We're Nominated For An Award!

By Colleen Walsh Fong

The CopyWrites blog was recently nominated for a Liebster Award for best new blogs! Our custom copywriting staff couldn’t be more excited!

I’m honored even though Autocorrect changed “Liebster” to “Lobster” three times before it let me write the correct word. Lori Duff of LoriDuffWrites.com named me for the distinction, along with nine other talented bloggers. Which makes it even harder for me to decline the nomination.

See, nominees are supposed to name 10 other nominees and pass it on. And I’m supposed to answer 10 well-crafted questions to help readers get to know me better, and then compose 10 questions of my own and do a tag-you’re-it to my 10 nominees.

Skim through the questions I’m supposed to answer:

1. What makes you laugh the most?

2. If you find yourself with an unscheduled hour, what would you do with it?

3. If you knew you only had one last meal, what would it be?

4. Coffee or tea?

5. What book are you reading right now?

6. If you could sum up your blog in a Haiku, what would it be?

7. What author inspires you the most?

8. What decade do you think you would feel most comfortable living in?

9. Camping: communing with nature or total uncomfortable bug-fest?

10. If you could pick one age to be and stay for the next twenty years, what would it be and why?

11. If you could spend ten minutes with High School You, what would you do/say?

Good ones, right?

But the whole thing feels a little bit ice-bucket-challenge-ish to me and that makes me squeamish. I don’t like calling people out to make them do things. Besides, Lori already nominated the best bloggers I know. So I’ve decided to eschew the honor and leave readers in suspense of what my scintillating answers would be.

This is mainly because another thing consumes my attention today--the indifference of large online entities toward the people who make them the mega giants that they are--the users. In other words, you and me. So with apologies to the good people of Liebster and my talented friend Lori, I’m taking another tack.

Stay with me here as I segue.

Today I announce my own awards to the online companies best skilled at providing zero customer service while expanding their user bases, with “bases” being the operative word.

There’s Something About Red Brick and Ivy

These awards are called the Brick & Ivy Awards. They’re named for my baseball team, the Chicago Cubs, with whom I have a multi-decade love/hate relationship.

Cub fans: Don’t even. You know you’ve thrown your hat or scorecard on the ground and stomped upon it in disgust at least once. Many times if you’ve got as many decades into this thing as I do. And non-Cub fans stop your sniggering. I’d like to see you live with the kind of disappointment that we have borne and continue to support your team, albeit with the kind of futility the Jacobites must have felt at Culloden.

Why do the Cubs inspire these awards? Their franchise has succeeded in selling out seats and retaining loyal and somewhat rabid fans for generations without providing one single World Series win in more than 100 years. They haven’t even played in a World Series since 1945.

Cub fans: You know that the playoffs don’t count. Don’t even ask.

You have to admit, it takes real talent on the part of the Cubs franchise. They turn me into a Stepford Wife every season. I vow indifference in April, but crash with fellow fans in the annual June Swoon year after disappointing year.

And many big electronic platforms share the Cubs talent. They entice us with their siren songs and then leave unfulfilled our desires to make their services work. There is an important difference between the two, though, and I’ll talk about it in Part II.

I don’t know about you, but I’m pretty busy most of the time. My clients are busy people, too. Too busy running businesses and providing all kinds of great products and services to play around on websites trying to figure out why something that is supposed to work won’t.

If you feel that way, too, you’ll enjoy reading my nominations and may want to make one or two of your own. Tune in here next week to see whom I nominate for my Brick & Ivy Awards.

Reader Take-Away

Don’t leave your clients frustrated. Make it easy for them to reach you with questions or concerns. And respond promptly to all inquiries!

Colleen produces custom copywriting and content for branding businesses of all sizes.