A very serious topic: Communication

I want to discuss a serious subject tonight. The topic: communication. This is by far the most important part of your startup. It's not the money, the Aeron chairs or the parties. Improving communications is the reason I started the video startup idea. To help you craft your message. But tonight I want to talk about communications in general.

As you begin to communicate your message your words matter. What you say, when you say it, how you say it all matter. Today we have grown men and women walking around with live recorders on their heads (see Jeremiah, Justin, Justine, Robert so far). Acting or saying the wrong thing can bury your startup faster than a down server ever could.

Update: Jeremiah in the comments noted that he does not wear a headcam but rather a tripodcam.

I am using the following example since it is the most recent one. But there are hundreds of others as well. Steve Rubel posted a Twitter message that said, "PC Mag is another. I have a free sub but it goes in the trash". Within a short period of time, the Editor-in-Chief of PC Magazine noted in a blog post that he is considering no longer allowing pitches from Edelman, one of the largest agencies and Steve's employer. Steve did a 180 and apologized (possibly because Edelman execs told him to). I wish the apology would have been simpler than it was. "I am sorry" works very well. Instead we get several times how much he supports the magazines and what he has done in the past. All of that just leads to more critical views on not only his original comment but now his apology. Just apologize and move on. Forget the offer of a drink.

Of course I don't get why Steve had a need to Twitter that statement in the first place. This is why I don't get Twitter. But I will leave that for another day. No one cares about this stuff. I am sure we will see more of the same from the entire Twitter community as these short messages are so easy to type and send. No thought behind them as in a blog entry.

What's funny is that this apology gained Steve another 11 backlinks (I guess 12 including mine.) (side note: controversy creates cash) Did Steve really mean what he said? Does he really throw away (I hope he recycles!) the PC magazine every month? Years ago, a mentor of mine told me something which I have always thought of as a critical phrase, "Perception equals reality."

When you go out and party, just remember that Scoble and his headcam might be around the corner. When you are speaking to someone at a conference, Justin might be right there to capture that one bad moment. You are in the women's bathroom chatting it up with a pal and Justine is at the next stall taping it all. Nothing is sacred anymore.

On CenterNetworks I enabled a feature on Day 1 called "preview." This is in place for every post I write and every comment you/I write. Why? Because I want a chance to re-read what I write before clicking the Go Live button. It gives me a chance to step away for a second, breathe, re-read and then post. Don't get me wrong, it doesn't make it perfect, but it sure has helped me to fix a few stories in the past. While it means I might not be first to a story, it means that I do my best to make sure what I post is what I mean. I don't think Wordpress has this option but they should. I think it would save a lot of the communication fauxpaus many of us do.

Everyone makes mistakes, everyone. Dog the Bounty Hunter says that you can never know what it's like to succeed if you don't fail.

Please be careful and THINK before you click. Stop, drop and roll for a fire becomes Stop, re-read and think for an online entry.

Tony has an excellent read about this topic as well on Deep Jive Interests.