Like pretty much anyone else, if I am sending a SMS message I will use short forms and abbreviated words - it’s quicker and easier on a small screen and keyboard.

However, as a professional writer, I cringe every time I see shortened words in other contexts.

There is no need to use SMS shortcuts on a website, in a newsletter or blog, or in any other business or professional document. Personally, I don’t think there’s much need to use it in personal emails or letters, either, but I’ll leave that alone!

Reading information about a business, we want to know if we can trust the business and that they will provide a professinal service*. If the business can’t even be bothered writing out full words, they do not inspire trust that they will provide much for customers.

Examples…

1. Only days ago a friend forwarded me an email she had received. The subject of the email was “Here’s to a gr8 ‘08!” and she forwarded it to me with the comment that she hadn’t even bothered reading it because the subject “really put me off!”

With something like an email subject, you only have one chance to entice people to read it, so don’t lose that chance by not using full words.

2. A while ago I was asked to review someone’s website for a service based business where she really needed people to trust her. The entire homepage was full of U (instead of you), lower case letters and other SMS-type words. Had I not been reviewing it, I would not have even read the page  - again, you only have a short time to grab a visitor’s interest on a website so make first impressions good.

So, go back to basics - use good grammar, spelling and expression to present a clear message even if you think your audience understands or relates to SMS texting language. Understanding it is not the same as respecting it away from mobile phones.

* By professional service, I mean service that is appropriate, courteous and business -like so it includes customer service in a retail setting as well as services from a service provider such as an accountant, lawyer or writer.

Writing well is more than just getting words onto the page - you also need to check the correct words and spelling are there to be read.

I was looking at a website the other day and I’m sure they didn’t proof read it - maybe they didn’t actually read it at all once it was written. On their contact page it states:

Submit your answers and reply or call at no time.

The bit that jumped out at me was ‘call at no time’ - not exactly a welcoming message for a business! The mistake of ‘no’ instead of ‘any’ is simple to make but has a big impact on the final meaning of your words.

Of course, ’submit your answers and reply’ doesn’t make sense either. Reading over their work (or getting someone else to read it for them) could have ended with webcopy that made sense.

So always read through and check your writing says what you wanted it to say, without missing words.

Outsourcing is a valuable activity in business - you gain expert assistance, time and completed projects.

Yet many business owners choose to not trust their suppliers. Now obviously you need to maintain control and ensure suppliers are providing you with what you’re paying for, but you are also paying for their expertise.

I recently did some webcopy for a client. Amongst other things, I rewrote their about us page - both adjusting the content (as requested by the client) and improving the flow and grammar of the page.

The feedback from the client was ‘that’s good thanks, but we made a few changes to the about us text’. That’s great - they should take ownership and make changes so it is accurate and they are comfortable with the final copy.

However, when I looked at their changes I saw that they had replaced a lot of my text with their grammatically incorrect text again. By grammatically incorrect, I’m talking about sentences like ‘we started our business because my son needed…’ without indicating who ‘me’ actually is. It ended up not making much sense and looking very amateurish, unfortunately.

The point is that if you’re going to pay a professional writer, then take their advice on grammar, flow and style, even if you want to change the tone or content of the work.

I’ve heard graphic designers, accountants, web designers and database programmers express this frustration, too. In all instances, the professional has done what the client wanted but is disappointed in the result as they are aware of the errors. The professional is also unlikely to add that project to their portfolio so you won’t get any free advertising that way, either.

Question a professional by all means, make a suggestion even, but listen to what they tell you before you assume your way is best.

If you are not ready to take professional advice and direction, then maybe you aren’t ready to give up any control of your business and outsourcing won’t help you.

Outsourcing will help you and save you time, but only if you are ready to accept that help.

Not many people actually ask me outright, but you can almost see the thought cross their mind - “why would I pay someone to write stuff for me? I know how to write a sentence.”

One very important reason some people choose to hire a writer is simply to save time. It is a task to be outsourced so you can spend more time doing what you’re best at. This is especially true for people who struggle over every word and find writing very time consuming.

Another reason is distance - a professional writer is not so close to your business so will have a clearer perspective of what needs to be said. When you are close to the business, it is easy to get caught in details that aren’t necessary in a marketing document for instance. And when it comes to something like an about us page on a website, many people find it hard to write about themselves anyway.

A professional writer (or editor) may just review what you have done - finding those little errors you can’t easily find in your own work. It is handy if you work alone and don’t have anyone else who can proof read for you.

Of course, a major reason for using a professional writer is to get words that work well, are easy to read and are grammatically correct. For some people this is easy to achieve, others have to work hard at it and some people just can’t get it no matter what they do. Even if you can write fairly well, if you aren’t experienced at writing in a certain way it may be worth getting a professional to do it for you. You can always use their work as a model for future projects.

I think of it this way - I can hold a pencil or paint brush and make marks on a page but I would pay someone else to actually paint something to hang on my walls. We all have our talents and I’d prefer to outsource to experts than try to find time to do everything myself. Which of course leaves me with more time for writing…

A few days ago I shared part of an email I received - the person was trying to convince me (and others as it was a mass email) to participate in her forums. Her email was unlikely to work, so I thought I’d share some ideas on how to convince someone to participate in something they are reluctant about.

1. Consider why they are reluctant - maybe it is lack of time or they think it is too expensive, or maybe it is just too hard or intimidating. Once you have the reason, or most likely reasons, answer those reasons.

For example, if people aren’t buying your product because they don’t think it has value for money, don’t tell them they are wrong but explain the value - “This product is fully reusable and made from sturdy materials that will last for years” or “This price includes delivery, a 12 month warranty and a spare battery pack.”

2. Point out the advantages for them, not you.

For example, “Did you know posting on forums can help your search engine results?” or “If you have questions, ask them on the forum - we have experts who may be able to help you” or “When you leave this event, you will know how to save hours every month”

3. Show respect and give the person space to say no without loosing face. No one likes being forced into anything or being nagged, and no one appreciates being made to feel stupid or cheap for not participating in something. So invite and then give them room to decide for themselves.

Carrying on from my last post about Lucie of MultiMediART’s talk, it was interesting to get her interpretation on fresh website content. It has often been said that fresh content is important for search engine rankings, but what does fresh content mean?

Three main points to consider are:

• change the content on your site at least once between each visit from a search engine spider (check your stats to find out how often that is for your site)
• keep the content change within 2 clicks of your homepage
• swapping aroudn a few words or even a paragraph is probably not enough to count as fresh for a search engine

Search engines apparently search your site more or less often depending on how fresh they judge your content to be.

Content includes any articles and text on your site, as well as products, tools, news items, RSS feeds, and so on.

So how fresh is your website?

Word Constructions ~ for all your business writing needs

I went to a Business Mums Network morning tea this morning - in fact I hosted it!

The speaker, Lucie Battaini of MultiMediART, spoke to us about using simple and mostly free techniques to get more people to your website. Although I knew a lot of what Lucie spoke about, it was great to hear it all put otgether and I learnt some new things, too.

For instance, Lucie spoke about keywords - apparently, keyword metadata isn’t used by most search engines now but the use of keywords in your content is crucial. That means you should include a couple of important words as many times as possible in your web content for search engines to find and correctly categorise you.

However, it is really important to not overuse your keywords - imagine if I used ‘business writing’ at least once in every sentnce - boring and confusing to read. I find it better to write the information normally so it flows properly, and then go back and see if there’s a way to add a few more keywords without loosing the flow.

And of course, Lucie pointed out that content is King, so I’d better get writing!

Word Constructions ~ for all your business writing needs