

Hypercasual: when the web gets a little too friendly - toddmorey
http://gigaom.com/2011/09/12/hypercasual-when-the-web-gets-a-little-too-friendly/

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SoftwareMaven
Too casual puts me off (HP has a person who makes me never want to buy from
them again), but if I don't get a sense of "real person" from you, I think you
are lying to me.

Social media is about people interacting, even when those people work for huge
companies. Talking with the same stilted, jargony crap that shows up on the
web site is _worse_ than not communicating at all. And that's what corporate
standards tend to breed.

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olyphantly
I think one of the companies that uses social media well and without that 'oh
too cool' casual style is mediatemple. I find their tweets and video posts to
be professional and personable. Even when other twitterers are screaming at
them when one of their shared servers goes down.

There is an immediate drop in creditability when a business is too friendly or
too casual. I don't think you need to be cold and formal to portray a sense of
responsibility and professionalism. It's about striking a balance between the
extremes and reflecting the type of business you are.

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JonLim
It's all about building report with users: make them feel like your web app is
an actual person, and they tend to trust you and want to use you more.

What's better: a cold, formal tone that is very professional, or one that is
casual and makes you feel like an actual person is behind the monitor?

It's all a matter of opinion, and definitely depends on what you are selling.
Banks? Definitely shouldn't be doing that.

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justincormack
Presumably the point of the betfair twitter stream mentioned
<http://twitter.com/betfair> is to get an audience, any audience. It is pretty
bizarre. Cant imagine most companies agreeing to it. More interesting than the
cutesy style that gets annoying very fast.

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Hominem
I blame Pret A Manger. They have been doing this for years, I think the goal
has been to make you think it is not a store, but a collection of foodstuffs
curated a manic pixie dream girl, and oh yeah, you can totes buy the bananna
bread! It is sooooooo good!

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hernan7
Apart from D. Foster Wallace, another pioneer in the usage of ironic prose in
journalism would be Wired Magazine. (They started publication in 1993.)

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ulvund
It's a small point to make but there are no cat videos on my small corner of
facebook :)

