Category: News
Write Less, Say More: The Power of Brevity | Lifehacker
When it comes to great writing, less is more. But even if you're familiar with the mantra to "omit needless words," tightening your writing is harder that it looks.
Which words should you omit? How can you write more clearly? Danny Rubin, a national news consultant and former television news reporter, demonstrates—with examples—the power of brevity.
There is a common misconception when it comes to writing that is professional in nature that a person must write in a verbose manner to come across as intelligent.
I am sorry. Let me do that again.
People often make a mistake in thinking that writing long-winded sentences with big words makes them appear smart.
Actually, let me try this one more time.
You don't need to write a lot or use big words to sound smart.
Now, that's better. Read More
Why Business Executives Fear Social Media Marketing | Social Media Today
Written by Chris Horton.
This post was born out of a fascinating and revealing conversation our CEO recently had with a business executive of a prominent Minneapolis-area car dealership who absolutely refused to entertain the idea of social media marketing in general, and Twitter in particular. Read More
How to Attract an Audience by Integrating Content, Social, and Search | Copyblogger
Written by Robert Bruce.
Google’s been pissing people off lately. Panda, Penguin, Parakeet (okay, I made that last one up), who knows what’s next … Read More
When Your Products Rock, Don’t Diminish Them with a Mediocre eNewsletter
Dragon Dictate and Dragon Naturally Speaking Deliver Awesome Results for Users. Their eNewsletter. Not So Much.
In perhaps the ultimate irony, I am using Dragon Dictate from Nuance to write this blog post which criticizes their eNewsletters. I use Dragon Dictate to compose 80 to 90% of everything that I write from blog posts to book content. So, it does pain me a bit to brand their eNewsletter as mediocre.
Oddly, even though their eNewsletter is a major missed content marketing opportunity, Nuance has a tremendous amount of content available. As an example, they have a wonderful series of YouTube videos that teach you how to get the most out of Dragon Naturally Speaking, the PC version of their software. That's compelling because, although dictation is the most critical component of their software, you can also use Dragon to search the web, give application commands, find documents, etc. In addition to the YouTube content, their website actually provides very useful and well organized training tools to get you started and to turn you into an advanced user.
In other words, they have a ton of raw material that could make for an incredibly useful and compelling E-news letter that would be must reading whenever it arrived in your inbox. Alas, hardly any of that content found its way into their May 2012 eNewsletter. Read More
Jennifer Sheahan: Cracking the Facebook Code | Social Media Today
In every generation, there are game-changing advancements that redefine business. From the automobile and television, to the VCR and Internet, the evolution of technology drives our consumptive habits. Today, there are arguably fewer more engrossing, time-consuming habits than that of the world’s current phenomenon, Facebook. Read More
Give Your Customers Uplifting Content to Kick Off Each Monday
Lynda McNutt Foster Delivers with Her Weekly Launch List
Lynda overflows with brains, enthusiasm, creativity, and fun.
So, I wasn't surprised to find her new weekly newsletter unique in its approach to its recipients. The 'Launch List' is a quick read that delivers much-needed Monday morning inspiration. Although it reflects Linda's positive personality, it's not all about her. It's all about her customers, colleagues, and friends. Read More
Why You May Be Screwed If You Don’t Take Google+ Seriously
Pay Careful Attention to the Upper Right hand Corner of Google Search Results
If you have recently checked your category's Google search results, you may well have been as surprised as was when I recently checked our first page placement in the 'content marketing' topic.
In weeks and months past, text ads would have appeared in the upper right-hand corner. Those ads still appear, but they have been bumped down by a gigantic Google+ area that features 2 content marketing gurus, Joe Pulizzi and Brian Clark.
Interestingly, the Google+ content has exactly the same prominence as the major sponsored search results that appear above the organic search results. I cannot imagine that advertisers are overly pleased by that. Read More
“Creativity Is Just Connecting Things” via LifeHacker
Written by Adam Dachis.
"Creativity is just connecting things. When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel a little guilty because they didn't really do it, they just saw something. It seemed obvious to them after a while." ~ Steve Jobs.
It's compelling to believe there's a route to true creative thinking, and there are certainly ways to help yourself engage, but many times a great idea will just feel like it came from a simple realization and you won't know exactly why. Read More
Inbound Marketing: How to Make It More Effective via Inc.
With inbound marketing, the customer comes to you, but you still have to move the opportunity forward.
Unless you've been living under a rock, you've probably heard of "inbound marketing"–the concept that you should attract prospective customers by offering useful (on a website, for instance). Read More
Why the Massive Move to Mobile Computing Changes Content Marketing Rules
Rethink Your Content Marketing by Aiming at Billions of Buyers on the Move
For those of us who been around computing since the early days of PCs, the consumer move to mobile devices and away from desktop and even laptop computers is astonishing--and maybe a little terrifying.
Smartphones Soar
First, smartphones such as the Blackberry, Nokia, and iPhone entered the picture. But, as recently as 2007 total smartphone sales were only 122 million. Alex Cocotas of BI Intelligence predicts that annual smartphone sales will hit 1.5 billion units by 2016. That's 10X growth in less than 10 years.
Tablets Triumph
In the first year of its existence, 1981, the IBM PC sold 100,000 units. Most of those buyers were geeks or leading-edge business users. Apple's new iPad sold 3 million units in its first weekend and more than 50 million units since the introduction of the first iPad just 2 years ago. Read More
