A Recent Article Explores Some of the Dangers of Social Media Marketing
By Joyce Dierschke | March 5, 2010
Came across this post at the Copywriter Underground and thought it was pertinent to other posts here about social media.
I love to promote social media to my clients as a way to really get in touch with their customers on a more personal and therefore deeper level. But there are pitfalls as suggested in this article by Tom Chandler, and it is important that these dangers are explored by anyone thinking of entering the social media marketing playing field.
Those already wading in should take a moment to think – and maybe – rethink their strategies, especially the “whos” of your social media campaign – who’s blogging, who’s twittering, etc. Have you given them rules and guidelines? Read on, and give it some real thought:
We Know All About Social Media’s Strengths. What About Its Pitfalls?
Social Media is the subject of a great deal of hype, though less-explored are its downsides.
These include employee oversharing, the need to “Feed the Monster” – and an increased risk of malware and spam attacks (the new social disease?).
From the Good Morning Silicon Valley site:
More businesses may be incorporating social networking into their internal and external communications, but that doesn’t mean the cranky guys back in the systems room are happy about it. A new report and survey of 500 companies by security outfit Sophos found a 70 percent increase last year in the number of firms reporting spam or malware attacks via social networks. Almost three quarters of the companies surveyed believed their employees’ behavior on social networking sites endangered security, and 61 percent named Facebook as their biggest worry among the social sites.
Obviously, every media channel has its pluses and minuses, and they need to be weighed against the potential benefits.
Outside of concerns about malware, I speak candidly with my consulting clients about the dangers of employee oversharing. Social media fanatics are often quick to call for transparency and unfettered employee access, but frankly, some folks shouldn’t be allowed near a Twitter client or a blog.
More than a decade ago, I gave a vendor direct access to my client. It was a tough project (an ad/show campaign), and to my horror, that vendor immediately got into a nasty email flame war with my key client contact.
By the time I found out, the damage was already done, and though I made amends, I (understandably) lost the client.
Oddly, I’d worked with that vendor for years, and their actions never suggested a tendency towards corporate suicide (with their clients or mine).
The moral here is that you can’t simply hand each everyone access to direct media channels like social media. The above exchange took place via email – but imagine if the flame war had taken shape on a Facebook page or even a blog – for all to see?
Too many social media projects begin on a seemingly ad hoc basis – lacking a plan or even a clear idea of the goals, means, and yes – potential pitfalls.
Keep your eyes open about the pitfalls, and you’re a lot less likely to have a bad, bad day.
Keep writing, Tom Chandler.
Did you find this post helpful? Would you like to see more about the dangers of social media marketing in future posts? Please leave a comment below and let me know.
Topics: Blogging, Facebook, Integrated Marketing, Social Marketing, Success in Business, Twitter, Work Life, customer service, social media, web 2.0 | No Comments »
The Top 5 Reasons to Use White Papers to Market Your Business, Courtesy of The White Paper Insider
By Joyce Dierschke | February 27, 2010
If you’ve been marketing for a while, you already know what a white paper is, but you may not truly understand the power of the white paper as a marketing tool. If you don’t consider yourself a marketer, but you find yourself needed to promote your business, company or product, this is an excellent article for you too.
I’m re-posting it here courtesy of The White Paper Source, the authority on white papers. Teresa Beeman makes a strong case for the use of white papers as part of an effective marketing campaign. What it boils down to is that white papers produced great ROI at a relatively low cost to produce.
Take a look:
The Top 5 Reasons to Use White Papers to Market Your Business
2010 February 3
by Teresa Beeman
Today’s economic conditions have presented companies with two serious challenges:
A. Getting the best return on their marketing investment dollars, and
B. Determining the effectiveness of their marketing
Companies must make sure that their marketing efforts are producing the best value from every dime they spend. They must also make sure that they are effectively communicating to the marketplace, and delivering the right message to their target market.
Prophet, a branding and marketing research firm, produced “A State of Marketing Study” which showed that senior management is expecting their marketing to at least enable both the short and long-term growth of their business. They preferred that the marketing completely do the job.
Improved effectiveness of marketing spending was one of the top three priorities of upper-level management.
What does all this mean? Company executives want a good return on the money spent on marketing, and they want it done at the lowest possible cost. Translation: They want the biggest bang for their buck.
Can this be accomplished with white papers? Yes. And here are the top five reasons why:
1. Lead generation – a recent study by RainToday.com shows that white papers were ranked as an excellent source of lead generation by almost three-fourths (74%) of companies that provide professional services.
2. Readily accepted form of marketing communication – white papers are read more often than company web sites, case studies, industry journalism articles, product literature or analyst reports.
They also outrank podcasts, webcasts, online video and blogs.
3. Effective marketing tool – Readers pass white papers to coworkers and colleagues. KnowledgeStorm.com says the number may be as high as 3 in 5 readers (57%).
4. First in evaluating business solutions – the use of white papers outranks email newsletters, case studies, articles, software downloads, product literature and articles
5. Widely respected as a source for problem solving. Most people who read white papers are looking for a solution to a problem. White papers are an effective way to accomplish this goal.
There isn’t a better, more effective, more readily accepted form of marketing than the white paper.
Topics: Content Marketing, Integrated Marketing, Success in Business, White Papers, copywriting, marketing | No Comments »
Carl Lewis & Facebook: Do You Delete Comments and Posts?
By Joyce Dierschke | February 25, 2010
I recently had this question posed to me off the back of some of my past social media posts on this blog including Do You Censor Yourself on Social Media (March 2009) and more recently, Did You Un-Friend Me Because You Don’t Like Me Anymore?
This reader was interested to know if people also took advantage of the fact that on Facebook you can delete your comments and posts, as well as other people’s comments and posts on your profile.
I have on one occasion deleted a message someone posted to my profile. And I think I had a valid reason to do so – it was information I truly didn’t think was a good idea to be put “out there.” Basically a friend who knew I was about to leave on vacation, posted to my wall a message that asked if I was “still leaving early in the morning tomorrow” and that they would “see me when I got back in two weeks.” I mean, why didn’t they just send out my social security number while they were at it?
Anyone else see a problem with this?
I can’t help but think back to Carl Lewis, the multi-sport Olympian who’s home was robbed while he was competing for Olympic glory in 1984. Now this was way before the Internet phenomenon, but opportunists knew he would be out of town for a set amount of time so they took advantage and ripped him off. Because of Carl Lewis, I deleted that Facebook post. I just didn’t want to tempt anyone who may be looking for an opportunity.
Plus I believe that some things are too personal to be posted about – this is also why I no longer participate on Dopplr – which they say is a great way to network with people when you’re on the road. It’s also a great way to tell the world that you’re not home, how far away you are and how long you’ll be gone! I’m trying to be smarter about my posts – not just what I put on my personal profile, but also what I post on other people’s walls.
So if we can all agree that in this instance, deleting a post was justified, what else would justify deleting a post or comment? Have you done it? Why or why not?
Topics: Blogging, Facebook, Life in General, Social Marketing, Twitter, networking, social media, web 2.0 | 2 Comments »
RePost: Three B2B Social Media Myths And Why You Should Ignore Them
By Joyce Dierschke | February 23, 2010
I subscribe to a newsletter written by Dianna Huff called “The MarCom Strategist.” This subscription entitles me to some sweet gems like this one. I thought that Diana did such a great job debunking this widely believed social media myths, that I’d reprint them here. (If you’re not familiar with Dianna, I suggest you take a look at her MarCom Writer’s Blog.)
These 3 Myths of Social Media that Dianna describes can often prevent a company from even considering social media as a viable part of their marketing plan. When you say “social media” red flags such as “time-waster”, “no ROI”, and “kiddie marketing” go up all over the corporate suite. So it is you CEOs of SuchNSuch Company – you are the ones who need to understand the true value of social media. Because like it or not, social media is here to stay and if you don’t get involved soon you, your product and your company will be left behind. Your customers are on line, spending money and creating relationships with your competition. So take a look at these particular myths, debunked by one who knows:
And now, courtesy of Dianna Huff:
Three B2B Social Media Myths And Why You Should Ignore Them
Myth #1 –- Social Media doesn’t apply to my business
It’s easy to ignore social media –- especially if you’re a B2B industrial company. Social media is new, it’s flashy and it’s just not something a crusty sales guy has any interest in. (Just give ‘em a booth at a tradeshow and they’re happy –- harrumph!). If you’re ignoring social media for this reason, it’s time to rethink your strategy.
Companies such as Dell and Comcast use Twitter to sell products and improve customer service (respectively). HubSpot uses LinkedIn Groups to grow its community and increase its user base. And, Cisco uses YouTube and other social media tools to promote new products (i.e. routers!). Social media is definitely a business tool.
Myth #2 –- Social Media is a fad
Yes, social media is hot right now and yes, everyone is talking about it, and yes, every time you turn around some mainstream publication is writing about the millions of people on Twitter. If you’re thinking social media will go away, you’ve got a long wait. This is because social media is basically an activity we’ve all been doing since the beginning of time: talking with each other. Thanks to the Internet, it’s now easier to connect with people –- whether in the same town or across the globe.
Although the urge to connect with others will not go away, how we connect with people online will continue to evolve. What do I mean by this? When the Internet first came into play, we had Internet bulletin boards and email list serves. A few years ago MySpace and Friendster were the “hot” platforms; however, both have been supplanted by Facebook and Twitter –- and these, too, can quickly fade or get bought out by other companies. (This is why it’s important you use these tools as *part* of your marketing strategy and not your *only* marketing strategy.) Hence, it really pays to be conversant with the social media tools available –- because while the tools will change, the ability to seamlessly connect with your customers and colleagues wherever they are online will only add more value to you and your job.
Myth #3 –- Social Media takes too much time for little return
As a results-based marketer, determining ROI from social media is something I still struggle with. With traditional marketing, you send out a direct mail letter and get XX responses, and a certain percentage of those responses go on to become sales -– giving you a fairly easy way to calculate ROI. Social media doesn’t always work this way because it takes time to build a network and community online. You have to log on every day and see what people are saying. You have to Retweet posts, read other people’s blogs, follow conversations, answer Questions on LinkedIn, and respond to friends on Facebook.
So it can be difficult to determine if people begin doing business with you because you responded to their Twitter posts, they read a comment you left on a blog and then clicked through to your site, or they watched your YouTube video.
However, social media does work –- if you see it as a tool for connecting with people and listening to them versus pushing out tired press releases and product pitches. As you connect with others, your network grows. As you listen, you get to know people (your customers) and their challenges, likes and dislikes, and even their online habits. You begin to know people for who they really are –- versus simply seeing them as a name and job function –- and that is where the magic starts to happen. Why? Simply put, people do business with people they trust. Social media helps you build this trust.
Topics: Blogging, Facebook, Integrated Marketing, Podcasting, Social Marketing, Success in Business, Twitter, Viral Marketing, marketing, web 2.0 | 1 Comment »
Did You Un-Friend Me Because You Don’t Like Me Anymore?
By Joyce Dierschke | February 19, 2010
I have this little tool called Greasemonkey. Each time I sign into Facebook, the little monkey performs a “friend check” to see who has dropped me from their friend list. And yes, I’ve been dropped by several people. Ah ha! You thought I’d never know…
Surprise! The Internet is no longer a place to be anonymous. With all the widgets and gadgets, plug-ins and add-ons, there is a tool to thwart just about any subterfuge. Not that dropping friends from your Facebook account is a reason for high treason, but still, it hurts.
Well, it doesn’t hurt that much. That’s because when I first started using Facebook I “friended” a whole mess of people I barely knew or didn’t know at all. It was an ego move – a lot of people I knew had hundreds of friends. I wanted hundreds of friends too. How shallow!
What I learned is that in social media – as in normal, face-to-face socializing – its really more about quality than quantity. I completely get that. It’s not how many friends you have, but how useful, enjoyable and helpful your interactions with those friends are. As in life, if we have “friends” that are really just acquaintances and we never form a bond of any kind, then we are apt to drop them either actively (get lost!) or passively (do I know you?). Trying to keep up with my friends is hard enough, I just don’t have the time to keep up with mere acquaintances and I can only imagine that this is the true reason I’ve been dropped by some.
And yet the act of “dropping” is active – it requires action. You had to go to your friends list, see my name and click delete. Seems like a lot of unnecessary steps in our busy, busy lives. I suppose I was using up valuable Facebook friend real estate and had to go to make room for better friends. Or maybe my popping up on your home page with my usual drivel (its not all drivel) just finally got to you. FYI – you could have just click “hide” then you wouldn’t have to see my posts at all. But no, you specifically deleted me. So finally, here’s my question:
Do You Delete Friends on Facebook and why?
Topics: Facebook, Life in General, Social Marketing, web 2.0 | 2 Comments »
How To Implement a Content Marketing Strategy in Six Steps
By Joyce Dierschke | February 1, 2010
Recently read a compelling article over at Content Marketing Today about how small businesses can implement a content marketing strategy in six steps.
What is content marketing and why is it important? The short (very short) answer is that content marketing is highly targeted, problem-solving, educational content that fits perfectly into an integrated marketing plan. Your customers and prospects are more sophisticated these days. They’re weighing their options and comparing your business to your competitors’ before they ever pick up the phone – what they find determines the number they dial when they’re ready to make a decision. If your website and companion materials supply not only information, but answers to their basic questions, it sets you up as the expert – the leader in your field. Content can go a long way in ensuring these discerning buyers call you first.
Don’t have a content marketing plan? Take a look at the steps put forth by Content Marketing Today:
Here are the six steps that can put you on the path to an effective content marketing strategy:
- Precisely define your ideal customer and develop an in-depth understanding of the problems they face and the solutions they seek. You cannot hope to market and sell to an ill-defined and poorly understood group of prospects. This is critical even to the behemoth, Wal-Mart. They can tell you that their ideal customer is the person who lives paycheck to paycheck. Their current tagline, “Save Money. Live Better,” carefully reflects their understanding of the frugality and aspirational character of their customers. I think it’s much more powerful than its 19-year-old predecessor, “Always low prices.” As a small-business owner, you have even less margin for error than Wal-Mart and certainly must be at least as precise in your understanding of your target buyers.
- Determine how your company can solve those problems and provide those solutions. Stop defining the value of your products and services as a big set of features–or even a vaguely defined set of benefits. The beauty of your benefits is strictly in the mind of the beholder. Therefore, you must determine what problems you will solve and how you will solve them. That’s what genuine customer benefits are all about: the positive outcomes that your prospects can envision as a result of working with you and your company.
- Establish as a primary content marketing goal to become a trusted source of information for your target buyers. Trust is the all important element that can transform prospects who were initially skeptical into long-term customers who have faith that you can and will deliver results for them time after time. That trust begins when you provide content that is relevant and meaningful for your target customers in that context of solving their problems.
- Develop an online presence that is increasingly rich with relevant content with each passing week. This means that, although you will need the timeless content typical of a standard website, you must absolutely have the more timely content typical of a blog. Moreover, your content and your company will become more valuable over time as you keep adding critical mass of information online. For a small business, building a blog-powered website is the surest way to fulfill this component of your content marketing strategy.
- Take on the role of traditional media in the minds of your customers by thinking like a publisher. Imagine, for a moment, that you are your target customer’s favorite magazine or newspaper. Thus, when you create and publish content that is vital to your customer, present it just as compellingly and accessibly as savvy publishers do. This is easier to say that it is to do. Therefore, you may need to get help from professional writers or journalists who know how to tell great stories to a well defined target set of readers–or in your case, buyers. In fact, I am beginning to believe that one of the most significant future marketing expenditures will be contracting with talented writers who can translate your knowledge into accessible and compelling content.
- Make it easy for your customers to transition from learning from you to actually buying from you. In other words, you must provide complete and easily accessible online product, company, and contact information. First, you teach your customers what they are desperate to know and then you make it incredibly easy for them to buy. Put yourself in the customer role for a moment and look at your website objectively. Would you find it easy to buy from you? If not, begin by adding whatever product and service content is missing. Then, refine your structure so that the path from interested prospect to committed customer is simple and straightforward.
Topics: Blogging, Case Studies, Content Marketing, Email Marketing, Integrated Marketing, Social Marketing, Viral Marketing, White Papers, copywriting, marketing, power of words | No Comments »
You Think We Don’t Text? We do.
By Joyce Dierschke | January 25, 2010
And now, the Pope wants you to blog as well, Father…
There’s a cell phone commercial out there that shows a priest or a reverend of some kind holding a phone and saying, “You think we don’t text? We do.”
As a practicing Catholic, I often worry that the church is perpetually behind the times expecting people to come to it – instead of going to them. Well last week on World Communications Day, the Pope posted a message to Priests on the Vatican web site that invited and entreated them to get on line! I believe that the fact that Pope Benedict recognizes the power of the current trend of on line marketing and communications as an aid to the challenges of the clergy in our time is good news for the Church as a whole and for the future of the Church.
This Pope is showing that he knows what the future holds and that the youth the Church so desperately needs to reach is on the web. Couple that with His ability to connect modern technology and biblical teachings – validating the relevancy of one to the other – is nothing short of inspirational:
The world of digital communication, with its almost limitless expressive capacity, makes us appreciate all the more Saint Paul’s exclamation: “Woe to me if I do not preach the Gospel” (1 Cor 9:16) The increased availability of the new technologies demands greater responsibility on the part of those called to proclaim the Word, but it also requires them to become become more focused, efficient and compelling in their efforts. Priests stand at the threshold of a new era: as new technologies create deeper forms of relationship across greater distances, they are called to respond pastorally by putting the media ever more effectively at the service of the Word.
A pastoral presence in the world of digital communications, precisely because it brings us into contact with the followers of other religions, non-believers and people of every culture, requires sensitivity to those who do not believe, the disheartened and those who have a deep, unarticulated desire for enduring truth and the absolute. Just as the prophet Isaiah envisioned a house of prayer for all peoples (cf. Is 56:7), can we not see the web as also offering a space – like the “Court of the Gentiles” of the Temple of Jerusalem – for those who have not yet come to know God?
To read the Pope’s entire message Click Here.
Topics: Blogging, Integrated Marketing, Social Marketing, Twitter, power of words, web 2.0 | No Comments »
What Is Viral Marketing?
By Joyce Dierschke | January 20, 2010
Viral Marketing: A Simple Explanation
We’ve all heard the term “viral marketing” or “viral advertising”. But what does “viral” mean exactly in these instances?
First off let’s look at the word “viral”. Viral comes from “virus”, which many of us may automatically think of as something bad. A virus is an infection that replicates and spreads by itself. If you get a virus, you’re laid up for a while to recover. If your computer gets a virus, well, it may never recover.
But as far as marketing is concerned, for the most part, viruses are good. In this instance a virus is a replicating, spreading idea that sells a product or service.
Of course, not every viral idea sells something – think of the dancing baby videos that made the rounds through email back in the 1990s. Certainly was viral, but it didn’t really sell anything or propose any new ideas except some animation that was pretty cool for its time. And it introduced us all to the fact that something – an idea, a video – COULD spread similar to the way a virus spreads.
The hard part is making that viral element actually produce something of value, not just entertainment for the client or your boss. – Seth Godin What is Viral Marketing?
So even though it didn’t sell anything, the dancing baby is a good example of a viral idea. People passed it around to their friends and co-workers for only one reason: they WANTED to.
And that is the key – your audience has to WANT to share it. But this may not be as easy to control as you may think. You may have an awesome idea or product, but that doesn’t mean it can go viral.
How about the “Will It Blend” videos from Blendtec? I mean, you could spend days watching that guy blend up everything from golf balls to cell phones. When they first started I got emails telling me that I HAD to watch these videos. It was a story on the local and national news. Talk shows were talking about it. Heck even the two ladies I always see in the park were chatting about it as they passed me on the trail one day. For a while, Will It Blend was all over the place. But did they sell blenders?
According to the 2008 NY Times article, Mixing It Up, by Rob Walker:
Jeff Robe, the company’s (Blendtec) marketing director, says Web popularity has created “a brand presence that we did not have…” and that “Blendtec.com sales have risen 600 percent since the videos started.” But percentages can be misleading, and the private company doesn’t get more specific than that…
I would say that even if 600% is a tad off…that still some good exposure for their products.
Bottom line is, people shared those videos because they enjoyed them and wanted their friends to enjoy them too. Its a good viral example because the company benefitted in a few ways from it: increased on line visibility and increased sales.
Here are 3 things to remember when it comes to viral marketing, courtesy of The Six Simple Principles of Viral Marketing by Dr. Ralph F. Wilson:
For something to be successfully viral, it must:
1. Give away valuable products or services
Viral marketers practice delayed gratification. They may not profit today, or tomorrow, but if they can generate a groundswell of interest from something free, they know they will profit “soon and for the rest of their lives” (with apologies to “Casablanca”). Patience, my friends. Free attracts eyeballs. Eyeballs then see other desirable things that you are selling, and, presto! you earn money. Eyeballs bring valuable e-mail addresses, advertising revenue, and e-commerce sales opportunities. Give away something, sell something.
2. Provide for effortless transfer to others
All anyone has to do to pass it on is just click “Send”.
3. Scale easily from small to very large
If the Blendtec web site crashed during the deluge of people wanting to watch their videos, the experiment would have failed. You have to be ready for lots of people to climb on board. It needs to be simple: click – watch. Not click, wait for it to download, maybe try back tomorrow…no, that’s when you lose them for good.
Getting something to go viral is not easy and not everything is a good viral candidate. It has to seem natural. You can’t force viral. All you can do is create something – a video, a photo, etc. – put it out there and hope it gets picked up. Of course its easier now to do viral marketing than it was even 5 years ago. Because of Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and the rest, more people are on line for more hours and so your change of being seen is greater. And getting seen is half the battle.
Viral marketing can be a useful and cost efficient tool. But it should be just one tool that you’re using in a marketing plan that integrates a variety of initiatives and creative ideas.
Topics: Content Marketing, Email Marketing, Integrated Marketing, Social Marketing, Success in Business, Viral Marketing, marketing, web 2.0, word of mouth marketing | No Comments »
10 Corporate Blogging Tips and Strategies from Joe Pulizzi
By Joyce Dierschke | January 7, 2010
Found this awesome post with great tips for business blogging on Joe Pulizzi’s Junta42 Content Marketing Blog. I’m re-posting it here courtesy of Joe.
The information is really useful for anyone contemplating blogging or anyone who has just started blogging. It puts things into perspective and acts as a great case for blogging. If you don’t blog, or if you don’t know if you should blog, take a look at Joe’s tips:
- A blog is just a tool, nothing more, nothing less. BUT, it can be a powerful tool to distribute consistent and valuable information to your prospects and customers. Be sure to focus on the informational needs of your customers, and provide helpful content around those needs. The more niche the better. Find your expertise area and own it!
- Not sure how to get started with a robust social media presence? First, focus on your blog and use that as the magnet to attract customers from social networks to your site. You cannot have a social media strategy without first understanding your content strategy.
- Match your expertise areas with the needs of your customers. Every situation where you have expertise and your customer has an informational need is a piece of content that leads to a larger content strategy.
- There are thousands of blogging platforms. Pick the easiest to implement. Wordpress and TypePad would be my first and second choices. Larger organizations may want to look into Compendium.
- Get your blogging ears on and listen. Use tools such as Google Alerts, Twitter Search and Tweetdeck to actively listen to your community.
- Where are your customers hanging out? Find relevant industry blogs using Twitter, Google Alerts and Google Blog Search and begin to read those blogs. A bit later, start to engage and comment with helpful tips. Once you gather a presence on those blogs, guest blogging opportunities should be considered. Make a list of at least 10-15 blogs.
- Automatically spread your message. Use a service like Twitterfeed to automatically post your blog updates to Twitter and Facebook.
- Choose a consistent schedule. Whether it’s once, twice a week or even daily, pick a schedule and stick to it. This blog posts 2-3 times per week and has been doing so for almost three years now. Of all these points, this may be the most important.
- Track your performance. Use Google Analytics to monitor which posts are being engaged in the most and where people are coming from. Do more of the posts that are read, less of the ones that are not.
- Length and style tips:
- Shorter is often better (250 words). Get to the point and make it actionable. Link out to ideas that need more explanation.
- Bullets/Lists do better
- Titles are like magazine covers…their role is to get people to open them. Work on titles that get people to read your post.
- Integrate video or presentations (embed) whenever possible. Mix it up!
- Actively link to other bloggers. They will notice.
- Proofread!
__________
Good luck out there!
Topics: Blogging, Content Marketing, Social Marketing, marketing, web 2.0 | 2 Comments »
How To Write Well: Read…Everything
By Joyce Dierschke | January 6, 2010
I don’t believe good writers are born. I believe they are made. I also believe that just about anyone can become a really good writer by following some simple tips and also by reading everything you can get your hands on!
Friends, colleagues and clients have asked me how they can improve their writing skills. There are many ways to become an effective writer. Some of the best tips are:
- Write the way you speak – pretend you’re talking to your mom or your best friend. This will make your writing conversational which is almost always informative and interesting for your readers.
- Keep your readers in mind. Make some quick bullet points about who your readers are, how they think and/or talk, and ultimately what you want them to do. I use sticky notes for this and I have them stuck to my computer screen so they are always right there in front of me.
- Keep sentences short. Not too short, and there’s really no long and fast rule to the maximum number of words a sentence should have, but when you read your writing back, you’ll know if a sentence is just too long. Remember, keep it conversational.
- In the last tip I mentioned “reading your writing back.” This is key. Once you’ve written something, read it back to yourself out loud. It also helps to get someone else to read it out loud to you. When you hear something out loud, you’ll quickly see where any problems in your writing are.
- Editing! For some reason people don’t like to edit what they’ve written. But this also is a very important part of writing well. So you’ve written a piece, you’ve read it back and/or had it read back to you. Now, edit. ALL writing can use editing – even if you think what you have down is pretty darn good – it can always be better – and shorter! Time constraints permitting, I usually wait at least a day before I edit what I’ve written. I put it away for a day and come back to it fresh. You’ll be amazed at how well your writing improves with thoughtful editing.
If you take these writing tips to heart, I think you’ll find that you can become a really good writer pretty quickly. But there is one more tip that is of supreme importance to writers: READ.
Read especially the media you want to write for – for instance, read web copy if you want to write web copy. Read articles if you want to write articles – newspaper articles are quite different from magazine articles, so keep that in mind. Read sales letters if you want to write sales letters.
Now, not all you read will be good - keep that in mind too. When you read, analyze – what do you think about the author’s choice of words? Are you moved by the piece? Do you think it accomplishes its goal? Hold onto the samples you find most effective and refer back to them when you need to.
In addition to reading the genre you want to write, read everything else too! Reading non-fiction as well as fiction is invaluable to enhancing your vocabulary. I love to read new business books by successful people – I always learn new words, new uses for old words and what the current buzz words are for a particular field. Reading teaches you about flow – and different ways that information can flow. Again, read critically – note what you believe is good writing and what is not so good. Read pieces recommended by people you respect.
Its not hard to become a good writer, but it does take practice and research. Remember the tips above when diving into your next writing project, and if you aren’t already an avid reader…become one now!
Good luck!
Topics: Success in Business, White Papers, Work Life, copywriting | No Comments »
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