May 20, 2009Poison Phrase? Colleague http://twitter.com/dmscott
In a recent blog post, New Rules PR expert David Meerman Scott lists the “Dear Colleague” salutation as one of his pet peeves . His take? “I am not your colleague.” “Either say “Dear David” or leave the salutation out.” He…and I want to know – is he being too picky?
His post commenters agree with him. Your thoughts?
It might be time for me to create a top ten salutation poison phrase list to add to my existing top ten Poison Phrase pet peeves list
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Thanks Meryl,
For leading us to a great question from David Meerman Scott, one of the few true gentlemen among all the social media “experts.” Most are about as social as a tick.
As I said on his site, “Frankly, I’m so fed up with email spam, Twitter Spam, LinkedIn fake “Discussions” and Facebook “Hawkers and Sellers” that I can hardly see straight anymore.”
Mostly, I don’t care what they call me – I don’t want them to call me at all, unless I double-latte with extra mocha opted-in to get email from them.
I also linked to a hilarious piece that Rebecca Morgan put on SpeakerNetNews a couple of weeks ago, which I call “Speaker Spam” – http://tinyurl.com/speakerspam
Comment by Micheal Benidt — May 23, 2009 @ 6:04 am
Thanks Michael! DM Scott is a breath of fresh air in the world of marketing mayhem. I’m starting to figure out that you are as well! Maybe it’s me, but I couldn’t find the piece you referred to on SpeakerNet News. I did enjoy your post on your blog about DMScott. http://tinyurl.com/meermanthanks
I sometimes fear I’ll lose my soul in the midst of hype and false connectedness. At other times I fear I’ll lose my competetive advantage if I don’t employ methods that don’t pass my smell test. It’s great to have a network of motivated thought leaders who share my values. Thanks for being on my team – in more ways than you can know.
Comment by merylrunion — May 23, 2009 @ 6:33 am
Hi Meryl,
Your comment is from the heart and so honest about the fear of losing your competitive advantage. Most selling is aimed at our insecurities, and the super salesmen of the tech age have managed to make us all feel that we will be missing out if we don’t Twitter and Facebook. The truth is that we’ll really be missing out if we don’t read more books, walk beside more mountain streams and contemplate more sunsets. These days, who’s making us feel inadequate for not doing those things?!
We get up in the morning to try to help people say no to the insecurity salesmen.
Comment by Micheal Benidt — May 23, 2009 @ 7:07 am
Michael, YES!!! And I take heart to know that there is a market for security salesmen…and women…as well.
I was a massage therapist for 13 years and thought it wonderous that I could make such a nice living selling love. (Please don’t read into that word.) As a speaker and author, I don’t want to change my product – just my form of delivery.
Comment by merylrunion — May 23, 2009 @ 8:27 am