Let’s address the elephant monster emoji in the room. Yesterday, I inadvertently published perhaps the largest smiley emoji of all time. Not to the blog, but to my email list – your inbox. My apologies.
What’s the deal? Was I just really happy to recall the Slivovitz? Am I Canadian?
Neither – but somehow my a : and a ) emoticon went “Hulk”, thanks to the Rube Goldberg email marketing machine I use – first I write these emails in WordPress, then they’re automatically pulled into MailChimp, and then they’re delivered to your inbox in a custom email template.
End result: a smiley face that was more extra-creepy than extra-friendly. There was also an extra-large trademark – tm – symbol.
Again, my apologies if you were creeped out.
One lesson is that the show must go on; another is that technology remains bias-ridden: yes, software can convert an emoticon into an emoji, but should it? Software tends to do things because it can.
Yet another is what you might call insight-over-typo. This reminds me of David C. Baker’s contentious article Content Marketing vs Insight Marketing. He says:
When I hit “send” for content, I’m worried about typos. When I hit “send” for insight, I’m worried about how it will be received. If I’m not nervous about the reception for what I’m writing, then it’s not insight. It’s helpful content instead.
I have mentally nitpicked (into the void) a number of points he makes, terms he uses, and examples he cites, but he nails the big idea: there’s a difference between insight content and help content. Both are great and your business needs a balance of the two.
But for you, the individual, insight marketing is what matters.
Big smile,
Rowan