Internet Marketing Blog

Congressional Hearing On/In Second Life

I missed this but better late than never. Jon Stewart lampoons Congress and Second Life on The Daily Show and, as usual, they nail it:

Be Evil

I conceded the notion that privacy exists years ago. Considering how much I publish online, considering how much of my activity takes place online, I probably have far fewer things that are private than most people.

But when you take a moment to think about it, the degree two which we entrust faceless organizations with the intimate details of our daily lives is scary. Perhaps no company knows more about us than Google. And let me point out at this point that I am a big fan of Google.

As I've detailed previously, Google tracks everything from my search activity to my blog posts to my daily reading habits to my travel destinations. Google has captured me on their StreetView mapping service, and their satellites can conceivably track my every move. But they don't need to because I've got Google search and Google Maps on my phone.

What is scary is that example after example has proven that if a company wants to, it will exploit the private information they collect. And it really isn't a matter of being evil or not. The problem is that in large institutions--government, nonprofits, or corporations--the structure of the organization itself makes such exploitation easy.

Ethical behavior within such structures really comes down to the choices that individuals make. But those ethical dilemmas are more easily glossed over due to the pressures of maintaining employment and an infrastructure that provides easy outs.  People are often responsible for just a portion of the overall decision to follow an unethical path, so that decision doesn't appear irresponsible at all.

Earlier this month, the Sydney Morning Herald published a story that quoted Google's Vice President apparently distancing the search company from their famous motto, Don't Be Evil:

"It really wasn't like an elected, ordained motto...I think that 'Don't Be Evil' is a very easy thing to point at when you see Google doing something that you personally don't like; it's a very easy thing to point out so it does get targeted a lot."

Well, yes it is and that's entirely the point and the brilliance of the motto.

Search Engine Land points out that "Amit Patel, Google employee number 6 and one of Google's first engineers, coined 'Do Not Be Evil' in 1999 when the engineers became afraid of the pressure they might receive from the business units of the company."

If organizations are ultimately institutionally incapable of ensuring ethical behavior, than what will? A public motto that pledges ethical behavior.

Patel's brilliance is his long-term vision. As an engineer, he was in a better position than most people to understand the vast trove of data a company like Google could compile on individuals. Such information stores could potentially invite abuse.

Do Not Be Evil. The phrase is simple and unambiguous and, in the end, gives Google no choice but to maintain the motto because the alternative is...evil.

What If God Had A MySpace?

Here's a very funny Friday video for you that ponders the profound question  (with a nod to Joan Osborne), what if God had a MySpace?

Arrested Development - The Bluths Hire A Publicist

Here's your tangentially PR-related Friday video: An episode of Arrested Development where the Bluth family hires a publicist to deal with a media crisis.

The Very Big Corporation Of America

It's been a little more than a month since I've "sold out," as my friends would jokingly say, and gone corporate.

I gotta say, I am enjoying it a lot; more than I thought I would. I gave up a little freedom but I get to work with a lot of very smart people who love what they're doing. How could you not have fun in such an environment?

Still, I'd forgotten about many of the trappings of the corporate world. One of the most glaring of those things is the catch-phrases that get bandied about so effortlessly. I chuckle to myself when I hear one, but I'm sure I will inevitably eventually catch myself using them.

Anyway, the point of this post is to laugh at myself and my environment. I was thinking recently about Monty Python and their wonderful parody of Corporate America in the Crimson Permanent Assurance, the short film that preceded their feature-length film, The Meaning Of Life. So, without further ado, here is my favorite lampoon of Corporate America:

Keepin' It Real - Fill In The Blank Base

I'm starting a new feature called Keepin' It Real where I will provide a short rant on the misuse and abuse of language. Because I'm an English major and a big Ernest Hemingway fan, I appreciate precise language and the thoughtless use of imprecise or meaningless language drives me nuts.

But Keepin' It Real will not be a rant for a rant's sake.

Saying what you mean and speaking like a real person is ever more crucial for successful online communication. Or successful communication, period. At a time when people distrust the government, corporations, and organizations, authenticity becomes far more valuable as an indicator of trustworthiness. And people are far more inclined to trust someone who speaks plainly than someone who reiterates the same spin phrase over and over again or who uses Corpspeak.

It's all too easy to fall into the practice of using Corpspeak. Organizations can act like echo chambers in which corporate shorthand and acronyms and industry phrases and catchphrases ricochet around enough that they being to sound natural.

Today's rant has to do with bases and I'm not talking baseball.

I keep everyone talking about their bases. Celebrities talk about their fan bases. Publishers refer to their subscriber base. And companies discuss their customer or client bases.

Since when did groups of people become bases? The Technorati charts below demonstrate how common the usage is:

Posts that contain Fan Base per day for the last 30 days.

Get your own chart!

Posts that contain Subscriber Base per day for the last 30 days.

Get your own chart!

Posts that contain Customer Base per day for the last 30 days.

Get your own chart!

Posts that contain Client Base per day for the last 30 days.

Get your own chart!

Here are some definitions of "base" from Dictionary.com:

• A base is something that supports another thing. The base of a lamp holds the lamp in place.
• A base can be a foundation or basis: the base of needed reforms.
• A base can be a bottom layer or coating such as a base of paint.
• A base can be the principle element or ingredient of something such as paint with a lead base.
• A base can mean a starting point or point of departure or a gathering place.
• A base can refer to on of the four corners of a baseball diamond.

There are many more meanings of the word, but none has to do with groups of people as in the usage we are discussing.

The use of the word "base" in the manner we discuss here is absolutely meaningless. Why can't they be just fans or subscribers or customers or clients?

Finally, and more importantly, needlessly tacking on the word base to a group of people has the effect of putting the focus on the group rather than the people within the group. It's much easier to visualize fans than it is a "fan base."

The use of the word "base" dehumanizes groups. And people don't like being dehumanized.