Archives for December 2008

How to Write for Blogs and Social Media: New Media – New Rules!

Writing for blogs and social media is changing the time honored skill of writing.  The key to business blogging and social media marketing is simple.  You write with a purpose.   This is a skill that gets better the more you practice it.   What is your business purpose?  Naturally you want to do more of whatever it is that you do to generate a profit.  That goes without saying.  What enables you to accomplish that end?  That’s your purpose.  Are you building a fan base of loyal friends and followers that will recommend you?  Are you carving out a niche so you are the “go-to” expert in your field?  Are you creating a buzz that will get your phone ringing?    There are a number of strategies and you have to be clear on yours.  The greater the clarity, the easier the writing.    

Now just follow these three steps:

1.  Use the Right Words
2.  Break the Rules
3.  Serve it Up!

Use the Right Words:  What are the right words?  The ones your readers are using.  It seems simple but this is a tough thing for many of us to understand because we want to use OUR words.  There is a language to an industry, a market, and a demographic – sorry, big word demographic, probably not one the market uses!  The more you get out there and live what your readers are living, the more you’ll understand how to connect to them with the right words.  Here’s a tip.  Carry a notepad to write things down.  Put what people say in quotes.  Use those words and you are guaranteed to connect with people just like them.

Break the Rules:  You can’t follow the herd in life if you want to be noticed.   Most people write to be read – and the only way you are going to get noticed is to break the rules.  I just did it.  I used a dash instead of correct punctuation.  I write to my ear – what sounds right to me, not to a book of rules.  The truth is I don’t know the rules of grammar very well.  Guess what? You don’t have to know them either because most readers don’t know them.  Ernest Hemingway is one of my favorite writers and a rule breaker himself.  Read “The Old Man and The Sea” and you’ll know with certainty that storytelling doesn’t have to be complicated.  That book is where I got the idea to use dashes instead of commas.  It reads better.  Hemingway used this technique and he did alright for himself.  Give it a try.  And contrary to the what many grammar experts advise, he started sentences with words like “and” – just like I’m doing now!  Watch and learn from the pros.

Serve it Up!:  This is one of the most difficult skills to learn, but arguably the most effective.  My son Zak handed me a draft of a paper he was writing for one of his high school classes.  It began with several introductory sentences, then he got to the point.  That’s how most people write.   And that’s what I told him.  “You started communicating right here!” 

Life just happens!  So, write that way.  Last week Zak’s car skidded on the ice and smashed into the curb.  The tire hissed for a minute until going completely flat.  I like to imagine that’s how Hemingway would describe what happened, without wasted words.  What did I leave out?  The name of the street, the make of the car, the brand of the tires – and much, much more.  You don’t respect the reader if you don’t get to the point.  Give them the meat – throw it on their plate!  That’s real.  They’ll use their imagination and life experiences to determine exactly how it tastes.  But they can’t do that if you don’t serve it up!  You have to give them a tightly written story for that to happen.  When you do that, you’ll have attentive readers that will help you fulfill your business purpose. 

2008Dec26_Hemingway

Social Media & College Football – No Huddle Wins the Game

My friends know how much I love college football -  not necessarily specific teams, but the game itself – the energy, innovation, and excitement of what's next.  This is exactly what I love about Social Media Marketing today.  This week I read the article in USA Today about how Heisman Trophy winner Sam Bradford and the Oklahoma Sooners, as well as many other top flight college football teams – including my hometown Ohio State Buckeyes -  have all gone to a no huddle offense.  The huddle personifies the old way of running a football offense, just as Social Media is profiling a similar model for marketing in today's economy.  The huddle is all about the "secret" game plan.  Who cares!  As we all know, defensive teams are much wiser today.  So are consumers – your customers.  Show them what you've got.  That's what they are waiting for.

Today Social Media Marketing puts it all out there and its about moving quickly to get your mission accomplished.  This is the New Media.  If you think too much about your marketing objectives today you are as dead as the huddle offense – crushed by the forces that are out there to reward the most agile companies. Where are you with your marketing tactics?  You know I believe in strategy above all else.  Yet, once you have studied, practiced , and aligned your team, its game time!

If you worry too much about how the market will respond, then you've missed the opportunity.  I was lucky enough to watch the Buckeyes win a National Championship in 1969 when I was a youngster in Worthington (Columbus), Ohio.  Times have changed for the great game of college football – and the commercial markets have changed too.  Readiness and responsiveness are the game today.  Let the markets clearly know where you stand and they will reward you with more business.  Get on with it.  Snap the ball.  Make that blog post with vigor.  Tweet until you run out of ideas.  Then get up and do it all over again.  It takes courage, but it works.  What are you waiting for.  Make bold strategic plans for 2009 and be ready to act on them to seize opportunities.  

Finally, if you happen to be an Ohio State fan, here's something from my archives that I had forgotten about until this post.  Here are signatures from a scrimmage game following that 1969 Ohio State National Championship. (You'll have to click on image to read see them well.)  I managed to get Jack Tatum, Jim Otis, and a few more – including legendary head coach Woody Hayes!  Thanks Dad.

2008Dec1


Internet Marketing – Does it Work? Prove it!

I recently presented a program on Internet Marketing at an executive retreat in Alabama for a select group of Green Industry leaders from across the country.  These executives of mid-sized companies are  interested in results, so they asked some challenging questions.  Most of those questions can be distilled down to one:  Does this Internet Marketing […]

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Twitter – Organic Marketing in a Global Environment

Many of my friends, especially those in the green industry, just don’t understand Twitter.  There is hope, however, because they have at least heard about Twitter and are curious about it.  This suggests its just a matter of time until everyone starts micro-blogging with platforms like Twitter.  Outside of my circle of professional speaker and […]

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