With the NFL playoffs and BCS bowl games dominating January sports websites and radio, it’s definitely time to lead a blog with a bit of footballese.
How many of you watch “Inside The NFL” on HBO? For those of you who (like many of us) can’t keep the names of all those dozens of talking-jock shows straight, that’s the one with Dan Marino, Chris Collinsworth, Cris Carter and Bob Costas trading quips and pretending to be interested in the highlights of games they already know everything about.
Now into its 30-something season, “Inside the NFL” added a new feature called “Say Something” this year. Kind of like a two-minute drill, to drag the football analogy along as far as possible, it allows each of the hosts to deliver roughly 30 seconds of prattle about whatever subject they want at the very end of the program.
Few people outside the HBO bunker know whether the guys make up their own “say somethings” or whether they’re concocted by the show’s writers. Likewise, we don’t know whether the one or two-liners are used in rehearsal or whether the three other filled shirts behind the desk are hearing them for the first time during the taping.
What we, those of us who watch the show, do know is that they’re almost always relevant, interesting and worth hearing. They sound like they were adlibbed and the other hosts unfailingly react as if they never heard them before.
In other words, Marino, Collinsworth and their partners and production staff do “say something” extremely well, very professionally, as if they were born communicators as well as athletes and broadcast gearheads.
What about your “say somethings?” The sentences you put on your site that are supposed to be relevant, interesting and worth hearing? The words that are supposed to sell your products to end users and convince search engines that your site is worth a high ranking?
Does your site communicate professionally and fluidly, or does it stammer and stall? Does it grab the football and take it to the house, or it does it put the ball on the ground and allow your competitors to pick it up and run it into your end zone for a quick sale at your expense.
If you haven’t yet made — and perhaps already broken — all your New Year’s resolutions, you might want to consider adding “improve my site’s say somethings” to the list.
All successful commerce, electronic or otherwise, is based on the art and science of the seller telling the buyer what he wants and needs to hear in words and phrases that the buyer can understand and respond to both intellectually and emotionally.
Sound like a tall order? It’s not really. Consider the example of Dallas Cowboys wide receiver Terrell Owens. One of the best pass catchers and route runners in the NFL, Owens career has been marred by feuds with teammates, arrogance towards coaches, off-field foolishness and general a-hole behavior. This season he’s been a changed man. Showing up for practices on time, praising other players, acting every bit the team leader as well as the superstar player.
You could describe this transformation by saying “T.O. seems to be getting along with everyone better now.”
Or you could describe it as Chris Collinsworth did a few weeks ago: I never, ever believed I’d hear myself say this, T.O. has become a good teammate. It’s almost unbelievable, incredible … T.O., the league’s premier prima donna, is now a great teammate.
The difference between the two descriptions is a clear and crisp as the fall weather at Lambeau Field. The first one dully recites a fact, Collinsworth’s SAYS something.
Saying something on a website, where the ability to adlib is totally irrelevant, is not that difficult. You can almost certainly do it. But if, for whatever reason, you can’t, drop us a line.
0 Responses to “Resolving To “Say Something” Better In 2008”