Archive for the ‘Criticism’ Category

The Tank Needs Refilling

Tuesday, February 3rd, 2009

Hello. Yes, it has been an awfully long time since I have written here. Considering my advocacy for regular posting, consistent conversation and meeting expectations, I haven’t been doing too well myself. I could sit here and make excuses. Actually, I will in a moment, but before I do I just wanted to apologise for not maintaining either the blog or the podcast for the past couple of months. The blog and the podcast are our foundations, and I haven’t been doing a particularly good job of maintaining them. If I was an engineer, I’d be fired by now.

Sometimes, though, I find that the tank just starts running dry. When you spend your working life living and breathing social media, you sometimes start thinking ‘what can I add that hasn’t already been spoken about (eloquently) by Chris Brogan, Neville Hobson or Brian Solis‘? ‘How can my little voice actually add anything to the conversation’? ‘Am I contributing, or am I just adding to the noise’? And worse – ‘am I being authentic, or am I just being jolly and positive to fit in with the crowd’? Overall, I have been puddling along with almost no fuel in my tank and wondering why I have struggled to make good on my commitments.

However, I don’t think these thoughts are bad ones. In fact, I think they are probably things which everyone who blogs should think about every now and then. I don’t want to just regurgitate what others are saying – I really want to put my opinion across and give my point of view. If I don’t then I am not really providing value. And I am not being at all authentic. Authenticity isn’t just being honest about who you are. It is being honest about what you think, and open about whatever difficulties you may have. I worry sometimes that rather than being myself in my blog posts, I slip into ‘work mode’ (which is probably not unlike my ‘posh telephone voice’) when what I really want to do is say what I really think. I think that because I am using ‘posh telephone’ mode, I am running out of steam. It’s not my natural state.

So that’s what’s been going on and I am determined to do something to fix it. I am acutely aware that the blog and podcast are our way of communicating with anyone who wants to listen. And what they want to hear is us. The real us. Not the work us. It’s what blogging should be all about.

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Social Media without conversation isn’t social media – take heed, Nintendo.

Thursday, December 4th, 2008

There is an article in this morning’s NMA Magazine which discusses the latest, somewhat surprising move from games giant, Nintendo. Nintendo has decided to embark on a social media campaign, making use of space on Bebo to allow fans to view video, enter a competition or download skins, however they have disabled any ability for commentary or discussion on the page. Apparently this fits with the Nintendo global policy which bans all comments, blogs and forums on official Nintendo online material. A spokesperson said that they were more than happy for the discussion to occur elsewhere, but not on their official sites.

OK, last time I checked, the definition of social media was media which allowed the growth of community, interaction, user generated content, discussion, feedback and conversation. Am I wrong? So in actual fact, Nintendo haven’t embarked on a social media campaign at all. What they have done is comandeered another site and shifted out yet more broadcast marketing. Why bother using Bebo? Why not just put up a bog standard website (whcih is essentially what it is, only on a different platform). Oh, wait – of course, why would you bother doing that and having to build an audience when you have a ready made audience which you don’t have to work hard to get.

I find this move an arrogant one. Firstly, the expectation of most Bebo users would be that when they come across their favourite brands on their social media site of choice, they will be able to interact with them. Suddenly, one brand is saying ‘nope – we don’t care what you think, just buy our product and don’t sully up our marketing message’. If I were in that demographic, I would be pretty disappointed. Secondly, they are flying in the face of everything that makes social media work. It is almost as if they are so sure of their brand that they don’t need to bother getting engaged with their target audience. Or rather, they are happy for their target audience to organise themselves, but they don’t really see a need to facilitate that or be a part of it.

In my opinion, if you want to get involved in social media, then get involved. If you don’t, then don’t pretend that you are. Just because the audience of Nintendo are more than likely already heavily involved in social media doesn’t mean that the brand can sit back and reap the profits. In the uncertain times we are experiencing currently, can any brand really afford to behave like this? Only time will tell, but I for one would like to be given the opportunity to tell Nintendo directly that their saccharine sweet ‘bring the family together to play video games’ advertising is patronising and cliched. But I have a feeling they won’t listen. They aren’t willing to listen on Bebo, so why would they listen elsewhere?

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The Fear Of Criticism (And How to Deal with It).

Monday, September 15th, 2008

I noticed a very odd aspect of my own personality last week. I went out of my way to seek some feedback from one of the Podcast Sisters for my podcast. Krishna De very generously listened on one of my podcasts, and sent me back an audio critique. I saw it come into my inbox, and I froze. I realised that although I really wanted to improve, I was actually afraid of negative criticism. It took me some time to summon up the courage to get over the fear and listen to Krishna’s feedback. As it was, the feedback was so incredibly constructive that I had nothing to be afraid of but I lost precious hours fighting my own insecurity.

As sheepish as I felt after I had heard the feedback, I know for a fact that I am not the only person in the world who doesn’t like criticism. In fact, I am sure no-one really likes it. Unfortunately, many people haven’t got the ability, desire or forethought to give feedback as constructive and useful as Krishna, especially if they are a customer who is angry or upset with your company.

Dave Taylor covered the issue of how to deal with negative feedback in his post over at Daily Camera which made me think about my own reaction last week. The implication in the two interviews he documents is that although it might be easy to act on the emotional reaction (which generally results in anger, flaming, defensiveness, argument or rudeness), the only way you can successfully deal with negative criticism is to take the high ground, listen and decide what to do (if anything) in an adult manner which is going to ensure you maintain a good reputation in the eyes of everyone listening, and should serve to help the person with the grievance.

The internet provides a level of anonymity that encourages emotional people to be far more negative than they would be in person. I am sure the level of rudeness you sometimes see in forums, blog comments or blog posts would be toned down significantly were the aggrieved person actually having a face to face conversation with the offending party. One can forget that your online words are read by real human beings who have the same kind of emotions and insecurities as everyone else. They aren’t just floating into cyberspace to be processed by a computer and forgotten.

Nevertheless, at some stage we are all going to experience negative criticism. If it is delivered in the course of our business, there are only a few choices in how to deal with it. All of them should be separate from emotion, and with the reputation of yourself, your company and the reality of the grievance in mind. If the grievance is genuine, your response will be exactly what the complainant wants. If the grievance is malicious or false, it prevents you from lowering yourself to their level and helps you decide exactly how to deal with it in the most effective manner. Either way, your actions will benefit your company and ultimately your reputation within it.

I am not suggesting that it is easy – we humans are driven by emotion whether we like it or not. But it is vitally important to try. The more you try, the easier it will become to face the inevitable negative feedback, and the easier it will be to turn that to your benefit, rather than seeing it as an unpleasant thing which you need to hide from.

If you do want to hear more about this topic, this week The Podcast Sisters did a whole episode on Handling Negative Feedback on Your Blog or Podcast which I would recommend listening to.

Thanks to Stitch for the image

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