“If you read your marketing, sales, or Web site descrptions for your business out loud, does it sound like a real person is saying it?”

Rohit Bhargava wrote this in his book Personality not included: Why Companies Lose Their Authenticity, and How Great Brands Get It Back.
Talk about a lousy title for a book.  But do not be fooled.  Read it.  It’s great.

Bhargava clearly articulates something that has been inarticulately bugging me for years.  He says that the market-speak of the past doesn’t work in the days of Web 2.0.

Even in the days before the Web, I never thought much of market-speak.  Stuff like this gave me hairballs even when I wrote it.

“Help from alumni, parents, and friends is key to meeting the demands of the 21st century while providing the best possible atmosphere for learning.”

(Before flaming, let me point out that most colleges and universities sound like this when asking for money.)   

Do you trust this college?  Does this sound authentic, like a real person wrote it?  Or is it something that The Onion or Wonkette loves to hate?  (For those of you who haven't met them, these are the kind of people who skewer phonies all over the Web.)

Read Bhargava for actual practical tips on how to stop being a faceless piece of Teflon and start talking like a real human being.



Teflon inventor Roy Plunkett