HWW #26 – My Cousin Lost A Finger — And Taught Me All About Web 2.0!

Hey folks,

Welcome back to the Hardworking Words Newsletter, a monthly
publication form Direct Response Copywriter and Marketing Wonk
Chris Haddad. To find out more about Chris, his never-ending battle
against jargon and the perturbing power of his marketing prose,
visit http://www.haddadink.com

In today’s big issue you’ll learn:
* The dangers of blindly diving into new technology.
* How to ride the wave of the evolving web without having it crash
in on you.

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My Cousin Lost A Finger — And Taught Me All About Web 2.0!
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“WHRRRRRR CHUG CHUG WHRMMMMMMM.” The big brown door groaned out a
protest as our brand-spanking-new garage door opener *yanked* it up
and along its track to rest quietly above our heads.

This was winter in the 80’s–maybe 1985–and my aunt, uncle and
cousins had come over on a Sunday to play trivial pursuit, get
sugar-high on peanut butter bars and listen to my dad tell weird
stories about his weird life and that weird time he *swears* he was
abducted by mustache-wearing aliens.

My cousin Michelle and I weren’t having it though. We’d heard all
the weird stories before and didn’t know enough about Reaganomics
to be much use at trivia. So we scarfed down some sugary goodness
and snuck downstairs to play with Mom and Dad’s new toy.

“Whoa, cool!” Michelle said when she saw it for the first time. And
I had to agree, the shiny new electric garage door opener *was*
cool. It was all shiny metal, blue plastic and grease.

*And it was just begging us to play with it.*

“Here, let me show you.” I said in my little eight-year-old voice.
I clambered up onto a rickety chair and stretched up on my tippy
toes to push the button. I had to push hard to get the bright red
light to flash, but when I did the whole room rumbled.

“WHRRRRRR CHUG CHUG WHRMMMMMMM” our life-changing new technology
went. It gave us a clear view of the snowy street and sent us both
into ecstatic fits.

“WOW!! AWESOME! LET ME, LET ME!,” Michelle screamed amidst the
giggles. For the next half hour we switched off back and forth. We
opened and closed and opened and closed and opened and closed the
door, balancing precariously on that wobbly little chair every time.

And then we stopped.

Michelle was stretching up and pushing hard on the button again
when her foot slipped. She tumbled and gave a strangled shout.

*And then I saw the blood.*

Michelle was crying from shock than from pain. I ran upstairs to
get my Uncle and wondered why I hadn’t noticed the 12-inch rotary
saw blade propped up against the wall right under our new “toy.”

The finger had come off clean just under the knuckle closest to the
fingernail. My dad searched around franticly for it, packed it in
ice and rushed off in his big brown Lincoln Town Car to meet up
with Michelle and her dad at the hospital. I stayed home with mom
and stared at the bloody saw blade, wondering again how we managed
to miss the dang thing.

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“Alright, Haddad. You’ve freaked us out, now what the hell does
this have to do with Web 2.0?”
=================================
Good question.

Now I *love* podcasting, blogging, web video, web audio, dynamic
web pages, social networking, Pay-Per-Click and all the other
symptoms of the evolving web.

But sometimes I think business folks get so caught up in the shiny
new technology that they lose sight of the powerful basics.

And as Michelle and I (OK, mostly Michelle) learned way back in
‘85, getting hypnotized by “radical new technology” and ignoring
the fundamental truths about your environment (like a big honking
saw blade right underneath you) can be more than a little bit
dangerous.

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So here’s the real message of today’s newsletter.
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If you’re in business today you *need* to a part of the web. You
*need* to be aware of the radical changes that are happening
online. And you *need* to make some hard choices about how you’re
going to take advantage of the opportunities to start *real*
conversations with your customers and sell your business like never
before.

But you also *need* to realize that the medium is *not* the message
and that *what* you say to your audience is always going to be more
important than *how* you say it.

Which means coming up with a strong offer, developing a powerful
Unique Selling Proposition and laying out in no uncertain terms the
*reasons why* your customers should work with you.

Oh, and since you’re undoubtedly dying to know, the good doctors at
that hospital in Massachusetts managed to put my poor cousin back
together again and she has just a tiny little scar to remind her of
her run in with the garage door opener and the saw blade.

Comments? Questions? Harsh Invectives? Head on over to the Hard
Working Words Blog (http://www.haddadink.com/blog) or email me at
chris (at) haddadink.com

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