When I was a child and I exaggerated a story, I remember my father calling me on it. “Did that really happen?” “Are you “telling stories”? It was code for lying because at some point, if you are telling a story and the facts aren’t true, you are lying. Storytelling has a [...]]]>

Bending the truth

When I was a child and I exaggerated a story, I remember my father calling me on it. “Did that really happen?” “Are you “telling stories”? It was code for lying because at some point, if you are telling a story and the facts aren’t true, you are lying. Storytelling has a bad connotation.

Lately I see a lot of storytelling. As people market on social media, the truth becomes distorted. People want to blog with a good hook. But reality might not be that interesting, so the writer brings out the spices. If you know the person, you might be disappointed.

Of course this has always been true in advertising. My favorite example comes from The Christmas Story when Ralph goes to such great lengths to obtain a decoder ring from Little Orphan Annie only to find out the secret code is an advertisement. His disapproval is obvious and we all know we’ve learned the same lesson. My sons have learned the hard way with dreamy toy advertisements which turn out to be nothing. Over the years I’ve warned them never to never believe advertising claims until they can be checked. This is why social media has grown. We want to benefit from other people’s experiences.

But can we trust everyone?

If you know someone closely or have been involved with a situation in a blog post, you might realize it isn’t quite true. The post might be an exaggeration when you know the true story.  When you discover inconsistencies, you never really trust the writer again.  If you find yourself thinking “That sounds good”, you immediately remember it’s probably storytelling and discard it as false.

I strive for authenticity in my writing. I’m not out to brand myself. I have nothing to sell, no image to propagate. When I communicate, I strive not to tell stories. I want to be trusted.

When you are reading a blog post, marketing materials, or even a status update, you need to be aware of the writer’s history and motivation. If it sounds too good to be true, most likely it isn’t.

We all need to keep our eye on the truth – and stop storytelling - if we are to be truly successful.

When I was in eighth grade, my teacher said I was cynical. As an adult, I don’t think it’s such a bad quality.

In today’s age of constant, on-the-spot, media coverage by both professionals and every guy on the street, we are bombarded with “news”. [...]]]>

News might be Fast but is it Dependable? Let's be Reasonable.

When I was in eighth grade, my teacher said I was cynical. As an adult, I don’t think it’s such a bad quality.

In today’s age of constant, on-the-spot, media coverage by both professionals and every guy on the street, we are bombarded with “news”. The breaking headlines on CNN and Twitter capture people’s attention. I’m always shocked at how completely people believe the details and instantly empathize.

“Is this true?” is always the first question in my mind. I can’t stop myself.

A few years ago I spent two weekends in an Episcopal Church workshop exploring my “gifts”. When discernment topped the list, I was surprised. I’d never heard of it. As we researched the results, I scoffed at God putting people on earth to discern good from evil, identify “false prophets”, and protect his people. Could there really be a gift enabling you to determine if something is true or false?

My immediate reaction was that we don’t need this gift anymore. We have the Bible, right? It’s written. How on earth would this gift serve my church in this day and age? When was the last time you saw a golden calf being worshiped in your neighborhood? How ridiculous!

But then I started to think. I thought about a phone call I received from a parishioner would wanted to organize a blood drive at our church. Since I was outreach co-chair, he called me. I immediately had a terrible feeling while talking to him on the phone. Even though he had a well-thought out plan and had even considered the need for childcare during the blood drive, I was “against” him. It’s difficult to put it into words. Since this was church and we are supposed to love everyone, I felt awful. I couldn’t deal with speaking to him and handed the whole thing over to my co-chair. How guilty I felt for the reaction and my inability to accept this man.

A short time later an older woman in the parish recognized him as a child molester who had grown up in our church and served time in prison. He had just been released. Our parish had to deal with how to handle his presence and even met with the bishop about it.  He could hear the word but we needed to protect people.

At the time I only fleetingly thought about my strong reaction to him. I didn’t give it much weight. Now I pay attention to these “reactions” to people and situations. I accept my nature to take a step back and not get carried away in new situations. Maybe I’m just made this way.

With all the constant interactions online, we need to force ourselves to take a cynical look at “news” and discern if it is true or false. I believe we all have this gift to observe and consider before reacting.

My fear is we will become so detached that we won’t care when we should. If we are unable to develop a personal system for determining if reports are false, we’ll ignore all reports. I hope we all have a good dose of discernment to keep us true.

Yahoo is turning up the volume on many of its communications and community features and building bridges between the collection of [...]]]> According to Alexei Oreskovic in his Rueter’s article, Yahoo’s Plan: create community from isolated sites, Yahoo Inc co-founder, David Filo, and new CEO, Carol Bartz, are planning all kinds of social networking features for Yahoo.com.

Yahoo is turning up the volume on many of its communications and community features and building bridges between the collection of Yahoo sites that have at times operated like virtual islands.

“You start to introduce Yahoo users to other parts of Yahoo,” said Filo.

Whether users warm to Yahoo’s vision of the social Internet with the same zeal they have for social stalwarts like Facebook and News Corp’s MySpace remains to be seen. But if Yahoo’s social networking features catch on, advertisers will take note.

Here’s why I’m intrigued:

* While she was visiting, my sister-in-law hit all the Day-After Thanksgiving Holiday Sales on my laptop with Yahoo. She surfed the web and charged her purchases to her Yahoo account.

* My friend, who leads a support group for parents of children with food allergies, wouldn’t start a Facebook group because everyone is happy and active with their Yahoo Group.

* My husband, an early adapter to Yahoo, cruises the daily photos from around the world. As I peak with my head on his shoulder, the popular photos summarize the world’s news, catastrophes, festivals, fun, nature, and … everything, in just a few glances.

Ms. Bartz is on the fast track to turn Yahoo into a social networking site. Yahoo would be packaged with a live stream of friend’s activities from the real groups in their lives. Saying it could be successful if done correctly is an understatement.

Facebook is a take-it-or-leave-it place for most of the people I know. Most users sign in when bored or procrastinating. I’ve been accused of updating my status too much and I only do it once or twice a day. “No,” I reply, “You should see some of the other people I connect with on Facebook, they send out stuff all day long.” But for most users this is not the norm.

For me, and almost everyone I know on Facebook, it’s a place for friends. We fan famous people and products, but it hasn’t morphed into actual sales for products and services on Facebook. Bottom line: companies want to make money, so they need customers or potential customers buying what they are selling. Companies can interact on a more personal level directly with customers on Facebook. Pages can encourage product loyalty. Also, the herd mentality of fanning what your friends fan is another quick/free marketing benefit. However, the ultimate goal of sales cannot be ignored.

Since Yahoo is such a commercial site already, it could happen in a spectacular way with Yahoo. We don’t think of as a place for friends but rather a place for information.

Mr. Oreskovic writes:

When an individual recommends a news story from the Yahoo homepage, uploads a photograph on Flickr or makes a trade on a fantasy baseball team from Yahoo sports, Yahoo will send an alert to a network of friends or contacts.

Yahoo is developing technology to broadcast roughly 100 types of such posts and actions.

Many of Yahoo’s properties rank among the most popular on the Internet. Yahoo’s homepage had 329 million unique visitors in February, according to research company comScore; Yahoo Mail had 282 million unique visitors in February, second to Microsoft HotMail.

In the last decade, in order to stay informed by my kid’s school, the delegation of PTAs, and my support group, I had to join Yahoo. Plenty of other people were forced to do the same. We’re all still there. It’s a big job for Yahoo, but there’s potential.

I’m going to go update my profile on Yahoo right now and give it a chance.