Winning the Content Creation Game in 20 Minutes a Day
About 10 years ago, I hired a professional book coach to get me through the first draft of my first novel. I wanted to write two or three hours a day, but he wouldn’t let me. Based on my schedule, he would only permit me to write for 30 minutes a day. And so write I did, most days (but not all), and at the end of about 14 months I had a completed book. 223 typed pages. Was it book award worthy? No. But the process taught me a lot about writing on demand. In this business, in our business, it can, and must be done. So as your writing coach, let me suggest that you block out just 20 minutes a...
Read MoreMake your web copy more relevant with personas
Every time I edit copy for a website, I run across pretty much the same issues. Too much focus on features and not enough on benefits. Copy that is more about you than what’s in it for those you’re trying to connect with. And, inevitably, there is no clear call to action. There is also industry jargon, overuse of adverbs, addiction to –ing, and my number one pet peeve: the dangling participle. But by far the most common (and biggest) problem I run into is –in fact, it’s almost universal – people are afraid to write anything that could alienate, well, anyone. Which makes for weak,...
Read MoreHow to Redefine Public Relations
The Public Relations Society of American (PRSA) recently launched a campaign to redefine public relations. You can weigh in via this form. I’m not sure, however, that crowdsourcing a definition is the right way to solve this problem. I think as community, we first need to understand and agree on our profession’s collective strategic story. (I’ve learned about strategic storytelling over the past year, from my client, Bill Baker, principal of BB&Co Strategic Storytelling.) We need to uncover what our function and relationship to business is, what we want it to be, and then...
Read MoreHBits | Art, stress and the reputation rehab room
On my mind this week: art If you’ve never heard of Bela Fleck and the Flecktones, you’re in for a treat. They gave an outstanding performance at McCarter Theater in Princeton NJ on Nov. 9 and were on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon (NBC) on Nov. 14. Here is the video – enjoy. (Long ad precedes, hang in there, it’s worth it.) http://bit.ly/rHkTrs It was just such a relief for me to hear extremely accomplished musicians play complex and thrilling compositions many of which were written in a time signature other than 4/4. I also love Futureman’s Drumitar. I also noticed Bela Fleck...
Read MoreHBits | content monsters, blogging and automatons
On my mind this week: the content monster For the first time in six weeks, I’ve blown a blog post deadline. The cat ate it. Not really. I actually have a post started, but the ideas — trust and transfer of wealth, networking, making money — aren’t nearly developed enough to publish. Sometimes it takes a while to figure out what things really mean. Sometimes you have a feeling about something but you don’t know what it is until you try to articulate it. William Zinsser talks about this in his book Writing to Learn. So rather than churn out a half-baked post on...
Read MoreHBits | Klout, tattoos and that truth thing
On my mind this week: klout I was skeptical about this influence measurement tool from the outset but I was curious to see how it worked so I jumped on the Klout bandwagon fairly early on. My score at one point was as high as 56. I will admit that it was affirming, in a Stuart Smalley kind of way. I even got a Klout Perk once, a 2 oz. tube of Axe hair gel. I gave the stuff to my boyfriend’s oldest son, 15, who actually liked it more than the $15 jar of hair goop I bought for him at the salon. Go figure. Today, however, my score is a paltry 36. It’s been in steady decline since I...
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