I have often railed against this particular form of insanity (ie when we wish to communicate with humans, so many orgs choose to do so by massaging out the humanity from their messages).
On the Internet this form of received professional speak got replaced (for a large chunk of folks, you know the ones, the 'internet marketers') by a new form of stilted inhuman syntax - writing for seo.
'Don't repeat key words more than 'x' times, do place your keywords in order 'y', don't, do, don't, do.
Don't be flawed, don't be natural. Don't write like you think, don't write like you feel. Don't be human.
And then the real-time web: Lower effort to post. Lower effort to connect. Lower barriers to revealing ourselves. Lower barriers to less guarded spontaneity. Oliver Cromwell would approve.(pictured)
As one of the founders put it: "the trouble with Twitter is that with it you run the risk of revealing the real you."
That risk is the risk you have to take if you care to connect with other humans.
It is a risk that seo drives out.
Now that google is prioritising the real time web in its returns it was inevitable that the SEO pros would wade in.
'Order your 140chars thusly', they will ordain. And I will studiously ignore them.
I am part of a real time web - a very human part. Part of the real time web (as it emerges as the eighth mass media) is its ability for us to become not only the connections, but also the way in which the connections are formed.
Focusing on seo in tweets interrupts that.
It'll fool the automota. But if you aren't worth connecting with no amount of pro-seo styled tweeting will mask this to the humans behind the accounts.
In the old world of site-as-destination there was value in 'driving traffic'. In the new world of user-as-destination the only value is in creating real, enduring human connection.
Only humans, expressing themselves through authentic human voice, can do this.
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I agree with your overall point that we should write for humans, not machines, but some aspects of 'SEO thinking' are to be applauded. In Twitter, for example, SEO experts will tell you to include nouns, include a link, avoid "me journalism" and add a call to action. If you do those things - you are 100% more likely to be re-tweeted. It's SEO but the end results is that your tweets are both more interesting and more useful.
ReplyDeleteI guess it's not about the retweet for me Luke. It's about the connection and the forging of connections. My peers make the decision about retweet worthiness and I trust them on that ;-)
ReplyDeleteWhile I agree that text should always be written to address the human audience, and that style will change according to the audience, I have a concern about the "human" coming through for huge corporates. What is the human side of, say, Eurostar? Does it even have one?
ReplyDeleteSince most big companies are run by accountants that have no discernible personality, perhaps the cold company face that has had the humanity crushed out of it is the company's personality?
You could argue that the individuals should speak with their own personality, but in an age of litigation, corporate manslaughter, commitment phobia and irrationallly greedy financiers, what low-level operative is going to risk their neck being human or even helpful?
Excellent post David. I love the fact that with many people's Twitter accounts their real-life persona bleeds through. Like you, I think it helps forge deeper connections.
ReplyDeleteIf all they want is a "business level" connection, perhaps LinkedIn would make folk happier. I hope to know a bit more about folk I interact with.
I think it's a bit unfair to stereotype accountants like that, Richard :)
ReplyDeleteBut David is right to a large extent. SEO has ruined much of the Web. However, I would still advocate good writing, and many of those "SEO" recommendations are just common sense - even in just 140 characters you can make your point clear, use the most appropriate descriptive words (choosing the shorter ones from the possibilities!), and use a link for more information. But as David says - the personal tone (not private or too revealing, but still personal) trumps all of that on the social web.
Hi David,
ReplyDeleteYour expression to the thought was very good. Very well written and explained too. SEO has most of the time stayed a threat to the real web and writing for humans may have declined. But there are many good aspects of SEO that could really help the people. I agree with Helen's view in that.
SEO as we know it is a "fad" intended to game Google, Yahoo and the traditional search engines.
ReplyDeleteThe "Bing" commercials have hit the nail on the head, where the person starts spouting off mindless and seemingly random-but-related crap to all questions. That's where SEO is going to take the web--nay, the search engines--that we all know and love (Google).
Well-written, human, and handcrafted content will persevere, and get found eventually, but it will bubble to the top once the search algorithms and heuristics get good enough to identify it as 'human' or 'real' versus completely SEO-driven. Then, there can be less of an emphasis on SEO, and more emphasis on humanity.