Credit: Jayme Soulati
By now, you’ve seen the Fast Company cover story, with tongue in cheek and not in check, about social media being “kinda” sexy. It’s the tonality and a few other things in question for me. If you’re late to the party; it’s not too late to see it here.
I wrote about this Monday and wasn’t happy or unsurprised that PR is getting short shrift at the mahogany table (said Barrett Rossie in blog comments) by others in the digital space AND Fast Company.
What gave me pause when reading the story start to finish was the entire tonality of the piece as well as one word choice in particular by a Fast Company staff writer, I presume (there are no bylines for the featured tips and secrets).
In comments Monday, Geoff Reiner, of Clarity for The Boss, and I were chatting about the disappointment with that kind of sub-quality wording, IMHO.
People who read Red Head Writing know and expect her to use this language in all of her post, something I’d never do and gasp upon reading a blog like the link provided. If you don’t like it, “her house, her rules,” as she always shares.
While it doesn’t sit well with me ALL the time (I’ve been known to use the f-bomb for emphasis in an adjectival sense), what bothered me about Fast Company was my stupid expectation, the props I ALWAYS give that publication, and subsequent let down as a result.
Fast Company Poor Editing
Here’s the passage; you can be the editorial judge:
“So how does a brand be intimate with a person? It’s a major mindfucker. Brands want Facebook ads to look more like the rest of their stuff; to put this new thing in an old shape.” (Fast Company, Insider’s Secret No. 2, Facebook to Ad Creatives: Help! Please!, September 2012)
So, the crux of the matter is the following, and Jenn Whinnem also raised a great point about journos and bloggers related to respectability and credibility:
Should nationally published magazines be upheld to greater standards than professional bloggers? Is the tone of this cover piece the way Fast Company itself gets invited to the table as a content marketer/blogger (thanks Ralph Dopping for that thought)?
I laud this publication every week in blog posts because I relish its content for its ability to generate blog fodder and mojo for me as a professional blogger. This cover piece on social media, although providing great inspiration for many a blogger, isn’t what I had in mind.
What say you?
