Keeping interview text authentic
Adrian McDermott
July 2nd, 2009
As our English editor, I thought I’d write a few words about the challenge of editing the “How To Market in ICT” e-book, which has been an interesting, and unusual experience. It would be easy to do something like our normal content, polishing it to make the message neat and compelling. But in this case it would have been a mistake. These are not interviews with a marketing or PR department, but with the individual in charge of it, someone with an individual voice rather than the embodiment of a marketing message. That’s why each person’s name and bio heads each interview.
It’s particularly important to preserve this individuality because one theme we ask about is online marketing. That normally means interactivity, for which personality and authenticity are not just valued, but essential. Prose that could come off the companies’ own websites would give the impression that all the answers had been vetted by the PR department rather than given to add value to a conversation.
Of course, we have to make allowances for it being in print, so have trimmed and tidied here and there, but we hope to preserve as exactly as we can how our interviewees see the world and think about the issues they face as marketers. We hope that our readers will find their stories far more interesting and vital as a result.
Tags: our ebook