If you write as good as you talk – no one reads you

Posted on June 14, 2011 by henry tapper
Street Hassle

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This from Mark Scantlebury- comment on mallowstreet on my recent post  Fudging, nudging and attitude budging

Whilst education is needed and nudging can be effective, if we’re talking about educating and nudging via the same old broadcast ‘collateral’ we still won’t get people thinking and talking about pensions.

The industry has been banging on in the same way for years. A plethora of choices, described in terms that most people don’t understand, pushed out in brochures, adverts, websites and leaflets. All one-way communication.

What we should be driving towards is dialogue. We need to produce material that is relevant, stimulating and fun and get it out there on social platforms, encouraging people to share it, comment on it and respond to it with their own content. (I’m pretty sure that I’m speaking to the converted.)

Auto enrolment is going to produce a sudden interest in pensions, hopefully kick starting the conversation.

There’s a fear about commenting, at conferences, on blogs , even in meetings. I guess in the back of my head, when I put my hand up to speak, is the echo of Lou Reed‘s put down which forms the title of this blog!

Mark is right – there’s no use in me or any other pensions/expert/guru/bore banging on whether in magazines or on blogs or conferences if nobody’s reading/listening!

So I’ve set myself a big personal challenge for the rest of the year. That’s to turn my attention to what Mark is banging on about

We need to produce material that is relevant, stimulating and fun and get it out there on social platforms, encouraging people to share it, comment on it and respond to it with their own content

So if you are reading this and you fancy blogging a bit, get in touch! Either you can have a go on this site (I’ll promote you) or you can set up your own account on word press or one of the other excellent blog sites (they’re all free).

And if you are already pumping out stuff and you want it bigged up- give me a call by mail or twitter or on the phone 07785 377768.  I’m talking to the Marain Elliot’s , the Jenny Kressers and the Brian Spence’s! I’d love to host your stuff on here and hope that I can spend some time on your blogs!

I had a great call the other day from my old friend Jeremy Dell who gave me some feedback on my General Melchett blog. Good points Jeremy got me to reword what I was saying. Also taught me a lesson on how I comment on other people’s stuff.

None of us currently have the answers  and  if we don’t have these conversations I suspect we never will.

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About henry tapper

Founder of the Pension PlayPen,, partner of Stella, father of Olly . I am the Pension Plowman
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4 Responses to If you write as good as you talk – no one reads you

  1. gerontologyuk says:
    June 14, 2011 at 7.32

    I think one of the challenges for both state and market is what message are you trying to impart? One of the reasons women end up poor in old age is because of the ways that men and women share income and expenses within couples. I have a longstanding research interest in how couples negotiate about money behind closed doors. I went into a high school to chat to some A-level students about old age and money, and took the view that what I really wanted to talk to them about was how they and their boyfriends/girlfriends might structure and make decisions about money within the next few years – had a fantastically interesting discussion about fairness, gender issues, power and consumption. Especially fairness i.e. notions of equity and justice between people. In my mind, I was talking to them about pensions but I don’t think we even mentioned it. I have absolutely no idea whether I influenced any of them, but I hope at least that I gave them something to think about in the very near future. Since my quick survey of when they thought people were first old elicited a distribution that started in the early 30s and peaked at about 44, maybe this was sensible!
    I guess what I mean is that some ideas might be more salient than others. And I don’t mean compound interest, or exhortations to save and not buy new mobile phones.

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