Is It How You Say It Not What You Say?

[Jay Deragon]

I thought I was wrong once then I was mistaken. Get it?

While I am sure you’ve heard this opening line before as a joke there are times people act as if they could never make a mistake, or their position is the only position and how dare you question it. Sometimes the tone of a message can give off the wrong impression or a quick response written in anger can paint you into a profile that really isn’t you. Words are a powerful medium that frame your message and sometimes in unintended ways.

Is It What You Say or How You Say It?

All this social stuff is creating lots of opportunity within the marketing and PR worlds. More than opportunity the proliferation of social technology is actually creating displacement of old marketing and PR methods as well as new channels of distribution for messaging. If you read my blog regularly you’ll know that my perspective is that social media applies to a lot more than marketing and PR. In an earlier post titled Are You Tired of Web 2.0 Yet? I said: The early adopters may in fact be falling into a trap of “silo thinking supported by their inbred conversations amongst themselves”. Based on the market sentiment we may in fact be headed for a tipping point which helps broaden the perspectives and possibilities of advancing technologies.

In response to that earlier post Patrick McGraw writes: It doesn't have to be an 'either/or' discussion, does it? Depending on the messaging offered through social media channels, you could improve brand (awareness, perception) and you could improve sales and/or usage (free trials). Patrick raises a very good point to my earlier post. Social Media doesn’t have to apply to either the marketing and public relations vs. other business functions rather social media can apply to everything. Obviously the words in my earlier post could easily have left the wrong impression and sound rather arrogant. Not that I don’t deny being arrogant at times but I’d rather not emphasis those particular attributes of my personality for millions to read and experience.

Lessons from Chris Brogan

Upon winning The Journal of New England Technology Mass High Tech Award Chris writes: As a guy who rarely wins anything, I’m pretty excited and honored to be named one of the Mass High Tech All Stars at tonight’s awards. It’s a big night for social media, in my eyes. My own award aside, look at the other categories that Mass High Tech finds worthy of awards. Telecom, education, electronics, life sciences, etc. They call it the “innovation economy,” and in that regard, I most certainly agree. Social media is definitely innovating, if nothing else.

It’s pretty amazing to me. Social media ranking up there with venture, hardware, energy, etc. Wow. We have quite a game ahead, if we all work at it. For those of us working to deliver repeatable value in social media, this is our sign that we can keep making a business impact.

Though I don’t see social media tools as marketing tools only, if that’s where we get our start, fine. I’ll be happy with that, too.

Chris Brogan’s personality and character consistently comes across through the tone of his messages. He has humility and never claims to be anymore than a “dude”. Chris is ranked #8 in Ad Age Power 150, consistently gets massive traffic and comments to his post and is followed by tens of thousands of people monthly. Chris rarely claims to be right about anything rather he simply provides some perspectives and insights in the form of conversations.

Chris understands the science of social media but has mastered the art of human relations and communications. Without the art the science brings nothing of lasting value. Chris, Congratulations on a well deserved award.

What say you?