Ease up on the exclamations for better effect
The mail this week included a short printed newsletter from a local real estate agent. She always includes a chatty page about family and seasonal activities. It is all very heart-warming and she’s a lovely woman. But! One! short! page! Had 16 exclamation marks!...
Here’s why you want to blog
Are you blogging? Technorati’s 2013 Digital Influence Report (the report formerly known as the State of the Blogosphere) suggests you should be. (Sorry, the link is no longer live.) “Blogs are still one of the most influential mediums, ranking high with...Hands-on social media workshop was helpful and fun
Are you keeping up with social media? You could spend lots of time tinkering or reading up on the latest social media networks. Or you could attend a session with an expert, as I did this weekend. As I say in the summary of Twitter messages below, my friend Donna...
It’s ironic; are IABC members ‘being heard’?
Change is hard. IABC is finding this out in spades these days, ever since the staff firings late last year and the subsequent introduction of many other changes to the organization. But it’s not just that IABC members are resistant to change. At some point, when...
Writing for the web? Plan on impatient readers
“Write for impatient users.” If you take nothing else away from the latest study done by web usability expert Jakob Nielsen, that would be it. While Nielsen was specifically looking at how teens navigate online, you could make the case that everyone is...
Are you keeping in touch with clients?
The client put my business card on his desk. He had held onto it since 2003, after we had worked together on a safety newsletter. That’s right, since 2003. I was stunned. As a writer, I’m thrilled to be invited to quote on new projects with someone I have...
Six things I’ve learned in six years of blogging
Six years and 578 posts. Considering my awful track record of journaling (often months between posts!), I guess that’s not too bad. Since starting this blog in 2007, I’ve tried to share things I’ve learned or observed, including experiences with...
Show your personality! Ask Google; people love it
Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin were going to the Burning Man festival in Nevada in 1998. For fun, they decided to draw a stick figure behind the Google logo, just in case, as “chief Doodler” Dennis Hwang says, “the site crashed and...