Don't always believe what you read online
Paste BN columnist Steven Petrow offers advice about digital etiquette.
I got snookered.
Like many of you, I get a lot of junk emails, although many of mine are from publicists trying to sell me on column ideas. I’m pretty good at sniffing them out, usually hitting the "delete" button. Recently, though, my interest was piqued by a subject line reading: "Data on Email Use in Workplace / Life — Interested?” I thought this could be useful information, since I’m often overwhelmed by the volume of my email and assume that many readers are too.
Plus, some of the "key findings" in the email from Adobe Systems, the company best known for Photoshop and PDF, also caught my eye. Based on its recent survey, I read: "Americans are willing to check email in almost any situation to avoid missing out. In fact, 70% check email while watching TV or at the movies, 52% in bed, 50% on vacation, 43% while talking on the phone, 42% in the bathroom and worryingly, 18% while driving."
So far, so good.
I emailed the publicist back, agreeing to chat with a company representative. But as soon as the company’s director of email, Kristin Naragon, started her online demo, my sniff-o-meter climbed into the red zone. Apparently, Adobe is now in the business of email, specifically partnering with well-known brands such as True Value, Dior, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, and Barnes & Noble.
That’s fine, or should I just say that’s their business. But it quickly seemed that the whole point of the survey was to promote Adobe’s email business. Then, about halfway into the presentation, we came to the Eureka slide: "Email is and will remain a cornerstone of workplace culture." Ah ha!
Things didn’t go better when Naragon flubbed some basic questions of mine: "Is the survey representative?" "What is the definition of white collar?" [The survey respondents were "white collar."] "What did she mean when she said ‘Americans are addicted to email’"? "We didn’t ask them if they were 'addicted,'" she admitted.
Well, digging into the data, I saw that 35% of respondents did answer that they prefer to use email to correspond with colleagues — but 34.30% also replied “face-to-face conversations/in-person meetings" (well within the margin of error). I guess a headline along the lines of "People are still talking" didn’t fit into the company’s business objectives.
From there, it was a quick skip to a slide titled "Takeaways for Marketers," with numerous suggestions to email professionals to better capture our attention. I didn’t miss the big takeaway: "Brands, take note: Less is more!"
A few days later, I saw that some media outlets reported on the Adobe survey as though it were real news (although not my colleagues at Paste BN). Wow, a casual reader might think all that data is true.
What’s the real takeaway? People, take note: Once again I caution you not to believe everything you read on the Interwebs! And as much as we’re in love with big data these days, don’t get snookered even for a New York minute like I did. Numbers can be made to tell the stories we want them to. Just ask Adobe. Yes, people are still talking.
Agree or disagree with my advice? Let me know in the comments section.
Submit your question to Steven at stevenpetrow@earthlink.net. You can also follow Steven on Twitter: @StevenPetrow. Or like him on Facebook at facebook.com/stevenpetrow.