By Sonia Simone
A lot of us put significant energy into keeping it safe. We don’t want to do anything that wouldn’t be tasteful. We don’t want to do anything that would get on anyone’s nerves. And we truly, madly, deeply don’t want to make any mistakes. If we get a complaint or some crabby feedback, we scurry back and "fix" what we did so it won’t upset anyone.
We guard carefully against "losing" any readers or customers. (When we should be putting more energy into truly winning some.) We play by the rules. We take pains never to offend anyone, and we believe fervently that that keeps us safe.
We are dead wrong.
Boring is dangerous
The problem with boring is, you don’t see the damage it causes. It’s easy to miss the huge majority who yawn and click the Stumble button again. You never see the customers who don’t come back because they don’t ever think about you. You have no idea of the business you’re missing out on because your communication is just too nice and normal for anyone to remember or talk about.
It’s easy to tell yourself that the problem is the short attention spans that are rampant today, or the monumental failure of the public taste, or that there’s too much competition. Those may all be true, but that doesn’t get you any business. It’s painfully easy to blame your lack of success on what’s wrong with everyone else.
Being boring doesn’t keep you safe. Maybe it used to, for a little while, but it doesn’t any more. If you want to really terrify yourself, pick up a book called Funky Business
I try not to swear on the blog, so I can’t tell you the Funky Business take on what the 21st-century economy boils down to, but I can tell you: it’s not playing it safe.
Remember when you were in second grade and there was that fearless, fast kid who used to swoop in and steal your Snickers before you really understood what was happening? That kid is still around, and he’s launching a lean, aggressive, competitive little business that’s about to do it again.
Being an idiot is not the answer
Being a damned fool works for some people, but I’ll tell you, it’s got to be genuine. I doubt the damned fool strategy will work for you, for one reason: damned fools don’t read my blog. Despite my best efforts, I use too many big words and I keep picking weird pictures.
So most of you reading this are, well, smarter than the general population. Which can be something of a handicap, quite frankly. Let me guess, history majors, lit majors, maybe the occasional dual-major in Russian and math? (Tell us in the comments!) And, of course, the usual collection of self-taught misfits who write essays (which you might call blog posts) for fun on the influences of Proust in Ren & Stimpy. You’re a bunch of smartypants, which is why you come here for advice.
So if Jon Morrow was right in his terrific recent post, and valedictorians make lousy bloggers (and/or marketers), what are we supposed to do about that?
Here’s Jon’s answer, which I like a lot.
Unlike high school, being a blogosphere “clown” is less about acting stupid and more about telling the truth in an interesting way. Sometimes they’ll laugh, sometimes they’ll get mad, and sometimes they’ll be thinking about your post two weeks later. Regardless, as long as you’ve captured and maintained their attention, you’ve won.
Your to-do list
- Know what you know, then hold your ground. Don’t water your stuff down because someone got pissy about it. If you’re pissing some people off, you’re on to something.
- Keep looking for interesting angles. Look for striking metaphors, startling examples, powerful stories.
- Come up with some rituals to celebrate failure. There is no way to succeed except through good old embarrassing, stinky failure. I’ve just discovered Molly Gordon, and she has a great technique in her eBook Principles of Authentic Promotion called the "Failure Bow." The eBook is free when you subscribe to her weekly e-newsletter (the opt-in form is on the right side of the page).
- Do at least one thing you think is a little tacky, just because you secretly love it.
- Consider writing a journal every day, especially some freewriting where you keep your pen (or keyboard) moving for 20 minutes without letting yourself stop. Let the words sit a week or two, then go back through your journals and look for stuff that freaks you out a little. There’s something there you should be mining.
Related reading
If you liked this post, please Digg or Stumble it!
Flickr Creative Commons image by exfordy
B. Mus. (Music Composition and Theory) with a minor in Calculus.
I’ve never played it safe. This has resulted in a career that spans producing rock concerts, advertising, direct marketing, and now interactive marketing. The US is the fourth country and third continent I’ve lived in / on in the past 20 years. I don’t have as much money as I probably would have if I had played it safe but boy, do I have some stories 🙂
well said! If what you do pleases everyone, it must be boring as hell.
I was re-reading some of my older posts yesterday and noticed a definite dulling around the edges lately. Once I realized my ‘audience’ included old friends, work colleagues and my aunts and cousins, significant watering down began.
That needs to change. Thanks for the reminder!
Oh yeah. BSc. Computer Science.
Man is born to live and not to prepare to live. — Boris Pasternak
Often, all we need to do to realise that is ask “what are we here for”
Even from a non-marketing POV, this post makes a lot of sense.
A BA in French, getting my MBA in entrepreneurship, married to a History/Poli Sci major!
Actionable idiosyncratic advice…love it.
Fine Arts (visual), with minors in French, Eng lit and Zone System photography.
Excellent.
🙂
All best, Jan
Amen, Mark. It’s one thing when your audience/community are a bunch of nice pixels you only know through the Internet, and another when your family & friends show up, or when Internet friends become folks whose opinions matter to you. No remedy, I think, except to keep an eye on it.
Some Francophones here, excellent! I suppose I should have added that I was a history major, did my senior thesis on the use of etiquette as a social valve in Heian Japan. Now that I think about it, I could probably actually use that in my professional life. 🙂
Psychology major, sociology minor, juris doctorate.
And no matter what my mom says, I’m using every one of them to this day. 🙂
Oh, that human tendency to bend towards comfort. Since I write about great adaptations, I’ve been mulling over what to call the adaptations that lead us down the wrong path, so I can give awards for those too. Like Darwin awards, only bloggier. How about “boner adaptations?” Ew! That might offend! Well put, Sonia, another great post. Note to self: Must interview Sonia. Oh – your question. Yes, something about high IQs and over education CAN be a limitation. I’m surviving my 176 but it has taken a long time. Keep the good stuff coming.
Cheerios
Suzanna Stinnett
Sonia,
Double major English and Spanish, double minor theatre and linguistics—abandoned (because I’m also an idiot), after three years on acad. scholarship (people don’t value Free).
A few long years later, BFA (Bach. of Fine Arts) in interior design, minors in graphic design and sculpture (since it related not one bit to what I’d done before, I had to start over, and pay through the nose, too…). My senior thesis was on Kiki Smith and feminist art.
I’ve yet to get much brawling going on at my blog, just a flare now and then. I do get some silliness, which I see as a good sign. I do my best to avoid boring.
Unless it’s strictly necessary, I don’t stop giggling and joking in “real” life, so I like to see that in my online world, too. I wasn’t the class clown. I’m not much for broad jokes. I was the one who whispered an aside that got six kids falling out of their seats, with me sitting angelically in the center of it all. It’s a little hard to whisper an aside online, but I do my best. My favorite off-topic compliment is probably “coffee almost came out my nose.” 🙂
Another book up the Funky Business aisle, if you haven’t read it, is Freakonomics. Maybe not as much practical application, but a great, thoughtful, funny read on modern mad money times.
Regards,
Kelly
Not convinced, sorry. (Does this piss you off?)
There was a drink company which changed it’s taste. It was called Coke it cost them, big time! Pepsi was happy though.
Aggression can be useful to get attention which may be important when entering the market.
We live in a world of rapid change. This makes reliability more valuable – witness the growth of franchises.
Comfort is just fine. It’s OK to stretch yourself but success is more likely when you know what you’re doing than trusting to dumb luck (which is what stretching yourself can amount to).
If you love what you do you will want to get better at it anyway.
If you get in a rut let your anger out – don’t post it, but let it out, move on and post that.
As for me. Two bachelors (one in, mostly, English Literatur, the other in Adult and Vocational Education. The one in English was worthwhile – the other simplify for the qualification.) Also various other Diplomas and such. My learning has largely been self-directed I’ve found the courses largely worthless – though I have made some good friends from some of them.
@Suzanna, you made me laugh! Yes, that one might need a rewrite.
@Even, I just threw a chair across the room. 🙂 I happen to have the great fortune to have worked with a guy who was a major marketing exec at Coke. You make a good point–Coke was comfortable for people, and they moved out of that comfort zone and got slammed for it. I’ll counter, though, with two arguments–1) they’ve done a lot of sharp, memorable, interesting ads over the years, even if they’re not actually making anyone angry, and 2) you and I should both be so lucky as to have to solve the particular marketing issues coke does. Their product is a strongly-ingrained habit with people–and once you reach that point, yes, I agree, you’re playing a different game. But they still need to win new customers just like you & I do, and they do that by trying to put communication out that’s vivid and fresh. That kind of mainstream brand really does want to be all things to all people, and I confess that’s not something I know much about.
Evan made a great point I forgot to mention last night–pissing people off by being unreliable is a terrible idea. I agree completely that reliability is one of the most important qualities for any business today.
Pissing people off, alienating them, or just letting them go because you stand for something, though–because you refuse to be all things to all people–is (I would argue) a smart thing to do, in addition to making you feel 100% better about yourself as a human.
Great post as always, Sonia. I find myself playing it safe (which means boring) when I talk a little bit down to my audience, who are mostly young corporate communicators. BAD mistake, for them and for me.
Major: Poli Sci and English, back when I thought I was going to be a lawyer instead of marrying an engineer.
Inspiring post..Brings to mind Hardy’s definition of “interesting” – an uncertain mix of danger and possibility. I guess this is the reason some people prefer convention.
Degree- Bachelor of Commerce Majoring in Marketing & Management.