It’s amazing how many new frankenwords have been created based on the word “blog.” I ran across these two on KDPaine’s PR Measurement Blog:
Blogatorials, which are apparently poor corporate blog efforts that are really advertorials;
Bloglebrities, or the people who try to gather “link love” the way celebrities gather magazine covers.
And you know how I feel about blogosphere. Blogoyuck. 
Most of us find it far too easy to gain weight. Son#2 has the opposite problem; he struggles to gain or maintain weight, because he has Crohn’s Disease. This form of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) affects the digestive system and causes the intestinal tissue to become inflamed, form sores and bleed easily. The nutrients from food aren’t easily absorbed, leading to weight loss and other issues. There’s no known cause, and there’s no cure. I am compelled to add “yet.”
So I’m all for supporting research into this disease, and M&M Meat Shops is making it easy. Besides a yearly barbecue in May with proceeds going to the Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation of Canada, M&M holds a Family Dinner Night in September. This year, it’s September 20. For every person who registers participation in the night (which just means entering your name and province), M&M will donate $1 to CCFC. Then all you do is sit down and enjoy dinner with your family. Of course, if you need dinner ideas, M&M has plenty of those.
I confess to taking a moment today to bask in the glow of a compliment about an online newsletter article I just submitted. However, it reminded me of something once asked of me: “So, are you only as good as your last article/newsletter?” (This was many years ago, when I worked on a weekly newsletter with a no-time-to-lose production schedule.)
The answer often seems to be yes, whether you are an independent or a corporate communicator. Your clients/bosses may have loved something you created last week or last month, but it really has little influence on how they feel about what they’re looking at RIGHT NOW, or so it seems. Yes, it’s humbling. It also gives you fresh incentive to keep doing your best, if you need it.
I’ve been filing Goods & Services Tax returns with the Canadian government without incident since 1991, so I was alarmed to receive a “Statement of Arrears” from Canada Revenue Agency. A closer look revealed that the document was an apparently new type of acknowledgement that the agency had received my payment. At the bottom, I saw the “processed amount,” which was how much I had paid and what they also termed the “amount assessed,” leaving a zero balance.
Soon after, when I had filed the newest quarterly return, I received a “Notice of (Re)Assessment,” with the explanation “We have processed your GST return for the period.”
At the best of times, governments seem to have a hard time communicating in plain, understandable language. In this case, they could certainly do a better job of calling a receipt just that, rather than a Statement of Arrears when there are none. And how about adding a line to say, “We’ve recently introduced these forms to acknowledge your payment,” to explain why forms that have not appeared in 16 years are suddenly showing up?
Son #1 was absolutely stunned this morning when I read to him a piece that one of his favourite bands was going to be playing in Toronto in October. His shock came from the fact that the newspaper scooped the Internet. That’s right, he had not yet heard of the concert online.
Newspapers everywhere are scrambling to compete online, with blogs, podcasts, daily news summaries delivered to your in-box, and more. I Googled “are newspapers dead” to see what would come up, and there were more than 10 million hits. None other than Robert Scoble pronounced (in March this year) that his son “would never subscribe to, nor read, a newspaper,” adding, “I’ve seen the future of newspapers (and really all printed content) and it isn’t print.”
I agree that 20-somethings aren’t as used to and fond of newspapers as their parents, but I don’t agree that print is dead. Newspapers are right in trying to broaden their appeal in different ways, but there’s something about sitting on a sunny deck with the Saturday paper and lots of time to read it that is hard to replace online. Even Son #1 was happy to have a Saturday paper delivered to his door during the last school year (if mostly for the sports results and analysis!).
The same issue is raised time and again for employee publications. All I can say is that most of my clients have dabbled with doing away with print, and many are supplementing newsletters with online vehicles, but print is still preferred. I suppose that may change when all the 20-somethings are another few decades older.
I booked tickets to take my mother to see Menopause Out Loud, a musical about, what else, menopause, that I’ve heard is hilarious. An ad in the Toronto Star promised “all tickets $39.95 each! August shows only! Good for all seats!” While you could book tickets online or by phone, I noticed online there was no option for this special price, only several other higher-priced offers.
So I called, wading through the maze of options to reach a human. We went through the choice of date and seats, and then she confirmed the price of $49.95 each. When I asked what happened to “all tickets $39.95 each,” she said, “Oh, you have to mention it.” Of course, there’s nothing in the ad that says you must quote a special offer or number. Seems to me they are hoping not many people will have seen, remembered and mentioned the ad.
Feeling battered today after returning from Montreal last night – going there took five hours, coming home took seven, because the highway had been closed for many, many hours after an accident. Although the section was opened by the time we got there, you’d never know it from the traffic.
But I digress. I wanted to share some amusing spam that came in just before I left:
Do people really fall for these things?
Ran across some amusing words this week:
Whale client: From MarketingSherpa’s tale of how a small company reeled in a big client, “How CPG marketer’s guerrilla campaign landed coveted space on Whole Foods’ shelves.” (Free access for a limited time.)
Frankenquote: From writer Matthew Stibbe’s advice about improving news releases. “Don’t frankenquote. This is my phrase for any made-up quotation that is used in a press release. Usually they are turgid, content-free and obviously made up.”
Voicejail: From www.urbandictionary.com, meaning “The loop of options where you get stuck when trying to navigate your voice mail.” I would add when trying to reach a human on a “customer service” line!
I’ve been the first to complain about customer DISservice, so let me give credit when it’s due: The Bay (or should I say HBC) did right by this customer.
My latest statement came in showing $10.20 due. It was an odd amount and I thought, “What on earth did I buy for $10?” Nothing, as it turned out. It was a credit charge. The previous balance had been due Aug. 5, but my cheque didn’t arrive until Aug. 7 (because of the Simcoe Day long weekend, I guess). So HBC was going to charge me $10.20 for those two days.
I called the “customer helpline” not expecting any help but at least hoping to register my disappointment. After a few too many “press 1 for…” and “press 2 for…” options, I finally reached a human, who turned out to be human indeed. After checking my file, revealing a long-time customer who always pays promptly, she apologized and promised to reverse the charge. Thanks, HBC!
