#i just really really really like dysfunction and exploring flawed dynamics in fiction

[57sfinest]

17!

17. there should be more of this type of fic/art

okay for art umm i want to see more . women. i need an iv of lilienne & ruby & soona straight into my blood. thanks

for fic i wanna see character analysis type stuff, specifically i wanna see FUCKED UP fics exploring dysfunction between characters more because i eat that shit up. my recent jeanharry fic was my attempt at feeding that niche. umm and also if we can all go super autism mode on worldbuilding/lore i love that shit also i wrote 2 fics in a week about the pale alone and i want MORE

[literaryvein-reblogs]

How do you write a humorous character?

Writing Notes: Humorous Characters

Here are some ways you can explore and develop your characters to make them as rich and comedic as possible.

Base your characters on real people. Characters are fleshed out and made individual by drawing on the qualities of real people you know or have encountered. Real life offers up an abundance of eccentric and dysfunctional people who can become comedy characters. When you have a real model behind the character they become more individual, believable and idiosyncratic. If you don’t have a real-life model (or models) in mind you are more likely to draw on stereotype and cliché. You can draw on a number of real people to flesh out your character picking up on their mannerisms, speech patterns, attitudes, beliefs as well as their biography and life experience. Since you’re fictionalizing, do feel free to do them a terrible disservice and focus on and exaggerate all their worst qualities. And in terms of their biography, if they’ve done three really "stupid" things in the last five years, your character version of them will have done those three stupid things in the last three weeks – or if they’re a real "klutz", in the last three days. Then once you have identified the kinds of stupid things the real person does, you can invent more in a similar vein for your character.

Positives and negatives. It can be brilliantly cathartic to take dreadful people in your life and turn them into comedy characters. Your characters have a problem or a goal and they set about trying to get what they want with their limited skill set. They don’t have the skills, knowledge or ability to effectively achieve their goals, but still they try. (Just like your bad boss). A first question to ask of your boss is: What’s wrong with them? This will be where the comedy lies. All their negative qualities, failings and shortcomings. Have a clear, short list of these issues. This is enough to get started. A next step to ask is: Who else do I know who’s like this? Now you are drawing on bad qualities of other people to make this character even worse. Then having considered your boss’ negative sides ask: What’s right with them? If you really despise them or find them totally contemptible, this can be tricky! They must have some positive qualities. What are they? A balance of positives and negatives makes the character more rounded and engaging – even if the negatives are likely to dominate with many characters, that bit of humanity is important.

Two perspectives on your characters. Here’s another way of looking at your character from 2 perspectives: firstly, describe how they see themselves and secondly how others see them. If there is very little difference between these two perspectives then that would be a self-aware, functional person. The bigger the difference the more comic and/or tragic the character.

Likeability of characters. Often writers get feedback that their characters aren’t likeable enough and yet at the same time there are often sitcoms with characters who behave badly and aren’t obviously likeable. And yet so many viewers have an appalled fascination with the truly dark characters.

Developing an ensemble of characters. Once you have one clear character with strongly defined positives and negatives, to create another character – simply make them the polar opposite of the original character. Comedy thrives on opposites.

Ensemble of Characters. In summary, most successful sitcoms have this dynamic (and some unsuccessful ones lack some element of it):

BOSS – A character in position of power over the striver/protagonist and others – it may be a role or rank or just social status or family seniority. They may have real power or it may just be vested in them by their position but they are inept in some way.

STRIVER (PROTAGONIST) – The main comic character with all their flaws and failings.

FOIL – The more reasonable normal one (usually also a striver) who has to deal with the main striver. Often protagonist and foil are basically on the same side but they can be rivals. Usually the foil is the one the audience can identify with but sometimes they are less obviously likeable.

FOOL – Self-explanatory – the "stupid" or naive and awkward one. Often happy with their lot, they tend to be able to bounce back from the indignities heaped on them.

How to Write Funny Dialogue

Once you have your funny character, how do you write their dialogue? Here are some comedy writing tips and techniques to consider when creating dialogue that is both humorous and convincing.

Quote funny people: In nonfiction writing, one technique for getting laughs is simply to quote people with a sense of humor. When the people around you are funny, you can bring them into your work. They know they are being witty, and you are taking them with you into the essay (or other piece of writing) as part of the humor. In fiction writing, you can create funny characters to introduce jokes into the text in a way that feels natural and not forced. Whether you’re writing fiction or nonfiction, some characters in your story are bound to be funnier than others.

Exaggerate: Stretching a real scenario into the most ridiculous version you can imagine can be another way to get a laugh in nonfiction writing.

Compress: People don’t speak in real life like they do on the page, so there’s an art to writing speech to make it feel real. When quoting a funny person, one of its important tools is compression. By trimming down your characters’ speech, you can convey realistic sounds without dulling the reader. This is important for all types of dialogue, but especially humorous dialogue. A lot of funny dialogue comes from one-liners, humorous responses to situations that are short and punchy.

Keep a diary: Keeping a diary where you write down funny things that happen to you, dialogue you overhear and love, and character traits, will help you see the world differently. Tuning in to your surroundings will open you to moments that could become stories and the parts of your world that belong in your writing.

Be self-deprecating: When you’re writing a scene in which you’re a main character, deploy a trusty humor tool: being harder on yourself than any other character in the story. When you make yourself a relatable character, your reader will feel connected to you. Let go of thinking about how you come across and just try to be honest—learning how to laugh at yourself is crucial.

Twist a cliché or undermine any expectation you’ve set up: Humor relies in part on twisting a cliché—transforming or undermining it. You do this by setting up an expectation based on the cliché and then providing a surprise outcome. In humor writing, this process is called reforming.

Put your funny lines at the end of a sentence or scene: Humor is often a release of tension, so the sentence builds that tension, and the pay-off happens most naturally at the end (the punchline).

Use contrast: Are your characters in a terrifying situation? Add something light, like a man obsessing about his briefcase instead of the T-Rex looming behind him.

Find funny words: Some words are just funnier than others, so make a list of those that amuse you the most. When working with compressed text, word choice is especially important. Wordplay is one kind of humor writing that can make your dialogue funnier.

Manage expectations: It’s especially difficult to make people laugh when they’re expecting you to be funny—never set the expectation that you’re about to try to be funny. It’s much easier to be funny unexpectedly. Make these attempts to be funny a quiet side effect; think of humor as a pleasant deviation from an expectation. Then create a context where laughter is easily produced.

Use body language: A large part of real-life dialogue is non-verbal, and these cues make their way into fiction through the use of stage direction, which is any textual reference to the physical movement of the speakers. The term is borrowed from theater, where such directions are necessary tools to help actors and directors envision the physical set-up of a play. In fiction, stage directions can often do just as much as dialogue to convey a character’s mood, frame of mind, or responses. If your dialogue starts to feel repetitive, put your characters in motion—walking, driving, or distracted by their environment. In comedy, you can use gestures to enhance the humor of a scene, or you can take body language to the maximum of physical comedy: slapstick.

Use gossip: Gossip makes excellent dialogue because people unconsciously dramatize events for the benefit of the listener. They narrate not what happened, but the essence of what happened. When you gossip, your listener suspends disbelief. This is a great way to introduce exaggerated funny stories.

Pay attention to rhythm: Your dialogue should be rhythmic because human speech is naturally rhythmic. When you listen to people having a conversation, they’re creating rhythmic poetry; pauses are filled, sentences are capped by the other’s interruptions, all amounting to a patterned cadence. A play is essentially a poem written for several voices. When writing humorous dialogue, delivery and timing are especially important. Don’t be afraid to rewrite each line of dialogue in your first draft until you get the rhythm just right.

Read your work aloud (to an audience, if possible): Reading aloud is another layer of the editing process—kind of like live workshopping. Make notes on the page as you read, demarcating where the audience laughs and where there is silence. Even without having an audience’s reaction to gauge, reading your work out loud can be an invaluable tool in the writing process. Whether you do stand-up comedy or share a short story at an open mic night or reading, pay attention to your audience’s reactions: where people laugh out loud or where your jokes fall flat.

Use funny dialogue for character development: Dialogue serves the triple purpose of revealing character, advancing plot lines, and providing entertainment. The entertainment part will come more easily if you’re a naturally funny person, but it’s important not to sacrifice character development in dialogue-writing. Dialogue should always be appropriate to the character and should take their point of view, beliefs, and backstory into consideration. People’s desires motivate them to speak, so when writing dialogue, ask yourself what your characters want. Ideally, you will know your characters well enough to sense not only what they want but how they would express their desires verbally. Good jokes often hinge on subverting expectations, and the best jokes—the ones that will stick with your readers—tie into the story as a whole.

More information:

Researching Humor

Linking Sense of Humor to Personality

Sources: 1 2 ⚜ More: Insults & Dry Humor ⚜ Humour ⚜ Laughter & Humour

Hope this helps with your writing!

[inkykeiji]

hello, bby💞💞 i absolutely ADORE everything u write, ur insanely talented!! I wanted to ask, you’ve mentioned several pieces of art, precisely songs and films, that have inspired ur work; could u give us some music and movie recommendations that have similar vibe to some of ur fics??? Thank u in advance, I hope u have an incredible day/evening, lysm💓💞💖

THIS QUESTION OOOOOOOH YES ANON YES okay okay first of all, thank you so much!!!! i appreciate that a lot <333 YES i love film so much hehehe <3 my music recommendations are pretty much the same as they always are. the films i’m recommending here; i’m not exactly sure if they have a similar vibe to my fics as i’ve found it difficult to find many films that fit that criteria, but here’s a nice huge list of films that have influenced my main series’, and how!!

beware!! very long post under the cut hehehe AND POTENTIAL SPOILERS FOR BMB IF YOU KNOW THE FILMS HEHEHEHEHE

𝐛𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐤 𝐦𝐲 𝐛𝐨𝐧𝐞𝐬

the godfather, part 1 + part 2

AAAAAAAAH okay, literally one of my favourite films of all time, the godfather (+ the godfather pt 2) is a fucking masterpiece. tomura’s close relationship with his father was both inspired by bnha itself as well as michael corleone’s relationship with his father, vito. michael is the golden child even though he’s the youngest, and i love love love how cold and ruthless he can be!!! he’s also super smart.

goodfellas

listen. if henry hill from goodfellas and michael corleone from the godfather had a baby, it would be tomura. he’s slightly more henry than he is michael, but his characterization pulls from both of these characters!! henry is fun, he’s reckless, he’s young, he feels like a god and he loves cocaine. henry also becomes very paranoid, a path with tomura is currently speeding down (albeit much more intensely, with legitimate mental health issues, but you get it). i also love the subtle ‘mafia princess’ trope goodfellas has going on with henry’s wife, karen (that scene where she says she’s going shopping and asks him for money, and he takes out that massive wad of cash?????? brilliant, one of my faves hehehe). henry also has some difficulty dealing with his emotions!!

narcos season 1 + 2

k, i can’t say too much about how this incredible show inspired bmb; i kind of feel like listing it is already giving away too much hehehe BUT i love the pure POWER pablo exudes, and i love his relationship with his wife and how family oriented he is.

scarface (both the original 1932 version and the 1983 version)

WOOOOOOOOOO OKAY. for the 1983 film: cocaine my friends. cocaine and violence and toxic relationships!!!!!!!  i kind of love elvira hancock more than anything else; she’s so glamorous and fun and just aaaaah she’s definitely not as ‘baby’ or ‘good girl’ as bmb!reader is, but her sheer class and cute dresses and just how SPOILED she is reminds me a lot of bmb! for both 1932 + 1983: tony’s relationship with his sister, gina (which tbh borders on incest). gina’s another one of those ‘mafia princess’ types, and tony is extremely overprotective of her and spoils her like mad, too. she’s also fits that ‘good girl’ archetype a lot more!!

reservoir dogs

purely the violence. the violence the violence the violence, the crude and crass way the men talk to each other, and the fact that they’re like a lil organized crime group put together by a boss. i am IN LOVE (IN LOVEEEEEEEE) with mr blonde (aka vic vega <333). mr blonde’s extreme sadism reminds me quite a bit of both dabi and tomura, and he’s even referenced in the lil torture piece i wrote!! also, you literally cannot tell me that vic wouldn’t spoil the absolute HELL out of his good lil princess if he had one <3

(not a film, but!!!!!) hamlet

break my bones is very very very loosely based on hamlet (which is my favourite story of all time. literally. i love hamlet so much i can’t even put it into words); with tomura as hamlet, dabi as a mixture of horatio and laertes, and reader as ophelia. hamlet, my precious baby, is a spoiled fucking brat, who loved his father and was loved by his father. he’s also very intelligent, but falls prey to his indecisiveness and his inability to make decisions, in addition to the rapid decay of his mental health. that’s all i’ll say hehehe

baby driver

the relationship between baby + debora reminds me of the relationship between dabi and reader a lot <333 i also just love the aesthetic of this film, and the undercurrents of organized crime!!

the shining

just a teeny tiny bit; i cannot say anything about this or i think it’ll give something away!!!!!

burning

trios!!!!! trios!!!!!!!!!!!!and the relationship dynamic between jong-su, hae-mi and ben??????? absolutely incredible and reminds me quite a bit of the dynamic between tomura, dabi + reader!!

𝐭𝐚𝐠 𝐲𝐨𝐮'𝐫𝐞 𝐢𝐭 𝐀𝐔 (𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐭𝐥𝐞 𝐛𝐢𝐭 𝐨𝐟 𝐩𝐨𝐢𝐬𝐨𝐧 𝐢𝐧 𝐦𝐞) + 𝐭𝐨𝐮𝐲𝐚-𝐧𝐢𝐢

i’m grouping these two together, because a lot of their influences overlap in terms of dabi + reader’s relationship!!! (i’m pretty sure we can all agree that touya-nii is so fucking Daddy, too <3)

true romance

i fucking love this movie, so so so much. i’d go as far to say that clarence and alabama’s relationship has without a doubt inspired or influenced every single romantic relationship i’ve written in at least some way, shape, or form. i LOVE them. i love their co-dependency on each other, i love their whole ‘it’s you and me against the world’ vibe, and i love how far they’re willing to go for each other. also, again, organized crime (no surprise), and alabama is just the cutest fucking thing i swear to god. that scene of her + virgil in the hotel room will forever be one of my absolute FAVOURITE scenes in cinematic history. i would die for this woman i love her more than anything. she’s so cute yet so strong, so brave, so IN LOVE, and aaaah that is just one of my favourite characteristics ever ever ever. i love women who are soft and strong at the same time, even if that strength isn’t physical.

sid and nancy

hello to one of the most famous toxic relationships ever!!! honestly, i don’t think i have to explain this one much LMAO. obviously my readers aren’t as hardcore as nancy and almost always fall into the ‘innocent good girl’ category, but their RELATIONSHIP itself reminds me quite a bit of the relationship between touya-nii and his princess <3

bonnie and clyde (1967)

ahahaha yet again, another very toxic, very co-dependent type of love. like clarence and alabama, i love how these two are literally willing to die for each other—they’d go straight to the ends of the earth for one another, no questions asked. this type of love is extremely unhealthy, obviously, but it’s something i am extremely fascinated with and love exploring in my work! also, that whole ‘fuck the world let’s commit crimes together’????? very tag you’re it dabi x reader!!!

pulp fiction

more specifically, the relationship between mia and vincent. the sexual tension there is fucking crazy, and i love how mia is yet again one of those ‘mafia princess’ types. really, this film applies to bmb as well, but i’m putting it here because the way vincent gets so so SO soft for mia reminds me of the way touya-nii and dabi in these two series in particular get soft for their readers. also, to a lesser extent, the relationship between butch and fabienne. i know a lot of people don’t like fabienne and get annoyed with her, but i think she’s just the cutest thing and i heavily relate to her and her babie/crybaby nature <3 and of course, the relationship between pumpkin and honeybunny (for tag you’re it especially!) <33

breathless (a bout de souffle)

there’s just something about michel that reminds me of touya-nii SO much. i think it’s a combination of his attitude as well as his petty life of crime, and the way patricia hides him in her apartment...i don’t know, it’s difficult for me to put into words, but i love him a lot <3

𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐠𝐞𝐧𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐲 𝐚𝐜𝐫𝐨𝐬𝐬 𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐦𝐲 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤

the joker + harley quinn: i feel like this is so obvious LMAO but i’m obsessed with the idea of that all consuming voracious love that borders on serious obsession. extremely possessive socio/psychopath and his dumb lil baby????? yes <3 (**i also wanna make a note to say that harley isn’t dumb AT ALL, but J will often insult her in such a way, and sometimes the men who write her portray her as such as well >.> but harley is one of my favourite female characters ever. i LOVE how girly and fun she is while still being extremely strong and (sometimes, depending on the version) independent. she isn’t without flaws, and i love how her mr j is basically her kryptonite <3)

speaking of batman, bruce wayne: what can i say, i just love spoiled rich men who have serious issues dealing with their emotions and walk the line of good and evil <33333

anakin skywalker/darth vader: listen, anakin was seriously slighted by those prequel films. but underneath all of that bad writing, at his core, anakin is a fantastic character. he is SO strongly governed by his emotions and is extremely selfish, and his love for his wife and family is ultimately what leads him down the path to the dark side <3 his emotionally charged motivations remind me a lot of CANON dabi!!!

thelma and louise: i just love their relationship, like, a lot hehehe. their relationship and the ending of this film reminds me a lot of my snowman & me; just yet again that whole ‘it’s you and me or it’s death’ type thing.

the darjeeling limited: it should be obvious at this point that i love trios, and i love complex characters and the relationships that come along with them. the relationship between the whitman brothers, the dysfunctional family, the truama and sadness...i love it all. this film is absolutely beautiful and really doesn’t connect much to my work other than the character dynamics, but i love it so dearly.

mad men: again, those misogynistic toxic relationships and the dependency betty has on don for the first few seasons!! also my god, the aesthetic, i am obsessed.

twin peaks: this hasn’t shown up too much in the work i’ve posted on my blog just yet, but i’m head over heels in love with the dreamy unsettling feeling that saturates this entire series, as well as the drugs and crime. also dale is my baby, protect him with everything <3

blade runner (both films): for city aesthetic

suckerpunch: an absolutely awful film but also one of my guilty pleasures, purely because i love babydoll so so so so so much <33 again, more for aesthetic than story.

𝐌𝐔𝐒𝐈𝐂

honestly, my music recommendations are exactly the same as they are in this post right here. lana del rey, lil peep, chase atlantic + the neighbourhood are the four that i’d say influence my work the most tho, and have the most similar vibe to my stuff!! also, nicole dollanganger is an incredible artist and lyricist, and i’ve been told more than once that my work and her work are quite similar (which i agree!!!). her stuff is hauntingly beautiful, but i have a lot of difficulty listening to it because it hits a little too close to home and makes me cry literally every single time. so please be wary of that, i’m giving a general trigger warning for her because she can get quite dark. but her work is absolutely fantastic, i highly recommend as long as you feel that you can handle it!!! <33

AAAAAH I KNOW I’M MISSING LIKE A MILLION THINGS I SWEAR but these are the films (and tv shows) + artists that readily come to mind!! thank you again for your question anon, i love stuff like this so much and i love discussing films and art hehehe <33

[13eyond13]

Hey! I'm trying to get into the ship train. Hopefully not too late. But it's okay if I'm actually late. Just have a good day then :3 If not - pleas do those ships (or choose one you like the most if 3 of them is too much) Beyond x Mello, Misora x N, and You x Beyond :D

Hi hi! Not late at all :D

BxMELLO:

The ship is my: "why isn't this explored a bit more by fans actually, it's nearly canon the way Mello sympathizes with B in the novel already" ship. I think it has the potential to be very entertaining indeed

I consider this ship’s feelings:

Mutual | Mixed | Strange | Awkward | Platonic | Sibling-like | One-sided | They don’t really like each other

I picture this being like "What if B got a little mini-me that followed him around the way he followed L around" dynamics, or maybe "we are both very dramatic and set ourselves on fire whenever our inferiority complexes take hold" bros... there are just a lot of funny potential scenarios I could imagine the two of them together in... I think B would really love Mello's admiration and sympathy and milk it for all it was worth, until Mello maybe eventually got bored and outgrew him and tried to move on

I’d consider the relationship:

Healthy | Awkward | Abusive | Doesn’t work properly | They’d never get together

There's a multitude of dynamics I could see working for them both

Children:

No | Yes | They’d think about it

I doubt they'd ever get into that sort of nesting stage in a relationship together, but that's probably for the best

General Opinion: 10/10 in my imagination, which is basically the only place I've ever seen this ship most of the time

--

NAOMIxN:

I'm really sorry, I wasn't sure what ship this is? Naomi x Near doesn't seem likely, but that's the only "N" I can think of... Unless it was supposed to be NaomixB? Feel free to ask again if you want to clarify, I just don't want to answer wrong xD

--

MExBEYOND:

The ship is my: "I could picture my younger self maybe following B around a lot and loling at his antics because he is really dramatic and needy and entertaining and relatable in a strangely compelling way"... back when I had a poor concept of healthy personal boundaries, and was constantly befriending the eccentric and the pitiful and the moody and the immensely self-absorbed

I consider this ship’s feelings:

Mutual | Mixed | Strange | Awkward | Platonic | Sibling-like | One-sided | They don’t really like each other

B's like the embodiment of everything I really, really don't want to be myself, which also makes it extremely fun for me to walk a mile in his fictional shoes. I don't know what he'd think of me. But he's probably too busy thinking about himself and throwing himself pity parties to genuinely take a strong interest in others, unless they're boosting or threatening his ego in some way

I’d consider the relationship:

Healthy | Awkward | Abusive | Doesn’t work properly | They’d never get together

We'd become extremely codependent, I think. That's usually how it would go whenever I got into relationships with personalities like his in the past

Children:

No | Yes | They’d think about it

I'd hope to pick somebody a little more stable and functional to raise kids with, no offense to poor B

General Opinion:

I almost never have fave characters or ships because I could actually picture myself involved in the ship or with that character irl, and usually I like them best because they're really flawed and dysfunctional in an interesting way... so it's definitely funny for me to imagine, but I also wish for much healthier things for myself irl than most of this cast of characters would provide lol

[chamerionwrites]

For character asks for you: your choice of a VM /or/ MN character

How I feel about this character (Vex’ahlia)

I love her. SO MUCH. Characters who project competence and confidence super well - to the point that the successfulness of the mask generates its own set of problems - but have a lot of deep-seated insecurities under the surface, who struggle with self-doubt and self-image and self-revelation, are catnip to me. (See also: Fjord.) I’m also kind of weak to fraught father relationships in fiction no matter how overdone, and I love her prominent character flaw of “greed” which is really a once-homeless-teenager’s compulsive anxiety about money and desire for safety and stability. That’s a dimension of the way past poverty affects people that I haven’t seen explored very often in fiction.

Plus, Laura Bailey is both a subtle and a generous actress and the layers with which she plays Vex are a joy to watch.

Everyone I ship romantically with this character

Another boring answer but: Percy. Usually I ship things for the character dynamic and storytelling possibilities first and the d’aww factor a very distant second; this is one of those rare canon ships that actually hits me straight in the warm and fuzzy feels. In part I think that’s because the medium is such that there’s time for the relationship’s development to feel real and organic. In part it’s because the character dynamic really is compelling, and these two balance and support and change and complicate each other in all sorts of fascinating ways that really do make for a great story.

My non-romantic OTP for this character

I mean, almost any DND adventuring party is basically one big platonic OT4 or 5 or 7, so all of Vox Machina qualifies here (including Trinket, of course). Every relationship is interesting in its own way and clearly Vax is the big one, but imo an underrated one is between her and Scanlan, because in certain character-defining ways they have a lot in common (ie they are incredibly good at fronting), and Vex is so perceptive that she’s the only one who semi-regularly sees through his absurd deception modifier. The eventual friendship between her and Taryon is also kind of heartwarming (maybe the moral of the story is that Laura and Sam play off each other super well, which is even clearer in Campaign 2).

I also enjoy how she and Zahra disliked each other on sight, bonded over having shitty dads, and then became insta-friends of the sort where you feel like you’ve known someone forever because you have so much in common.

My unpopular opinion about this character

The twins’ relationship is actually pretty dysfunctional in certain ways (albeit obviously loving). Vax cares so much but he does not understand his sister’s inner emotional life even half as well as she understands his, in part because his worst character flaw is being remarkably bad at perspective-taking and in part because Vex is as protective of him as he is of her, and a big part of the way she protects him is by trying to hide the depths of her hurts because she knows that his emotional welfare (and Vax is a bit of a raw emotional nerve at the best of times) is wrapped up in the belief that she’s doing okay. And that’s a really lonely place to be, in a relationship that’s otherwise so close.

For example this exchange in the Feywild always guts me because they talk straight past each other: Vex (in a moment of unusual vulnerability and openness, for her) confesses that her Tough And Cool And Competent aura is all an act…and Vax’s version of comfort is to immediately dismiss her, because the idea that his sister isn’t The Greatest is objectively absurd to him. And of course he’s not entirely wrong, Vex is a strong person, but what she needs him to say is that he sees and loves her as she is and instead Vax keeps complimenting her on the effectiveness of the mask, and the longer it goes on the more you can see Vex just shrink into herself.

That kind of fundamental character disconnect is great storytelling (I love some of Beau and Caleb’s C2 arguments for similar reasons), it rings very true of human beings in general and siblings with unhappy childhoods in particular, but it’s also really sad sometimes, and it just…sits kind of weird with me, and makes me feel that much sadder about it, when fandom only ever seems to discuss the relationship as a healthy and perfect one.  

What I wish had happened in canon

So much DOES happen in canon that this is a tough question to answer, but I wish there was a little more exploration of the Dead Mom part of the twins’ backstory. (I suspect it may have come up offscreen pre-stream, but I was surprised at the extent to which it got dropped from the Chroma Conclave arc after the one “do not go far from me” discussion following the attack on Emon.)

[janiedean]

While i hate antis and their bullying everytime they shaming a fictional ship because i believe that "Fiction is not reality", I also agree that fiction can be a good role model for the real world for example : Diana's characterisation in Wonder Woman to show us more variety of strong woman character or Theon's PTSD scene to how us what REAL PSTD scene looks like (and we're mad when people keep saying that Theon just being coward in that scene). How should we balance the two, in your opinion?

okay, so, first thing, I think we need to make a basic distinction and state that fiction influences reality and people might be influenced by fiction do not mean the same thing whatsoever.

then we have to make another distinction ie there’s such a thing as massively consumed fiction and less consumed fiction/fandom and both are also different.

then we also have to state that one thing is emulating characters, one thing is finding them interesting or recognizing yourself in them.

last thing that instead is valid for everything, one thing is good things being represented in fiction, the other is bad things being represented in fiction.

let’s go from easier to hardest.

easier: massively consumed vs fandom. now, what people on tumblr fail to realize is that most of the planet doesn’t not give a fuck about fandom or engages with it. I mean, if you’re into it you would, but I know a bunch of people who are nerds/into fandom who don’t ship nor are into fanfic. fanfic/fanart/whatever influences people maybe on a fandom-level, but if you assume that people at large might start thinking incest is fine because thor/loki exists (which is a purely fanon thing) or because jaime/cersei exists (actual mainstream stuff but not as large as idk SW), you’re frankly deluding yourself because only thor/loki shippers give two fucks about thor/loki and not counting a few people I can think of, no one thinks jaime/cersei makes incest okay nor abusive relationships okay. thor/loki isn’t even represented in fiction, it’s fanfic, jaime/cersei is represented in fiction, but no one would think either thing makes banging your brother okay whether it’s dysfunctional (t/l) or just downright abusive (j/c). in that case assuming that if you’re into t/l or j/c you want to bang your brother is the bad case which assumes that whichever fiction in existence influences reality directly.

that said, no one is actually wanting to make a social justice point while having jc being a thing or t/l being dysfunctional. it’s dynamics that are interesting to explore.

wonder woman giving more variety to a strong female character instead is extremely mass-consumption media which would show a lot of people that different type (because a lot more people watch DC movies than GOT) then you show them differently and they might start thinking differently about strong female characters. or idk black kids seeing the new star wars and liking that there’s a black lead (same for the mcu and falcon/black panther) is also an extremely mass-consumption thing, because of course most people watch star wars and know what the hell star wars is. in that case you have fiction making a positive impact on reality (or maybe reflecting reality) but it’s also, like, reasonable. because sw-the-movies have impact and normalize that the leads in the story can also be not always white blonde men with blue eyes, but the star wars fandom - and I’m just talking about the part that produces fanfic/fanart and not about the people cosplaying stormtroopers and so on - influences shit. no one is going to make people think force-choking someone is going to be okay because k*ylux fic exists, same as no one thinks that killing a bunch of children is okay because anakin did it in the prequels and no one is ever gonna think you’re a psychopath because you stan k*ylo ren same as no one who watches star wars (IN GENERAL) sees kylo and thinks WOW HAVING SUCH A BAD VILLAIN WILL BE A BAD INFLUENCE TO CHILDREN, because a generation or two grew up thinking vader was cool but no one ever thought what vader did was right. I mean, people who don’t have issues distinguishing the two facts (and usually the people who do are radical SOMETHING, conservatives or antis or whatever) are entirely aware that reality lets itself being influenced by fiction to a certain degree when it’s about positive things, not for negative things at large.

now obviously you have exceptions like fifty shades of gray which is a bad fanfic that has turned mainstream (relatively) and so now there’s a bunch of people convinced that it’s real BDSM TM, but that’s because in society people don’t get educated about how abusive relationships work or toxic relationships work so they don’t recognize it in shitty fanfic turned mainstream, but that’s where you focus your efforts and educate people, you don’t say that since fifty shades is shit then you can’t write books or make movies about bdsm period, which is what the idiots seem to want.

now, moving on to point one: as stated above, *fiction* as a thing doesn’t influence reality or every kid who’s ever read HP would have committed suicide trying to fly off the window on a broom, which is a thing that we know doesn’t exist irl and cannot exist irl. and mainstream fiction can influence reality as much as we let it for positive things, because honest, who’s ever turned violent because of videogames? no one, but since we all have violent instincts buried somewhere maybe killing people in a videogame lets you blow off some steam and whatever because you know it’s fake. of course there’s the matter of age appropriate content, but if a parent lets a seven year old watch GOT or play GTA and then that kid is traumatized it’s their parents’ fault, not the fault of the media which was clearly labeled for adults. or I mean, I read/watched media that was above my age when I was ten but I was ready for it and my parents knew it, if I wasn’t they wouldn’t have let me.

also, on the ptsd angle: in the punisher there’s plenty of examples of realistic ptsd post-war, but I haven’t seen anyone yet say anything sensed on what was to me the most realistic and well done character in that sense (lewis wilson) because people kept on saying he was *white terrorist* and that the show didn’t excuse his action with *mental illness* without knowing that having ptsd post-combat is like, being mentally ill. that show was excellent rep in that sense, but have people in fandom caught up on it or understood it? meh. people outside it yes, and maybe some people on here, too, but not as many as I’d like. same goes for theon - WITHIN FANDOM because the ptsd thing was fairly understood OUTSIDE IT. which means that the real world is getting more sensitive to that narrative, tumblr isn’t. in that case, the real world is letting himself be influenced or touched by that narrative, tumblr isn’t. what do we know.

so, tldr for this part: fiction only influences X as far as you let it and people in general do know that if wrong thing is depicted in fiction it’s wrong. I mean, I never heard of anyone becoming a pedophile after watching or reading mysterious skin, which is a really fucking good movie which doesn’t romanticize the subject at all. 

now, about the last part ie personal identification/emulation: now, never mind that emulating a character is usually done by the time you’re ten and before then you pretend to be batman while playing with your friends but you know you’re not batman, and past five you do know that if superman can fly, you a regular human being can’t. the point is that fictional people are written by real people, so if they’re realistic and the writers write them well, they’ll be relatable, and if they’re relatable they might influence you as a person or make you find shit out about yourself that might change you, and in that sense it does influence reality somehow, or if you use it to cope with trauma then it surely helps you, but who you relate to isn’t what others might. we can say that we have basic level, representation level, using-it-to-cope level.

now I’m gonna go use myself as a template since I’ve for good and for bad have used fiction to cope with shit for my entire life, so. under the cut because this is long and the next part is all personal shit so people should have the right to scroll past it xD

basic level: when I was fifteen I was having a shit time, I read the dark tower, I ran into my Favorite Character Ever, the guy used shitty humor to deal with crap all the time, it was a tendency I already had and I went like ‘okay if it worked for him why didn’t it work for me’ and today I’m someone who deals with about anything by using shitty humor or joking about it and it’s helped me tremendously honestly, if I took everything too seriously I’d be a terrible person. also, that helped me with self-confidence to a point and blah blah blah it made my life tangentially better. but that was just, like, about me. and I didn’t certainly try to emulate the guy’s worst flaws, because that wasn’t the point. anyway, I found the guy relatable but I didn’t see him as, like, representation or anything.

representation level/slightly coping level: I read asoiaf when I was twenty-two. I am sad I didn’t before because when I ran into brienne I was slammed with a brick in the face that was saying OH HEY THAT’S SOMEONE WHO’S ACTUALLY LIKE YOU/HAD YOUR EXPERIENCES. I don’t just relate to brienne, I identify with brienne to a fairly bad degree, and I’m really sad I didn’t run into her before because I might have gathered a great deal of self-confidence from seeing that there was a main character somewhere who was ugly/seen as ugly by anyone else and still was an a+++ person who could do worthwhile things and was a viable love interest for Hot Guy. (idk if it shows when I write jb fic but it’s there, so.) did brienne change my life? not as much as she could have if I had read acok when it was released, but she did give me some hope that with GOT becoming mainstream not-conventionally-pretty women would get some mainstream rep, because sure af there wasn’t much when I grew up. if that happens? fiction did influence reality, but in the wonder woman/good kind. again, no one (me or anyone else) would want to be like brienne by GRABBING A SWORD AND KILLING PEOPLE, we’d rather probably just get confidence/inspired by what she does. because she’s a well-written character that entirely gets it.

except that a lot of asoiaf fans think that she’s boring or useless or see nothing in her. which is fine - it’s not their target I guess, but again, a character who’s extremely important to me means nothing to other people and certainly doesn’t influence them.

coping/potentially badwrong coping level: so, as a person I’m really not into badwrong/dysfunctional dynamics that don’t make people better. as such, I tend to ship healthy couples/dynamics where the two people make each other better.

which is why I never was remotely interested in thor/loki as a thing in my entire life until two months ago - WAIT - and for all my time in the mcu I always felt a visceral dislike for loki I never really dwelt upon while at the same time whenever I saw thor bashing (ie he’s an idiot or he’s a bully or he doesn’t understand loki and the likes) I always felt a visceral distaste in my mouth like NO DON’T IT’S NOT LIKE THAT, but since it wasn’t even my favorite mcu franchise and thor isn’t my favorite mcu character I never, like, thought about it. I just went with the obvious ‘everyone likes loki because ANTAGONISTS which I don’t get and I get angry on thor’s behalf because he doesn’t deserve that shit’. all good until I watch ragnarok which is, like, COMPLETE CRACK ON A STICK AND NOT A SERIOUS MOVIE AT ALL and which probably did not mean to be a psychological textbook and at the end I’m like ‘fuck okay maybe I ship it a bit and now that loki’s done with the angst maybe I can tolerate him’, and then not long later or so I get hit with another ton of bricks in the face and realize that of course I always had that feeling, that was because thor and loki had the exact same dysfunctional dynamic I had with my former best friend of fourteen years that I haven’t talked to for at least seven years and which is like the root of 70% of the issues I have. all of them. and like, loki was like her except Much More Extra and on a larger scale, thor was me except Much More Extra and the more I think about it the more it just fits 100% and you don’t even wanna know how I’ve spent this last month, because I had no idea I spent six years with those feelings about that dynamic because of that, I had no idea I actually found thor that relatable on a visceral level and I still have Unresolved Issues with that person and I can’t solve them with them personally for reasons. if I actually end up writing them fanfic where I, uh, subtly address personal issues and it works, then that badwrong-ish fic has influenced me for the best (and says all that I realized it just when they reconciled, I didn’t let myself do it before). but like, that wouldn’t mean that I wanted to bang my ex-friend or that I suddenly approve of incest - because sure af I didn’t want to bang her and sure af I didn’t turn into PLEASE DO BANG YOUR SIBLINGS WHENEVER YOU WANT (ew no). that’s the damned difference. thor and loki banging in whatever fanfic won’t make anyone excuse incest and won’t influence anyone outside thor fandom on ao3 - hell, at most it’s going to influence me because if I do it I’m doing it to work through my issues. it doesn’t change reality at large.

like, fiction can be a model for something you want to see more of or you can find characters role models or relatable and it can present you a view of the world, but at the end of the day we all know that it’s not real and we only use it to filter reality and/or ourselves through it and it helps us doing it, which is why something that makes sense to me - ie that thor is extremely relatable - won’t make sense to someone who finds loki relatable for reasons I couldn’t even begin to imagine. maybe the same piece of fiction/media both influences us, but it influences us very differently because we see it through different lens. and the thing is that if you conflate the two things and start emulating characters past the age of four then you have a problem distinguishing the two things and you need to get over it/get help/whatever, because to everyone else it’s normal to see the world through fiction or part of it. if you do because I know people who think fiction is merely fiction and don’t understand the point of relating to a character in the first place. 

so like tldr, fiction influences you as much as you let it and it’s something you use actively and that is there for everyone to interpret, but it can’t, just existing, influence anything especially because if no one reads it or watches it then it’s useless. and since most **problematic** stuff is consumed by people who actively look for it and know what they’re doing - again, no one reads tentacle porn on ao3 if they don’t like tentacle porn - you can’t say that by existing, incest fic or badwrong fic normalizes abuse, because it only does if you let it and if you don’t know what abuse is and you can’t recognize it for what it is. like, a piece of fiction doesn’t need to spell THIS IS WRONG for you to know that I dunno t/hramsay fanfic is not what you should want in a relationship, you have to know that, and that’s on you, not on something that’s not mass-consumption - because badwrong fic and stuff is usually written by badwrong fans for badwrong fans, not by hired disney writers for star wars movies that have to be good for children, adults, nerds and the mass audience at large.

you balance the two by knowing that badwrong stuff is wrong irl (and it’s not a stretch) and by looking at the world through the lenses of whatever not badwrong fiction you enjoy/like/relate to, which can also be badwrong of course (see the thor/loki rant above) but like the fact that it does it to us singularly doesn’t mean that all of a sudden THE ENTIRE WORLD IS INFLUENCED BY THE EXISTENCE OF FAKE THINGS.

nor that WE SHOULD PUT THAT MUCH IMPORTANCE on fake things, because one thing is all of the above, another is saying that a piece of media is trash because it doesn’t have the representation you want in it or thinking that since something exists in fiction then you won a social justice battle. again: fiction is a tool, it’s not the ending nor the beginning of anything. having more black people in media won’t be what stops black people go to jail in the US at a higher rate than white people for the same crimes, but it might help making people relate to someone who’s different and so normalize some stuff... if you watch/consume that media and choose to engage with it. (ie, brooklyn 99′s boss is a gay black man in a stable relationship with a white professor and it’s not what you usually see on tv and it will work for casual watchers, but I doubt someone who usually watches fox news then also watches b99 - you can’t win your wars through fiction, to convince the fox news watcher to not vote trump you have to talk to him and not show him a sitcom. and mind that this can be reversed ie all the anti-russian/islamic propaganda in the US which tends to normalize russians/muslims as The Bad Guy - it works along with other things,��not just on its own) the key is in knowing that fiction is made by people and consumed by people and eventually begins and ends with the people who make it and consume it in whichever way, and not in thinking that it’s above us and is something divine that changes the world just by existing.

[samuelpboswell]

Trust Begins Within: The Vital Importance of Building Internal Trust in Marketing

Let’s cut to the chase: If brands and marketers can’t build trust internally at their organizations, they’ll never be able to develop it outwardly in an authentic way. Plain and simple. When marketers broadcast trustworthiness as a virtue through content and messaging, while their company visibly deals with discord and misalignment in its own ranks, the sentiment rings about as hollow as a sinister-looking Disney villain telling the protagonist through a wicked grin that of course they can be trusted. (Except that today’s customers are more savvy and adept than those necessarily naive fictional film heroes.)

via GIPHY Employees need to trust their leaders, and vice versa. Various functions and departments must foster trust between one another. When a sturdy foundation of confidence, reliability, and belief is in place, this will naturally emanate externally. But the opposite is also true, and it’s something all brands should be thinking about as trust-building becomes a primary differentiator in the business world.

Building Trust Within Your Organization

When a genuine culture of trust is established inside your organization, the benefits are innumerable: It fosters better collaboration, encourages transparency, and enables problem-solving. Perhaps most crucially, it also greatly affects the way your organization is perceived.  Let’s explore this dynamic through a few different lenses.

Trust Between Marketing Leadership and the C-Suite

Per the latest numbers, the average CMO tenure checks in about 43 months — less than half that of a CEO. Lee Odden has described this as "a crisis in confidence amongst business leadership when it comes to marketing." At the same time, marketing's impact on business results is undeniable. [bctt tweet="Marketing done well with a clear why, measurement and purpose creates the kind of value that both customers and business leaders will trust, ensuring credibility and investment far into the future. @leeodden #TrustInMarketing" username="toprank"] Clearly, there is widespread opportunity to strengthen relationships and solidify trust between marketing leadership and the C-suite. Openness, increased collaboration, and bottom-line proof are among the keys to achieving this. Lee shared insights and advice from a wide range of CMOs and marketing influencers on strengthening trust in marketing.  A few of my favorites: “The best way I’ve found to get people onboard with your way of thinking is to do some marketing of your marketing. In other words, treat every relationship as if they were a customer.” — Margaret Magnarelli  “Honesty. I know it sounds trite but trust is earned and earned through honesty. As marketers and storytellers we often 'spin' things to suit our needs. I think more honesty about the company you represent is the only way to succeed. People relate to flaws. It’s human.” — Julie Roehm  “In today’s world it’s all about the quality of A.I.R. you create; Authentic, Inspirational and Realistic marketing will win over your internal and external customers.” — Jeanniey Mullen 

Trust Within the Marketing Team

This is ground zero. Marketers are responsible for managing a brand’s outward image; when conflict and challenges plague the internal team, it’ll be tough to convey the notion of a unified front that’s all rowing in the same direction. When our Vice President of Client Accounts Alexis Hall blogged here recently about making the transition from marketing doer to marketing leader, she noted that cultivating trust on her team was top-of-mind. “Fostering a happy, well-functioning team is your top priority,” Alexis writes. “Not only can you not do your job without them, but it is one of the best indicators of success to your boss and your boss’s boss.” Among her recommendations are shifting the way we find personal value in our work (it’s not just about what you accomplish, but what you help others accomplish), clearing obstacles, and developing leadership qualities within those who show the potential to move up.  [bctt tweet="Fostering a happy, well-functioning team is your top priority. Not only can you not do your job without them, but it is one of the best indicators of success to your boss and your boss’s boss. @Alexis5484 #TrustInMarketing" username="toprank"]

Trust Across Departments and Functions

Building trust within the marketing department can be challenging enough on its own. Even if these individuals work together regularly, use the same lingo, and generally understand the specific roles for each player, global organizations need to coordinate between different regions and business units. Corporate marketing often pushes generic messaging in uniform fashion, overlooking the need for localization and contextual nuance.  Apply this dynamic across departmental or functional divides, and matters can become all the more tricky. We all know about the infamous barriers between marketing and sales. But it’s also important to establish strong relationships between marketing and customer success, product development, human resources, and beyond.  The soundness of cross-functional relationships in your organization manifests in many ways: efficiency of production, consistency of external messaging, the way colleagues interact with one another while in meetings or on calls with clients, and so on.  How to improve the connectivity of siloed units? There are a few key opportunities:

Transparency: Make it easy for folks in one department to see what’s going on in another. 

Honesty/Candor: Encourage people to speak up if they’re bothered of confused by what’s going on elsewhere in the company.

Eliminate Isolation: Cross-functional meetings, or team outings that bring together individuals who don’t generally collaborate, can be really helpful.

Trust Between Employee and Employer

The 2019 Edelman Trust Barometer hints at the existence of a new employer-employee contract: 

Employees are ready and willing to trust their employers, but the trust must be earned through more than “business as usual.” Employees’ expectation that prospective employers will join them in taking action on societal issues (67 percent) is nearly as high as their expectations of personal empowerment (74 percent) and job opportunity (80 percent). The rewards of meeting these expectations and building trust are great. Employees who have trust in their employer are far more likely to engage in beneficial actions on their behalf—they will advocate for the organization (a 39-point trust advantage), are more engaged (33 points), and remain far more loyal (38 points) and committed (31 points) than their more skeptical counterparts.

Those items in the second paragraph make clear the tangible benefits of emphasizing trust between employees and your company’s top leadership, and the first paragraph offers useful guidance on how to get there. In particular, executives can connect more meaningfully with their employees by rallying them around a higher purpose and taking a stand on things that matter to the team. 

Building Trust, Inside and Out

There’s a reason we cover the topic of trust in marketing so frequently, and from so many different angles, on this blog: It’s complex and multifaceted. One missing ingredient — especially at a fundamental level — can lead to dysfunctional operations, lower output quality, and attrition of employees and customers alike. When trust is built from the inside out, happy CEOs, marketing teams, and employees beget happy customers and engaged prospects. This is an area where marketing can and should take ownership and lead the charge. [bctt tweet="When trust is built from the inside out, happy CEOs, marketing teams, and employees beget happy customers and engaged prospects. - @NickNelsonMN #TrustInMarketing" username="toprank"] Learn more about TopRank Marketing’s views on trust in marketing by checking out past entries in our Trust Factors series:

Trust Factors: Why Your Brand Should Take a Stand with Its Marketing Strategy

The B2B Marketing Funnel is Dead: Say Hello to the Trust Funnel

Trust Factors: The (In)Credible Impact of B2B Influencer Marketing

Trust Factors: How Best Answer Content Fuels Brand Credibility

Tip of the Iceberg: A Story of Trust in Marketing as Told by Statistics

Be Like Honest Abe: How Content Marketers Can Build Trust Through Storytelling

Trust in Marketing is at Risk. These CMOs and Marketing Influencers Share How to Fix

The post Trust Begins Within: The Vital Importance of Building Internal Trust in Marketing appeared first on Online Marketing Blog - TopRank®.

from The SEO Advantages https://www.toprankblog.com/2019/10/building-internal-trust-marketing/

[ralphlayton]

Trust Begins Within: The Vital Importance of Building Internal Trust in Marketing

Let’s cut to the chase: If brands and marketers can’t build trust internally at their organizations, they’ll never be able to develop it outwardly in an authentic way. Plain and simple. When marketers broadcast trustworthiness as a virtue through content and messaging, while their company visibly deals with discord and misalignment in its own ranks, the sentiment rings about as hollow as a sinister-looking Disney villain telling the protagonist through a wicked grin that of course they can be trusted. (Except that today’s customers are more savvy and adept than those necessarily naive fictional film heroes.)

via GIPHY Employees need to trust their leaders, and vice versa. Various functions and departments must foster trust between one another. When a sturdy foundation of confidence, reliability, and belief is in place, this will naturally emanate externally. But the opposite is also true, and it’s something all brands should be thinking about as trust-building becomes a primary differentiator in the business world.

Building Trust Within Your Organization

When a genuine culture of trust is established inside your organization, the benefits are innumerable: It fosters better collaboration, encourages transparency, and enables problem-solving. Perhaps most crucially, it also greatly affects the way your organization is perceived.  Let’s explore this dynamic through a few different lenses.

Trust Between Marketing Leadership and the C-Suite

Per the latest numbers, the average CMO tenure checks in about 43 months — less than half that of a CEO. Lee Odden has described this as "a crisis in confidence amongst business leadership when it comes to marketing." At the same time, marketing's impact on business results is undeniable. [bctt tweet="Marketing done well with a clear why, measurement and purpose creates the kind of value that both customers and business leaders will trust, ensuring credibility and investment far into the future. @leeodden #TrustInMarketing" username="toprank"] Clearly, there is widespread opportunity to strengthen relationships and solidify trust between marketing leadership and the C-suite. Openness, increased collaboration, and bottom-line proof are among the keys to achieving this. Lee shared insights and advice from a wide range of CMOs and marketing influencers on strengthening trust in marketing.  A few of my favorites: “The best way I’ve found to get people onboard with your way of thinking is to do some marketing of your marketing. In other words, treat every relationship as if they were a customer.” — Margaret Magnarelli  “Honesty. I know it sounds trite but trust is earned and earned through honesty. As marketers and storytellers we often 'spin' things to suit our needs. I think more honesty about the company you represent is the only way to succeed. People relate to flaws. It’s human.” — Julie Roehm  “In today’s world it’s all about the quality of A.I.R. you create; Authentic, Inspirational and Realistic marketing will win over your internal and external customers.” — Jeanniey Mullen 

Trust Within the Marketing Team

This is ground zero. Marketers are responsible for managing a brand’s outward image; when conflict and challenges plague the internal team, it’ll be tough to convey the notion of a unified front that’s all rowing in the same direction. When our Vice President of Client Accounts Alexis Hall blogged here recently about making the transition from marketing doer to marketing leader, she noted that cultivating trust on her team was top-of-mind. “Fostering a happy, well-functioning team is your top priority,” Alexis writes. “Not only can you not do your job without them, but it is one of the best indicators of success to your boss and your boss’s boss.” Among her recommendations are shifting the way we find personal value in our work (it’s not just about what you accomplish, but what you help others accomplish), clearing obstacles, and developing leadership qualities within those who show the potential to move up.  [bctt tweet="Fostering a happy, well-functioning team is your top priority. Not only can you not do your job without them, but it is one of the best indicators of success to your boss and your boss’s boss. @Alexis5484 #TrustInMarketing" username="toprank"]

Trust Across Departments and Functions

Building trust within the marketing department can be challenging enough on its own. Even if these individuals work together regularly, use the same lingo, and generally understand the specific roles for each player, global organizations need to coordinate between different regions and business units. Corporate marketing often pushes generic messaging in uniform fashion, overlooking the need for localization and contextual nuance.  Apply this dynamic across departmental or functional divides, and matters can become all the more tricky. We all know about the infamous barriers between marketing and sales. But it’s also important to establish strong relationships between marketing and customer success, product development, human resources, and beyond.  The soundness of cross-functional relationships in your organization manifests in many ways: efficiency of production, consistency of external messaging, the way colleagues interact with one another while in meetings or on calls with clients, and so on.  How to improve the connectivity of siloed units? There are a few key opportunities:

Transparency: Make it easy for folks in one department to see what’s going on in another. 

Honesty/Candor: Encourage people to speak up if they’re bothered of confused by what’s going on elsewhere in the company.

Eliminate Isolation: Cross-functional meetings, or team outings that bring together individuals who don’t generally collaborate, can be really helpful.

Trust Between Employee and Employer

The 2019 Edelman Trust Barometer hints at the existence of a new employer-employee contract: 

Employees are ready and willing to trust their employers, but the trust must be earned through more than “business as usual.” Employees’ expectation that prospective employers will join them in taking action on societal issues (67 percent) is nearly as high as their expectations of personal empowerment (74 percent) and job opportunity (80 percent). The rewards of meeting these expectations and building trust are great. Employees who have trust in their employer are far more likely to engage in beneficial actions on their behalf—they will advocate for the organization (a 39-point trust advantage), are more engaged (33 points), and remain far more loyal (38 points) and committed (31 points) than their more skeptical counterparts.

Those items in the second paragraph make clear the tangible benefits of emphasizing trust between employees and your company’s top leadership, and the first paragraph offers useful guidance on how to get there. In particular, executives can connect more meaningfully with their employees by rallying them around a higher purpose and taking a stand on things that matter to the team. 

Building Trust, Inside and Out

There’s a reason we cover the topic of trust in marketing so frequently, and from so many different angles, on this blog: It’s complex and multifaceted. One missing ingredient — especially at a fundamental level — can lead to dysfunctional operations, lower output quality, and attrition of employees and customers alike. When trust is built from the inside out, happy CEOs, marketing teams, and employees beget happy customers and engaged prospects. This is an area where marketing can and should take ownership and lead the charge. [bctt tweet="When trust is built from the inside out, happy CEOs, marketing teams, and employees beget happy customers and engaged prospects. - @NickNelsonMN #TrustInMarketing" username="toprank"] Learn more about TopRank Marketing’s views on trust in marketing by checking out past entries in our Trust Factors series:

Trust Factors: Why Your Brand Should Take a Stand with Its Marketing Strategy

The B2B Marketing Funnel is Dead: Say Hello to the Trust Funnel

Trust Factors: The (In)Credible Impact of B2B Influencer Marketing

Trust Factors: How Best Answer Content Fuels Brand Credibility

Tip of the Iceberg: A Story of Trust in Marketing as Told by Statistics

Be Like Honest Abe: How Content Marketers Can Build Trust Through Storytelling

Trust in Marketing is at Risk. These CMOs and Marketing Influencers Share How to Fix

The post Trust Begins Within: The Vital Importance of Building Internal Trust in Marketing appeared first on Online Marketing Blog - TopRank®.

Trust Begins Within: The Vital Importance of Building Internal Trust in Marketing published first on yhttps://improfitninja.blogspot.com/