Every once in a while, we marketing and pr types, have to take a breath and remember, that most of the world doesn’t think about the same things we think about.  We need to remind ourselves that there’s a whole world out there that thinks Digg is something you do in a garden and Twitter, well, sounds a little dirty (thanks Christine, you’re right).  We have to remember that we’re watching the news and analyzing its content, how it’s delivered and the channels used…but most people  — just watch the news.

So, here were my reality checks this week:

Reality check 1:  We met with a client to talk about how to educate a very niche audience about their offering.  Social media made sense for this particular client’s audience — except he had no idea about anything related to social media.  He had heard of Facebook but had never seen a Facebook page.  He sort of knew what blogs were but didn’t understand why people might read them vs. reading a column in a newspaper.  His product is sold online.  He understood e-commerce but nothing else.  And here we were, off on a riff about social media replete with jargon and apps and icons and the poor guy felt like he was on another planet.  For a moment, so did we…we forgot that not everyone speaks the language of digital as fluently as their native tongue!

Reality check - slow down, don’t assume knowledge and drop the jargon please.  And wherever possible, use visual aids.

Second reality check — we pr types have been analyzing the communications about swine flu.  Too much? too little? Too inflammatory? Who said what and could they have said it better?  No question people are scared but should the be scared?  But, wait, why is my 10-year-old walking around the house with a can of Lysol cleaning all the door knobs in the house?!? 

Um, he doesn’t care how the news is reported.  He just knows he doesn’t want to get sick.  Reality check — who cares how they’re doing it, if the news is scaring people, find a way to provide reassurance.  Give the numbers — and put them in context.  Explain that it’s a flu…it can be managed.  Report the news — and the news we can use. 

It’s tough to find the energy to stick with things these days.  We’re all working harder than we ever have before and on many days, feeling as if we’re running in place, at best.  It’s not surprising that people are questioning their capabilities, their ability to prevail and whether they are the ones who will find that critical key to success.  People’s prides have taken a beating as they have run faster and faster on the treadmill with little impact. 

So, it’s good to know that there’s a little thing we can do to make ourselves feel better and be perceived in a successful light…act proud even when you don’t feel proud. 

Today’s New York Times (www.newyorktimes.com) reports on recent research by Jessica L. Tracy of the University of British Columbia and Richard W. Robins of the University of California that shows that feelings of pride can help people weather difficult storms and actually result in body language and expressions that make others see those people in a more dominant, likeable light.  Apparently, there are common expressions — involving a head tilt and a certain smile — demonstrated by all people experiencing a proud moment.  And, when those expressions are witnessed by others, they like us more, are more likely to assign higher status to us and all of that, in turn, makes us feel good.

Now, the researchers say that you can basically fake that attitude of pride.  But personally, I think it would be hard to pull off without being arrogant unless you did some method acting and remembered particularly proud moments and the feelings they evoked. 

But, maybe there’s something the non-great actors amongst us can do…we can take pride in the little things.  We can take a moment to feel proud about helping a colleague, a child’s ability to master a task they had struggled with, the good work and success of friends and family.  Maybe we can also take a moment to make others feel proud…celebrate their work…appreciate the small things they do and…feel proud because we made them feel proud.