That’s the question asked in this blog post by Kyle Lacy. I think it needs to be rephrased to “Why don’t more marketers know how to speak human?”

Because many marketers do know, particularly those of us who signed The Cluetrain Manifesto a decade ago. We’ve been struggling for 10 years to bring more human voices to an industry that thrives on buzzwords, smoke and mirrors.

Also, many marketers are doing a terrific job speaking human. Zappos is a classic example, of course, but there are plenty of companies out there doing it well.

Kyle has a point, though, because there are a lot of companies out there doing it terribly. It’s not for lack of trying. Actually, I think it’s due to an excess of trying.

Let’s look at Cluetrain theses 3 and 4:

3. Conversations among human beings sound human. They are conducted in a human voice.

4. Whether delivering information, opinions, perspectives, dissenting arguments or humorous asides, the human voice is typically open, natural, uncontrived.

I think we can all pretty much agree with these points. The problem comes about when a copywriter in a company comes up with text that sounds human, then the humanity is stripped out of it through eleventy-seven levels of review and revision, from VPs to lawyers to anyone else who gets their finger in the company’s communications pie. The result is language that is anything but open, natural and uncontrived — and so we have thesis 27:

27. By speaking in language that is distant, uninviting, arrogant, they build walls to keep markets at bay.

Bottom line: Delivering marketing communications in a human tone of voice is difficult enough when it’s one person trying to craft the message. The more people who need to review and approve and revise that message, the more the humanity will be stripped away from it.

Takeaway for marketers: It’s not just what you’re saying, it’s how you’re saying it. Keep fighting the good fight.

Seth Godin’s post, “Why celebrate Halloween?” is timely not only for the fact that today is Halloween, but for the fact that here at LOHAD we just came through a week of social media success stories.

Here’s the connection: When it comes to social media marketing, the first question many ask is: “Where’s the potential for success?” The next observation made is often: “Okay, so you reach some people, but I need to spread my message far and wide.”

Seth provides the relevant response: “Organizations grow when they persuade a tiny cadre to be passionate, not when they touch millions with a mediocre message.”

Takeaway for marketers: Are your marketing efforts (online and otherwise) feeding passion or mediocrity?

Today marks the final installment of this week’s four-part series on social media success stories, a “best of the rest” post that … well, let’s just get on with it.

Pooja Dhawan of Fashion Spy writes:

We are a small family-owned garment distribution business that has been around for many, many years … as a marketer, I send out postcards and emails like clockwork for trade shows and to debut collections for new seasons. But the response is almost non-existent. With the introduction of social media marketing however, suddenly customers that would never take the time to reply to my emails now actually comment on pictures I post on Facebook … In two months of being on social media networks, I have been able to generate an interest that two months or more of emailing and sending mailers did not. Social media is not a tactic, its a valuable tool. It gets instant and visible results.

Maria Peagler shares this experience:

I’m the author & publisher of a quilting book, “Color Mastery:  10 Principles for Creating Stunning Quilts,” and I conducted the industry’s first-ever book blog tour.  I visited 10 sites in 10 days, including international blogs I could never have easily traveled to without significant expenses. The result?  My book skyrocketed to #11 within the Quilting category on Amazon. Unheard of for an indie publisher.

Matthew Ray of Chatterblast Media writes:

My company … has designed  and done the social media strategies for two businesses you might be  interested in … (1) terra (small “t”) is a Philadelphia restaurant  for whom we operate  presence on Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter. We have found twitter and Facebook are great ways to spread the word on unique dishes, specials, hours, and even find and approach new customers.  We have created small video clips, housed them on YouTube  and our blog – and then sent them out through Twitter. In our first  few months – we are getting a great response. (2) Fusion – a Philadelphia boutique gym for which we operate a Twitter presence.  We have been able to retain clients by interacting with them during the day on Twitter, offering support and encouragement to their fitness goals. We have also attracted new customers to the gym through the same method.

Kevin Knight, the Director of Marketing and Sales for SeekingSitters, shares these thoughts:

I started with this company early this year. One of my first goals was to get us started using social media. All of our locations are franchise-owned and operated. I hold weekly social media meetings for our franchisees to explain Twitter usage, Facebook, blogs, etc. You can see our Twitter page here. All of our locations are small business … they don’t have huge budgets for PR or advertising. Social media has become a great way to get out and market to consumers without spending money and taking a lot of time.  We have received media attention from it, gotten members and sitters … Tactics-wise, I’m not so much concerned with the actual monetary return. We are in the child care business, and social media allows our local owners to be seen by their community. I look at it as validation for our business. Most of our competitors do not have the ability to do this. The owner and founder writes a blog that usually focuses on parenting tips and her experiences as a small business owner. This has lead to some great media leads for us. We don’t have a huge advertising budget so we rely heavily on PR. This blog shows her expertise and experience and is a great source of information.

As you can see by the examples above, and by the case studies presented all week, social media marketing means different things to different people. Which only makes sense, right? Because no two people are going to be trying to accomplish exactly the same thing in their marketing communications plans.

Finally, let me once again thank everyone who responded to my HARO query. This has been a great week of posts filled with some amazing ideas and results, and while it’s a cliche to say that I wish I could have used everyone’s input, it’s true: The information you all generously shared was truly remarkable, so much so that I actually looked into purchasing the URLs socialmediacasestudy.com and socialmediacasestudies.com with the idea of starting a new blog, but someone’s nailed them both down and is, unfortunately, doing absolutely nothing with them.

Takeaway for marketers: Social media is a set of tools. Do you need to be on Facebook? Well, that depends. Do you need a screwdriver? If you’re trying to hammer a nail, well, probably not. Social media success begins by defining what you specifically want to accomplish, then you can choose which items in the giant social media toolbox are most appropriate.

The pace of business — and life — is so swift these days, we don’t often get the chance to take the time to step back from the details and the marketing plans and the tweeting and the rest to think about some big-picture basics.

So today, let’s think about some big-picture basics. In no particular order, here are a dozen questions you ought to be asking yourself about your online presence:

1. Do the pages on your Web site provide easy-to-understand visual cues indicating where in the site the user is at any given time?

2. Does the home page provide a comprehensive overview of the overall site contents?

3. Are your graphics, icons and symbols easily understood by your intended site audience?

4. Is the language used on your site easily understood by your intended site audience?

5. Is text legible on the screen and are your pages legible when printed?

6. Does your site have any grammar or spelling errors?

7. Do your page layouts utilize “above the fold” space effectively? In other words: Can your users access the most important content on the page without having to scroll?

8. If you’re capturing personal data, are you crystal-clear about how that data is used, stored and protected?

9. If your site utilizes search, are the search results clear, comprehensive and useful?

10. Does your site provide clear privacy and security policies?

11. Is your essential site content no more than two clicks deep from the home page?

12. Is customer service, including timely email communications where appropriate, a fundamental component of your online presence?

There are many others, of course, but these are a good start. It’s amazing how often a company fails to address one or more of these basics.

Takeaway for marketers: How well do you address the basics?

A guy named Jeff Weidner recently said this on a Social Media Marketing Group discussion thread on LinkedIn: “If you do it online it’s social media. Do it offline and it’s a BBQ or cocktail party or movie night or just plain life in general.”

I can’t agree more. Would you walk into a restaurant, step up on a chair and yell: “Who wants to buy car insurance?” Offline, that’s just not appropriate. Online, that’s not the way to approach social media.

Takeaway for marketers: If you wouldn’t act a certain way in the offline world, why would you want to act that way in the online world?