We don’t give a damn!!

Hugh Macleod, of Gaping Void fame, has put up this “Nobody Cares” manifesto by Dennis Howlett. I agree with all of it, but find the below mentioned points very relevant.

* Adding value is the most important thing you have to do – nobody believes you. Clients can read a 1,000 websites and see that same vacuuous statement. Stuff your website with client stories, preferably written by clients and not some PR outfit.

* We work hard to earn letters behind our names – nobody cares. Importance isn’t derived from academic achievement but what you do for others.

Reminds me of the farewell mail of a dear friend who left the company for greener pastures. He asked in a company townhall, what is “Quality” and “Adding Value” which the management keeps talking about?? And no one had an answer!!

Maybe they should read Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.

Is ‘blog’ a 4 letter word?

Unfortunately, a few people (who matter), think so!! I wish they realised the value of blogging.

I mean people like Jonathan Schwartz (President, SUN), Jeremy Zawodny (mySQL Guru, Yahoo), Robert Scoble (ex-Microsoft, PodTech.net), Matt Cutts (SEO geek, Google), Om Malik (GigaOM), and Michael Arrington (TechCrunch) are most famous because of their blogs. Ok, not Schwartz. But you get the point!! Google, Yahoo and Microsoft use blogs as a PR tool and even use it to communicate with developers and uers of its services. A lot of Indian (I know about Infosys for sure) companies use employee blogs to enhance communication between its employees.

I hope some people update their views on blogging. And soon. Meanwhile, I leave you with another Gaping Void cartoon.

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Update: An estimated 8% of Fortune 500 companies have official blogs!! You can check out the list here.