Who Is the Genius Behind Merriam-Webster's Social Media?
lithub.com
lithub.com
A guy writes about his brush with fame when MW was rude to him on Twitter.
He spent the night insulting them and they told him that no one cared, that's not rude that's response in kind.
It might be odd seeing defensiveness from a marketing account, but it's not unexpected. They're going for hip and cool and it's neither to let a rando insult you.
That's not true. Asking, in one tweet, if it's "narcissistically gratifying" for MW to be the "chill dictionary" may be insulting, but not needlessly so, as I think that's the central point he's trying to make. Overall though, they are a meandering, somewhat pointless series of tweets, aimed at a company, and not an individual.
Stating that "No one cares how you feel." is needlessly insulting and isn't attempting to make any point. It's also directed at an individual, and not a large company, so it's always going to be perceived as more cutting.
That "No one cares how you feel." is, apparently, an expression commonly used in English teaching doesn't excuse it: the author, and the vast majority of Tweeters didn't get the reference.
I really wish this mind-set was more common.
This is ultimately the advice of a ton of content marketing/blog/thought leader type people, including HN's patio11
I meant, these kind of comments, in an interview (or any PR piece) are the result of a calculated marketing effort, and the choice of word is carefully chosen to depict the company in the best light, rather then in the most accurate one.
Without better information from unbiased sources the cynical view is the best way to deal with PR stories, and so I can only assume that it is false, misleading or at best self-delusional.
Consider that it's a good idea to use your authentic voice only if that voice sounds virtuous/good - I mean it's better for them not to say anything, or deceive, rather then say that "We got a great marketing guy who knows how to manipulate social media and gets us lots of press by intentionally writing tweets that'll go viral but that don't really have anything to do with us".
If that is the case, then there are two insights:
1 - it's rather the other way around - make sure the authentic you is something that people would like to hear rather then "use your authentic voice".
I.E. if you don't have anything to hide, you don't need to deceive anyone.(or try and portray yourself in a different light)
2- if as a consumer of marketing you subscribe to the philosophy that marketing can be authentic, then you'll eventually be convinced of something that is pure fiction since not all marketers will be authentic. As such the best course of action for a consumer is to assume that all marketing pieces are unauthentic.
If that is the case, is it even worth it to use an authentic voice? like in the case above, even if you are being authentic, there are many people who will consider you an hypocrite by "trying to sound authentic", which could be worse for sales/brand-awareness then being obviously unauthentic.
Perhaps even if your authentic void is just right you should consider appearing unauthentic, so that people will not perceive you as being artificially authentic.
Perhaps the best marketing is sarcasm about your self/company/product?
My favorite social media success of the past year (at least I think it was the past year) was the Hamburger Helper mixtape. They enlisted some talented local artists to produce a genuinely entertaining piece of marketing that was self aware enough to avoid being seen as a "fellow kids" stunt. It was honest about its nature, and its quality allowed it to breach the trust gap.
The Denny blog - http://blog.dennys.com/ - is similar. A hilarious blend of surrealism and non-sequitur.
I've never eaten Denny's in my life but I hope it's as delicious as its social media is witty.
https://twitter.com/nihilist_arbys
(Not really from Arby's, but still hilarious)
Avoid any form of potato there except the hash browns, which are decent. Avoid any cheese sauce. Everything else will be recognizably high-calorie food.
Right now the best thing on the menu is the pot-roast melt sandwich on multigrain bread.
I think it weakens trust in institutions when they are all willing to stoop to the lowest common denominator.
Personally I have less respect for "detached" institutions nowadays. It removes them from the concerns of their users and attendees and creates an echo chamber. I love that you can directly petition companies with twitter and air grievances against them in public. It's high time companies act like they are run by and for humans and not just some black box of capital.
Also it's a dictionary - it's supposed to engage and work with language. And right now, twitter is where a lot of new usage of language is being fomented.
I personally think it's fine. I care about the quality of the dictionary, not the quality of their marketing, but marketing plays an important role in making money. I assume they'd have a twitter account no matter what, and this is probably better marketing than whatever a "professional" account would look like. Since I doubt their irreverence will put off people a substantial number of people from buying dictionaries, I'd say their account is probably a good thing.
I mean, it's a dictionary. It's not like they have a substantial role in world politics or anything.
I have to wonder: 1: How? 2: Vending machine pizza?
I certainly expect a point in space here, either in physical space or in metaphorical space.