Exploring Communications

I have been inspired to write again… feeling very slack for not having posted in such a long time… but inspired by a fellow writer who has quite an amazing blog about a year of self discovery, tasking herself with learning a new thing every day. Check it out – Giving Back Girl.

My biggest take from Lisa’s blog is her passion for writing, much like when you see a painting on a wall that is just bursting with life, even though it’s just a 2D image. So, how do you get that passion, where do you find that voice? I am not really sure I know how to answer that question. I find that if I am writing for work regarding business matters, there is still the need for passion or light and dark, and perhaps finding that is harder than if you were writing about personal experience. Partly, I think it’s about immersing yourself in the scene as it were. Putting yourself on your canvas and looking out at the readers, and seeing what their expression would show. Comprehension, disbelief, confusion, kinship… So by essentially turning yourself into the words  you force yourself to understand far more intimately who you’re writing for. If it’s yourself or people who follow a similar life to you, a lot easier. If I am writing for a bunch of Chief Technology Officers or business leaders it’s quite a different kettle of fish. But the key is understanding their language before you start.

The passion I have for writing is that to me words are a living entity and it’s how you put them together that delivers a meaning… but also how the reader interprets those words. I’ve just read a wonderful book about painters called The Swan Thieves by Elizabeth Kostova (who also wrote The Historian and one of my all time favourite novels). Through her characters and exquisite writing she is able to help the reader understand what a painting with its own life is all about.  Subsequently I had the pleasure of attending a ‘private’ viewing of the Archibold Prize at the NSW Art Gallery. When looking at the paintings I was able to feel the soul and the passion of some of the paintings. Whilst the feelings I experienced might not have been exactly what the painter felt, probably quite different, yet I was still moved by the experience. This is what I think a good piece of writing should always endeavour to do; evoke a feeling or passion for the reader… to give them a new life experience. Hopefully, when that inner novel inside me is able to pop out that I too evoke that level of passion and that I help others experience something new and amazing. I just have to figure out how to get it out… and then I will share.

I couldn’t resist sharing this one… It’s certainly not new to anyone who tweets or even for emailers for that matter. Apart from the very valid points it makes in reference to society, I love the basic reversal of words to re-engineer the point. It’s this sort of thing that makes me passionate about writing!

I received two emails from eBay today (technically, one came last night and one this morning), the first had the subject line of “10% off voucher inside to say thank you”. It made me think ‘thank you eBay, you too are appreciating your customers and giving back in a small way in hard times.’

To be honest I was a tad surprised, but figured there’d be some catch to it as this particular brand just doesn’t seem to represent honesty or community-focus to me at the moment. Which is strange given the nature of its whole structure, without its community, it basically wouldn’t exist! When I try to pin point why I feel like this about the brand, the outcome is that it’s a combination of some ‘dodgy retailers’ as well as confusing and inconvenient changes to payment and feedback processes.

So… back to the emails – the second one, would you believe, says this:

Subject: IMPORTANT: CORRECTION TO EMAIL REGARDING 10% OFF VOUCHER

Dear xxxx,

A short while ago, you received an email from eBay which incorrectly contained
the following words in the subject line: “10% off voucher inside to say thank
you”.

The subject line of that email was wrong, and occurred as the result of a
technical error. Please note that there is no voucher or discount from
eBay.com.au associated with that email or otherwise applicable to you at this
time.

eBay sincerely regrets any inconvenience and thanks you for your understanding.

Regards,
The eBay Team

Technically, the email is right because the first didn’t actually have a voucher or anything in the email – it was just in the subject line. So obviously overnight there was MAJOR panic in the particular halls/desks responsible for this email as the first was sent without proofing… then the second sent in a panic without any thought for the recipients. Even the wording makes me feel insignificant and like perhaps someone else might be ‘applicable’ but certainly not me. Plus the fact that they blame it on a technical error… come one now, I think this one might have been human error yeah??

As a writer, I understand that proofing is such a critical element to any piece of writing. In spite of this, I too am guilty of not doing it enough and appreciate there is always a chance of human error. However, this incident goes far greater than just a proofing issue and could have been rectified in a far more effective way. I think the brand custodians need to have a long hard think about how they are portraying themselves as slowly but surely they are eroding their trust and community and one day they’ll wonder where their listings went.

Well as ‘a work of art’ might be taking it a bit far, but i did have fun playing with the colours, fonts and layout… go to http://www.wordle.net/ to create your own beautiful word cloud – thank you @KateKendall for sharing.

Tai Tai Life: The next President? I don’t think so. Mrs Tai Tai this sounds like a very interesting course… but wow what a tricky situation you’ve put yourself in by having that particular case study – will the other person know that they were the other party in scenario? Good luck. BTW i don’t think you’ve put in the comments option – do it in settings i think. This was the only way i could comment.

These are my ponderings about how the communications in my sphere of influence are changing and how my sphere is growing exponentially as a result of my involvement in social media.

I hope you enjoy and that my thoughts spark discussion amongst your networks… and i’d love to hear your thoughts whether you agree or disagree.

I am sure i am like many new bloggers… start a blog for a good solid purpose… write a few blogs… and then… well… run out of time.

It’s what i feared when i started it, but didn’t realise that as i embarked on it i would become addicted to alternative outlets. I have become a micro-blogger!! I started my addiciton with Twitter, and then it progressed to include Plurk… and i must say Plurk has kept my interest. I have not only ‘met’ some interesting people and learned some interesting things, from information about social media to some very amusing discussions about a toddlers reaction to Plurk.

Whilst i still agree there is a very valid reason for having a blog (I am currently writing an entry now, so i must), it sometimes feels like I am writing to no one but me. Which is okay in itself, but part of my purpose of of blogging, is to engage in discussion about the changing landscape of communications. I am finding i am getting far greater interaction via networks such as Plurk and Twitter. It will be interesting to come back to this in six months and see what i am using then! No doubt it will be something different… perhaps a hybrid Plitter?

If you’d like to interact with me in the micro-blogging world (www.twitter.com or www.plurk.com) you can find me as ‘verbaw’ – just connect to me and i’ll accept your friendship! But by all means leave me a comment – it’ll make me feel like it’s being read by at least one person other than me!

The more I adopt social software and transact online the more I am discovering I have to trust people i don’t know and may never meet… which doesn’t come naturally to me in any way shape or form. It’s certainly not a bad thing as imagine what an impact this will have for global communications over a period of time.

If you look at my previous world of social interaction… as a cancerian, I have a hard shell in which i can hide. Perfected over years it had become quite effective when required… But that was for ‘hard copy’ social interactions… now i am having more and more ‘soft copy’ social interactions it’s a whole new ball game; with new rules, a new language and far less geographic boundaries.

Just over the last week i have had a number of interactions with eBay purchasers, emailing, calling and coming to pick up items won. Some of these interactions have been positive and some not so positive. In order to make the transaction possible i needed to have a certain degree of trust in these people. Add to this interactions I have with Twitter, Facebook, Brightkite, Blogs I realised that I am actually communicating far more with people I don’t have any physical contact with than with the people I know in person.

Then this leads me to think about the value of a hard copy as opposed to a soft copy, interaction. Do humans need to have hard copy interactions to exist as ‘normal’ human beings… if all you had were soft copy social networks how would humans evolve differently? What will happen to our language and what will my two and four year old be doing when they’re in their thirties???

When I was young I was taught not to trust strangers… but what do i teach my children, now that I am having to cross my traditional boundaries. If people followed these traditional boundaries then all these fabulous online communities wouldn’t be germinating. I am not really sure there is an answer to this pondering… but it’s been good exploring it.

I went to see a memory evoking play at the ensemble just recently, about a cab driver during the Sydney 2000 Olympics. It was very humorous and I would definitely recommend it to anyone who was in Sydney at this time.

I don’t often get to go out to plays (as a mum I don’t go out much at all really – stop the violins… I am okay about it… really!), and so it was rather intense sitting in the theatre in the round, while this almost soliloquy unfolded to a world that I totally related to. Coupled with the fact that play was structured like a daily diary, it interestingly was also quite familiar territory to my new ‘social’ interactions online.
Note to self: I must endeavour to see more plays as mixed media helps to expand the mind!