If English weren’t an evolving language, we’d still be satisfying our retail needs at ‘Ye Olde Shoppes’ and referring to our less intelligent peers as ‘unpregnant’.  Many factors contribute to the evolution of language, including geography, culture, and technology — but what determines the changes that are deemed acceptable enough for purists to relent?

Of course, now we realize the absurdity of the extra vowels in older forms of English, but at one point they were likely deemed essential.  What was the breaking point?  Continuing in this tradition, albeit a hyper-charged version fueled by rapidly advancing digital technology, will we eventually see the disappearance of vowels altogether? OMG!

Perhaps that conclusion is overly dramatic, but as a defender of quality content, I’m conflicted.  On the one hand, I’m in support of concise written communication, especially where web marketing is concerned. But, on the other, I might spontaneously combust if ‘BTW’ and ‘IDK’ were to permanently replace the phrases ‘by the way’ and ‘I don’t know’.  To ease my mind, I decided to consult some peers.

How the Internet Is Changing Language

Historically, language has evolved through the spreading of memes, or those copied methods of communication that become widely accepted and used.  Does the rate at which memes spread via the Internet mean that we’ll have to get used to a more rapidly changing language?

Communication in text messaging and online has seen the English language drastically pared down, with vowels removed in favour of preserving precious character space, often limited in mobile text capabilities and social media platforms.  I’ve even witnessed journalistic types’ Twitter accounts updated with stunted language, laced with popular space-saving abbreviations.

David Crystal, Professor of Linguistics at the University of Wales, Bangor, thinks the Internet is the greatest thing to happen to the development of the English language since the invention of the printing press. He believes new technology leads to new stylistic forms and increases the expressive range of language, especially at the informal end of the spectrum.

In fact, he told the American Association for the Advancement of Science:

“The prophets of doom emerge every time a new technology influences language, of course — they gathered when printing was introduced, in the 15th century, as well as when the telephone was introduced in the 19th, and when broadcasting came along in the 20th; and they gathered again when it was noticed that Internet writing broke several of the rules of formal standard English — in such areas as punctuation, capitalization, and spelling.

“All that has happened, in fact, is that the language’s resources for the expression of informality in writing have hugely increased — something which has not been seen in English since the Middle Ages, and which was largely lost when Standard English came to be established in the 18th century.

“Rather than condemning it, therefore, we should be exulting in the fact that the Internet is allowing us to once more explore the power of the written language in a creative way.”

He added, educationalists will continue to be responsible for teaching children which style of language is appropriate in certain situations.

This Person Has Protected Their Tweets

Twitter is even championing certain grey areas of linguistic development, as evidenced in the message it posts to alert when an account is locked. ‘This person has protected their tweets’, reads the message, which clearly challenges the proper sentence ‘this person has protected his or her tweets’.

My brainy buddy Mignon Fogarty, also known as Grammar Girl, author of Grammar Girl’s Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing, had this to say on the matter:

“When websites used by millions of people make menu or user-interface decisions on the leading edge of what the language ‘old guard’ consider standard, it can speed up the acceptance of the new forms. People may have been fighting about whether ‘they’ can be singular for as long as we remember, but when Facebook and Twitter integrate a singular ’they’ into their sites [This person has protected their tweets], it quickly gains a deeper hold in the public consciousness.”

Fogarty also notes that when Hotmail and Gmail began using the word ‘email’ without a hyphen, which many would consider liberal, since several official style manuals still call for ‘e-mail’, people began to accept the former as correct.  Now, she says, they’ve started using ‘mail’, opting to remove the ‘e’ altogether.

An Existential Crisis for a Superhero

This all leaves me wondering whether I should continue fighting for proper language use in web content since English seems to take on a life of its own online. Is it worth my while to defend something that will likely continue to change at a faster and faster rate?

I’d like to hear your thoughts on the matter before I contemplate abandoning my mission in favour of fighting for ideals that stand the test of time, like justice, perhaps.

Until next time,

— The Deleter

Adding a blog to your website is a simple and affordable way to strengthen your connection with both current and potential clients, while improving your search engine rankings. However, many business blogs quickly become neglected and abandoned, which leaves a poor impression. So we asked successful bloggers and online marketing experts:

When should a business launch a blog, and how do you create a following?

Alister Cameron
Blogologist, Alister Cameron

“You’re ready to start a blog when other online contacts keep asking you where your blog is. I’ve long been saying that blogging is only 10% writing. The other 90% is what we might loosely call ‘networking’. And as such, learning to blog should start with the networking bit, not the writing bit.

“Start by researching who else is already blogging in your industry or niche. Begin reading their blogs and commenting on posts that grab your attention. Don’t just leave a ‘throw-away line’ as a comment but try and contribute something substantive.

“Also, when you are impressed by what a blogger has to say, and have something you think is valuable to add, perhaps email them privately. Seek to make a personal connection.

“What will happen is fairly predictable: some people — perhaps other commenters, perhaps the blog author — will want to read more of what you’ve got to say and will ask for your blog address. When that happens more than a few times, you’re ready to blog!

“By that stage — usually a few months — you will have reached a point in your own personal development where you will write in a far better way than you might otherwise have done, had you started with the writing bit. You will have a better sense of your own tone of voice, you will have a better sense of how to write for your target audience, and you will have much greater confidence in what subject matter is of interest ‘out there’.”

Follow Alister @alicam

Ali Hale
Blogger, Aliventures

“I’ve never heard anyone who thought they’d launched their business blog too soon. Even if you’re a brand new startup, it’s worth investing some time in getting a blog up and running. You don’t have to post every day or even every week — but a blog offers you a great opportunity to have a human, friendly face for your customers. It’s also a great place to post news and promotions.

“Almost any blog tool you use will let you offer an RSS feed, and email subscriptions, so that your customers and fans can get updates from you straight to their feed reader or inbox — and, realistically, they’re much more likely to do that than keep coming back to visit a site which rarely changes. Produce valuable content which your prospects really want to read, and you’ll quickly find you build up a following.”

Follow Ali @alihale

Jacob Morgan
Principal, Chess Media Group

“A business can begin blogging at any time really; there isn’t a right or wrong time to start.  However, before starting a blog an organization needs to remember that successful blogging comes out of passion and love for someone does, what their company offers and represents, and for interactions and conversations with other people.  This is important to have otherwise blogging becomes a chore and that’s usually why they are abandoned and left behind.

“The best way I have found to create a following is by writing plenty of guest blogs for other people, actively commenting on other sites, integrating social media into other marketing efforts — for instance, including a Twitter handle on business cards, and by participating in other social channels where relevant discussions are taking place.”

Follow Jacob @JacobM

Sarah Prout
Founder, Sprout Media, and author of The Power of Influence

“Blogging is the best way to give your audience a snapshot into who you are as a brand or business. In this new age of web 2.0 marketing, the key to success is relationship building, building personal brand equity, and finding your own voice online. Blogging helps to give clarity and volume to your brand. It helps to build a sense of community based around your key ideas and concepts.

“If you’re not sure what to blog about then ask your viewers. Use social media platforms like Twitter to engage your followers and ask them about the style of content they’d like to read. This shows that you respect their opinion.

“And the number one rule of having an online business is building trust. Once you gain their trust and have won their hearts, then you have acquired valued and loyal customers for your business from a long-term perspective.”

Follow Sarah @sarahprout

Yaro Starak
Founder, Entrepreneurs-Journey.com

“A business should launch a blog only when they are clear on why they are doing so. Understanding the strategy and the real tangible outcomes you desire from your blog, and how the blog is capable of meeting these goals, is critical.

“Blogs fail because the owner acts because they’ve been told it’s a good idea to have one, but don’t really understand why or how they work. If you want your blog to be marketing tool, to attract new customers, build your list, increase brand awareness and open a dialog with your customers, then it makes sense to first understand how blogs do this, then follow a proven strategy that leads to the result you want.

“No matter what your motivation is for starting a blog, you will need to learn how to attract an audience. The best way to do this is by following a content strategy, releasing the information you know your audience is searching for, and then venturing out to where your community exists online and interacting with them.

“If you can commit to publishing one piece of valuable content every day and spend at least 30 minutes a day going to other websites to interact with your community and promote your blog, you will succeed.”

Follow Yaro @yarostarak

Debbie Weil
Author, The Corporate Blogging Book

“You should launch a blog when you have something to say. In other words, when you can add value. Talk about trends in your industry, offer your top 10 tips, provide links to useful free resources or new articles. Be consistently useful. You don’t have to be brilliant or witty.

“Above all, keep at it. It takes several months to get noticed by the search engines and longer to get noticed — and linked to — by influential bloggers or Twitterers. Marketing with content (for that’s what blogging is) takes time and effort. But it is extremely powerful and, over the long run, cost efficient. You build credibility drip by drip, blog post by post.”

Follow Debbie @debbieweil

Sex has been used to successfully sell products as early as 1890 when W. Duke & Sons became the leading cigarette brand by including trading cards featuring scantily clad women in their cigarette packs.  Many decades of positive reinforcement later, selling with sex has become commonplace, with boundaries being pushed as far as societal morals allow.  Evolutionary psychologist Geoffrey Miller even wagers that all of our consumer choices are motivated by our pursuit of primal desire, for procreation or otherwise.

How has selling with sex manifested itself on the Web?  Webcopyplus recently spoke with Melody Nieves, blogger and marketing enthusiast behind www.sexidesign.com, a blog dedicated to exploring the role sex plays in marketing, for her take on sexy advertising online.

How is sex being used to sell products on the Internet?

Selling with sex on the web comes in many forms, including attractive women and men on website ads, sexual innuendos, subliminal messages in slogans, and blatant manipulations of images to appeal to societal standards of beauty.  From a sexy vixen in a bikini selling video games to a standard attractive and friendly looking customer service girl, sex is everywhere on the Web.

Online, this marketing tactic is most easily recognized in imagery rather than in subliminal form.  Internet users are bombarded with hundreds of advertisements daily, so an ad that stimulates the slightest sexual arousal has the best chance of being noticed.

Sexy marketing tactics have existed long before the Internet, but they’ve certainly become more accessible with the addition of the Web.  The Internet just provides another channel for delivering this popular form of advertising.

The recent viral success of the Old Spice commercials, featuring a good-looking, half naked male actor is an example of a successful campaign that uses sex to sell.  Have you seen any that have failed?

What I love about the Old Spice commercials is that they cleverly poke fun at the stereotypes in sexy advertising and it’s always rewarding when a campaign can pull off sex and humour.  The viral status of the commercials proves this is a winning combination.

One of the poorest recent examples of using sex to sell is the entire campaign from Reebok Easytone. Both the commercial and the ads blatantly overuse sex so much that the viewer doesn’t realize what is being sold.  This campaign is a classic case of when a company goes too far, almost desperately so.  It’s hard to check out the sneakers when the camera is pointed at the woman’s butt the whole time.

Is it morally wrong to use sex to sell?  How do you determine boundaries and ensure that certain sensitive markets aren’t offended?

I think if you ask any opinionated person if using sex to sell is wrong they will probably say yes. But morals don’t sell products, marketing tactics do. Morals change throughout the centuries because of what will be publicly accepted and acknowledged by society.

Since it’s so easy for businesses to market with sex online, the real question is how far they’re willing to push the limits of morality to sell a product.

In order to effectively market with sex you have to consider all of the following:

1. How far are you willing to go?
2. Does selling with sex work cohesively with the product’s appeal or brand reputation?
3. Is the campaign suitable for the audience?

For example, McDonald’s — a brand built on customer loyalty through generations of childhood memories — does better using Ronald McDonald than scantily clad Paris Hilton eating a burger, which was used in recent Carl’s Jr. commercials.

Businesses can take the safe route with something as simple as an attractive spokesperson, or decide to push the limits, keeping in mind that doing so may result in disconnect from audiences with strict morals and religious beliefs.

How far will the boundaries be pushed in terms of using sex to sell online?

I think in general using sex to sell is moving toward a path more dangerously perverse.  Markets from every industry are pushing the limits of the amount of skin exposed before an ad is yanked.  Some of the best campaigns balance sex and humour as a fun way to neutralize any odd feelings about the sexy aspects of the ad in view, like Old Spice.

The boundaries are being pushed further and further.  Had Paris Hilton displayed herself as she did for Carl’s Jr. a century ago, that same commercial would have been banned and deemed pornography.

When society gets over its adolescent thinking toward the human body, who knows, the sex we see in today’s advertising could pale in comparison to what we see in a couple of decades.

Are marketers going overboard with sex, or is this just foreplay? Share your thoughts!

I’ve witnessed some horrific abuses of grammar and punctuation over the years and it’s about time someone stood up for these poor little words and symbols that can’t stand up for themselves. With that, I give you the first installment in my campaign to end grammar and punctuation abuse.

I’m officially declaring it’s Apostrophe Awareness Month! Never has a tiny dot with a tail endured so much misuse.  With your help, we can make a difference in apostrophe abuse by recognizing some of the worst offenders.

Being Too Possessive

“Free tequila shots before 11pm at Get Drunk Saturday’s inside the city’s hottest nightclub!”

Perhaps you’re trying to save trees by opting against a reprint for your club flyers, but this happens far too often for that excuse.  Maybe the real reason is that you really like apostrophe and want to keep him around whenever you can.  I can’t blame you — he is pretty cute.

Whatever your reason, please don’t force innocent little apostrophe to attend this party.  He may be legal drinking age, he may even like free tequila, but he just can’t support parties that disrespect him by forcing him into inappropriate pluralizations.  Next thing he knows, he’ll be waking up beside a semicolon wondering what the hell happened last night.  He will gladly accept an invitation to Jager Bomb Wednesdays, however; he likes those.

Painful Contractions

“Why are you’re rules so confusing?!”

Much like common grammar abuses such as the ‘their’/’they’re’/’there’ plague that confuses people regularly, when an apostrophe is thrown in the mix, people seem to get even more confused.

Apostrophe doesn’t mean to make things difficult for you. In fact, he wants to help you communicate to the best of your ability whenever he can.  Please understand that he needs to rest.  Don’t use him when he’s not needed.  In particular, never use him to combine the words ‘you’ and ‘are’ when what you really meant was ‘your’.

Making an A** of You and Me

“Punctuation’s unpredictability is part of it’s charm.”

Sometimes we make understandable assumptions regarding correct apostrophe use.  In this case, one would think that his use at the end of this sentence is correct, considering the way he’s applied in the first part of the sentence.  Wrong!

In punctuation, as in life, it’s dangerous to make assumptions.  The apostrophe is special like a snowflake, and he refuses to be susceptible to logical rules, much like the English language.  As such, he reserves the right to have special rules for his use, and for people to respect them.

Once you remember this one special rule, you’re on your way to a fulfilling relationship with apostrophe:  something that belongs to someone or something should be referred to as ‘his’, ‘hers’, or ‘its’.  The incorrect sentence above improperly used the contraction ‘it’s’, which actually means ‘it is’.

A Question of Whom

“I’ll tell you whose missing an apostrophe!”

At this point, you may be throwing your hands up in frustration, asking ‘Who does this apostrophe think he is?! How many special rules can one piece of punctuation have?!’

Apostrophe promises you, that even though he may be a complex fellow, he’ll always be consistent.  For example, when you want to contract the words ‘who’ and ‘is’, he’s always happy to help.  In the above sentence, the word ‘whose’ actually means, ‘belonging to whom’ (we’ll get into the who/whom debate later on in the campaign).

The Campaign Continues…

Are you confused by grammar and punctuation rules?  Stick around! I’ll be covering more common mistakes as the campaign to end grammar and punctuation abuse continues.

Your punctuation pal,
The Deleter

Greetings, good Internet people! I’m Opticon’s sidekick, The Deleter. I specialize in exterminating spelling, punctuation and grammatical errors with a vengeance!

I wasn’t the most popular guy in school, but rest assured all those years spent studying proper language use instead of frivolous things like ‘sports’ and ‘dating’ have really paid off! Now, I’m an esteemed Internet superhero who helps well-meaning folks like you break bad language habits so you can confidently deliver your message to the masses without error or embarrassment.

Over my years of scouring the Internet for traces of technical violations I’ve noticed that some similar sounding words confuse many of you, and I’m here to get rid of this confusion once and for all.

Here’s my list of commonly confused words and their proper, and improper, uses.

Accept/Except

Accept: To receive
Except: To exclude

Wrong:

Right:

As a superhero working in the constantly evolving Web, I must be prepared to accept change, and I will do so like a brave warrior on a new frontier, except when the English language becomes a casualty.

Adapt/Adopt

Adapt: To Adjust to
Adopt: To accept formally, or take as one’s own

Wrong:

Right:

To my dismay, I had to adapt to my status as a dateless wonder in high school as my female classmates became irritated by my constant need to correct their grammatical errors. Fortunately, the ladies of the online dating scene have been more than impressed by my articulate profile. I hope my new superhero role will cause women everywhere to adopt this opinion, especially when they see how I correct online typos faster than you can say Isaiah Mustafa! (Ahem, Armando — I believe you’re missing an ‘e’ in ‘presence’.)

Affect/Effect

Affect (v): To influence
Effect (v): To bring about; (n) result

Wrong:

Right:

Improper language use in this blog post may affect the reader’s ability to accept the claim that the writer is smart. In fact, the many errors in this post may have an adverse effect on the writer’s credibility.

Complement/Compliment

Complement: Complete
Compliment: Praise

Wrong:

Right:

When I was in school, I would have thought my teacher was taking LSD if she suggested that colors have the ability to give each other compliments. Blue and orange may be complementary, but they’re certainly not being vocal about their admiration for each other.

Loose/Lose

Loose: Unattached
Lose: To suffer loss

Wrong:

Right:

I don’t think Michael Phelps is a fan of anything loose. In fact, last time I checked, he was wearing a pretty tight Speedo! As to whether he should lose his endorsements, that’s another argument.

Principal/Principle

Principal: Chief person or thing
Principle: A rule of conduct

Wrong:

Right:

I agree; a good principal is essential. My principal always stood up for me when I was bullied in high school because of my superior spelling skills. He always did his best to ensure students were living up to the school’s principles of good behavior.

Stationary/Stationery

Stationary: Not moving
Stationery: Writing materials

Wrong:

Right:

I’ve never been much of an athlete (see my skinny arms for evidence), but I’m a big supporter of more stationary activities like writing, which is especially enjoyable if you’re using nice stationery.

Than/Then

Than: To compare
Then: At that time, or next

Wrong:

Right:

Nothing brings me more joy than finding articles on the Internet full of grammatical errors, then showing off my superior skills by correcting them. Chand, please proof your prose!

Don’t Let It Happen to You!

Stick with us, and we’ll help you avoid similar mistakes. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to see if any hot grammar teachers are waiting for me on Plenty of Fish..

Follow Opticon and I for our latest tips @Opticon_

Meticulously yours,

— The Deleter

There’s a prolific villain on the loose that must be stopped.  It’s a complex shape shifter and not easy to track to the untrained eye.  The villain, my good people of the Internet, is bad web copy, and it’s infecting the Web, leaving traces on websites, blogs, social networks — everywhere! Your website may have already been infected, and the damage immeasurable.

I, Opticon, have taken it upon myself, as part of my duties of making the Web a better place, to teach you how to spot bad content on your website and prevent further infection.  So grow some virtual cajones and listen up!  You may learn your web copy has been hit, and it’s not gonna feel good.

The Long-Winded Attack

The Objective

The villain has infected your web copy with lengthy, irrelevant information to drive customers away out of sheer boredom, comparable to a virtual sleeper hold that drains website visitors, and your bottom line, like a blood-thirsty leech.

The Side Effects

Unnecessarily long-winded web copy that doesn’t deliver relevant information not only makes the visitor’s eyes glaze over like tiny honey crullers, but it also makes you look like you’ve lost your focus and faith in your business.  Your copy has been puffed up with a bunch of fancy, idealistic words that cloud your brand message rather than describing exactly why your business is the best choice.

What It Looks Like

Original source

This copy outlines the company’s vision and mission well if their vision includes boring people to death.   Rather than providing clear and concise information on the company’s mission to provide quality software products for businesses, the bad copy villain makes it sound like they’re trying to change the universe, with lengthy, vague, idealistic language.  If you’re going to make such claims you better be precise about how you intend to make the world a better place, or people will be less than impressed when they find out you’re only trying to sell them computer software.

The best thing about this example is the quote at the end, which must the villain’s cruel joke.

“Life is too short to settle for anything less than excellence.”
Doug Deane, President and Founder

I couldn’t agree more; life is too short to bore people stiff with painfully long copy!

The Scattered Attack

The Objective

The villain’s objective with the scattered copy attack is to confuse website visitors so much that they get frustrated and frantically hit the back button.  Tactics include headlines that don’t directly relate to content, and copy sprinkled with information that defies all logic.

The Side Effects

Scattered web copy that doesn’t stick to a clear, logical outline frustrates the reader and implies inferior thinking skills on your part.  People visiting your site will likely conclude that you do business inefficiently, like your thought process, and go off on tangents that waste time and money.  They’re certainly not going to feel confident about investing in your products or services if there’s no clear explanation of what you do.

What It Looks Like

Original source

This web page is a perfect example of one that’s been compromised by scattered copy.  The headline implies that the content is going to tell us how to get a low cost payday loan, but then it goes off on a lengthy tangent about what a payday loan is, then why payday loans are good, while not remaining focused on why I should choose Maycash over other payday loan companies.  The ideal messaging is present, but it’s hidden within a scattered attack of extraneous, poorly organized, distracting information.

The Vague Attack

The Objective

We’ve all heard of the concept of ‘thinking outside the box’ and all the wonderful innovations that supposedly occur ‘outside the box’.  The bad copy villain capitalizes on this popular saying by contaminating copy with content that’s so far outside the box it’s indecipherable.

The Side Effects

It’s true; people were once romanced by this enigmatic concept, thinking that if they didn’t get it, maybe it was just too advanced for their comprehension. “Wow! I don’t get it. They must be smart — really smart!”  Unfortunately, it’s been overused and has become recognized as a mask for inadequacy, prompting people to direct their eyes to competitors that outline concrete results.  The villain, in this case, has made your business look dishonest, or like a space cadet who can’t connect the dots.

What It Looks Like

Original source

This is a literal example of how vague the box can be.  This copy doesn’t give the visitor any indication of what kind of innovative things Stratix is doing with their document management services.  And I don’t know about you, but document management ‘outside the box’ doesn’t sound sexy to me at all.  It sounds ridiculous.  I prefer to keep my documents ‘in the box’, thank you very much.  Then I don’t lose anything.

Bad Spelling and Grammar Attack

The Objective

The bad content villain wants to make you look completely incompetent by littering your copy with spelling, punctuation and grammatical errors.  Sometimes, for an extra evil touch, he’ll even copy and paste the exact same errors throughout your website!  What a jerk.  My sidekick, The Deleter, would love to sink his teeth into this one.

The Side Effects

This is pretty straightforward.  Bad spelling, grammar and punctuation makes you seem either: a) like you’re not overly bright; or b) that you cut corners and don’t bother getting your marketing materials proofread.  This will probably lead potential customers to think you’re also incompetent in business, and remove themselves from your prospects altogether.

What It Looks Like

Original source

This site endured a particularly cruel hit by the bad content villain.  In fact, it’s so bad it looks like it’s been abandoned altogether (I think it’s safe to say IE 6 is no longer the “most common ‘borwser’ on the Internet”).  If you look closely, you’ll see the same typos repeated throughout the site. Perhaps the company went out of business after failing to qualify their name. It’s a real shame.

Help Fight the Evil!

By learning how to recognize these bad copy attacks on your own web content, you’re one step closer to building unstoppable web branding, and fending off the damaging effects of bad copy.

Stay tuned for more of my tips for making the Web a better place.

— Opticon, Defender of Good Web Copy

Follow The Deleter and I @Opticon_.

A great press release can go along way in terms of gaining virtually free publicity for your business, especially in an increasingly digital media environment. Learning to combine old tricks and new in your press release composition and distribution can help you leverage the power of both traditional media outlets, such as newspapers and magazines, and newer ones, such as blogs and social media networks, to get your message to your markets.

What Has Changed?

A press release is defined as ‘a written or recorded communication directed at members of the news media for the purpose of announcing something claimed as having news value’ (Wikipedia).

Traditionally, when public relations and marketing professionals disseminated press releases to news media, that meant sending them to specific news editors and reporters via mail, fax, or email to consider running the story in print, or more recently, online.

However, as our focus increasingly shifts from print to digital, the role of mass media gatekeeper, normally reserved for editors and reporters, has expanded to include bloggers and regular Internet users who like to share stories they deem newsworthy with their friends and followers on social media sites. Public relations professionals must consider the power these new gatekeepers can have in propelling a story or brand message, since social networks can reach a large number of people if the story they post goes ‘viral’, or rapidly spreads across the Internet through endless networks of users.

As the PR model changes, certain techniques can help maximize exposure in this new landscape. For example, since online press releases are indexed by search engines, keyword optimization is a wise move. According to Melanie Waldmann, Social Media and Search Marketing Manager at Marketwire, 75% of public relations professionals now use keyword placement in their press releases. Releases can also be formatted with specific social media sites in mind, like Twitter, for instance, where headlines must fit within the 140-character status update limit.

Writing a Press Release – Basic Tips

Though the press release has evolved to adapt to the increasingly digital world, some essential elements remain the same. Following are some basic tips for writing traditional press releases that have stood the test of time:

• Write your press release like a news story, with all the most important information (who, what, when, where, why) in the beginning (inverted pyramid). The less an editor has to change, the more likely your press release will be printed as is.

Example:

Poll: Internet Users Place More Weight on Web Design

Vancouver, B.C., June 3, 2009 — The demand for good web design is increasing, reveals a recent Webcopyplus online poll. Almost 25% of web users indicated “poor visual presentation” is the number one element that drives them away from websites.

• Find a unique angle that makes your story newsworthy. For example, tie it to a recent event that made headlines or an upcoming holiday. Or, if your story has an unusual element, highlight it (e.g. ‘first ever’, or ‘record breaking’).
• Make your press release short; one page is ideal. News editors don’t have a lot of time to sift through long releases, and studies have shown that the average consumer of Internet content has an online attention span of just a few seconds.
• Use widely understood terms to reach a wider audience.
• Specify release date (immediate, or delayed) and ensure the timing is relevant.
• Keep your release factual and avoid fluffy, sales-type writing.
• Include quotes from authority figures, including sources within your company.
• Include a call to action along with all the necessary information needed to act (e.g. enter a contest, visit a website, etc.).
• Include a boilerplate at the end of the release. A boilerplate includes information about the source of the release that can be reused for subsequent releases. It should include basic company information and where the reader can go for further details on the company.

Example:

About Webcopyplus

Webcopyplus is a Vancouver, Canada-based web copywriting firm that helps designers and businesses increase online traffic, leads and sales with optimized web content. Clients range from independent designers to international service providers, including AT&T, Scotia Bank and 1-800-Got-Junk.

For more information, please contact:

[PR contact information]

Writing A Press Release – Advanced Tips

In addition to the basic tips for writing a press release listed above, you can apply these advanced tips to further increase your press release’s exposure on the Web:

• Include keywords that editors, reporters, and bloggers might use to search for story ideas online. Research your keywords using a free tool like Google Adwords.
• Place your keywords in the areas most likely to be scanned by search engines, such as headlines and subheads.
• Include relevant links within the text for the editor, blogger, or reader to find out more information, if desired.
• Craft your headline with social media networking in mind. If your story is posted with a Twitter account, for example, the headline must fit within the 140-character limit. Also keep in mind, however, that there must be room for the story URL, and the Twitter user’s @name within these 140 characters.
• Familiarize yourself with specifications of online news aggregators, such as Google News, which requires headlines to be between a minimum of two words in length, to a maximum of 22 for proper indexing.
• Post your press release on your own website for additional exposure.

Strive to make your press release as ready as possible for easy dissemination through a wide variety of online channels, but ensure that you’ve double and triple checked it. If you’ve done your job well, your story could take on a life of its own online, and you’ll want to ensure the message that goes ‘viral’ is one you can be proud of.

Distributing Your Press Release

Traditionally, press releases have been distributed via snail mail, fax and email. In the interest of saving trees, a simple email, either sent individually, or using a mass email program, and follow up call can suffice.

To build your media contacts list, visit newspaper and magazine websites and look for a ‘Contact Us’ or ‘Masthead’ section. Most will include individual reporter and editor names, sections, email addresses and phone numbers. You can build your list according to the type of audience you want to reach, and have phone numbers ready to follow up after sending your release. Keep in mind that some magazines plan the stories they’re going to run months in advance, while newspapers tend to have stories assigned by the end of the week. If these specifics are not listed on their websites, try doing some good old-fashioned telephone research.

When emailing, include the press release content in the body of the email, in addition to attaching a PDF, in case the recipient is wary of opening attachments from unknown sources. Include your carefully crafted, eye-catching headline in the subject line.

For maximum online exposure, you can also submit your press release to a wire service. There are several wire services available at different prices (some at no cost) that allow you to specify which industries you want to reach. Some options include:

• Marketwire
• PR Web
• PR Newswire
• Business Wire

If you use one of these services, be sure to pay attention to their specific press release formatting requirements.

Measuring The Results of Your Press Release

The success of your press release can be measured in many ways, including the number of resulting print or online stories, the number of times your press release has been viewed, or how much additional traffic is driven to your website. Most online wire services display how many views each press release receives, and direct website traffic can be measured using tools, such as Google Analytics.

By learning how to combine traditional press release writing and distribution techniques with new ones customized for digital media, you’re on your way to taking advantage of the cost-effective marketing potential of the almighty press release.

Group brainstorming is inefficient and smothers creativity, suggests a recent study conducted at Texas A&M University. This might come as a shock to copywriters, designers, developers, and other creative types, who long for and religiously take part in caffeine-powered idea-generating sessions.

The study, published in the April 2010 issue of Applied Cognitive Psychology, suggests that group brainstorming exercises can lead to fixation on only one idea or option, blocking out other ideas and possibilities, and eventually leading to a conformity of ideas.

“Fixation to other people’s ideas can occur unconsciously and lead to you suggesting ideas that mimic your brainstorming partners,” explains lead researcher Nicholas Kohn. “Thus, you potentially become less creative.”

The study comprised several experiments in which researchers asked students — both in groups and individually — to produce new ideas on how to improve the university. The findings: students working in groups generated fewer ideas than their solitary peers.

Plus, when researchers inspected the ideas, it was determined the groups put forth and considered fewer suggestions. This is because participants involved in group brainstorming sessions conform their thinking to others’ initial ideas, thus ‘trapping’ their minds.

In another study, Kohn gave engineering students blueprints of a basic vehicle, and asked them to design a “different” vehicle that served the same function — to move from point A to B. Despite the emphasis to produce a different blueprint, the students became fixated on the original and came up with nearly the same design.

So What Does the Study Suggest?

The study concluded if you’re looking for unique solutions, or want to come up with many ideas, having people first work on their own could produce stronger results. So it might be beneficial to have copywriters, designers, developers and others share their respective ideas after they’ve had adequate time to work independently.

Once the individuals form their ideas (check out this idea generation drill), then it’s probably highly beneficial to introduce them to a group setting. The reason? Fixation helps people identify and refine good ideas.

Still determined to conduct team brainstorming sessions? If so, the researchers state members of the group need to be aware of the fixation phenomenon, and take steps to prevent conformity. They state this will lead to a “more vibrant, fresh discussion and a wider range” of possible solutions.

It’s worth noting group brainstorming is not all about ideas. There’s also the social aspect, which can be fun and bring co-workers together and improve team performance. For that reason, our web copywriters will continue to apply the classic team brainstorming technique (not to mention the company-sponsored lattes).

Brainstorming Rules

Brainstorming gained popularity partly thanks to U.S. advertising executive Alex Osborn, who promoted the practice in his 1953 book Applied Imagination. Famously quoted as saying, “It is easier to tone down a wild idea than to think up a new one,” Osborne suggested a relaxed, supportive environment would help collective minds reach creative capacity.

Osborn put forth four basic rules in brainstorming, to reduce social inhibitions, fuel idea generation, and boost overall creativity:

No Criticism
Criticism is reserved for the process’ evaluation stage to allow participants to comfortably generate different ideas.

Welcome Unusual Ideas
Unusual ideas are encouraged as it’s typically easier to tone down a “wild idea” than dress up a dull idea.

Quantity Wanted
The more ideas generated, the greater the odds of producing a radical and effective solution.

Combine and Improve Ideas
Not only are a variety of ideas desired, but also ways to combine them to make them better.

Looking for inspiration? Check out Breaking Barriers on the Web.