Our friend Napoleon once stated that “Un bon croquis vaut mieux qu'un long discours". I am not sure if you agree that a good sketch is always better than a speech. But depending on your online communication strategy, less is more.
There are massive information showing that people increasingly access the internet with their mobiles and spend long hours on social media. These environments are marked by lots of imagery that can rapidly communicate. So what?
It means you should invest on design and SPINSTRATEGIES helps you brainstorm:
Get yourself a visual CV
Vizualize.me is hip website where you can create a graphic version of your CV. Don’t roll your eyes because a map showing the geographical impact of the languages you speak can impress recruiters. Want to pitch your work on a given skill? Bars showing a volume may catch the attention of your client if you send them the link by email or social media.
Make your cause visual now!
Make your charity or activism stand out by creating a clean and simple web strategy. Take a look at slaveryfootprint.org. The website creates awareness of a serious human rights issue in interesting way. The focus is on the reader (and not on the slaves) and it guides you through a journey about how exploitation still persists in capitalist economies. Mind you that most of the data they use is already available online. It’s just a question of presentation.
So this is what you should do: focus a bit on presentation. Both of your online and offline image.
Sitting on a restaurant table next to mine, a man tells his wife:
“I hate that Jim guy. He’s a stupid ^&%$%! He stole my idea, sold it to management and now he gets a promotion”
My pizza arrives but I intentionally keep listening. That’s how I know I am not a great dinner date because I don't feel guilty on listening other people’s conversation. If it’s interesting enough, I mean.
As the conversation unfolds, Jim doesn’t seem to be that stupid to me. You see, Mr Life-is-Unfair had presented a technical idea to his upper management. It got rejected, he admits, because “management couldn’t visualise how wonderful it was”. He doubted his plan could work out and he decided to stop talk about it eventually
Jim reshaped the whole concept by telling how wonderful it would work for end customers. Well, this guy seems quite a communicator to me. What do you think?
And don’t come telling me that some messages are impossible to convey. They may be difficult or require extra work. Perhaps, hiring a specialist could be the solution for you. Obviously, I pitch my work here without modesty... J
My work at SPINSTRATEGIES has been mostly translations lately. I didn’t expect that because - let’s admit - we are currently going through a major economic downturn.
In these hard days, many businesses are seeking clients abroad in order to keep going. Many NGOs are now after international donations to make ends meet. Going international is not only trendy but a necessity.
The problem is that most clients have no idea what a translation is all about. Some think that using Google Translate solves all problems of the world while others shy away from hiring a translator, thinking it will cost too much. And, as the picture above shows, translations can go wrong... and it isn't always funny!
The ATA – American Translators Association has an excellent booklet called “Translation – getting it right”. You can download it below. It gives you and your organisation some great tips about buying translations. My favourites are:
1.Create a Linguistic strategy Which languages do I want to work in? Which materials do I need to have translated?
2.Where to invest... or not? You should invest some money to get your legal and technical material translated by specialised professionals. Sorry, but your cousin who lived in Germany for 3 years is unlikely to be the right person to translate the Terms and Conditions of your corporate website. Fair enough, the company’s blog can use Google Translate for free. Use good judgement.
3.Go for great writers!
We tend to think that bilingual people are great translators. It may well be. However, a good translation is a correct, stylish text that sounds natural in the target language. Ask potential translators for some writing samples in both languages. A good translation looks like an original!
This is the deal: I am planning holidays. This makes me feel very Dutch because when I was I kid my family hardly ever went travelling on vacations and so on. For those culturally unaware, you should know that most of the developing world people consider vacations as the little period when you don’t work your ass off. Yeah, I am talking about 11 hours a day or more.
This means I need to sail the websites of hotels to find accommodation for our stay abroad. Isn’t it funny how hotels make 3 or sometimes 4 types of rooms. Really? In a small family hotel in the middle of the Brazilian jungle... will you tell me you have four completely different classes of rooms.
Luxe Room, Super Luxe Room, Special Luxe, Superior Luxe etc.
I am going for an apparently good hotel but to their cheapest room. Why? First of all because I don’t even have data enough to make a very rational choice.
Secondly, I am trying to leave below my means. I have talked about this before here and we all agree that this is the lesson we should all learn now in Europe too.
Dutch TV is covering the death of Kadaffi and I just think it’s so stupid. They call “authorities” and ask them whether they are happy that Muammar doesn’t belong to the living anymore. Superficial is the word that comes to my mind. And if you like that kind of stuff, The Mirror has a exquisite ensemble to offer.
Perhaps coincidentally, a friend and I met in Rotterdam today. We had to compete for the same job. Maybe it was the unwelcoming weather - or we just had too little coffee – but we decided not to talk about the economy or jobs. To my surprise, A. said she’s been reading my blog.
A: I like that Milgram experiment post. But why people are so stupid to keep on the experiment if they feel bad about it?
Me: Humans are weird beings. I can think about Hannah Arendt’s idea of the evil as banal.... Do you know if they have a coffee machine in here?
