Hi, Valentine!*
(*At least in many parts of the world. Not you, Brazil. I'll see you in June.)

I sense I'm being watched. Followed. Stalked, almost.

He's quiet as a ninja. And like a ninja, he seems everywhere at once. Often I sense him before I see him. I think I've entered a room alone but then turn suddenly, and—yep—there he is: his silhouette in the doorway, backlit by the yellow hallway light. "Oh, hey. You good? Just keeping an eye on you."

It would be a little creepy, except for... well, look at him.

Let's start with his legs. They're six inches long—too short to scale all the stairs to the second floor without needing a nap. He lies on the landing and cries.

He might be part ninja. But at that moment he looks and sounds more like an oversized Beanie Baby outfitted with a doll's voice chip.

* * *

 

There's a meme on TikTok: Tell me without telling me.

Tell me you've from the Midwest without telling me you're from the Midwest.

Tell me how your brain malfunctions without telling me how your brain malfunctions.

Tell me you have a pandemic puppy without telling me you have a pandemic puppy.

The point is to dramatize something, to drop an insider-y clue. To show, not tell.

Tell me without telling me you're from the Midwest: When a trip to run an errand is "only" 15 hours.

Tell me without telling me how your brain malfunctions: When we watch someone make an egg for breakfast and he slips the shell onto a preheated pan and drops the egg into the trash. (#facepalm)

Tell me without telling me you have a pandemic puppy: Well... I opened this letter with that one!

The Tell Me Without Telling Me TikTok challenge (which started a few years ago on Twitter) is—when you think about it—actually the world's best writing advice moonlighting as a social media meme.

Tell Me Without Telling Me is the fastest way to give your writing or copy a living pulse. It's the best way to paint a picture in the mind of the reader, to use action, senses, and feelings... versus basic, bloodless description.

And it's a modern version of the advice attributed to Russian playwright Anton Chekhov: "Don't tell me the moon is shining, show me the glint of moonlight on broken glass."

If Chekhov were still around, he'd be *all in* on TikTok. I like to think his social handles would be @ChekMeOut LOL.

Tell Me Without Telling Me snaps us out of our tendency to state things as we see them.

It puts us into the mind of the audience: What's it like? How does it feel?

Let's look at a few real-world examples.

IN HEADLINES:

Tell Me: The #1 video platform for virtual conferences
Tell Me Without Telling Me: Create virtual events that feel like a Netflix show. (via Goldcast.io)

IN EMAIL COPY:

Tell Me: New limited-edition face mask designs are here!
Tell Me Without Telling Me: Make Covid fight through skulls and switchblades to get to your face.

("Get your sanitized hands on this..." is gold, too.) (via Liquid Death)

 

IN AN ARTICLE:

Tell Me: Clubhouse is a perfect networking platform for the quarantined professional.
Tell Me Without Telling Me: "Clubhouse feels...like everyone is passing around business cards. In short, Clubhouse feels like a space for people who miss attending in-person conferences." (via Adweek)

IN ABOUT US:

Tell Me: Reliable cars at a price you can trust. (via actual billboard on the side of a highway)
Tell Me Without Telling Me: "I treat customers like adults, not like idiots." (via LingsCars)

* * *

So much of marketing copy and content I read Tells Me too much, and doesn't Tell Me Without Telling Me.

So your turn. Here's your challenge for this week:

1. Find a bit of "Tell Me" copy to rework. On your homepage. Email. Sales page. Landing page. Product descriptions. Social caption. Blog post. Or maybe it's not from you at all: Maybe it's from a company you want to work for? (That would be fun.) Your choice.

2. Rewrite from "Tell Me" to "Tell Me Without Telling Me." Post it on social (Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn) so I'll see it. (Not Facebook. I hate Facebook.) Be sure to tag me @annhandley.

I'll highlight the best few in the next issue!

Let's gooooo!

 

THINGS WORTH SHARING

Club As You Are

I've been having fun on Clubhouse, the social audio app that's like a live podcast, radio call-in show, and party line rolled into one and smoked for hours. (Average room duration is reportedly 90 minutes.) (AVER. AGE!)

For me, Clubhouse is filling a void I forgot I missed when conferences went online and we all quaran-holed-up in our home offices. It's not the conferences I've missed as much as the spontaneity of conference conversations and random run-ins.

I like the serendipity of Clubhouse: Dipping in and out of Clubhouse Rooms—where conversations take place—is like wandering onto a playground and playing a pick-up game whenever you feel like it.

Like last Saturday. I randomly stumbled into a room (or basketball court, in this analogy) moderated/reffed by Michael Stelzner with Joe Pulizzi and Robert Rose. And the next thing I know I was on the audio stage/passing the ball with Mitch Joel and Mark Schaefer, too. Audience members subbed in, here and there, and asked questions.

I don't even play basketball LOL... but it's the best way to describe things. It was fun to riff about the future of content marketing on Clubhouse, because those pick-up conversations aren't happening anywhere else right now.

If you're there, connect with me (I'm @annhandley)—because, unlike other social platforms, Clubhouse is actually *better* when you follow more people.

 

And if you're still waiting for an invite (sorry, Android folks!), get over there. And see why I'm more broadly fascinated by Clubhouse in the piece below by Jeremiah Owyang.

(Side note: Jeremiah is the guy who got me onto Twitter as @marketingprofs 14 years ago, so I trust his instincts.)

I think social audio is a category worth watching—whether it's the smoking-hot Clubhouse (right now) or older-but-less-red-hot Discord or any of the competitors other social platforms (Twitter, Facebook) are now racing to roll out.

 

It's an emerging format and platform with interesting opportunities for brands, too. Dive into the future of social audio with Jeremiah's thorough piece.

 

QUICKIES

▶️ How to Stop Procrastinating and Become a Joyful Writer My friend Henneke offers 3 approaches that can help you get off your 🍑. IMPORTANT: I like Henneke's emphasis on "joyful" vs. simply "productive." We are writers creating art; not monks peeling beets.

▶️ What I've Learned from 3 Years of Writing This Newsletter. My letter to you from TA #78 resonated hard. So it grew up and became a blog post. (Well done, #78!)

▶️ How to Be a Good Employee; How to Be a Great Boss. Avinash Kaushik pens a post + infographic that reads as a kind of Professional Code. My faves:
 

Employees: "Do at least one thing outside of your own team and scope."

Bosses: "If you hire Michelangelo to paint the Sistine Chapel, don't hold his hand while he's painting."

 

SPECIAL EVENT

 

Join me and ContentCal CEO Alex Packham as we trek through the Boston snow to my Tiny House Office, where we talk B2B content marketing beside a roaring fire, a sleeping puppy at our feet. Well, that'll be me, anyway. Alex is actually in the UK, but we'll be cozy in a Zoom room together. The event is free, but you gotta register.

 

SHELFIES

Cumulative Advantage: How to Build Momentum for Your Ideas, Business and Life Against All Odds A new book from Mark Schaefer. Money quote: "How do we find that one small advantage that sets our success momentum in motion? The answer comes from an unexpected place: Everywhere."

Related: Mark is one of the 5 keynotes announced so far for the Spring MarketingProfs B2B Forum Online, coming this April 7 & 8! Who else is gonna be there? See the full lineup at this link... And plz notice that the B2B Forum is free to PRO members; and ridiculously reasonable for the rest of you!

 

DEPARTMENT OF SHENANIGANS

Some of you have complained that this newsletter has been light on photos and mentions of my 7-month-old puppy, Augie.

Wait I just had a thought... Augie is *definitely* smart enough to be generating those complaints himself through various email aliases (?). Hmm.

Anyway, his biggest achievement in his young life is his uncanny ability to know his best angles; the dog literally never takes a bad photo. Follow him on Instagram.

 

 

 

💌 To YOU. This is my Valentine to you. Thank you for being here. Thank you for reading this far. It means a lot to me.

And...

💌 To Aaron Orendorff at the Content Marketing Institute for including me in this tools roundup post.

 

 

Thanks for reading this far. Thanks for your kindness and generosity.

 

Stay safe. Stay sane. Wear a mask.

 

I'll be back on February 28.