There are plenty of sites (both business/consumer and pure blog) that have plenty to say, and say it effectively. And they don’t just rely on short sentences, SEO-laden jargon and bullet points, either.
There’s a reason why they call it “social” media. Being social and responsive is a key component to effectively using social media as a business.
Images help sell a story, which is why newsprint is usually livened up with photos. That holds true in the online world as well, where there are even more choices to augment even the driest copy. As is always the case, however, sometimes there can be far, far too much of a good thing.
Whether you’re reaching out to peers, employees, customers, or consumers, you must speak to them in a way that relates to them if you want to be heard.
When writing for the Web, avoid these top mistakes to entice readers rather than repulse them.
In the mad rush to get something, anything, out onto a social media platform (or two, or three), the content can take a backseat to the process.
The human eye may not be able to catch every error, but striving for the perfect piece of copy starts with a few simple proofing measures.
As Internet companies attempt to personalize their services to each user, there is an unintended result: we view an edited down version of reality that colors the world that we see. Eli Pariser discusses this in his latest TED talk that you can watch here.
The number of newspapers continues to decline at an alarming pace (at least for those of us who’ve worked in the industry for more years than we care to admit), but there a few stalwarts still remain.
Want to see who’s still spilling barrels of ink daily? Then visit this site, a part of the Newseum’s interactive offerings. More than 800 newspapers worldwide have agreed to take part in this exercise, so scroll to your heart’s content and sample front pages from around the country, even the globe. (They’re not edited in any way, so the content of some might throw you. As the Newseum says, “discretion is advised.”)
Here is a great video of business strategist, Valerie Maltoni, explaining how businesses can talk to customers so they listen. She believes technology can help transform buyers into returning customers and explains the difference between buyers and customers. Buyers are people with many singular transactions whereas customers are buyers who decide to come back two, three, or more times to purchase from a brand they believe in. Social media not only helps transform a buyer into a customer, but it encourages that new customer to bring along their friends.
Last fall I attended a talk given by James Merlino, M.D., of the Cleveland Clinic. Merlino serves as chief experience officer, where he leads a variety of initiatives designed to create a better patient experience from first point of contact through discharge.
Anyone who ever dismissed the idea of blogging because they felt that it was a young person’s medium should check out My Mom’s Blog, written by 85-year-old Millie Garfield.
