To avoid the uncomfortable conversation that usually follows this expectation, I try to discuss the ROI (return on investment) of blogging with clients before we even sign a contract.  If you’re depending on blogging as your entire marketing, advertising and money-generating plan, you’re going to be disappointed. Ron Ploof, a very wise man, wrote a blog called Audience as an Asset, and although you can read the whole article, I’ll use an example here to illustrate.

Some of you may remember the recent fight between tech blog PhoneDog and a previous employee, Noah Kravitz. When Kravitz left PhoneDog’s employ, the company sued him. Why? Espionage? Embezzlement? A missing stapler?

No, the reason was Kravitz’s Twitter account. While employed at the company, Kravitz started a Twitter feed with the name @PhoneDog_Noah and, as Editor-In-Chief, managed to build an audience of 17,000 followers. He built that following and fed the account on his own, not under any requirement, urging or other missive from his employer.

But, when Kravitz left PhoneDog, he naturally changed his Twitter handle. Unlike Facebook, you can change your handle on Twitter without starting over, and so he did. PhoneDog sued for $340,000 in damages. In a statement to the Times, PhoneDog.com explained:

“The costs and resources invested by PhoneDog Media into growing its followers, fans and general brand awareness through social media are substantial and are considered property of PhoneDog Media L.L.C. We intend to aggressively protect our customer lists and confidential information, intellectual property, trademark and brands.”

PhoneDog realized the value of its ex-employee’s efforts, and realized that they were as much of an asset as the company’s trademarks and intellectual property. As of February, PhoneDog has been fairly successful in their attempts to sue Kravitz. (This is why I avoid this issue by stating in my contract that all content I provide becomes the clients’ property.)

Here’s another example, and one much closer to home for me. Just last month, one of the few Jewish delis in Orange County shut its doors—right before Passover. Guess who benefited? My client, Benjies New York Deli.

Why? Because all of the loyal patrons of the closed deli started combing the Internet for another place to have their latkes and matzoh ball soup. Suddenly the investment that Benjies had made in blogging showed a “return”, because those blogs we wrote on Reuben sandwiches, deli platters, brisket, traditional Jewish food and Passover seder plates were easily found online and drove new customers in the door. And, even though they pride themselves on being around since 1967, they sure are modern when it comes to online marketing.

So, the moral of this story is to look at blogging and social media as part of who and what your company is. They don’t call it an online “presence” for nothing. Don’t think of it as “If I blog it, they will come”, but more of promoting yourself in the best light often to your fans, your future fans and those interested in your product or service.

If you still are confused about the benefits of blogging, please feel free to email me directly!

Here’s one of those times: I was asked about blog etiquette by a few of my students, so I decided to write a blog on it—naturally. I decided to post it because I couldn’t find a straight answer on the Internet about business blogging etiquette—for regular blogs, yes. Business blogs? Not one thing. I can’t say this is a definitive list, but it should outline the main guidelines for bloggers new and experienced.

So, here’s the list:

• It’s never okay to plagiarize.
• BUT you can rewrite, revise and make it your own.
• If you do use something from another source, say where it came from and include a link to the source. Basically, a blog will use the same rules as a research paper or that history paper you did in college.
• Don’t sell all the time. Yes, you can post about new products, improvements, etc., but if you do it all the time, it will be a huge turn-off to your readers. Raise your hand if you love being sold to all the time on the Internet… No one? Enough said.
• Taking photos from another website and using them in your blog is not okay and could get you sued. They could have purchased the rights to use that photo from a stock photography site like Corbis, and just because you could copy it off that website and use it on yours does not fly with these people. They have people searching for this illegal usage, and they will find you. I doubt your client will volunteer to pay for the legal costs. Play it safe and use one of the many free stock photography sites out there. OR, better yet, take original photos for your company or client! That’s always the ideal option.
• Always make sure everything is spelled correctly and grammatically correct, especially if you are blogging for a client. Not only is it the professional thing to do, using the wrong word (complement vs. compliment, their vs. they’re) and missing a comma can change the meaning of the text:
  • Let’s eat, Grandma!
  • Let’s eat Grandma!
• Don’t ignore your customers! Were you asked a question? Then answer it, and make sure you say “That’s a great question!” even if it’s the dumbest thing you’ve ever heard. Ignoring comments on social media and blogs is a serious mistake. How offended would you be if you asked someone a direct question and they ignored you? It can be the same feeling for people on social media. They’re looking for a fairly immediate response when contacting a company through the social media channels.
• Try to break up your copy and start new paragraphs where appropriate. Most people are turned off by large blocks of text.
• Try to avoid religion or politics, unless of course you are writing for a church or a politician.
• Try not to be offensive. This is why I recommend a final editor before posting, as sometimes written material can be interpreted by the reader in a completely different way than the writer meant. Many people have had this happen with a hastily sent email, and dealt with the consequences. Don’t let that happen in your blog.

Do you have any additions to this list? If so, I hope you will add them in the comments section below and share them with other readers. In this ever-changing industry, I welcome the opportunity to learn from others.

If you have any other questions about blogging for business, please click here to email me, or call (949) 354-2564.

I’ve read a lot recently about QR codes being used in dumb ways, like on billboards (scan *that* as you’re driving by, sure) or in unimaginative ways, like directing people just to the home page of their site. The point of QR codes is to make access to information, ideally via a website, easier. And for some reason the middle of the night seemed, to my feeble brain, the best time to ponder good uses for these funny, pixelated boxes.

The QR Code for my friend Jason's donation page. Go ahead, scan it and donate. I dare you.

Idea #1: Charity Races and Fundraising: I’ve had the pleasure and honor of being a part of Team in Training, the fundraising arm of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. I have been a mentor twice after my first race as a participant, and I made some wonderful friends along the way. I created little cards to hand out to people to make it easy for them to fundraise, but the URL to my special page on the TNT/LLS site was long and ungainly.

BINGO! QR codes! Wouldn’t it have been awesome to have a QR code on that card? Those who wanted to donate (and had a smartphone) could just scan the code, get straight to my page and donate away. Much easier than people trying to type in a huge, complicated URL into their browser.

Idea #2: Bridal and Baby Showers: Any registry, actually. I’m just now shopping for a bridal shower gift, and it took me a few minutes to get to the store’s site, find the registry section, type in her name (luckily I’d written down her name from the “Save the Date” card, as the shower invite didn’t have it on there) and find her registry.

I’m sitting here staring at the invite. Wouldn’t it have been awesome to have two QR codes on the invite that would take me straight to her registry pages online? It would have made my life easier, and also given me a handy guide if I was in-store looking for a gift.

So, there you go. Two great ways to use QR codes—yes, more practical than “marketing”, I’ll admit. But how have you used QR codes to help your business? Write it down in our comments—we’d love to hear your success stories!

We’ve been getting requests for resume reviews and redesigns, and the products of our efforts are getting rave reviews—not just from our clients, but from their headhunters and the HR contacts they make. And that’s what we love to hear.

Plus, there’s always a need for a resume to be looked at by an independent party. There could be mistakes that you’ve missed because you’re read it so many times, or there are skills that you have under-emphasized that could get you noticed.

If you are either in between jobs, or looking for that next position up the career ladder, please give Either/Or Media a call. We can help you identify your strengths and showcase them in a beautifully redesigned resume.

And we can help you with your bio for your LinkedIn account, and help you get your profile in tip-top shape!

Send us an email or call us on our new phone number: (949) 354-BLOG. (That’s 2564 for those of you with Blackberries.)

So the question remains: When and where should you try to be “funny” in your writing? Always think of the context. Here’s some tips:

1. Résumé: This really depends on your chosen or desired profession. If you are an accountant, perhaps sticking to the facts will be a better choice. Whereas if you are a graphic artist or in social media, some humor here and there would probably go down well. There’s a lot of talk lately about infographic résumés and using much more creative forms to present résumés, and it seems that you would have more leeway for humor in these formats. But again, you should be careful as an accountant, lawyer, or some of the “straight-laced” careers before using a more creative expression of your work history. Listing something along the lines of “Named as best artist 20 years running by my mother” might work for an art-college graduate looking for an intern position, but not if you’re going for Director of Finance in a Fortune 500 company.
2. Business Letter: If it’s a cover letter and you are introducing yourself for the first time, use humor sparingly, and only in reference to yourself. Remember, what you think sounds funny in your head doesn’t always translate to the page, so if you reread it and you’re not sure, take it out. A regular business letter, especially if it’s a summons or note of default on a loan, should not contain any humor. That’s just cruel and unprofessional.
3. Blog: Again, think of context. Are you blogging for yourself, or other people? If you’re blogging for yourself, I encourage you to use your own voice, and if that’s a humorous voice, then give it a whirl. Luckily, unlike a letter sent in the post, you can amend it later if you find that what you thought was hilarious was misconstrued by your readers. If you are blogging for other people, you must abide by their personal or company voice. This is part of your job. I’m happy to say that we have at least one client that we can be quite cheeky in their blogs!
4. Website: Humor? I recommend you look at the company you’re writing the content for. Too many people write dry, boring content for websites, sure, but that doesn’t mean that every website should be tongue-in-cheek or funny. Creativity is a key ingredient to making content engaging, memorable and informative. Ideally, it should get the web visitor to pick up the phone, enter their contact details or click the “Buy now” button. But does that mean it has to be funny? No. Witty? Could be. This is why there’s rarely a person at a corporation who is skilled enough at creating web content to be in charge of writing the company site, as too many companies forget who they are talking to. They talk at the customer, rather than to the customer, and in the end, don’t provide the information the customer needs to make their decision. Which means fewer return visits to the site, and fewer sales.

I’ll keep posting more tips as they present themselves, but in the meantime, if you’re not sure about using humor, then the answer is probably “don’t”. For more tips on writing and information on our services, contact Either/Or Media via email or by phone: (949) 305-3223.

Think of your business writing as an introduction. If you are making an introduction online, in an email or even in a written letter, the content doesn’t just communicate your message to the reader, it can say even more about you between the lines.

Just as wearing your Donald Duck tie or a pair of jeans to a job interview may give the wrong impression, an email, Facebook post or letter with blatant spelling errors also presents a bad impression. I feel that these errors reveal more about a person than they may think, and one of those items is integrity.

If you are the owner of a company, or an entrepreneur launching a start-up, you ARE your business. Everything you do, say or write cannot be separated from your business—just look at how a person’s Facebook page can be used against them in interviews or personnel reviews.

To my delight, I was recently hired to proofread a business plan for a young man with a wonderful idea for an online business. This young man has the right idea! He wants to make sure that his ego doesn’t get in the way of finding funding for his business, and hired me to comb his business plan for any obvious and subtle mistakes. And I did find a few, plus I asked a few questions for clarification and suggested some omissions and additions. He took them all to heart and amended his business plan before sending it out. In my humble opinion, this was an example of integrity.

Then there are the examples that just make me cringe. The introduction emails without even basic capitalization, run-on sentences and abbreviations that should be limited to text messages, like “ur” and “thx” do not impress anyone, not even a 14-year-old high school student. Not spelling the recipient’s name correctly (or “entrepreneur”) will not win you any points, either. I can overlook small mistakes, like “alot”, even though it drives me crazy, because everyone makes mistakes once in a while.

If someone you didn’t know asked you a favor or presented themselves as a viable company to work with or refer, wouldn’t you look for other signs that the person was trustworthy and had integrity? The fact that they couldn’t be bothered to read over an email or a letter for spelling mistakes speaks volumes about a person’s integrity.

And if it sounds like I’m being too harsh, remember this: even though more and more communication happens online, around 90 percent, it is still written. Written. This means there are even more opportunities nowadays to show yourself up as uncaring about your presentation. There have been numerous articles written on how students—in America and elsewhere—are graduating without the necessary skills in English, math and reasoning to actually be good employee candidates.

My entire business is based on quality writing, for online content, social media and printed collateral. It is shocking to me how many people don’t care about the integrity of their business presentation, including (but not limited to): spelling mistakes on their websites; incorrect information on business cards (with the correct information scrawled in by hand); website copy that reads just like every other site that does nothing to differentiate the company; and spelling mistakes in business Facebook posts.

My point is this: When you are just starting out, remember that you are building your reputation. Do you want to build that reputation on shoddy presentations that showcase dubious communication skills? Or would you rather take a little extra time and show people, with more than just words or flashy graphics, that you are an entrepreneurial force to be reckoned with? The choice is yours.

Need some help with your writing? We can consult or write it for you. Contact us on (949) 305-3223 for more information, or click here for pricing.

Facebook and Twitter bombard the Internet with information—whether it’s relevant or not, it’s hard to gauge, and it can be irritating and frustrating to try to filter out the “noise”. I’ve been having great response to the Facebook and Twitter campaigns I’ve been doing for my clients, but I’m still bemused when companies just stream a news feed into their Twitter and LinkedIn posts—don’t they realize they’re just turning off any potential customers, because they’re not actually saying anything?

My point here is this: If you have such a short window to make your message stand out in this crazy, mixed-up world, you’d better make it good. Whether you’re in front of an audience at a seminar with a slide that says “An average American consumes more than 400 Africans”, besides making any Africans in the room extremely nervous, you’re not communicating your message clearly. Perhaps something along the lines of “An average American consumes more FOOD than 400 Africans” might have been a more appropriate way to phrase that message.

What about that business plan you’re about to approach investors with? If you don’t communicate your idea, your research and your vision in a compelling, accurate and concise manner, do you think they’ll hand over a fat check? No, I don’t think so either.

Remember the old Federal Express slogan “When it absolutely, positively has to be there overnight”? My new slogan is “When it absolutely, positively has to be right.”

So call Either/Or Media to talk to us how we can improve your business writing, your press releases, your company’s website, your Facebook campaigns, your blog posts and your spelling. We’re here to help, changing the world a sentence at a time: 949-305-3223.

This text is copied and pasted directly from an email sent to my father, who is a writer and food blogger for Stu’s News Laguna Beach, among other things. He had met this woman at one of Stu Saffer’s Coffee Mornings, and apparently she felt he could help her with marketing her project. Here goes. Are you ready? Hold on to your hats:

hi dennis,had some time to look at ur web.amazing!!did i mention i was on the board for thee culinary olympics at the pelican hill.i wish that would have happened.i got alot of atheletes and celebrities to pitch in.i wish thee economy would not have changed that.i took time off after the flop!!anyhow did you ck out my book.[omitted].my new website and brochures and almost done.robert lyn nelson is coming to town nov  8-12th.we r trying to do event for him and i.if not at atlinsplace now it may be a fund raiser at antoines(saving thee oceans) my publisher runs my sea legs.com(saving thee oceans)and that is also what robert is about.iam in the middle of alot of cost but i was wondering what we could do to promote this event and my drive for preparing meals for clients.!!iam a creative social person so marketing and computers,bloging  r not me but if i want to expand big time iam looking for help.can we talk next week.0000000000.lets plan a day and time.i like to not have interuptons with conversation.call me old schooled.thanks [Name removed.]

Heavy sigh. Every time I read it I’m amazed. And you know what else? I’m not sure at all what she is talking about, what she’s actually asking of my father, or how she thinks that this is an acceptable way of writing.

I don’t actually think she’s illiterate or not a native English speaker, so don’t yell at me for poking fun at her. She wouldn’t be able to spell “preparing” or “marketing” if she was illiterate, and I do want to give her the benefit of the doubt that she typed this on a Blackberry.

Blackberry or no, don’t you want to make the best impression on everyone you meet? Especially if you are looking to, and I quote, “expand big time”?

I’d love to get some comments on this one to see how other people feel. It makes me very worried and very sad at the state of writing in this county, let alone business writing. I do understand that it’s my profession, yet I do commonly overlook a few typos here and there with business emails—we’re all short on time.

But this is a serious lack of self-awareness and pride in one’s own “appearance”, if I can call a written message that. And I think I can…because, my dears, that’s branding.

What do we mean by that? Here’s an example. One of our more recent clients, a criminal defense attorney, has hired us to blog five days a week for him, which has not only done wonders for the traffic to his site, it’s had another benefit that neither of us anticipated.

After blogging for about a month at this five-day-a-week frequency, we posted our second press release for him. After it was distributed, I received a call from the editor of the Daily Journal, a Los Angeles and San Francisco-based legal newspaper. She had seen the press release come over the wire, and had a look at my client’s website. She noticed that he blogged frequently, and called to see if he wanted to be a contributor to the publication, a newspaper that is widely respected in the legal community.

I told her I’d ask my client and get back to her as soon as I could, although he was so busy he rarely called me back on the same day. Not so after the message I left about the Daily Journal! He called me back within the hour, very excited at the chance to contribute to the publication and gain notoriety and respect among his peers.

Can you put a monetary value on that kind of exposure? It may not get him a new client, per se, but being a regular writer for the paper may garner him further notice by the press, which will raise his profile both in the legal community, but also in Orange County.

Please do note that the editor would have been unlikely to call him if he hadn’t had a regular posting of blogs…so as well as attracting the search engines, they also apparently attract editors!

Are you ready to increase your profile online, in your professional community and in Orange County? Then call Either/Or Media and see how we can help. We offer consulting services in addition to writing services, so you can learn how to do it yourself, if that’s your thing and you have the time. Call now on 949-305-3223 or click here to contact us by email.

Why? There are four main reasons:

1. Flexibility: SEO for websites walks a fine line; if you start adding keywords that stray  from your site’s subject matter, you can get in trouble from Google and the other search engines for what is called “black hat” tactics. But with blogs, you have more freedom. Think of each blog as a completely new page for your website, and you can add tags pertinent to each one. Most businesses have several facets—in this economy, it’s rare that a company just sells one service or product. Imagine being able to explore each one of those facets in every way, through blogs. You can tag all of the relevant keywords for each blog, giving you much more SEO power than a static web page alone. Basically, you’re getting more bang, or online notice, for your buck.

2. Marketing: What are those SEO guys doing, anyway? We’re not saying they’re not doing their job, we’re saying it goes on behind the scenes. And that’s the opposite from what a blog does. You can promote a blog post on Facebook, on Twitter, on your LinkedIn page, in your networking sphere…that’s right, you get to have real live people reading your blog, not just a bunch of spiders from the search engines. Which means you can use them to target audience. Have you noticed a drop in sales on a certain item, or want to sell a particular brand? Blog about it! Have you won an award or accolade, and want to let the world know? Blog about it! (And send out a press release, but that’s another blog.) Have you added a new service to your roster, or a new employee? Blog about it! We think you see where we’re going with this, but let’s give you an example. One of our clients has Sunday Ticket games showing in their bar area every NFL season. If you look up “Where can I watch the Raiders in Orange County” (and people do), one to three of our blogs will show up within the top five Google results. Yes, our little restaurant in Santa Ana. Don’t believe me? Try it. Their name is Benjies Deli. Oh, and the blog you’ll find? We wrote it last year. It’s still working. Does SEO give you that? We think not.

3. Public Relations: How better to control what people read about you than to write it yourself? Especially when an issue has come up or an event occurred that perhaps doesn’t show your company in the best light. You can immediately post a blog that deals honestly about the issue and deal with your customers directly. I recently attended a presentation by the erudite and esteemed Ron Ploof, who used a case study of a blog that helped explain a company’s mistake. This company managed to tell all the people that passed an industry certification test that they hadn’t passed, and vice versa. Oops. Luckily, they had already been blogging, had a following, and their corporate apology written by the president was well received by the audience, especially since they allowed those who did not pass (but thought they had) the chance to retake the test for no charge. Hopefully Ron will be able to direct us to a case study on his website; we couldn’t find it right away. You should visit his site anyway—he is a very smart man with a great way of explaining all things “social media”—although don’t use that term with him…

4. Relevance: This one is simple. Remember how we keep banging on about how Google has changed their algorithms to reward websites who have consistent, regular updates of content? Well, we’re banging on about it again. It hasn’t changed. And how do you get on board with this consistent, regular updating?? Uh, BLOGGING. That’s one way, and it’s a heck of a lot easier than making a video every week. Why would you NOT do something that Google directly said will help your website rank higher?

If you’re reading this and are still wondering how blogging can help you, please do get in touch. We’ll be happy to explain this all again in direct relation to your business. So call (949) 305-3223 or email us and we’ll be happy to help.