July 17, 2008
A young woman reminds an old psychologist of behavioural truisms
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The rather clever Jasmin Tragas reminded me yesterday that even though it’s a new communication landscape, we bring to it our old, ingrained habits.
To wit: I often add pictures to my blog posts; usually these pictures are mashups of retro images and text, but every now and then I use pictures of attractive young women. Not without reason and to support a point I am making in that post, but they are young, attractive and female.
Jasmin pointed out that she very occasionally (i.e. hardly ever but at least once in a blue moon) forwards my emails on to higher/other management. Some of those images might not be wholly suitable for such distribution.
Because Jasmin works at IBM in a senior role that means other key people in the tech-comms world.
But I confess right here, right now, that the thought that someone would forward a post of mine to others simply never occurred to me. Honestly. Not even on my radar.
By letting me know that she occasionally does forward a post, Jasmin reminded me that even though this is a new communication landscape we still behave in ways that we are comfortable with.
So posts will still get forwarded, just like emails have been forwarded around the world since emails began.
And just as forwarded emails have the potential to attract all sorts of unwanted consequences, so too with forwarded posts.
Notes to self:
1. treat my readers with more respect
2. treat myself with more gravitas — sometimes being a ‘work from home office’ (step-)parent of teenagers, without the daily conversations with peers that an office-based role brings, means that your own self-esteem takes a hammering and you forget that other people might actually be interested in what you have to say
3. thank Jasmin publicly for taking the time and risk to contact me privately about it via Twitter
4. wish Jasmin a very happy 1st birthday for her WonderWebby blog
5. work harder at deserving to be on to her ‘wonderpeeps’ blogroll
Stumble it!
Filed under: PR, blogging, customer service, ethics, marketing, nonverbal communication
3 Responses to “A young woman reminds an old psychologist of behavioural truisms”
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July 17th, 2008 at 11:41 am
G’day, Lee. Having gone corporate myself in January, i.e. moving from consultancy to a role inside a large company, I can tell you there’s a world of difference. I’ve put my foot in it several times doing things that would be perfectly normal in the social media/social network world or small business. It’s been a steep learning curve.
My challenge has been trying to find a balance between conforming to social norms in order to get things done and allowing myself to become too “corporate” and therefore unable to give them the advice they hired me for.
July 17th, 2008 at 12:28 pm
I’m a clever young woman? I’m flattered!
I honestly never thought about readership in terms of forwarded feeds myself - until a friend pointed it out to me.
And the wonderpeeps? Been so long since I updated it that I wonder whether to remove the blogroll altogether. But if you are saying you’ll think twice about the girly pictures then I might just add you after all
Thanks for the bloggy birthday wishes and the link
July 17th, 2008 at 12:48 pm
oh and on the point you make Steven - yes there is a balance. When something could be offensive - you need to step back. But there are other times where you need to be yourself and had fun. Only recently I was talking to Buzz Lightyear and some Little People in a video response to our corporate team