Social Media

My secret resource as an online copywriter – social media.

Published on April 18, 2013 by

social media copywritingOn the face of it, this may sound counter-intuitive.

Why would an online copywriter be interested in social media? These two areas of expertise and interest seem worlds apart.

There is a very simple reason.

Smart copywriters focus on the wants and needs of their readers. Smart copywriters try to see the world through the eyes of their prospects and customers. Smart copywriters walk a mile in the shoes of their prospects and customers before they type the first word.

Back in the days before the web we did this mainly through focus groups.

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Integrated social media: The next opportunity for online writers and copywriters.

Published on April 11, 2013 by

social media integrationSocial media marketing is, thankfully, coming out of its trendy phase and moving into its business phase.

For those of us who have been online for a while, the trendiness of social media has been somewhat irritating. The web was social before the web even existed. In other words, the Internet was social before the first web browsers appeared. Back then we connected with one another through Listservs and the like. It was 100% social.

Services like MySpace, LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook didn’t invent social media. They simply made it more popular and improved its functionality.

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When quality content serves no purpose at all.

Published on March 14, 2013 by

rubbish web contentWhen the topic of web content comes up, whether I am talking with a solopreneur or someone at a large company, I ask a simple question: “What is its purpose?”

Right now everyone seems to be focusing on the quality of content. I get that. Quality content is good for your readers, and good for increasingly picky search engines.

In particular, quality content builds reputation and trust.

However, we still need to come back to the question of purpose.

Let’s look at this at the page level and at the strategic level.

What is the purpose of that individual page?

Yes, you want to wow and impress your readers. You want to entertain, surprise or educate them. No cut and paste. No boring stuff. Each page of content you publish needs to add to your reputation.

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Without a good newsletter, you don’t own a list.

Published on November 1, 2012 by

e-newsletter marketing exampleI’m all for social media. I use social media and am dependent on it for the reach and the level of engagement it enables.

I also have a website, and am dependent on it for how it presents my products and services to an interested audience.

Finally, I have an e-newsletter, which is as important to me as either my social media pages or my website.

But a lot of companies and freelancers online don’t have an e-newsletter. Among these, some have never had an e-newsletter and others had one once, but have let it go.

I think these companies are making a big mistake. Some think that their blog is now their new “e-newsletter”, so they have stopped publishing. Others think that social media can do everything an e-newsletter can do, and more.

They are all wrong.

Here are 3 reasons why, whatever else you do, you need an e-newsletter.

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In the world of social media you can’t automate engagement.

Published on October 11, 2012 by

social engagement conversationIf you want to understand how social media works, have a look at how you use it in your personal life.

You use it to keep in touch, let people know what’s happening in your life, and keep up with what’s happening in their lives.

It’s like an always-on, totally connected, interactive, multimedia round-robin letter. Best of all, the totality of content created by individuals on social media is comprised not of the original updates, tweets and posts created, but of the feedback and interaction that follows. Write 5 lines of family news and within a few hours you’ll have 20 lines of comments and feedback.

Now look at how companies and organizations use it.

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The geeks have done their part for social media. Now it’s time for the writers.

Published on October 4, 2012 by

social media writing toolboxWhat do I mean by this?

Let me explain with a story from 1998.That was the year I began to work full-time as an online writer and copywriter.

By that time hundreds of thousands of companies had already launched websites. Generally, they looked reasonably good and worked reasonably well. But the writing was not so good. What many of them did was simply cut and paste text from their old print materials.

They didn’t understand that writing for the web was different. And that was the message I shared with my audience and my clients.

The developers and designers had done their part. But to make websites achieve their potential, these companies needed good writers who understood the medium.

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