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I hope you find my writing and business tips and observations useful. My business and blog are dedicated to helping businesses communicate clearly and reach their potential. Read, and enjoy!Tash

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Clear and repeated communications

Published 24 July, 2009 | By TashWord

Again, I am continuing on with a discussion of the Edelman Trust Barometer from February this year. (You can read the business trust and blog trust posts for background.)

Their media release states “Swift and accountable communications: Respondents said they need to hear information 3-5 times before they believe it. Companies should inform conversations among the new influencers on blogs, in forums, and bulletin boards. Australians under 34 are twice as likely to share both positive and negative information about a company online as their older counterparts – this trend will only grow. ”

The repetition of a clear message is important in getting people to trust you (your business) and accept that message. For example, any good presenter/teacher will summarise key points at the end of a topic as that helps others absorb that information.

When planning some marketing, remembering that people like to hear a message 3 – 5 times (and many have long said 7 times) before buying it means:

  • you may not get great results from your first attempt at marketing
  • consider how you can present your message in multiple ways rather than spending your budget on one ad
  • use images and layout to enhance your message – a stronger message may need less repetition than a hidden or weak message
  • every interaction you have with people in your demographic (and beyond) can reinforce or damage that message so make sure all ads, blogs, your website, your business card and so on are consistent, professional and appropriate for the purpose

Prompt communication is important in this information age – discussing an event well afterwards must be managed carefully so it doesn’t appear you are out of date. For instance, I could write that people affected by the February 7 bushfires are rebuilding and still need support all year but just writing ‘donate to the bushfires’ now looks very old.

Blogs, emails and social media are obviously key ways to making communications immediate and relevant – which is why I find it hard to believe they aren’t trusted forms of communication.

Posted in blogging, business info & tools | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Clear definitions…

Published 24 July, 2009 | By TashWord

I looked at a website today that is trying to explain technical terms to enhance their sales – a good concept of course, but if the definitions aren’t clear I think they’d be better off without them.

This is pretty much the first thing on their site:

What is “Domain Name”?
Compared with IP address, Domain Name is a character sign which is like a doorplate number on internet, it’s used to identify and orient hiberarchy of computer on internet.

Ok, English isn’t their first language, but their site is in English so it needs to be understandable in English! Even if we change ‘hiberarchy’ to ‘heirarchy’ it still doesn’t help explain a domain name – and I actually know what a domain name is!

Moral of this story – make sure a definition is easier than the term it is meant to explain! I suggest using the simplest words possible when writing  definitions so people can concentrate on the definition rather than the words you use.

 

P.S. Try my article for a longer but simpler explanation of domain names.

Posted in bad writing examples, writing | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Blogs and trust

Published 20 July, 2009 | By TashWord

A few days I wrote about the Edelman Trust Barometer and the reduced trust in Australian business.

One statement made by Edelman that I didn’t mention was “Digital communication such as blogs and social networking sites are not trusted sources of information. ” I left it for a separate post as I think it is worth more discussion.

I think that statement is simplistic, especially as it is not backed up with statsitics or specifics. For instance, are no blogs trusted or just those run by big companies? Does the style of blog or age of the respondent make any difference to their answer?

Instead of writing an essay on this topic, here are just a few of my thoughts, but I’d love to hear your thoughts, too:

  •  reading a blog gives you insights into the person behind the business, making it more personal and therefore more trustworthy
  • blogs doing things like overusing keywords, be ads trather than information, ignoring comments (especially negative comments) and not providing meaningful links are not going to build trust – but many others avoid these behaviours
  • blogs and social media are very different – and the perception is probably bigger for those who don’t use tweeter, FaceBook, and so on
  • regular blog posts show a commitment to the business and clients – much more than a website or promotional materials that are only updated once a year or less
  • blogs are a quick, easy way to communicate information quickly. I have a client whose customers requested more updates on the business and industry, and their web stats show the blog is attracting a lot more traffic. I believe it is building their trust as they know about changes well in advance of an annual report or quarterly newsletter

Do you trust blogs in general? Do they help you trust the busienss providing the blog ?

Posted in blogging, business info & tools | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

Building trust

Published 18 July, 2009 | By TashWord

One of the reasons I give for writing promotional articles and blog posts is build trust in the community and your (potential) clients. By sharing relevant information, people can trust your expertise and learn about your personality and integrity.

In the current global situation, building trust may be even more important.

The Edelman Trust Barometer for Australia is a survey of consumers and how they feel about various institutions. In February this year, they noted a huge 74% decline in trust for business – only 34% of respondents trust a business to do what is right in a specific situation.

What is critical to learn from this survey is the following:

  • 87% of Australians will  not buy from a company they don’t trust
  • 64% of Australians will pay extra to use a company they do trust
  • Australians prefer Australian-owned companies to foreign owned companies as a general rule (obviously that changes in specific situations if the Australian company isn’t trusted)
  • corporate advertising is trusted by only 6% of Australians – and corporate websites by only 13%

Some other interesting notes:

  • people between 25 and 34 years are twice as likely to share experiences of a company than older respondents
  • treating employees well is important – even more important than an environmental commitment – in building trust

As for the survey, it was based on “4,475 upper-income, highly-educated people in 20 countries, including 1,375 in Asia-Pacific countries.”

Posted in business info & tools | Tagged , , , , , | 8 Comments

Blogging for promotions

Published 16 July, 2009 | By TashWord

Thanks to some external limitations, I found some time to catch up on some blog reading this morning.

Let me start by saying I do believe in blogs as a promotional tool in business – they are a great way to keep a site fresh, to build a relationship with clients and build your credibility. Yes, there are many social media choices now but I don’t think they are replacing blogs. Personally, I learn more from reading a good blog post than a tweet for instance!

A blog on your domain is going to give more SEO advantages than other social media options, too.

Des Walsh blogged about some survey results about blogs and business. He wrote “Companies with 10 or fewer employees are 30% more likely to use social media for public relations, branding and understanding customers. And they are twice as likely as large companies to use social media for lead generation.”

It certainly didn’t surprise me that small businesses use more social media than large ones – there is the obvious budget differences meaning small business owners need to find more affordable ways to interact with potential customers. I also think that many small businesses do well because they provide a personal service (no account managers or moving customers between departments, and a stronger sense of ownership) and social media depends on the personal side of a business.

If you are a sole trader, the approval process is easy; if you work in a large company, especially if it is heavily regulated, the effort of getting blog posts, tweets and so on approved can be huge – and the time involved takes away form the immediate nature of social media anyway.

From the blogs you read, would you agree that small businesses use more social media than their bigger counterparts?

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Bye buying!

Published 6 July, 2009 | By TashWord

I was alerted to this trio of words by my daughter, although it is generally just the first two versions that get used incorrecctly. First, here are the words in question:

Buy: to purchase something
I am going to buy a new laptop this week.

Bye: a farewell, shortened from goodbye. (Originally written as ‘bye to show it is an abbreviation, it is generally written as bye now)
They said bye to everyone outside then left the party.

by: to be beside , close to or in support of; within a time frame; in an opinion or according to
The mother kept her child by her side in the park.
I need to finish this by Friday
It’s not a complete definition by a long way.

The prefix bi also sounds the same, but is used as the start of other words (e.g. bicycle, bicentenary, bifocals, binary).

 If none of the above helps you remember the difference, rember the u in buy matches the u in purchase.

P.S. I explained the past tense of buy (bought) as a Monday Meaning last year.

Posted in Monday Meanings | Tagged , , , , , , | 4 Comments

End of financial year

Published 25 June, 2009 | By TashWord

It’s getting very close to 30 June, but there’s still time to prepare your finances for it. Some things I have been thinking about (and doing in some instances) are

  • to get a tax deduction as a self -employed person, you need to make a personal contribution and submit a Deduction for personal super contributions form to your Fund
  • the super co-contribution only applies if you make a personal contribution by 30 June (and meet certain criteria like income levels)
  • the small business 50% tax break has been legislated, but it doesn’t run out til Dec 2009 so purchases don’t have to be made this week
  • individual tax rates are reducing from 1 July so increasing your deductions this year may decrease your tax more than making the same deductions next year
  • sending out invoices now rather than after 1 July may affect your income levels (depending on how your accounts are set up) and may help your customers with their tax preparation and budgeting
  • organising your invoices and receipts now could mean getting your tax return done sooner, which is great if you’re getting a refund!

How much do you do to prepare for the end/start of financial years? Is this when you do budgets and analysis or do you base that on the calendar year instead?

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Over using keywords in articles

Published 24 June, 2009 | By TashWord

Yesterday, I wrote about using keywords in articles to help search engines find your articles. I also explained that using to many keywords makes the article unreadable for humans and may get search engines penalising you/your site.

The following are examples of the over use of keywords to remind us that the focus of promotional articles should be on giving information rather than making a sale or increasing website traffic (as much as we love those results!)

example 1 – a title for an article: 

Tractor Parts,Hydraulic Coupling,Hydraulic Pumps,Lubricating Oil Pump,Tractor Spare Parts,Tractorul UTB Spares 

Not a very interesting title is it?

example 2 – content of an article:

Just search on your computer with Keywords like Packers and Movers in Ahmedabad Packers Movers Ahmedabad, Relocation service provider in Ahmedabad, etc. Many service provider of that particular state will appear on your computer screen. Collect information from all the relocation Ahmedabad companies and hire the best one. You can also do the same work to find out service provider of other state and city.

There is nothing informative or interesting in that snippet, and its a lttle insulting as someone has probably already searched those keywords to have found the article in the first place!

example 3 – a bio box:

crib bedding, crib bedding sets

Apart from not doing much to promote their business, this bio box is boring and doesn’t develop trust or credibility.

 

Of course, the use of keywords (and avoiding over use of them) applies to blog posts, newsletters, website content and so on just as much as to promotional articles.

Posted in blogging, newsletter content, web content, writing | Tagged , , , | 4 Comments

Keywords in promotional articles

Published 23 June, 2009 | By TashWord

On Sunday, I presented a workshop on using promotional articles as a business tool and discussed the use of keywords in such articles.

Keywords are words that a search engine will use to provide search results (e.g. if you type in “promotional articles”, they are the keywords and a search engine will find the sites most relevant for those words.) They are very useful in building up the popularity of your site with search engines.

So it is a good idea to include your keywords in your promotional articles so search engines will find your articles online and increase your exposure. In terms of attracting search engines, putting keywords into the title is also effective.

In reality, you probably use keywords in your articles without really trying – it isn’t easy to write an article about business books without writing business or books for example.

However, it is important to not use your keywords too many times in one article as search engines can actually penalise you for doing so. The easiest way to judge how many times is right is to read it out loud – if it sounds ok and appeals to a human, you probably haven’t over used the keywords.

I will share some examples tomorrow on overuse of keywords, but thanks to Suzie of Suz’s Space asking a question in my  workshop, let me explain that it is repetition of one or two words that is the potential problem – using a lot of different keywords in a suitable context is not a search engine risk.

For example, writing an article about a style of writing which includes a list of authors does have a lot of keywords (each name for instance) but is not over using the keywords (such as books and authors) for Suzie’s site.

Posted in newsletter content, web content, writing | Tagged , , , , , | 3 Comments

New services…

Published 16 June, 2009 | By TashWord

After a lot of thinking, planning and learning, I am pleased to say I will be introducing a new service in the new financial year. It is exciting to start something new, although I have been doing it quietly already, and I’m starting promotions this weekend at the Business Mums Conference.

The question now is – do I build anticipation and wait for 1 July to announce my new service, or do I tell you now? Which would you prefer?

My thoughts on such decisions:

  • building anticipation is a great way to develop curiosity and (for a blog) an effective way to encourage repeat visitors
  • there is no point in annoying people with part of a story so any ‘coming soon’ message needs to be intriguing and not mislead
  • what does a launch date signify? Is there a strong reason to delay something new? If there are legal or IP or technical reasons to not give details in advance, be very careful of how you present any teasers
  • don’t build up to a launch you aren’t sure of – it destroys your credibility and any excitement if your wesbite says “our new product will be in store on 10 June” and it’s now July.
  • building up to a launch can start the process of search engine optimisation  and getting some traffic and ranking for your webpages. This may be limited if you can’t use keywords in advance but it at least gives you a URL to use in preparing marketing and advertising

Launching a new product or service also raises questions such as using the same brand and business name or not, pricing the new item, packaging the new with the old, and where to focus future marketing.

As for my new service, I am not launching it until July because my website can’t be ready before then (preparing a conference presentation and client deadlines took priority.) And you’ll just have to wait a little longer to find out more…

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