Why I Blog

Rereading George Orwell's 1946 essay Why I Write led me to wonder why I—or anyone—would blog.

"Putting aside the need to earn a living, I think there are four great motives for writing," Orwell says.

Writers want to boost their egos. Writers "desire to seem clever," Orwell says. They share this desire with "the whole top crust of humanity," including scientists, artists, politicians, lawyers, soldiers and businessmen.

Writers want to share their enthusiasm. Writers want to share their perceptions of the world and the pleasure they gain from "words and their right arrangement."

Writers want to record history. Writers hope "to see things as they are, to find out true facts and store them up for the use of posterity."

Writers want to change things. Writers "desire to push the world in a certain direction, to alter other peoples' idea of the kind of society that they should strive after."

In each writer's case, Orwell says, these motives will fluctuate from time to time; but you'll always find at least one of them driving the efforts.

"So long as I remain alive and well I shall continue to feel strongly about prose style, to love the surface of the earth, and to take a pleasure in solid objects and scraps of useless information," Orwell says. "It is no use trying to suppress that side of myself."

NFC "Will Change Marketing Forever"

Firebrand has declared near-field communication (NFC) the "new transformative technology that will change marketing forever."

According to the firm, three applications will drive the transformation:

Tags. "This is where marketing can shine," Firebrand says. "You see a poster of the latest blockbuster Hollywood movie at a bus shelter. You then tap the NFC tag to view the movie trailer, download an app or game associated with the film, and buy the movie ticket instantly. Wow!"

Sharing. Consumers bumping their peers' smartphones "will be the way customers share branded information."

Payments. Bye, bye credit cards! You'll use your phone to pay for almost everything, "from purchasing a bus or train ticket, taxi fare, buying a Coke at a 7-11 or paying for your groceries at the checkout."

"NFC is going to make your advertising and marketing so much more effective, as it brings the digital world into the real world," the firm says.

Customers will walk into a retail store, tap an NFC tag on a product to open a price comparison Website, see real-time ratings and reviews of the product on social media, and buy it. 

"All marketing collateral will feature an NFC tag (replacing the cumbersome website URL or phone number) that prompts you to download more information," the firm predicts.

None is One

On Pike Place in Seattle, I visited the original Starbucks this week.

My stop reminded me of a favorite statement by Jean-Paul Sartre, "Even when I make a cup of coffee I change the world."

The philosopher meant your every action—large or small—affects all others.

Even though you may not want the job, you are "a legislator deciding for the whole of mankind."

What are you up to today?

The Economy is Broken Because Trust is Broken

A "trust deficit" is hampering an economic recovery, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Public trust, "an essential lubricant for economic activity," is broken, the paper says.

"You don't have to look hard to find examples of fraying trust in American society today," the paper says.

"Lance Armstrong admits to cheating to win seven Tour de France titles; Democrats and Republicans can't seem to work with each other; Wall Street keeps delivering new scandals."

Besides Wall Street and the federal government, large corporations, labor unions, newspapers and TV networks are among the most mistrusted institutions in the US today.

But there are glimmers of hope.

Last year's Edelman Trust Barometer "showed big increases in measures of trust toward government, media and business compared with a year earlier," the paper reports.

How can your organization combat mistrust?

Learn from my free white paper, Path of Persuasion.

Dan Pink on the Secret to Must-Read Emails

Best-selling author Dan Pink contributed today's post. His new book, To Sell is Human, occupies the No. 1 spot on the best-seller lists of The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post; and the No. 2 spot on The New York Times.

What's the secret to a must-read email?

Researchers from Carnegie-Mellon University studied this issue by sitting with email recipients and asking them to narrate which emails they opened and why. The researchers' conclusions were stark: the most effective email Subject lines appealed to either utility or curiosity.

That is, the emails most likely to be opened had Subject lines that either:

• Indicated the email was directly related and relevant to the recipient's work; or
  
  
• Provoked a level of uncertainty that made the recipient curious about what the message contained

The principles of utility and curiosity operate somewhat differently based on the situation of the recipient. The researchers found that utility works best when people have a heavy email load—and that curiosity can be extremely effective when the email load is lighter.

Since people have so much email these days, my approach is generally to use Subject lines that emphasize the usefulness of the email's contents—and emails themselves that are as concise as I can possibly create.

Perhaps the best advice is not to get caught in the mushy middle.

Craft the Subject line so that it's immediately clear that the contents of the email are useful (for example, “Three solutions to our paper supplier problem”). Or craft the Subject line so that it gets people curious (for example, “You're not going to believe what I learned about paper suppliers!”). But avoid falling in between those poles with Subject lines like "Followup," "Question" and so on.

The mushy middle is where emails go to die.