Archive for the ‘Copywriting’ Category

There are some interesting insights that apply not only to journalists but also to corporate communicators in this post found today at www.edit30.com. The piece cites “Texas Watchdog writer and blogger” Lynn Walsh’s guidelines for coaching journalists on how to use social media in developing news stories then states that the guidelines have a mirror image that is valuable for communications professionals looking the other direction, pitching the media. (If the link no longer goes straight to the post, you can likely use the search box to access it by typing in the name SOCIAL MEDIA AS A PR TOOL.)

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There is a free Webinar 1/18/11 at 1 p.m. EST entitled 9 Companies Doing Blogging Right and What You Need to Know with Rick Calvert, Dave Cynkin, and Michael Stelzner. You can sign up here–and even if you won’t be available at the time of the Webinar–they’ll provide you with the link to the content.

This no-obligation Webinar is a precursor to their 2011 Blogging Success Summit–but it’s open to everyone with some great content regardless of whether you opt in for the full summit. I’ve participated in one of Stelzner’s other Summits–the Social Media Summit–and it featured some of the world’s top experts and users and also granted you access to an incredibly proactive community of fellow participants through their special LinkedIn group.

Here’s a link to a helpful piece from Susan Friedman, CSP, @tradeshowcoach describing what’s key to know in assessing your competition even if it seems pretty comfortably yours now.

One of her recommendations includes the use of Alexa [found at www.alexa.com], which she describes as “An easy way to determine the biggest movers and shakers is to head over to Alexa and enter in your keywords. Alexa enables you to see an in-depth view of what your competitors are up to, based on the rating of popularity that they are enjoying through individual site visits. They also offer the ability to view analytic data about specific sites, including the countries from which sites’ main traffic sources come from and number of other sites linking in. It’s an extremely powerful tool that you don’t need to pay for!”

Read more by following the link: http://bit.ly/a1UU6M

It’s always interesting to get the day’s word (sometimes it’s a phrase) of the day from the extremely diverse Urban Dictionary. Today’s seems particularly apropos for a holiday as many of us may find ourselves working on a day that is supposed to be a day off from labors and appreciation of the labors of others. For those of us in the communications realm, I actually recommend you check out any words or phrases you may have any question about on the www.urbandictionary.com site as you may be surprised at some of the street/urban meanings for things you thought were pretty innocuous!

Here’s the definition for today:

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September 6: workweek creep

1) Constant connectivity via your smartphone and computer blurs the boundaries between your work life and your personal life.

2) Constant connectivity at work via e-mail & chat, results in so many interruptions that you cannot get blocks of time to do any thinking, resulting in you catching up on your work at home on nights and weekends.

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