“What’s a ‘real humdinger?'” “What do you mean by ‘Knickers in a twist?'” “So. . . catawampus?” As Mallary says, “The idioms are free-flowing from you, Katie.” |
On the regular, Mate, our Email Specialist who is fluent in four languages (English, Spanish, Hungarian, and Portuguese) and speaks two additional languages (German and Russian) asks me to define an American colloquialism or idiom I’ve blurted out during one of our calls.
Mate and I do speak the same language when it comes to email marketing. We love nothing better than carrying on a SUPER nerdy conversation about segmenting. We constantly say things to each other that nobody else we work with understands. Vi watches us on Zoom like they’re refereeing a tennis match.
Then there’s Rachel, the absolute queen of the plant puns. She’s our best bud when we need some encourage-mint. She’s kind of a big dill, if you know what I mean.
Do you? Know what I mean?
When You Don’t Know What They Mean
My entire livelihood is based around words, so I know words are a big deal.
When I’m working with a specialist in another field, or a specialist with loads more experience than I have I can’t always describe in words what I need because I don’t know their words. I’m smart and they’re smart but we speak different languages.
Have you had that problem? You’re trying to tell your web developer that you don’t like the side column on your blog, but you don’t know what it’s called? Maybe your email builder didn’t put the photos in the right place, but you don’t have time to tell them that because it would take you 15 minutes to type out the edits and you’d need to annotate a screenshot and HOW THE HECK DO YOU EVEN TAKE A SCREENSHOT? (And maybe, in the back of your mind, you’re whispering “What is a screenshot?”)
Send a Screencast
At the farmers’ market a couple of weeks ago I had a 30 minute conversation with someone from Liberia. Mostly without talking. There was a lot of gesturing, pointing at pictures, body parts, items on the table, etc. At one point she smacked my butt. There were definitely some cultural differences at play. We mostly communicated with our eyeballs.
Screencasts are kinda like that. You can SHOW the person you need to give feedback to EXACTLY what you’re talking about in a minute or two instead of in a convoluted maybe not effective email that takes 30 minutes to write.
BUT KATIE, I LIKE TO READ! I WANT PEOPLE TO GIVE ME WRITTEN FEEDBACK!
I hear ya. I am not a big video watcher. If I have a long video to give to someone, I’ll often bullet point key items or time stamps when I email the video link. But otherwise, most people can stand to watch a 30 second or minute-long video.
These videos are especially effective when you’re communicating with someone who speaks a different specialist language than you. On video, you don’t have to have the right word to describe something. You can just show it.
How to Create and Send a Screencast
Handy Links
Listening on repeat (I promise it is not Harry Styles) I need someone to choreograph me dance to this song, STAT.
Screencast Extension Links
Vidyard Extension (What I use)
Loom
The best Instagram desktop scheduling program to help actually drive traffic to your website – Make sure you take advantage of the LinkInBio feature.
The BUZZ from Ball Publishing. Hot off the press THIS MORNING! Ellen Wells knocked it out of the park, as usual. Lots of great industry insight in the face of the latest COVID surge.
I was thrilled to be a guest on Dr. Bridget Behe’s podcast this week, providing some encouragement to everyone navigating the tricky waters of digital marketing. Listen here!
Need to watch some puppies in a pool? Here’s Bogart’s daycamp live cam link.
Finally, if the world is too much and you’re not sure where to start making a difference, I’d advocate for participating in this fundraiser. Oriana is doing huge things at Freedom Dreams Farms to help with food security in food desert areas of Wilmington, NC. She is 84% funded after only 5 days. (I’m one of the anonymous donations if you wonder where mine is on the list.) Let’s push her over the top!
Hang in there, everyone.
PS: If we’re not connected in LinkedIn, click here to connect!
PPS: Need help with hiring, email marketing, finding a web developer, etc. etc.?
