Comments on: Is it better to be Truthful, or Interesting?

By: Ian Brodie

Ian Brodie — Tue, 26 Apr 2011 01:00:13 +0000

I like what you’re saying Andrew. I think it’s maybe one of the major themes of modern business – we want people who are genuine, not just clever.

The thing that annoyed me most about the incident (and other similar posts) is the sense of being manipulated. That the person in question was just saying things to be controversial and to attract attention for his own gain – rather than saying things which would be useful to people (and fair enough, gaining himself through that). My private interaction where he basically ignored the detailed information I sent him because it didn’t tally with the theme of his post.

Ian

By: Andy Thorp

Andy Thorp — Mon, 25 Apr 2011 09:30:04 +0000

One additional thought, again inspired by Mr Margolis – if you’re not happy with the existing story/status quo (ie the ‘conspiracy’ that Twitter actually generates sales), don’t just push against it; seduce us towards a NEW story, a better alternative.

By: Andy Thorp

Andy Thorp — Mon, 25 Apr 2011 08:59:33 +0000

Hi Ian
As always, you get me thinking! I know of the discussion you’re referring to and I often wonder, “does he REALLY think that?”. I think social media commentary is an opportunity to be open and authentic about what you believe in. By doing so you lay your soul bare and people know what they’re dealing with. I’m reading stuff at the moment by Michael Margolis (storytelling for influencers) and his measure of whether or not to post is:

is it inspiring, insightful and provocative?
does it make people laugh or smile, preferably at my expense?
am I making people feel good about themselves?

But I’d also add that’s it got to be genuine. People want the 100% authentic article – your views borne of personal experience, hard lessons learned and wisdom having seen the light. If they don’t like it then fine, at least you’ve been open. But that said, we also respect people who see that their ‘story’ is always evolving. Maybe someone’s willing to question what they thought was right, when new evidence comes to light. They’re willing to learn.

I also like Chris’s point above about corporate blogs. It’s one-way traffic and always pushes the fact that they know stuff and they’re clever and you should hire them. They rarely talk about what they BELIEVE in.

By: Christine Marsh

Christine Marsh — Mon, 21 Feb 2011 13:23:19 +0000

Incredible Ian,

Interesting article. Thank You!

Perhaps developing the ability of describing the truth which can be ‘boring’ in a more interesting way is in order.
Headline 1: Art for sale.
Headline 2: This just in! Fantastic new art piece of a stunning and magical Peregrine Falcon is now ready to shine forth from your most amazing wall!

Have a magnificent day!
Christine Marsh – Creative Genius

By: Ian

Ian — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 20:44:42 +0000

You’re right, of course, Nic.

Sometimes it’s not possible though. Sometimes the truth is a little bit dull – particularly when it relates to shades of grey rather than black or white.

And then it’s time to be truthful first.

Ian

By: Nic Windley

Nic Windley — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 08:40:06 +0000

Having an opinion and polarising people towards or away from you is what marketing and selling is all about. However, purposely ridiculing people when you don’t understand something yourself is an ineffective way of creating trust which is equally as important. The fact is what works is what works and its different for everybody and smart businesses test and evolve their strategy no matter what the channel is. Personally I would rather be interested than interesting AND truthful.

By: Ian Brodie

Ian Brodie — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 00:19:35 +0000

It’s a very good point Charlie. I must admit I have a tendency to evaluate everything in terms of impact on sales (I guess that comes with the territory) – but there are plenty of other benefits too.

I get a lot of people contacting me with questions via email after initially finding me on Twitter then reading my blog. Like I know you are, I’m very happy to write back to people and offer advice and thoughts. That’s the way communities used to work. The elders felt it their duty to give back and share their experience. And it just makes you feel good too. We’ve kind of lost that in business but maybe all these ways we’ve found of connecting with each other are bringing it back.

Ian

By: Charles H. Green

Charles H. Green — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 23:34:12 +0000

After careful consideration…you’re right and he’s wrong, by about, oh, say 100% to 0%. Especially with respect to willful disregard of contrary information.

A couple of related comments.

First, what is it about Twitter that makes otherwise intelligent people make such basic mistakes of writing, research and logic? Here’s another example: a blogpost by Steve Coll at The New Yorker. Zero data; evidence offered to the contrary; evidence ignored. Sheesh. See
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/stevecoll/2010/02/does-twitter-have-moral-characteristics.html

Second, what is this mad rush to evaluate new software and communications tools in terms of sales ability? Somewhat the same thing happened years ago with voicemail; people wanted to know what it could do to improve sales. Huh? It’s plumbing; what’s wrong with plumbing?

The same sales-driven criteria seems to have dominated our thinking about most new tools these days; why does everything have to sell? why can’t some things just be products, or devices, or techniques–or just cool?

And anyway, your example is huge ROI. I’ve only got 1,000 followers, but it’s already way paid off to me–in connections, contacts, learning, openness. Sales? Hard to pinpoint, but that’s not my point. Which is my point.

By: Chris

Chris — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 03:22:14 +0000

I can totally agree. The only absolute is that there are none.

By: Ian

Ian — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 21:09:41 +0000

Nah – I’m right, he’s wrong – lol.

My point is the same as yours really – it all depends on the exact circumstances. Twitter is sometimes useful, sometimes not.

His point is that it’s always a waste of time.

He’s wrong.

But my main point is that (unless he’s really stupid) – he knows he’s wrong. I sent him detailed information and facts about when Twitter can be useful – and when it can’t.

He chose to ignore all this in order to make a more controversial and opinionated post. Best practice in terms of copywriting. I’m sure he gets a lot of readers because of it.

But he’s knowingly misleading readers in order to better promote himself. He’s putting his interests instead of theirs. That’s wrong.

Ian

By: Chris

Chris — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 20:11:40 +0000

I have to split the difference and say you’re both right, but you are more right than he is. For you, Twitter is a great tool. You are the brand and Twitter is great at promoting a personal brand. Therefore, connecting this way works for you. I follow yours and I think you follow our “corporate” one as well. However in my last couple of speeches I make the distinction in how Twitter works for different people. People don’t use Twitter to find a restaurant when they are hungry, but they would try a restaurant that someone talked about in their Twitter cloud. So Twitter really is limited in what it can do for sales. Same way that people don’t look up dentists 500 mile away on Google. So he gets a point on his side, in that Twitter is indeed lousy for a lot of marketing. That is really where the difference matters. You have a large audience. If you flat out stated, “I need some work” you would see a lot of work from that, however you would lose some audience if you did that very often. You have the ability to do what I would call reflection marketing. “I had the Bloody Mary soup at the Anchor for lunch and loved it!”, the Anchor gets new people in the door to try their soup because you can always convert a certain percentage with a group as large as yours. You aren’t really using your Twitter to drive new business. You are using it to establish your authority and communicate with your community. By not using it as a selling tool, you are afforded a larger community that pays more attention to your message. That poster really doesn’t understand that there is more than one thing you can do with Twitter and some things it does very well. If you are a restaurant and posted your daily specials, you would get a lot of followers. If you posted your daily specials and ten messages about how long it is until lunch time, you would lose a lot of followers. This is why so many corporate blogs are junk. They think they are in a one-way conversation like a radio commercial, when they are in fact in a two-way conversation with their audience. When they figure that out they will have a chance.