Is it better to be Truthful, or Interesting?
I’ve just had a rather heated argument with someone on a Linkedin discussion group that’s had the side benefit for me of clarifying what I feel is the “right” way for professionals to promote their businesses.
I’ll summarise the background briefly:
The person in question posts regular articles on a Linkedin group I’m a member of. His posts are pretty much “best practice” from a copywriting perspective. The headlines are always controversial and intriguing – they always make you want to read the article. And the articles are well written, opinionated and again, controversial.
Essentially, he’s differentiating himself through his writing. He’s not bland – he has apparent points of view that I’m sure attract a lot of readers.
Last week, but, he posted on a theme I know something about. The business value of Twitter.
In a post entitled “Twitter is for Twits” he opined on how Twitter was a complete waste of time for businesses.
This is where it became intriguing for me. His headline was effective – it got people to read the article. The article was well written and got across a apparent point of view.
The distress was, I know a lot about by Twitter to get new clients. Both from my own experience and from others who I’ve talked to in depth about how they’ve used twitter to win new business. And my experience was very uncommon.
His position massively oversimplified reality. In my experience, Twitter can work well for some people, in some circumstances, and used in certain ways. It’s not a simple black or white, excellent or terrible situation. Just like any other business development or lead generation channel, it requires careful thought to figure out if it will work in your circumstances, and to figure out how best to use it.
I wasn’t the first person to answer the post – someone else posted a really thoughtful answer full of examples of how twitter could bring value. I posted my experience. I clarified that I had 50,000 followers so I had some experience in the matter – and I went on to describe both how I had won (at smallest amount) a couple of clients via twitter and how others had done so with rather fewer followers but by a strategy of building deep relationships with a small number of people.
A few days later I received a Linkedin direct message from the person saying he was going to make a second post effectively by me as an example of how twitter was a waste of time because I had only won two clients despite having 50,000 followers.
I answered saying that that would be misinterpreting the facts. I use twitter for 10-15 minutes per day – and not every day. Getting two clients (and probably more, as I can’t track all the clients who initially found me via twitter) and a bunch of other side benefits for 10-15 minutes per day in my emergency time when there’s not much else I can do for business development is really a pretty excellent ROI in my point of view. Especially since I’m really, really expensive so those clients are very high value.
I also clarified that whether twitter would be a valuable investment for people was not a simple question and required thorough analysis, not a blanket answer. And that I typically advised clients not to try to build large followings, but to use twitter to help build deeper relationships with a small number of potential clients.
Today I noticed he had gone yet to be and made a new post on the Linkedin group just so as he’d said. He’d completely ignored all the information and explanation I’d sent him.
As a replacement for he made up a spurious calculation of how many people I must have touched with tweets over a year and claimed that only getting two clients from that “captive consultation” viewing my tweets was an dreadful ROI.
Now measuring success with twitter in terms of new clients per tweet is like measuring success in publicity in terms of new customers per booklover of the publication you’ve advertised in. Never mind that the one customer you got spent $1m and the publicity was free. Apparently it must have been a terrible ROI because number of new customers per booklover was low!
What he did was in many ways excellent copywriting. He continued to have compelling headlines and fascinating, controversial and well-written material in his post.
But it was terrible, terrible advice. Worse, he deliberately gave that terrible advice despite knowing better.
I can forgive him the initial post. We all sometimes write on a theme we’re not experts on but which we feel passionate about. And sometimes we’re incorrect.
But I gave him meticulous information which he then ignored when writing the second post.
Knowingly writing misleading information just to make an impact is incorrect.
It may attract more viewers. It may build your reputation. it may make you more well loved with people who share similar viewpoints.
But it’s incorrect.
People reading it will make terrible decisions as a result that will cost them significant time and money – or worse.
And that brings me to my point.
As someone who writes a lot, I’ll admit to trying to construct intriguing or controversial headlines to get more clicks to my site or readers to my articles. I’ve even constructed headlines to try to help my reputation in google.
But as professionals our primary duty is to our clients. We must give them the very best advice we can – not just say what best promotes ourselves.
Now sure, I may not be right all the time. And my passion may get the better of me and cause me to write or say something when I’m not in full possession of the facts.
But it is our absolute duty as professionals not to twist or ignore information to best give our own interests.
So it’s most certainly best to be truthful.
Fascinating gets more readers and more traffic. But truthful is the right business to do.
And it allows me to take a nap at night.
And I like to reckon that in the long term, it wins constancy and entrust.Similar Posts:
- Don’t Place Me On Your List
- The Substance of Authenticity
- What David Maister can lecture us about Twitter
- Turbo-Charge Your Sales Tales;
- Linkedin Funnies
Is it better to be Truthful, or Fascinating? is a post from: Get Clients