FaceBook - The Posts That Matter

What's the future of Facebook. I don't mean: "Will it be here in five years"? It probably will. Of course, it might not. But if it is here, it won’t be the way it is today, or even what it is today. It will be something completely different that's still trying to grab our attention. But whether it’s here or not, what's going to happen to all of our posts and comments?

Since most of what I post on Facebook is for my business, many of my posts are forwarding information or commenting about what's going on in the big wide wonderful world. Not stuff that I’ll actually care about in five years. Probably not even stuff that I’ll care about next week.

What I’m really wondering about is the posts where people are documenting their lives or their children's lives on Facebook. Maybe without even realizing it.

I know one new mother who is frequently posting about her newborn son. It's beautiful, and I love to hear about his progress and see the pictures of him with different friends and family members. But what is going to happen to all of this information? Will it be on Facebook when he's 10, 15, 20? Will his mother be able to take all of her posts, all of the comments, and put together a DVD showing him how much he is loved?

I don't know what Facebook's plans are for archiving everything, and I'm not such a prolific poster that I've tested that envelope or have any plans to. But I find it hard to believe that Facebook will keep an infinite record of everything that's posted.

After all, a lot of things on Facebook are throw aways. There will be records and commentary about today’s economy, politics and deficits years from now. But wouldn't it be wonderful to have the ability to capture the posts that actually matter? Anniversaries, pictures, events – things about friends and family. Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to separate the special from the boring things that we all post every day.

Copyright 2010 by I Write The Word, Judy Kane

Creating your Unique Value Proposition

For years, people have talked about the idea of a Unique Value Proposition (UVP) or a Unique Selling Proposition (USP).  But it’s hard to be unique since we compete against so many others who are offering similar services.  Instead, I’d encourage you to think about what you do for clients that’s different and better than your competition. 

Ask yourself this simple question:  “What do your clients like about you?”  In other words, what do they value? 

Of course, most of us get this wrong.  We believe that our client’s appreciate us because we’re honest with them, we are better at getting through the red tape, we listen to them.  But this isn’t what they value.  They value the benefits that these behaviors give them. 

Remember, it’s not about you.  It’s about what you give to your clients.

If you’re honest with your client, if you give it to them straight, what’s their benefit?  It’s learning the truth.  Knowing what’s really going on.  If you’re better at getting through the red tape, then they get an advocate who will work hard to push their project through.  If you listen to what they say, your client gets the outcome they want.    

If you can figure out what you do that your clients appreciate and how it benefits them, then you’ll know what your Value Proposition is.  Now you just need to figure out how to get that message to everyone who can use your products and services.

And remember, it’s not about being unique.  It’s about getting the word out on what you deliver.  Think about this: M&Ms isn’t the only candy that “melts in your mouth, not in your hand.”  It’s just the candy that said it first and so often that we believe that they are the only one. 

Copyright 2010 by I Write The Words

How to Write Web Content – Part 2

Keep it Short, Be Direct

To get your readers attention, you need to tell them what’s on the page within the first 15 seconds.  If you don’t, they’re on to the next webpage.  So what do you do?  You write clearly and directly.  In other words, you keep it short.

Know exactly what message you’re trying to get to your reader.  You can brainstorm or write pages of thoughts to help you find your focus, but on the webpage, the focus needs to be clear, direct and immediate.  Don’t start with a story. Start with your point.

Once you have a strong draft, shorten it.  Then, shorten it again. Throw out at least one third, and as much as two thirds, of what you write.  If you can leave a word out, do it.  If you can shorten a sentence, shorten it. 

Use the right words to add clarity.  Don’t dig in your thesaurus for college level words, instead, use the language we speak, and think about the meaning of every word you use.  When things are shortened down, every word becomes important.  Use the right ones.

Use contractions, slang, sentence fragments, and conjunctions at the beginning of sentences. These common speech patterns keep your reader moving down the page.

White space on the page tells your reader that you’ll get them the information they need quickly without wasting their time. Short paragraphs, made up of two or three sentences, make the writing look short. 

Your word count should be between 300 to 500 words.  Search engines aren’t interested in pages that contain less than 300 words, and 500 words is about the most you can expect your audience to read. 

If you can’t say it in 500 words, don’t scare off your reader with a text-covered page. Instead add additional pages with links from your initial page. 

And whatever you do, make your content clear, concise and direct.  Then you’ll have a chance at getting your reader to the end of your page.

 

Judy Kane is a writer and editor at I Write The Words.  When not working on her novel, she’s working on web content and blogging for her clients.

Copyright 2010 - I Write The Words

How to Write Web Content – Part 1

Know Your Audience and How You Can Benefit Them.

Writing web content requires focus.  You need to get the message across to your audience - fast.   But how?

The first step is to know your audience.  Who are you trying to reach and how will they benefit by connecting with you?  Sure, you’ll benefit too, but your audience isn’t concerned about what you need, they’re concerned with what they need. 

The more clearly you can define your audience – income level, education level, type of business, geographic location, etc. – the better you’ll understand them, and the better you can target your message.

The second step is to explain the benefit of your product or service.  The easiest and best way to do this is to think about the features of your product or service and how this benefits your clients.   

Always focus on the benefits.  If you don’t show your audience the benefits to them, why would they hire you or buy your product? 

For example, I can write web content for you, freeing up your time to focus on your business.  But I can, and should, push this even further.  By hiring me to write web content that is Search Engine Optimized, I can improve your position on search engines, provide your website with more hits, and generate more business for you.

You know how your product or service helps your clients.  But if you can’t focus your message and explain the benefits clearly, how can you expect your audience, your potential future clients, to understand it. 

You need to clearly point out the benefits of what you do.  Show people who visit your site that you can provide them with a service or product that will benefit them.  Connect with them, so that they’ll take the next step.

Give them a reason to pick up the phone or click a button and connect with you.  Then your web content has done its job, and now, it’s up to you to close the deal.


Copyright 2010 by Judy Kane

Making the Best of It

I’ve been hearing a lot of people expressing what I’m feeling.  “This isn’t the way it’s supposed to be now. I’ve worked hard all my life, and I shouldn’t be having to deal with this.” “This” being job loss, reduced income, and financial uncertainty.

In other words, it isn’t fair. My mother always said that life wasn’t fair.  Then she made every effort to spend the exact same amount on Christmas and Birthday presents for my sister and me.  Still shaking my head on that one.

But no, life isn’t fair. Some people find their bliss in their 20s. Some people take until their 40’s and some of us spend our entire lives wondering about the what if’s.

Maybe if I’d found out earlier how much I loved writing, I’d have a best seller by now, and I wouldn’t be experiencing this economic adjustment with everyone else.  But I too am trapped in this world that we’ve created. 

We’re used to having money and spending it. We’re used to living the good life in a very consumer spending sort of way. But that’s changed.  We’re now all crunched between what money we can bring in and what money we were used to having to spend.

My parents were always cheap.  Okay, frugal. And questioned our spending habits. Yeah, Mom, we bought too much stuff, but we still weren’t as bad as some other people.  But this frugality didn’t keep my parents or their parents from enjoying their lives, friends and family. 

I remember my parents throwing dinner parties, but my husband and I always went out with friends.  My mother bought whole chickens and cut them up for the parts; I always bought the chicken breasts.  (Combine the dinner parties for 12 and buying whole chickens just to get the breasts, and you end up with a freezer full of chicken parts.) My grandparents thought a rib roast was a celebration, and generally ate less expensive cuts of meat  (remember pot roast); my family had steak at least once a week.  I didn’t even know how to cook a pot roast.

But that’s changed. We’re trapped in a world with prices that haven’t gone done and income that has, and we’re all feeling the pinch.  Right now, businesses are raising prices to cover the rents that were set years ago. But increasing prices in a down market is pretty much a recipe for disaster. In another five years, more businesses will have failed, landlords will have dropped rents and things will have, hopefully, settled out.

So, the pain isn’t over.  There will be more business failures, more layoffs, more foreclosures. Those who are barely hanging on may survive or they may give up and decide to move or declare bankruptcy. 

No, none of this is fair.  But we were living a life that was unsustainable. And now we’re paying for it.  I miss the way we used to be able to spend money. And I hope that in a few more years everything will be better.  But right now, I’m going to try to hang in there by my teeth and enjoy what I get to do now.

Throw dinner parties, cooking whole chickens and pot roasts, and save the rib roast and steak dinners for celebrations. 

The Financial Shift

In the novel I’m writing, my heroine enters a restroom where she finds a dead body. She feels as though the world has tipped on its axis, plummeting her into a nightmare where her life will never be the same. Of course, that’s a novel, but in many ways, what we’re experiencing feels the same way. 

The world has shifted; the days of extra money and easy living are gone, and most of us have added the stress of unemployment or job insecurity to our lives.  We wonder about tomorrow; hope that we’ll be able to pay the bills; realize the mistakes we’ve made and decide to change our spending and saving habits. We hope that when all is said and done, we really won’t mind the changes we’re being forced to make in our lives. 

Of course, what’s been dubbed “irrational exuberance” and permeated many of our lives is over. I look at the $700 drapes in my bedroom and know that I’ll never spend that sort of money on “window treatments” again. 

In many ways, the financial shift is bringing me back to my roots. How I was raised. I’m watching the pennies, looking for the bargains, realizing that I really can live without a lot of the things that catch my eye. This newly discovered financial caution may not last. But the more frugal me doesn’t mind eating leftovers and pulling old clothes out of the closet. I don’t even mind finding bargains at Goodwill. 

I just wonder if this is part of the adventure or the life that I will be living going forward. 

© Judy Kane 2009

STAMPS

I got out a stamp this morning and realize how much I hate having to deal with mailing snail mail. I know the Post Office is considering the idea of reducing mail delivery to only weekdays, and I wonder how I’ll feel about that.

I like getting mail. It comes everyday at about 2:30, and the dogs have a barking fit. Of course, the mail lady is scared to death of my dogs. But the dogs love the opportunity to raise justifiable hell for a few minutes.

We need mail and the Postal Service, but something makes me wonder about how much longer it will be able to continue. Most of us live on e-mail and spam rather than snail mail and junk. On the other hand, I can’t mail books without some sort of physical delivery process, and the cost using the Post Office’s media mail is very reasonable. Of course, there are always e-books.

© Judy Kane 2009