He views transparency not as a moral right but as a business tactic. If you run around acting like the things you do will never be seen in public, you likely will get busted. At the same time, marketers tell a story, which is like putting on a show.
"If you can use the tools of transparency to tell that story better, do it! But if your audience will enjoy the story more (and your business will be more likely to succeed) if you apply some misdirection and magic, then why not?" he concludes.
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MANAGEMENT / TURN DOWNTIME INTO RELAX TIME
Saskatoon consultant Patricia Katz has always worried when the summer downturn in her business came. But she says that, if like her, you find predictable periods of down-time in your year, accept that seasonal adjustment is a perfect time for reflection, planning, writing, program development, marketing, exercise, vacation, and just plain relaxing. "Let yourself relax into an openness of time and space that may be tough to come by during busier, more demanding times," she writes in her Pause newsletter. Among her suggestions:
Reconnect with people.
Invest in your own professional and personal development.
Reflect on recent triumphs and disappointments, mining them for insights you can apply to challenges on the road ahead.
Resurrect your exercise program.
Make your way through the reading and reference backlog.
Above all, trust that an upturn will come.
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POWER POINTS
E-mail humour
Does your e-mail auto-reply when you're on vacation have to be serious? Alberta-based consultant Michael Kerr received one from a client who referred to being kidnapped by her children and forced to go to Disneyworld, and had several other amusing lines that led him to smile and remind him he was interacting with a real human being. So consider adding a little personality and fun to your vacation auto-reply and voice mail messages.
Humour At Work ezine
A new golden rule
We all know the Golden Rule about treating others as you want to be treated. But workplace columnist Alexandra Levit adds another to follow: "If you say you are going to do something, follow through."
Water Cooler Wisdom blog
No barking, please
Burlington Ont.-based consultant George Torok has coined a new word, barketing, which is a cross between marketing and barking like a dog: Barking, he says, is often repetitive, annoying and loud, and always a one-way message. Barketing is marketing gone the way of the dogs, as you annoy customers with your message attempt, try to outshout the competition, sound like the rest of the pack, and display no finesse. Avoid it, he says.
George Torok blog
Password frustration
Internet usability guru Jakob Nielson says that masking the exact letters or numbers people type in for online passwords only confuses them, and does nothing for security since anyone watching the person could study the keyboard. It only irritates password users and causes your business login failures. Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox
Variety paralysis
Most of us are now familiar with the studies that show too many choices paralyze buyers. But many businesses have failed to act. Marketing consultant Drew McLellan says that if you are going to offer lots of variety, be sure you have a good reason for doing so, and help your consumers navigate easily through those choices. The Marketing Minute
PDF assistant
If you occasionally need to transfer a PDF to a Microsoft Word file, try Nitro PDF (www.pdftoword.comv), a free online service to which you upload the PDF and it then e-mails you the results. Steve Bass's Techbite
