Improve the Way You Communicate: Be Content

Image: Donna Cymek/Creative Commons

Out walking the woofs today, waiting for Aggie –one of my other bassets– to whelp, I got to thinking about where I’m at. Over four years ago I was a rapidly burning out full-time university lecturer, published novelist, occasional translator, passionate blogger and sometime journalist. But I wasn’t happy. Cooped up in my ivory tower, I rarely got out except to catch the Stockholm T-bana.

Boy, did I hate the way academics get into all that cloak and dagger stuff. Plus, there comes a point when you don’t want to show someone how to write the inverted pyramid structure for the ten zillionth time. You just want to do it yourself. 

Having jumped ship, I’m a much happier bunny. I get to go for walks everyday in the countryside with my dogs, I get to work with words in a far more enriching way and, hell, I even get to potter around in my PJs on a Tuesday afternoon if I want to (although I rarely do!). I also get to do all the writing and none of the essay marking.

Communication is all about attitude

What’s this got to do with improving the way you communicate, you may wonder? Well, it’s a all about attitude.

Back in the old days I was grumpy. It affected the tone I wrote in, the way I talked to people and the way I’d happily go for the jugular at meetings –rhetorically speaking.

Having downsized from the relatively prestigious pastures of academe to the hinterland of obscure freelance wordsmith, my communications along with my mood have vastly improved.

By finding a job that genuinely makes me happy, and allows me the extravagance of a lifestyle with four woofs, I’ve not only found I enjoy work more: I communicate more effectively.

Maybe if your business is struggling to get its message across as well as you’d like to, you should take a moment to consider how you’re feeling.

Try and do something to make you smile. You’d be surprised by how the tone of everything you write is lifted.

Apple Copy Ahead of the Class

I’m a huge fan of Apple. Not just their machines (which I’ve personally been using since 1993 –and, yes, that brick of a Powerbook in my cupboard still works if you ask it nicely); the copywriters scratching out word after word for Steve Jobs and Co are also superb.

Ahead of Tuesday’s announcement, I’ve been following the rumours and sneaked shots about MacBooks and MacBooks Pros, but also enjoying the copy.

The message that went out with the invites to the event at Cupertino tomorrow is a great example of fabulously simple but effective copy: “The spotlight turns to notebooks”.

Notebooks speaks for itself. But using spotlight is very effective as it will no doubt resonate with the Mac community used to the Spotlight feature of the OS. It’s a geek reference.

My favourite word in the phrase, though, has to be “turns”.

By using the present tense turns, the writer demonstrates that we’re part of an ongoing series of Apple events.  Yes, this is clearly the next stage of a new round of product releases, but it’s also about whetting our appetites for what could be next: new desktop machines, perhaps?

The Ongoing Apple Story

Simple, effective, a hint of what’s coming in the graphic, the copywriter’s prose connects us to the present and ongoing story of Apple’s innovative, must-have products.

Small Business Blog Copy: Write for an audience

Image: Craig Stephen

The most engaging blogs speak to their audience in a casual and conversational tone. There’s something about a unique voice that appeals and hooks you into the text.

From the point of view of small businesses, a well-written personal corporate blog that’s candid and straightforward, can be a great way of showing potential customers who you are.

If it’s just you in the company, don’t hide behind “we” or the name of the company ("at BRIGHT NEW COMPANY”...etc). Make sure YOU are visible. People commission business from other people and your unique skills and personality might just be what helps you nail a sale.

Big Hint

If you’re a small business blogger, write your blog in a tone that is accessible and friendly. The best business blogs speak to their audience as if they were talking face to face. And the personal is important because it is almost always what attracts people and keeps them coming back to your blog.

Just because you write with personality and address your audience, nonetheless, there are things you can do to improve your copy. For starters you can cut down on some of the “I”.

Compare:

“I think that corporate blogging is here to stay whether we like it or not”

vs

“Corporate blogging is here to stay whether we like it or not”.

Both sentences can be understood as being the opinion of the writer; the former, however, is slightly more long-winded and lacks the punch of the latter.

I blog, therefore I am

Another great way of engaging your audience is to tell stories.

Stories are a fundamental part of the way we use language. The stories you tell about the products, services, people, challenges, and incidents that make your company or organization unique will involve your reader and make your business seem alive, different from many other corporations out there trying to use the Internet to market their business.

In short, think of your company blog as like a business biography – that comes alive as you personalize and illustrate it with your unique thoughts and perspective.

Creativity is Essential for Your Business

Sir Ken Robinson’s Ted Talk, Do Schools Kill Creativity, makes the point that no education system on the planet prioritises creativity above mathematics, languages, the humanities or social sciences. It’s a shame because being creative is essential to our survival. As the world changes, we need to adapt and find new, creative ways to turn things to our advantage. They don’t teach you Creativity 101 in high school.

Creativity helps you reinvent the way you work

In business, creativity is just as necessary. Whether it’s about coming up with new services, products or ways of delivering your message, creativity should permeate your life on a daily basis.

Maybe that’s why I write a blog. Although I write copy for a living, translate someone else’s text to another language, hack my way through pieces of journalism now and then, I still find it important to write a blog and keep thinking creatively about how digital media can be used as a communication channel.

Writing a blog is an important creative action because it forces me to think through new ideas, define my position or take on certain positions, in ways that I don’t write at other moments during the day.

I suppose blogging creatively is a bit like the copywriter’s equivalent of doing a varied workout at the gym. The flexibility and suppleness that comes with one kind of writing, feeds into different modes of writing later on. Look at me: “modes of writing”. The academic in me isn’t fully banished to the hinterlands just yet. Still, I couldn’t have followed the former up with the latter in a scholarly paper now, could I?

In what way are you being creative in your business? How do you find time for creativity in your daily life? If it’s all just work and no creative play, how do you expect to do anything differently, learn to think write talk work sell differently?

When Copy isn’t Enough

The Winster and 12 hour-old Batty chez moi

It doesn’t matter how well you write sometimes or how clever your marketing is. Bottom line: You can’t beat a personal recommendation. Word of mouth might not get 1 million customers, but it will certainly get a steady trickle, day after day, week after week, year after year, if people keep talking about you.

So instead of writing a post entitled “Sveriges bästa veterinärvård”, aimed at hitting some mystical Google search with the appropriate keywords, I’m gonna just shoot from the hip: If you need a vet and you’re in Stockholm, go to Bagarmossen Djursjukhuset.

I spent way too many hours there yesterday with the Winster, sorting out a C-section for her royal bassetness. Thankfully, we were able to bring home one very big and very bouncy female pup who we’ve christened Bathilda (or Batty for short).

Throughout everything all the nurses, admin people and vets were incredibly patient, supportive and downright fun. They made a difficult day easier and for that I shall always be grateful.

So don’t base it on the copy, take it straight from the horse’s mouth: Bagarmossen IS the best veteneary practice in Stockolm. And I should know because I’ve visited at least 10 different ones

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