Matt Harding has been pretty internet famous for a few years. In ’03 he quit his job and decided to travel for a while on the money he had saved. While out, a friend talked him into doing some dumb little dance that he would do while at work. Deciding it funny to themselves, he continued dancing for the camera in all of the other places he went. Once home, he edited and posted a video of his dancing around the world and it spread like wildfire.
Because the Internet is so great and people just throw money at it for no reason, Stride Gum saw the video, contacted Matt and then funded another video (or two). If you’re following along, that means Matt gets paid to travel and dance.
His 2008 video is out, in HD no less. While I don’t really understand it, I do love it and think it is pretty well produced.
If you make it to the :50 second mark, you’ll probably stay to the end.
First off, I am attached to the electronic communication medium more than I probably would like to admit. I am one of those that carries a multi-use phone or PDA. Although I rarely use the calendaring functionality of it, I am shackled by the phone, text, and email capability of the device. I send plenty of emails from it and every email I receive from five of my all-too-many email accounts hit my phone daily.
While sending an email from a portable device is not terribly hard, it doesn’t compare to the speed of all ten of my fingers on a full keyboard. Most emails I send from my phone are limited in my response or question. ‘KIS’ principle.
I even have a post scriptum tag line in my accounts on my phone to let people know that it is from my phone and most likely will be brief. Something along the lines of ‘This email was sent from my Palm OS mobile device.’
I feel it is courteous to the recipient to let them know this information and it helps to inform clients that I may not be at my desk at the time but I have received their request/comment and will react to it as quickly as possible.
Now, why we’re here. Using my handheld in no way allows me to be unprofessional. Growing up in a printing family has forever saddled me with a few things that I will never be able to shake. A big one is my disdain for typos. Can’t stand them. I hate when I see them and even more I hate when I create one. Now I understand that mistakes happen, fat fingers on small buttons make for a greater possibility, but I attempt to scan each one a time or two before sending.
Saying all of this, I was taken aback today when I received an email from a client confirming an appointment for a conference call this week. Enough so that not only did I do a double-take on it, I also took a screen shot, edited it down to remove the contact information, and spent 15 minutes typing about it.
Seriously? Is that professional? Is this the message you are saying to your clients?
“Don’t get mad, I am sending an email from my mobile device and it’ll probably have typos.”
I don’t get it. Again, mistakes happen. But asking for forgiveness for the sin before committing it isn’t really going to get the job done.
