National Punctuation Day!

Happy National Punctuation Day!

Now, once you've finished celebrating with the appropriate use of commas and exclamation points, I'll turn your attention to spelling and grammar on the web.

Somehow, in the era of tweets and pins and likes, we've lost our way on the road to good writing. And I'm not talking about lofty, eloquent phrasing or Jeopardy-worthy vocabulary. I mean the simple use of proper grammar, good spelling, and (of course!) appropriate punctuation.

1) When did it become acceptable to CAPITALIZE EVERYTHING? So you want to emphasize a feature, or point out an important detail. Okay, great. But when everything is emphasized, nothing is. Also, it's just, plain incorrect.

• Use capitalization only where they're meant to be used - proper nouns and the start of sentences.
• Use bold or italics to make something stand out in your text. 

Every Word Of Your Sentence, or EVERY LETTER IN YOUR WORDS makes your content hard to read, not to mention it comes across as yelling. Don't yell at your customers. Nobody likes a yeller.

2) Who decided that commas and semicolons were interchangeable? They're not. It seems like suddenly semicolons are the new commas when it comes to writing out lists of products or brands or services. It's strange and, again, just incorrect.

• Commas represent the natural pause(s) in your sentence, or breaks between list items
• Semicolons separate distinct, but related sentences, or can technically be used between items that also have commas (i.e. between addresses, like Boston, MA; New York, NY; etc)

When commas and semicolons are used incorrectly, your content looks and reads poorly, which in turn reflects poorly on you. Your business deserves to be taken seriously!

3) Spelling. Oh my goodness, spelling. In these post-AOL dial-up days, we've come so very far from "c u nxt wk" and "omg ttyl." Or have we?

In an era of digital content and spellcheck, there's no excuse for bad spelling. And yet so very many people, and businesses, still publish poorly written, terribly spelled content to their websites!

• Read your own content. Read it early, read it often. Have a friend read it to catch what you miss.
• Use spell check! Technology is amazing; take advantage of its helpful tools. That red squiggly line is there to help.

A spur-of-the-moment Twitter post with an accidental typo can be forgiven, but when it's your online presence, your first impression to potential customers - your website - there's no room for spelling mistakes.

Just because words have gone digital doesn't mean that using them, and all their accessories, is no longer important. In fact, I'd argue that it's more important than ever! With unlimited resources available to you to check, double-check, and question the writing you publish to the web, there's no excuse and no good reason to put bad spelling and grammar on your website, social media, or any other medium of online presence.

This National Punctuation Day, help a poor, struggling writer in need. Correct their dashes, dots, and symbols today!

Small Businesses and their Social Phobia

Day in and day out, the marketing industry deals with customers who don't understand the digital space, are afraid of it, or just don't know how to use it properly. From websites (they are not like yellow page ads - you should only have one) to search campaigns (no you can't use that keyword - you don't even offer that service), there's unending misinformation and confusion surrounding online marketing tools.

Nowhere is this more evident than in Social Media.

Now social, even the big guys still can't quite get this one right sometimes. Small business owners have an even harder time understanding the whats, whys, and hows of Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and the multitude of other platforms available.

Some SMB owners have never used Facebook before in their lives. Others have 18 different social network accounts and all are managed badly. Still others have or want accounts, but are just completely unsure of how to post, what exactly they should say, and where their audience is looking.


The rules can be confusing, the mediums constantly changing, but the fact remains that local business owners, in general, are completely overwhelmed by social media. My friend (and former colleague) recently wrote a post all about why, and, more importantly, how to tackle those fears:

Why Many SMB’s are Still Afraid of Social Media…

It's a really great summary of the most common comments and objections we get from clients from all industries as to why social media is too hard, too confusing, or too -something- for them to handle.

Overcoming those objections, and presenting reasonable solutions to address their main concerns, puts your average small business owner at the head of the pack, engaging with their customers and driving traffic through their door - completely digitally.

Social media is the new word-of-mouth. It's time to get on board!

Apples and Apples: Match your voice to who you are

I've talked a lot, both on this blog and in other venues, about developing your brand's tone of voice and messaging personality. However it's crucial to understand that you can't just pick whatever you feel like.

It's important to know, when you're choosing your brand's voice, that it has to match your actual personality, who you are.

For example, even in the early days of the Mozilla Firefox browser, their messaging was clear about the personality of their business. It was fun, humorous, and human. When a page wouldn't load, you'd get a clear error message saying "Well, this is embarrassing."

It's shows humor, humility, and brings out the humanity behind the big, shiny, digital world. It's easy to think of the internet as a big machine, so this message is a nice reminder to users that there are real, live people behind it all. It also makes it immediately evident that Firefox is a friendly, low-key business.

Now, would this same message work for the bank or financial organization supporting your IRA or big, serious investments? Probably not. As the world changes and becomes a little more laid back about business interactions, there might be a place for this, but for now, these witty, fun tones of voice just don't jive with certain companies or industries. Would you trust the funny, bumbling "oopsies!" guy with thousands of your dollars? Probably not.

It can be a jarring experience to expect one thing from a business and get another. It turns people off and makes you lose potential (and maybe current) customers. If it doesn't feel right or you don't know who you're dealing with, you'll bounce and go to someone who better communicates their values.

If your company culture encourages fun and humor, make that come through in the way you speak with your customers. If you're in a serious business where everything is very structured and to-the-point, your tone of voice should reflect that.

Pair apples with apples, not apples with oranges. Be true to who you are in all your messaging and communications, and it'll all flow naturally!

What's in a name?

Everything.

From naming your products to naming your blog post, the title you choose can make or break your success.

Take, for example, a tv commercial for some medication. I sat at home one day, enjoying some lazy couch time, when an ad came on detailing the typical struggles and strife of being a woman. Oh the pain, the moodiness, the this, the that. They finally get to the end of this seen-it-before commercial, and what's the product called? Previfem.

I can't even make this stuff up. Who decided that was a great brand name? I can only imagine some group of men sat around thinking "Okay, we've got this birth control, right? Ok. It does what all the other ones does... it prevents, uhhh, female stuff. Like, feminine business. Let's call it Previfem!"

Granted, it's memorable, I'll give you that, but Previfem? The last thing a lady wants to do is ask her doctor for something to prevent femininity. It sends the completely wrong message. Why not focus on the positive - something about strength? About taking control over your body, your life? Now, pharmaceuticals may not be the best case study, but you see my point:

With one, simple mistake - like naming your product something that ridicules your target audience - you edge yourself out of the market.

Your product name should speak to its purpose, but you need to be careful with being too detached from how it makes people feel. Say it out loud, check how it sounds and what feelings/images it evokes.

Beyond individual products, naming your blog posts and articles is almost more important than the information you put in it. A well-crafted title draws readers in. It entices your audience and makes them want to learn more.

While you may want to be clever or funny, or think something off-the-wall will intrigue people, your title isn't something to play with. It should be eye-catching, maybe include numbers, be engaging enough to make people want to click, but straightforward enough for them to know what they're getting into.

Whether it's a single product, and whole line, or a title of an article, the name you choose can have serious repercussions. Consider your audience! Will it speak to them? Does it make sense? Will they want to take positive action from it?

Have you found any blatant naming missteps? Any examples of great names?

Things I wish people would stop saying

Words and phrases have a tendency to get overused. In digital marketing, whether it's social media or longer-form blogs, this has never been more true.

The internet has a strange way of making people latch onto phrases and never let them go. Between this phenomenon and the tendency of any industry to build an arsenal of jargon, articles and social posts start to become intolerable to read.

A great example of this?

Such as.
The overuse of "such as" makes any paragraph sound stilted and cheap. It's not good language, and you're only using it to try to make your writing sound fancy. Stop trying to sound smart. It's not working.

Any occasion when you're trying to sound smarter or more sophisticated than you are should make you stop and pause. Why are you doing that? Be who you are. If that's slightly less fancy, write that way. It'll be more comfortable to write, which makes your writing sound more natural and read smoothly.

Trying too hard is like a kid looking up synonyms in a thesaurus to make their essay sound smarter. It almost never works out; it's obvious to the teacher (your reader) that you weren't comfortable with that word because it just doesn't land right.

Also on the list? Deliverables, Action item, and Bandwidth in reference to how much work/free time you have.

Be who you are, not who you want to be. If you don't like who you are, become who you want to be before writing that way.

Social Media: Sound like a human

Social media is a weird animal. And now that it's been so thoroughly appropriated by marketers and businesses galore, it's gotten even weirder.

The heart of social media, personal interaction, often gets buried or left in the dust in the rush to SELL SELL SELL and BE KNOWN.

Many times, clients don't understand social media, and really, neither do the agencies trying to help them. Facebook and Twitter end up sounding like tacky ad copy with snazzy puns and jazzy rhymes. All that's missing is the cheesy radio voice saying "CAAaaaall toDAY!"

Social media, whether it's a Facebook post, a Twitter tweet, or a Pinterest pin, is supposed to be casual, engaging, and personal. You're supposed to sound like a human. You're just another person, shouting out a tip or fun fact to other persons. The only difference is that you're the voice of a business, rather than an individual.

Instead of: "Come on down for the best auto repair here"
Post this: "Car trouble? Check out this article for tips on car maintenance to prevent big repair costs"

Instead of: "JOES PLUMBING BEST IN TOWN CALL US"
Post this: "Joe's Plumbing just won Best of Boston 2013 - 3rd year in a row! Thank you all!"

What does a bad post boil down to? What makes it "bad"?

• It's irrelevant to your customer
• It's all sales all the time
• It's begging for shares or retweets (make your post worth sharing and you don't have to ask!)
• It's not engaging or interactive

People like and share good info, interesting facts, and friendly advice. No one shares sales pitches, and no one wants to read a constant stream of business details. Be your customer's friend, sharing ideas and relevant articles, and they'll stick with you.

Be human. Have fun with it. Social media should be social activity!


Bonus: Spelling and grammar count. Yes, even on Twitter. There's no reason to get caught with tons of typos in the era of constant spell check!

I can see it now... a content vision

I recently read a blog post all about content strategy: defining a vision and sticking to it throughout your messaging.

I've written before about tone of voice (not here, elsewhere) and how the personality of your brand must be continued throughout the culture and content of your business, but where does this come from? How do you decide what that voice will be?

A brand's "voice" sometimes comes quite naturally. Other times, it comes from carefully crafted, thoroughly managed strategy. You tailor your word choice and phrasing and mediums of messaging to meet your strategy. Want to be seen as a hip, cool digital company? Would your audience and industry prefer a more traditional, professional approach? It's all about understanding who you are, how you want to be perceived, and what your target audience expects from you in order to put their faith (read: money) in your business.

As the A List Apart blog article suggests, it's crucial to identify the goals of your message, the vision behind every move you make. Author Russ Starke says, "the vision isn't just a list of goals; it’s a narrative that shows the organization’s future from the customer’s perspective."

• What do your customers need to understand about you?
• Where are you, as a business, going in the future?
• Will your customers understand and respond to this narrative?

It can be easy to look at this concept - big, scary "content strategy" - as something only big corporate companies do. And, while it's true that big businesses like Google and Apple and Target are highly invested in defining their voice and crafting the right message, it's equally important for smaller businesses to consider as well.

Every business has a personality. Make sure that personality comes through in your messaging (customer emails, in-store/office culture, billboards...) and achieves your goals.

The aforementioned blog post has some great info on the nitty gritty of defining your content strategy. For the step by step, read on! Defining a Vision: Making Sure Your Work Matters