Viewing entries tagged with 'business'
Here's a bullet-proof tip for business writers
When researching a blog post on terrible business writing, I kept running across the work of Ron Denholm from Essay Audit. He had great examples of terrible writing and a lot to say about how to fix it. Knowing it's better to learn from the master, I asked him to guest post for me and he graciously agreed.* Ron has a BA and MA both in Classics. He headed Learning and Development for the Australian Federal Police in Sydney where he developed effective e-learning writing courses, and received a Commissioner's Commendation for improving Ministerial writing. (I say give the guy a medal!) Ron has trained over 2,500 people in efficient writing. Over to Ron.
Are your business communications working against you?
A couple weeks ago I received a very odd email from a sender I didn’t recognise. It was a humorous little note about a missing brain, an international search party and a remote beach in Mexico. I’m a big fan of creative writing so even though my anti-virus program flagged it as probable spam, I considered it a gift. It was written in the form of a press release making me think it might be the first part of a marketing campaign.
9 Essential Ways LinkedIn Improves My Business
Are you getting the most of LinkedIn? I’m always surprised when I hear people say they need to think about opening an account on LinkedIn. I understand the reservations professional people have about creating a social media persona. When it comes to LinkedIn, the benefits far outweigh the perceived risk associated with many online tools.
9 Ways to Get a Bargain on Professional Services
Last week I wrote about ways clients increase the cost of their copywriting services, 7 Surefire Ways to Increase your Copywriting Fees. The post was pretty much a flop. It didn’t get a lot of traffic and only garnered one comment. I was surprised. It provided inside information on pricing along with insight to how client behaviour influences a costing exercise. This week I’m taking a different approach.
6 Practical Ways Twitter Can Help Your Business
I read an interesting article by Jason Jordan in The West Australian Newspaper titled In defence of Twitter. It’s a good article with some good Word of Mouth (WoM) references for people to follow. Jason wrote every sentence using 140 characters or less to help prove short communications can be extremely effective. I’m glad Jason wrote the story. Twitter has done so many good things for my business I can’t be bothered to get defensive any more. Here are six of my own reasons why I think business, in particular, should be using Twitter.
Social Media vs. Y2K: Avoid Hype by Keeping Social Media Practical
Social media is a topic generating a huge amount of interest and an equal amount of confusion. The hype surrounding it reminds me, in a way, of the Y2K phenomena that swept the world in the late 1990s. I spent a lot of time speaking about Y2K. My writing career started with the same topic. As hysteria concerning the potential virus mounted, the message I promoted was one of calm and rational thinking. The main points delivered by the company where I was employed, Compuware, were 1) test your applications and 2) get your quality assurance processes in place. I was glad I was on that side of the Y2K debate when the looming “time bomb” turned out to be a fizzle.
What Does a Copywriter Do? Part 2
Copywriting is a profession. Interestingly, it’s a line of work many businesses fail to utilize. The creative professions understand, inherently, the value of precise writing. Photographers, web designers, public relations firms, advertising agencies and publishers have long employed professionals to write their copy for them. Corporate enterprises regularly hire writers or use freelancers to complete their marketing projects. The small to medium business (SMB or SME) is often reluctant to make an investment in writing services. That reluctance is costing them.
Blogging: Full Circle
When I first started this blog, I was worried about being relevant. I had failed to understand that a blog is business writing. My concern was that I didn’t want to trivialize my business and potentially undermine my own efforts. It’s taken me less than two months to figure out that a company blog can be a powerful lead generation tool. I don’t know why I didn’t recognize it before.
