original creative commons image courtesy of ebmorse
The Combo Platter Incident
The keyboard that keeps my desktop computer company needs to buy a vowel. And a couple of consonants, while we are at it. It seems that some time during the past year, a year involving a lot of overuse and a little misuse (the latter related to an unfortunate incident involving a #5 Mexican Combo Platter), my “E,” “S” and “L” keys have been wiped clean. How is it that I continue to type?
Being a child of the industrial age (circa Before Most People Alive Today Were Born), I long ago mastered the art of ten-fingered typing. I have been doing it for so long, I just know intuitively where all of those little letters are. In fact, I don’t even see them anymore, and my three (and, apparently, favorite) keys have probably been missing for months. I just didn’t notice, because I didn’t need to.
Not so the number keys. I have to look when I am typing numbers. I suppose I just haven’t been using them as much. But occasionally, I do need one of those little guys, and then I have to pay very close attention.
My Favorite Inman Connect Panel
Without further ado, let the segue to ensue. My favorite panel discussion at the Inman Real Estate Connect Conference took place at the Blogger’s Connect pre-conference. The title of this session was “Growing Pains: Take Your Blog to the Next Level.” It was my favorite because the message was contrarian and, I believe, right on target.
The next level in our on-line evolution is a step backwards, we were told, and I couldn’t agree more. We have been teching out for so long now in our attempt to connect with our customers that we are in danger of disconnecting entirely. In our efforts to speak their language, we risk no longer speaking to them at all.
Then Came a Comment…
During the panel question and answer session, one attendee said that he was left feeling “empty;” he said he was hoping for new technology ideas to deploy to accomplish that next level of success. While I know his comments were mostly tongue in cheek (and I won’t name names, Ben Martin), I think a lot of us (myself included) tend to fall into this trap. We have so mastered the on-line alphabet, that we are forgetting or have never taken the time to learn where all those little numbers, our customers, are located. Eventually if we want to continue to make a living, we are going to need one of those.
They are located one block or two or twenty miles from my home and my office. They are on-line, certainly, but they are ultimately going to be in my car or sitting across from me at the kitchen table. They like search engines and blogs and widgets as much as the rest of us, but what they ultimately like is neighborhood information and expertise. They speak the language of search engines and browsers and cyber social networks, but that is their second language. The universal language is one of localism. Schools, neighborhoods, services, and the need for a stop sign at my intersection; these are the things that speak to our clients on the most personal level.
Refocusing Attention
We are dangerously close to making the language of our customers our second language. In my case, that is because the numbers have not been so day-to-day critical; they have played a much smaller role in my message because I was too busy following the on-line marketing book to the letter. It just might be time to move on or at least refocus our attention at the keyboard.
This is not to say that we should turn our backs on technology. To the contrary, we must continue to embrace it. But, at some point piling technology on technology is going to be like writing a post using the Wingdings font. A few may get it, but we may be failing to connect with the majority. Like the case of the missing E, S and L, I can do a reasonable job of communicating to the on-line audience without further obsessing about the keystrokes. I could replace the missing keys, but twenty-three out of twenty-six is pretty close to perfect, so my biggest return on investment at this point is going to come from making that next distinction — successfully hitting the numbers. And if I just stop to look, I will realize that my numbers live in my neighborhood.
