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Zoom fatigue, clueless colleagues, and funny Germans

Hello!

I keep hearing that “everybody is zoom and video conferenced out”.

And before COVID, everybody was meetinged out.

Meetings for meeting's sake are the worst whether in real life or online.

You get pulled into them, and feel the joy being sucked from your body and brain.

Video conferencing is a level more draining than office meetings though.

I think seeing your face throughout a meeting leads to some kind of existential angst. In normal meetings at the office, nobody is worried their kids will shout ‘BUMS!’ while the chief executive is speaking.

Online meetings from home are making us knackered.

For a meeting to be worth it, you need to to know and agree with why you’re there, and have something interesting to learn or contribute.

Try getting out of the pointless meetings. Make up an excuse.

We need to get skilled at prioritising our own decisions, over slavish tending to digital means of communications.

FYI: Your mental health is always more important than meetings.

Comms Creatives content of the week!
Creative social media events coming up...
Trying to be real, fun and open
Tolerating the commsplainers

Comms Creatives content of the week!

This public health video from German government shows that ironic humour is not just something we enjoy in the UK.

It's a parody of the documentaries you might see of war veterans remembering the sacrifices they made in service to their country.

It shows an old man in the future, looking back on the heroism he showed during the 2020 pandemic.

Still from the video shows a man relaxing on the sofa with a drink. The subtitles say "Day and night, we kept our ars*s at home and fought the spread of the virus"

This video has caught the imagination of people in Germany and around the world.

How you might use this as creative inspiration for your social media one day?

I could write an essay arguing how this video uses anchoring bias psychology, hyperbolic and ironic humour and casual language to persuade and make content so sharable.

I won't - don't worry.

A simple lesson we can take from this is to remember something that I believe so strongly, that we put it in our training brochure.

“Too many people confuse being serious with being solemn.” John Cleese

So many brands, especially not-for-profits, are afraid to be funny because they feel it's inappropriate for their brand.

But more people will watch and enjoy this video when it's entertaining.

So, actually, being funny is TOTALLY appropriate, because:

It's unexpected and more attention-grabbing than the same-old same-old worthy, serious messaging
People share it and it reaches more people
It's more memorable

Think of it from your audience's point of view. How would they answer this question:

'Do you want the important content our brand shares to be informative and entertaining, or informative and boring?'

We all know the answer.

So why are we afraid to do things more creatively?

This is a small sample of the kind of creative thinking we're exploring in our Boost Your Creativity Masterclass coming up in December. Join us!

Creative social media events coming up...

Tuesday, December 8th 3pm - 4:30 pm
£150
Join me for creativity tips, trick, habits, apps and techniques that you can bring to you work every single day. Book now

Tuesday, December 17th 12.30pm - 4pm
£150
Want to plan all your brand's social media content for 2021 in one afternoon? Let's do this! Book now

Trying to be real, fun and open

What do you think of our new brochure?

The old marketing materials like brochures still have their place. So we've polished up ours.

I thought I'd share our thinking with you.

It has no professional photography. I feel a a snap of Lesley and me having fun sums us up just fine. (Plus, we haven't had a chance to get photos taken with all the work and social distancing this year.)
It's bright and illustrated, because we are confident that we have serious skills, and don't need to prove it with formal, very corporate branding.
It shows prices for bespoke training and for our courses and memberships. Because we know we give amazing value and we don't want to leave comms pros wondering, or having to pick up the phone to get an idea of how much it will be.
I hate asking for quotes in case I get a wildly unexpected and out-of-budget quote, or have to talk at length to a pushy sales person.

A huge thanks to the 11 people in the Comms Creatives Club who kindly proof-read this, I am really grateful for your eagle eyes and generosity.

colourful and illustrated pages of of training brochure

Tolerating the commsplainers

Why is it that some people think they can do our job?

Have you ever been commsplained? Where someone who is less qualified than you explains something to you?

They get hold of the tiniest amount of knowledge, and suddenly they're giving you opinions so misinformed, so utterly clueless that you want to boot them up the butt.

Take a deep breath my comms friends.

It's called Dunning-Kruger effect, and unfortunately, it's human nature.

We are all inclined to think we know more than we actually do about topics we dabble in.

Let's try to be compassionate and let these clowns down respectfully and kindly.

Now pat yourself on the back, because you're skilled AND empathetic!

RIght. Last thing - do you know about our Social Media Managers Academy? It's bloody brilliant, and here I am showing you around for 6 minutes.

See you next week comms creatives,

Hel x

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