I've read a few marketing, social media and communication job descriptions recently for positions with companies whose products I love.
Tonight as I decluttered my email inbox, I deleted content that originated from some of those companies and likely from those very positions.
There were over 50,000 emails in my inbox and with a reality program on in the background, I began to delete email.
I declutter my email a few times a year, making a game out of identifying messages I won't read or need. Points are the number of emails that pop up when I search for names of publications, department and specialty stores, entertainment and travel companies -- with each search: 253 (delete); 57 (delete); 84 (delete). Then, empty trash.
Some companies send an email every day and even if the teaser is interesting I don't have time to read them.
If I were having lunch with the person who created these emails I don't think I would be able to tell them how few I am able to read. The lists of skills, requirements and expectations in their job descriptions are dizzying--someone is creating the thousands of messages I receive every day.
Perhaps a solution is to ask for more, and less.
Insist on more time to remember why the company's mission, require more time to create. Publish far less content that is so compelling that in the fraction a second I have to make the decision whether to scroll on by, I will read your message.
A prominent person once told me that when she received publications from the place I worked at the time she would look for my name. "I always read what you've written," she said, "even when I don't like the topic." I laughed and told her, "Sometimes I don't like the topic either, but I always try to make it interesting."
That would not have been possible following a pre-set formula. It is work. It takes time.
I have empathy for the creative, gifted individuals required to create content daily / multiple times a day based on what words or phrases that have been popular in the past with no time to consider the wonder in the story.
