gulf Coast of America. 

The listener (who shall remain nameless) challenged what I said in a rude email, claiming Hayward's yacht was competing in a major race and that he wasn't relaxing. Hmm, that's funny, I seem to recall every newspaper and TV report painting the same picture of Hayward taking a load off. Either way - regardless if Hayward was a spectator or at the helm - he sure looked like he was having a nice afternoon to me, thousands of miles away from the devastating oil crisis (where he should have been).

So to answer the unruly listener, I am not careless, stupid or a liar. I merely reported the facts as I knew them, backed up by my Publisher.

Stick that on your boat and sail it. 

(Photo courtesy of http://guerillawomentn.blogspot.com)

Live thursdays

If it's the first Thursday of the month, then it must be time for simplylive. We put on another successful webinar this morning - 8am in New York (1pm in the UK).

Thanks to all our simply-communicate readers who listened in today. The comments are starting to come in and they're all lovely. It puts a smile on my face knowing we're helping people all over the world become better communicators. And of course, it's been a trip re-tracing my radio roots!

A big shout out to Cameron Batten of Philips, internal comms consultant Aniisu K. Verghese and Emma Bridger of the Communications Lab for guesting on our program today!

For anyone that missed the webinar, you can listen in on our archival recording which can be accessed on our home page. Registration details for our July webinar will be announced shortly. 

And of course, along with today's simplylive comes the June edition of simply-communicate. While publishing after a bank holiday weekend in the US and UK was a challenging task, we got the job done and the content is plentiful - from CEO interviews to new employee motivational tools to big name case studies.

With June now put to bed, time to focus on July...

A pain in the ash

Without a doubt, the ash clouds formed from the volcanic eruption in Iceland caused major headaches for air travelers - especially business travelers.

At simply-communicate, we didn't let a little ash stand in our way. The show went on, namely the 2010 simplysummit. While sadly I couldn't attend, I - and many other communicators - were still able to take part: virtually (courtesy of Adobe Connect).

After reading and reporting on so many companies using virtual meetings to cut down on travel costs, it was interesting to attend one myself. And I must say, the audio and video quality were pretty good. I was still able to capture the flavor of the conference and with the ability to IM and type questions, I felt like I was a part of the action. 

The only hard part: not being to able to mingle and network in person - especially during the cocktail hour. Oh, well. Maybe next year.

While I couldn't make it to London this week, I am off to sunny Florida next week to produce two videos for simplyexperience. 

Luckily there are no volcanos down South!

(Photo courtesy of REUTERS)

Some hidden benefits of social media

By now, we've all read about the power of social media. It has tremendous marketing benefits (who isn't tweeting these days?); it can trigger nostalgic reunions between friends and family members; it can also be a huge outlet for news and information. 

While all of the above are just some of the obvious plusses of embarking on social media, let us not forget a few of its other appeals. For starters, it provides a great platform for people to get stuff off their chests. I can't count how many Facebook updates I read each day where users are venting about something that is getting to them. Perhaps it's a lay-off? Or a broken heart? Or neverending airport delays (those would be my posts). Whatever the gripe, I've now come to label them, "Facebook therapy". Just think how much money can be saved on expensive hour-long sessions by simply posting a status update (or 2 or 3). Those posts can do wonders for anger management.

On dark rainy nights during a scary recession, sometimes reaching out to "friends" or "followers" can be just as comforting as a hot cup of tea. Connecting with online communities of people going through similar situations - whether personal or professional - can offer great security for people. Or sometimes you just need to laugh at the latest joke or viral video being passed around. 

In addition to the therapeutic benefits of social media, there's also the notion of what I like to call reinvention. It's cool to be a geek. The tecchier you are, the better. Have information on a new tool or gadget? People want to hear what you have to say. Take that, posers.