Let’s Talk, Shall We?
Here’s a post dedicated to Mr. Streight considering his latest deconstructionist rants decrying the death of the spoken word. I fully expect to be taken to task, but I don’t mind. 
I tried my best to get my head round Derrida for a couple of hours, but the decoding all got a bit much. However, what is blogging other than the deconstruction of your existing business? Its primary goal is to find the real meaning behind what you either have or haven’t presented yourself as to your clients and customers. It’s all about telling it straight as well as telling it Streight.
The business blog voice is one that is primarily conversational and engaging in tone. It’s very different in style to what might normally be expected from writing, but, whilst it isn’t a ‘normal’ writing style, it also isn’t the same as having a full one-to-one conversation.
This is where podcasting and vlogging might just be able to play a bit of a role.
(How do you like this for a seamless link?)
So, if you’re interested in finding out the person behind the blogger, or should I say, if you’re interested in finding out the persona behind this particular blogger, then you can go and have a listen to a podacast with Alex Bellinger at www.smallbizpod.co.uk
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not awfully good at these. I don’t wax lyrical, nor am I easy to understand. This isn’t a case of saying, ‘Listen to me, I’m great.’
It’s simply a case of being able to get more of an idea of who I might be if you so choose.
Anyway, the person interviewed before me is Adriana Cronin-Lukas of tBBC.
She’s very good to be fair and doesn’t sound as though she’s being flushed down a toilet. But, having heard her speak and having spoken to another tBBC bigwig over the phone, Jackie Danicki, I’d hate to see the two of them together having a chinwag.
Damn, those girls can gas.
Filed under: Business Blogging, Paul, Why Blog?
What was Adrianna like? As pretty as she sounds in her picturegraph at The Big Blog Company site? She hates Fictional Character blogs almost as much as we do. She’s is very interesting and pretty. And smart.
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Podcasting however sends slivers up my Frankenspine. Pods? Like those pods in the realistic film Invasion of the Bodysnatchers? I prefer books to radio, reading to conversing, and writing to talking. But that’s not “the wave of the future”, that’s just little ole me. The Grape. The grapes of wrath against aural reality, unless it’s the rarefied form of air Busoni called music.
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I read 30 pages of Derrida, and understood 4 sentences. So I’m ahead of the curve, the norm of understanding only 3 sentences. Damn, I’m good. Isn’t me?
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I probably will never do a podcast, for the following reasons:
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(1.) podcasts are edited from phone conversations
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(2.) I hate talking on the phone
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(3.) I prefer to edit myself, not be edited by another
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(4.) I fear being misquoted, misedited, misconstrued, and since it is audio, it will sound UNEDITED, if smooth segues are utilized, so no matter how much I would clarify, people would just say, “I know what I heard, Vaspers, and I heard you say Web Sites are Dead, Long Live Blogs.”
Actually Steven, most podcasts that are interviews (in my experience) are not edited, but done straight to disk and then posted.
If you haven’t experienced these before, I’d suggest trying the podcasts at For Immediate Release and IT Conversations.
Both are examples of relatively ‘un’edited versions of the genre.
If you listen to the podcast you’ll be able to hear what Adriana is like. Her interview is before mine. She’s definitely a smart one. I think she’s Slovenian - I could be wrong. I can also assure you that it’s as unedited as it possibly can be.
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Don’t get me wrong, Alex did say that we would stop during the interview and re-record any bits that didn’t come out right, but what you hear is the full conversation without any editing. Blimey, you wouldn’t edit me to sound that lame, surely.
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I’m also not a phone fan. The idea of a taped telephone conversation is quite an odd one, I’ll admit, but I think podcasts have a certain charm. i think there’s a case for certain businesses utilising them, but only if they’re comfortable with the idea.
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Yeah, I suppose they’re a bit risky in that respect. I was sent a few questions half an hour beforehand to give me a general outline as to what was going to be asked.
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I’d love to host one though, just for a giggle. A BLOGthenticity podcast could be rather interesting.
I listened, Paul. It was good. I hope that Alex gets the audio quality issues squared away, but that’s the price we pay for using free tools like Skype or landlines. I like his style, though. He sounds both nice and knowledgeable. The idea and format is already interesting. Give him a bit of time and I bet this will be come one of the popular podcasts for biz / PR types visit. He’s only been doing it about a month. I’m hopeful for another fun site to listen to and read.
One site that is turning podcasts into something valuable for a specific business group is this remarkable couple. Chuck and Cindy Zimmerman have definately come up with an ‘authentic’ idea … podcasting Agrimarketing interviews and press releases. Talk about ‘niche’ - but, hey - agriculture is huge and vitally important to all.
As so many have said, farming is a natural fit for blogging. There are seasons, the family aspect, constantly rotating processes like planting, harvesting, etc.
Check out ZimmComm … I think it is one of the more unique applications of blogging and podcasting in business in that it is so directly addressing agriculture issues for their clients.
I think there’s a definite case for those who are comfortable with the medium using it. You’re right, Alex is good. I was impressed with him.
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I’m also inclined to give him a mention because he’s English. Call it my only slight bias.
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I’ve heard of Chuck and Cindy somewhere along the line. I’ll have a little listen at some point. I think there’s a case for specific niche areas. So what if people accuse it of being the same as CB. I’m into CB.
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For me, alot of this is about communication. I’ve always been a ‘by whatever mean necessary’ guy. I’m not for pushing people down certain avenues. This is why I don’t like the hype surrounding blogging and podcasting. If somebody wants to do their own radio show then that’s fine too.
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At least you don’t need a decent TV smile to blog.
You know Vaspers is not to be happy unless he be hating something. And now you try to steal away from Vaspers the only joy he has in life, his hating some ding? Shame. Shame. Shame.
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Today, Vaspers is trying to hate Podcasting, and you, like robbing a bone from the frothy mouth of a rabid dog, attempt to pluck out of his mouth that thing he was happily gnawing on: Podcasting.
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Vaspers does not listen to any radio ever. He does not watch television. He does not attend lectures or go to blogferences. He does listen to music, but that’s because the instruments usually drown out the talking, I mean singing.
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Vaspers’ motto: “If you’ve got something to say, put it in writing. I don’t want to waste time patiently listening to a sermon, lecture, or speech.”
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See, talking is too slow, you can’t skip, scan, skim through it, you have to receive a lot of unfiltered irrelevant information that is just clutter, and you can’t revise, delete, or amplify your spoken expressions. Plus, speech, being inferior to inscription, cannot be archived, searched, tagged, or linked.
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Now fire away and correct any errors in my or Vaspers’ thinking. We’re all ears, er, eyes I guess I should say. All eyes.
:^0
Before you correct this, I will, see how cool writing is?
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You can archive podcasts, and search at least the titles I suppose, but prolly not the content, or is there some digital widget that acts as a counter, like on a tape or DVD?
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I prefer analog controls, BTW, and absolutely hate all digital control systems, as far as tuning and volume, for example. So much easier and more accurate to rotate an analog dial on a radio, for example. But see, now I’m off on a tangent.
Hey Steven,
All things are not for all people. I grew up in, and on, radio. Spent many years working in radio. So, i’m into the audio thing.
Like the blogworld with its millions of niche voices, we will all choose whether to read/hear/watch (blogs/podcasts/vlogs).
Isn’t that the great thing about the WWW thingie? Room for everything. Like TV, we have a blog remote … the mouse. We can change the channel. Heck, I can even lockout (block) channels that I don’t ever want to see/hear/read on the web just as I can with my TV box and satellite radio xm2go.
So, all I’m saying is that there is room for everyone and even in my lil’ niche interest areas, I won’t like it all either. Still, the medium can be the message and when that fits …. pods and vids might do it for some.
Oh yes I understand that. I just speak with a strong, aggressive, and radical Voice for my own idiosyncratic tastes and for all those shy folk out there who feel exactly as I do, but are too, like I said, shy, to express their contrarian view. The shy, bashful contrarians can look to me, or rather to my written wordlings, as a champion of their individuality.
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And that pretty much unveils my whole deeper purpose: to give Voice to the margins, the cast-off, the slag and slug, the crusty edges of the pizza, the alleged fringe areas of legitimate naysaying and ornery introspective counter-balance blahgdomization.
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Or I just like to irritate innocent sensitives. My team of aberrant psychoanalysts and I haven’t figure it out yet. What’s blocking the epiphany is my stubborn reluctance to form any decent mirror, merger, idealizing, super-normalizing, or counter transference manifestations, meaning I don’t trust or distrust them. I leave them in neutral which is not progressive therapeutically.
I much prefer putting my point forward via blogging, or the written word. It’s infinitely easier. It also finds itself being edited on the fly. You should make far fewer mistakes in terms of misrepresentation in writing than you should when speaking.
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However, we are social creatures on the whole. In business you may make connections via blogging, but that is because it’s more conversational than more technical or learned forms of writing. It seeks to be a written informal chat. Not all blogging styles should be, or are similar to this, but regarding the voice of a business blog it’s crucial.
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All businesses would prefer to engage in telephone or personal conversations with their clients or potential clients.
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Blogging is the closest we’ve come to this. Podcasting and vlogging, if it’s useful to the person(s) utilising it, is only a further embellishment.
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Personally, I’m not a great advocate. It’s not really my comfort zone, but I’ll do it for the experience and to provide transparency.
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If I was blogging for a larger corporation, I doubt if the PR department would be insisting on me being hauled out in front of existing media or to do podcasts etc.
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I adore writing and blogging. It’s what I’m remotely good at and dearly want to continue doing. We have to recognise strengths and weaknesses in all of this.
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I don’t want podcasting hyping so that businesses feel press ganged into doing it. We’ve seen too much of that in relation to blogging. But, it might just be useul for some.
I deal with clients, publishers, guest contributors, suppliers, basically everybody, via email.
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This is just me, and not some brazen, strident “law” that I seek to impose on the entire world.
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But I think business, government, scientific community, education, etc. are all headed this way. Let’s not forget how speech leads to schmoozing and office politics shenanigans and unseemly gossip.
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I’ve heard that teleconferencing has failed miserably, and people want to conduct commerce, research, legislation, etc. as quickly and effortlessly as possible, from the comfort of their own comfort zone, the ultimate comfort zone: their home or office via archivable textual communication.
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This is the net effect of networking, and online transactions, and processing speed enhancements.
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So, to me, and this is just my idiosyncratic opinion, podcasting,video blogging, and audio blogging are regressive and not progressive.
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I see the supremacy of written words, text, numbers, even photos and other images, over speech, in most, but surely not all, cases. I don’t particularly care if this is indeed so, but as a gifted writer (meaning my ability is not self-generated) and a clumsy speaker (meaning I express my ideas better in writing), this amuses and pleases me, this ascendency of text over speech.
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As a deconstructionist, I see speech as domineering, tyrannical, imposing, on-rushing, over-flowing, tenacious, insinuating, overbearing, automatimistic, intrinsically prolix, needlessly copious, and hard to endure for lengthy durations.
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An avid advocate will spill forth profusely forever, whilst his auditors and audience will wither and wilt in short order.
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Finally, as we begin to inhabit outer space and grow vastly more distant from each other, face to face meetings and time-consuming vocal conversations will be viewed as impediments, while textual documentation, easier and faster to transmit and store, will continue to reign as the prefered modality.
I’m basically the same. However, I really hate having to email/IM the missus or anybody else I might know. People I haven’t met are fair game.
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As someone who craves social interaction, I’ll always try and cultivate a meeting with people who I would see as friends in on land as well as online.(Does that make me sound like some freaky stalker?) These aren’t as many as you might think, but if I was in your parish, I’d be banging on your door for a brew. Maybe a Blue Moon.
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Certain spoken forms of communication wouldn’t have failed due to them costing more than email and the ubiquity of the mobile phone by any chance?
When we see the death of the mobile then the spoken word might be struggling.
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Just wait ’til we’re all on fancy broadband with super Skype type software that really works a dream.
Just adding my two pennies worth.
First though, thank you Paul for the interview which I thought was great. Apols for the audio quality. Although I can do a certain amount to tidy it up, it’s largely out of my hands. Maybe one day the world and his wife will end up using super-Skype on 10 meg broadband connections and my problems will be over. Thanks also for posting your experiences here.
I agree, podcasting is a ‘regressive’ medium to a certain extent. The aural tradition of story-telling is as old as the hills. But I like people’s voices and stories.
Steven, I notice you’re intrigued by Adriana and what she’s like. Hearing her spoken voice is revealing in it’s own right, as is hearing mine or Paul’s.
The written word is more efficient in many cases, but it is no less tyrannical than its spoken counterpart. In some cases it’s also less than transparent. The spoken word reveals things about an individual’s personality that the written word may conceal.
It is the dissemination that modern technology allows that makes podcasting interesting to me - the ability to cut out big media corporations and go direct. Citizen broadcasters, like citizen journalists, I suppose.
Citizen Broadcasters brings me to CB radio. Podcasting could well be the CB radio of the 21st century - deeply embarrassing to all concerned in a few year’s time. In the meantime, though, I’ll be enjoying listening to all sorts of interesting people and making a fool of myself by pretending I’m Jeremy Paxman or should that be Lorraine Kelly?
Incidentally, this week saw the launch of Podscope (www.podscope.com) which attempts to tag and archive audio content. It’s interesting, but in beta.
Gosh - this comment was supposed to be brief. Sorry!
I get the CB analogy re: trend/fad. I don’t like it, but I get it.
Going to the heart of what podcasting ‘could be’ (exemplified by yours, Alex, and those found at IT Conversations and ForImmediateRelease) seems to say that these are less likely to be embarrassing in the future.
Hey, even GM has experimented with podcasts. Well, I guess there were also GM employees with CBs, too. But not the PR/Marketing department.
The opportunity to hear the voice, for me, adds to the experience. It enriches the interview. Now, when audio is searchable by keyword, we’ll all be a lot happier.
GM is no role model for anything. A dying dinosaur trying to be hip, using a Pseudo Blog to pass for legit entry into the Blogospheric stance of forming a candid, two-way interactive, sincere conversation with a target audience.
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The GM failure is so dismal, that, after reading a bleak and depressing interview with Bob Lutz at the Red Couch, I had to blurt forth my frenzied opinion. Not nice. Read with strong tea and dry biscuits.
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Alex, good debate response. I like you, Adriana, and Perry a lot. I’m starting to be a huge fan of tBBC. Very well reasoned and intelligent come back to my grating. I respect that very much.
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Alex, I’m not one to criticize the audio quality of your podcasts. I know that even music CDs suck, too low a volume in many cases, mysteriously, and built to decay within 5 to 15 years, forcing us to replace our entire CD collection every 5 to 15 years. Sound bizarre? Yet I’ve read this at good, sober sources online.
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I’m being tongue-in-chic when I deride speech in favor of writing, but semi-serious is more serious than not serious at all.
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I mean it when I say I hate telephone conversations, but Paul and I could down several ales at a pub and talk up a storm, me and Robert too, I’m sure. But I really do hate radio, telephone, lectures, sermons, etc.
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My oddball tastes and proclivities, not a Universal Anti-pod Mantra. Not yet anyway. heh.
Alex,
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It’s not the sound quality per se. I always sound like I’m gargling in a lavatory. But, I have to say I enjoyed being interviewed by you. You made it easy.
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You also make a good point about transparency in relation to writing. As far as transparency goes, I think all the various mediums, from blogging, to podcasting, to vlogging all have a role to play in providing transparency and building credibility.
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At the moment, I’d love to see Bob Lutz do a spot of vlogging.
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Let’s not forget the different styles of learning either - Visual, Aural, Kinesthetic, Read/Write. People tend to be more receptive to one over the other. It’s not about your own personal preference, or what is currently being hyped, but a genuine realisation that we need to connect to people on varying levels. If you have anything worth connecting to, that is.
My introduction to BLOGthenticity has been a very good one. I’m very impressed with the writing, thought, wit and analysis. It’s great to see such healthy debates in the comments sections. I’ll be back regularly now to visit and comment when I have something to say that people might be interested in.
Steven thanks for your further comments. I like the tBBC crew too – they’re revolutionaries, but have their heads screwed on the right way round! I’ve also heard about the built in obsolescence of CDs – no wonder the record companies are so scared of digital downloads and bitstream!
Rather bizarrely, I’ve been phobic about making phone calls for years. God knows how I ended up in PR and the media. Still, I’m almost enjoying it now, in a masochistic kind of way.
Paul, I like your point about learning. Ultimately the medium with which we communicate over the internet will suit different people at different times. What’s important and what’s liberating is the delivery.
Most people are such cowards, that’s why they have to pay military personnel to fight to protect them. If it was up to a grassroots militia, we’d all be wimpering slaves to some dictator and imposed universal belief system.
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I love it when I state something brazenly, stridently, aggressively (the only way to be heard and remembered in the flux of 12 million blogs)…
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…and a brave and equally opinionated soul ventures forth to match wits with me. I hate having one-dimensional viewpoints. That’s why I say repeatedly, “this is just my idiosyncratic, personal, private point of view, not a core value or universal mantra demanding unquestioning, mandatory obedience from all.”
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I usually learn more from intelligent debate “opponents” than from flattering praisers and idolaters. heh.
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BTW, name one detractor, one flamer, one naysayer against me and my opinions…who is also a hugely successful, internationally famous business blogger with prestigious clients.
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Not one. Thanks.