Letters to the Editor

For the first time since publishing the new version of Nurturing Potential, we actually enjoyed some correspondence.

Well . . . enjoyed is possibly a euphemism.  What began as a criticism of the form and content of one article in our last issue, and was then offered to the article's author for response, turned into what we feared might become a sort of Facebook-style imbroglio.  So we have invoked editorial privilege and are quoting merely the main comment and the crux of the response.

The article was Patrick Zuluaga's Seven Business Development Marketing Tips for Social Media in the Business section (http://www.nurturingpotential.net\BusNet6.htm) and the comment from Terry Goodwin (a frequent business section contributor) suggested that "when someone quotes specific percentages in support of a statement, they should be backed up by details of where the statistical survey was produced – that is, if the writer expects his audience to believe them.  Otherwise it's no more than a demonstration of Disraeli's 'lies, damned lies, and statistics'".

Patrick's response was: "The numbers provided in the article are consolidated from my continuous and on-going absorption of publications and market studies published from all possible sources.  I write my short articles not to achieve literacy excellence but to engage with business people to shake them from their marketing complacency. So if the letter to the editor and the response will “shake the tree” to further engage with readers and get their interest when published I would prefer to go that way."

We conveyed this to Mr Goodwin.   "But where's the provenance, Mr Zuluaga?" he asks.