Dreaming of Genies

Our director of business development Katie Jennings told me that, in a recent post-project conversation, our client suggested having some sort of forum to be able to share ideas and tips and to network. I thought, brilliant! Terrific idea! What a wonderful thing, for all of the clients who’ve worked with us to be able to communicate, share experiences, compare notes.

Gulp!

And suddenly, all of the conversations about blogs, Flickr galleries, and YouTube pages I’ve had with marcom and admissions staff members rush back to me in a moment of sudden, deadly, clarity (Hemingway also wrote about sudden, deadly clarity in The Garden of Eden, but that’s a discussion for another time). Yes, yes, yes—a million “what ifs” flood the mind. Most all of them ending in damage.

But as one of our clients Henry Broaddus said, the genie is out of the bottle. We want control of the message, but we no longer have that option. This came home to me as I talked with some of our clients (again, clients, because it’s all about our clients!) about how they chose us. Sure, they read the full-color RFP response and perused the glossy portfolio. But they also googled us, checked out our individual mySpace profiles, read our blog, and called the clients we didn’t list as a references. Do I want control? I want control! But I can’t have control!

And so I swallow my own counsel. In this day and age, controlling the message is a near-certain impossibility. Now, the best we can do—and the height to which we should always aspire—is to convey authenticity and deliver on the promise.

Expect, then, some radical evolutions on the mStoner site in the coming months. P2P? PW2P!

P.S. Practice what we preach (in case you were thinking WTFig?).

Posted by Voltaire Santos Miran
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