August 2, 2011

You’ve Got to Read This: August 2, 2011

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It’s been a while since I’ve written a curated post. If you or your organization have trouble finding time to write a post or figuring out what to write about, consider publishing a weekly curated post. As a reader, I love them – my favorite bloggers filter their information stream and select some of their best reads of the week. It’s just like Twitter but instead it’s all in one place and delivered via my Google Reader.

So how do you find great content? Well, it’s funny you ask. Mike Stelzner wrote about eight ways to do just that on Social Media Examiner.

I’ll let you in on my little secret for having great content to share on Twitter. You can scoff if you want but it’s been working for me for years. I explain it all in my post about tweeting like a real tweep.

Bob Leonard shares good basic advice on how to repurpose content you already have – speeches, white papers and sales presentations. He also explains how to find and curate content.

Now you might be thinking, “Nice, but how do I find the time to do all this stuff?” The Nonprofit Blog Carnival, hosted this month by Britt Bravo at Have Fun Do Good, gathered several posts about time management. I haven’t yet dipped into it but wanted to share it with you. I’ll pick a few favorites for a future You’ve Got to Read This post.

Or, you might be thinking, “Ok, I get the need for fresh useful and interesting content. But I don’t have time to write.” No problem, you can tell your story through a ghostwriter. The Winn Group (more accurately, their ghostwriter) explains what to look for in a ghostwriter. But, psst, you don’t need to contact them to find a ghostwriter, give me a holler instead.

If you write about social media, you might wonder how to spell some of its newfangled lingo. ReTweet or retweet? Fear not, Kerry Jones of Bluegrass Media gives us The Grammar of Social Media. Turn it into a one-pager and tack it up on your bulletin board.

And now for something completely different, the most awkward 404 page on the Internet (love it!) by Steve Lambert. Save this one for when you have several minutes to watch, it’s worth it.

raleigh freelance writer blogger content blog ghostwriting ghostwriter

Steve Lambert helping lost website visitors

 

June 30, 2011

Writing for the Web: Links, Drinks and Dinks

Posted by deirdrereid under Writing & Blogging | Tags: , |
[4] Comments 

The cliché people say, “Teach what you know.” I know enough about writing for the web to share it, so here’s part 3 of my series.

But before we get started you should know this: although I know enough about writing for the web, and even do it for a living, I’m still learning. Aren’t we all? I don’t consider myself an ‘expert’ on the topic, but I’m willing to share what I know.

(Never trust anyone who says they know it all. If they don’t know they don’t know, what else don’t they know?  Hmm…)

In part 1 of this series I gave advice on writing for scanners, not readers, and the importance of headlines and formatting. Part 2 covered the voice of online writing, humor, sarcasm and the final edit.

Spread link love.

Why do online writers include links in their blog posts? They do it to:

  • Provide additional resources for the reader.
  • Reference a credible or authoritative source to back up a statement or to give credit for an idea.
  • Lead readers to related posts on their blogs or elsewhere. Links within a post to other posts on your blog will help your Google ranking.
  • Share the spotlight by linking to (and promoting) the posts of other bloggers. A link to another blog will help increase the other blog’s Google ranking. The link in your post will show up in their stats as an “incoming link.” Spread the love around!

When you share a blog post on Twitter, shorten the URL by using bit.ly, ow.ly or another URL shortener. These services also track clicks on your links so you can see how popular your posts really are.

(If anyone knows of a reliable URL shortening service with tracking ability that uses something other than the .ly domain, which I’m assuming is based in Libya, please let me know.)

writing for the web online blogging freelance writer raleigh

Photo by Rojer (flickr)

Encourage comments and conversation.

Blogs are social media because the comment box provides an opportunity for conversation with your readers. You’ll get to know your regular commenters, read and comment on their blogs and follow them on Twitter. Perhaps one day, when you’re in the same city, you’ll meet up in real life for drinks.* That’s how I got to know many of my friends in the association community.

[*This is why I could sneak ‘drinks’ into the title of this post. Do you know how hard it is to find a word related to 'conversation' rhyming with ‘links’? Have a better idea for a title? I’m all ears, in the comments. See how I did that? Encouraging you to comment?]

If you do a Google search on “increase blog comments,” you’ll know by the number of results that encouraging comments is a constant challenge for most blogs. Most of us read a post and leave without making a comment. We’ll take the time to share it on Twitter but we won’t leave any trace of ourselves on the post itself. What can a blogger do to change that?

  • End posts with questions that elicit more than yes/no answers.
  • Write about a controversial topic or express an unusual view, i.e., provoke your readers to comment.
  • Solicit reader anecdotes, solutions and examples about the topic.
  • Don’t require registration for commenting. Most comment widgets require a name, email and optional web address – that’s sufficient.
  • Comment moderation (approval) hinders lively conversation. If you have a good spam filter, consider automatic approval of comments; you can always delete a comment if it really gets under your skin and that’s your policy. If you go with automatic approval, make sure you’re notified about new comments by email, in case something questionable gets through your spam filter.
  • Be a good citizen by responding to all authentic comments — the ones that say more than “nice post.” Otherwise you’ll look like you don’t give a hoot about your readers. There’s one exception to this rule which I’ll explain in a little bit.
writing for the web online blogging freelance writer raleigh

Photo by Douglas R. Witt

Defend your blog against trolls and their relatives.

Everyone dreads the negative or angry comment. That’s a risk you take by putting yourself out there in the very public blogosphere. Pressing the ‘Delete’ button isn’t always the best solution. I have a post on the Avectra blog that explains how to deal with negative comments from complainers, critics and trolls: Don’t Let the Haters Get You Down.

Banish the spam man.

The only exception to the “reply to all comments” rule is when a comment looks like link bait – a link embedded in the commenter’s name or inserted in the comment is used as bait to drive up their Google ranking with incoming links and to get people to click back to their website.

You’ll recognize these bottom-dwellers by their obviously spammy content or by the comment’s brevity, smarminess or poor English. Your spam widget should catch most of them, but every now and then one will slip through. To give you a sense of how they’re usually written, here are a few examples from the 68 spam comments dwelling in my spam filter right now:

  • I believe this web site has got very superb written articles articles.
  • Wow Your site is of the chain.
  • Hi my loved one! I want to say that this post is awesome, nice written and include approximately all vital infos. I would like to look more posts like this.

Amusing. It must work for them because they keep doing it. I’ve noticed an uptick in spam comments, especially on posts that were once featured on the WordPress home page. If you suspect a comment is spam or link bait, feel free to delete it; it’s your blog, you’re the boss.

Wow, where did the time go? We didn’t even get to copyright, fair use, Creative Commons and image sourcing. Don’t roll your eyes, this stuff is fun!

 

Writing for the Web series

 

June 15, 2011

Writing for the Online Reader, Part 2

Posted by deirdrereid under Writing & Blogging | Tags: , , |
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Last week I shared tips on writing for the web, or, as I affectionately referred to all of us, writing for online monkey minds. Reading on the web is a different experience than reading the printed page. Online reading is informal, interactive and interruptive; it requires a different style of writing. In my monkey mind post I discussed writing for scanners, not readers, and the importance of headlines and formatting.

No matter the medium, you want to hook the reader and get to the point quickly. On the web, it’s even more critical because we feel less loyalty to a web page than we do to a magazine or book we’ve purchased, so we’re apt to click away as soon as you bore us.

Imagine talking to your reader.

The web feels different than a magazine, newspaper or book. We talk back there, get replies and have conversations. When you write for the web, use a more conversational voice than you would for the printed page. It’s okay to write in the first person, whereas that would not generally fly in a printed article.

Pay attention to your voice. Using “you” is fine. When I write blog posts, I imagine I’m giving advice, sharing ideas or having a conversation with a friend or colleague. I use “you” throughout my posts because I’m talking to you. I can’t see you, but I imagine you there, listening. This is perfectly healthy.

For organizations, especially in blog posts, don’t always refer to yourself as “we.” It may be appropriate at times, but “we” can sound awfully impersonal. Some readers may even hear it as a royal “we” if they’re in an unforgiving mood. As a reader, I want to connect with a person, the writer, not to a faceless institution represented by “we.” It’s far too anonymous and nontransparent.

However, I use “we” frequently when I write about topics that concern my community, for example, when I write for the association community about a membership issue. That’s an inclusive “we” in the sense that “we’re all in this together.”

online writing blogging web

Multitasking... 57 tabs open... (photo by John Ott)

Oh, you think you’re funny?

We might be funny to a few people, maybe. If we’re lucky, a dozen or so might get a chuckle from our brand of humor. Humor works online because it’s informal and conversational. A little humor entertains us and keeps us reading. But if you want to get a point across, don’t go overboard with humor unless you’re a comic genius with a humor blog.

Sarcasm, however, doesn’t always translate. I find sarcasm hard to resist because it’s part of my usual schtick. But in real life we use inflection, stress, timing and facial expressions to make our zingers stick. Online, we only have this: ;-) Tread carefully so you don’t unwittingly insult your readers.

I’ve seen writers convey sarcasm by stretching out a word with extra vowels so it reads how it would sound in a sarcastic tone. Others will add a “heh” to their sarcastic remarks, or use sentence fragments to instill the same sense of timing they’d use in real life.

You’re not done yet!

When I’m done with a piece, I use the Find tool to look for instances of passive voice. Passive voice will suck the life out of your writing. I search for the following words (and suffix) and change them where I can: be, was, is, were, are, -ing.

Keep tightening it up. Look for redundancies and unnecessary words and phrases, like “that” or “some.” Does your word order make sense?

When in doubt, look it up. Keep dictionary.com in your bookmark bar so you don’t use the wrong word by mistake. Find grammar resources to help you with those pesky little rules you tend to forget. Don’t worry, this happens to everyone; we forget because our brains are too full.

Here are a few to check out:

Finally, read it out loud. Or at a whisper. How does it sound? Any awkward spots? Jargon? Corporate-speak? Are you bored? You’ll be amazed how well this technique works.

I heard someone say recently on a Twitter chat: “Perfection is the enemy of good.” So true. There’s always something to edit in that final draft. But summon your strength and make it the final final. Click Publish and move on unless you’re chasing a Pulitzer.

writing blogging web online

Click it! Click it now!

Next time I’ll get into comments, trolls, copyright, fair use and all that good stuff.

 

Writing for the Web series

 

June 9, 2011

How to Write for Online Monkey Minds

Posted by deirdrereid under Writing & Blogging | Tags: , , , |
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Does this sound familiar? You settle in to read something online. You first scan the screen, and then begin reading a long paragraph of text. Soon you realize you’re no longer reading; instead you’re thinking about dinner or your draft picks. Click, close tab.

We all do this. Reading on the web is informal, interactive and interruptive.

  • Informal – our family and friends are here, anything goes.
  • Interactive – we are used to ‘talking’ back via comments or feedback buttons.
  • Interruptive – we are easily distracted by email alerts, links, instant messaging, social networks and open tabs.

If we write our online content the same way we write for the printed page, we’ll lose our readers, except for our mothers and a few diehard fans.

Write for scanners, not readers.

We read differently online. I think we all know this intuitively, but it’s also been proven in studies. We scan. In eye-tracking tests 79 percent of users scan any new page they come across; only 16 percent read word-by-word.

We scan in an F-shape: first, horizontally across the top, then horizontally a little lower, and finally vertically down the left side. The photo below shows results of web usability eye-tracking tests. The redder portions are the ‘hot spots’ where most eyeballs land.

Why is this important? If you want to hold your reader’s attention, format your text and write in a way that will do that.

writing for the web online reading freelance raleigh

F-shape online reading pattern

Hook them with headlines.

Headline writing is a skill coveted by print and online writers. Do a Google search on “writing headlines” and you’ll see how much advice is out there on writing headlines for blog posts, articles and marketing copy.

Amidst all the online noise and distractions, we want our headline to hook the reader and draw him into our content. A good headline needs to give a sense of what the reader will get for their time. It provides an ‘information scent.’ It also helps if it’s clever, controversial or promising. If you want to improve your headlines, Copyblogger has oodles of posts on the subject.

Break up your text.

Readers like lists and bullets. They break up the visual monotony of one paragraph after another and make the content more alluring to read.

Lists posts are by far the most popular posts on many blogs. Check out the titles of the Popular Articles on Copyblogger’s home page:

  • 8 Bad Habits that Crush Your Creativity
  • Do You Make These 7 Mistakes When You Write?
  • 10 Effective Ways to Get More Blog Subscribers.

List posts like these promise takeaways in an easy to read package. An uncommitted visitor can scan and digest before deciding to settle in and read.

Readers also like bold subheadings. Subheadings tell the reader what to expect within the text and visually break up paragraphs.

Use short paragraphs and sentences.

Aim for paragraphs that are five lines maximum. It might not always happen, but it’s an ideal to keep in mind.

Keep your sentences short. Use limited punctuation. Parentheses, especially, can cause a break in reader attention.

And my favorite: sentence fragments are okay.

Does it sound like we’re dumbing down writing? Possibly, but what we’re trying to do is appeal to the distracted web reader by making the text visually appealing and conversational – an enjoyable online reading experience.

online writing reading web freelance raleigh

Photo by Laineys Repertoire

A few more formatting tips

Left justify your text. Don’t use indented paragraphs.

All of you who grew up with typewriters, stop using two spaces after a period. A period is followed by only one space. Using two spaces is a dead give-away that you’re older and perhaps haven’t kept up with the times. And before you accuse me of ageism, just know that I too had a college prep typing class in my senior year of high school. I adjusted, you can too.

If you have a few lines of quoted text, set them off from the rest of text in block quotes. If you want to add more visual relief, italicize the block quote.

Break up your text with photos or graphics but only where it won’t interrupt the reading flow. Graphics sometimes take longer to load so don’t overdo it or your reader will leave before they even arrive.

Next time, I’ll share guidance on voice, links, trolls, copyright and more.

Do you have any other tips to add?

 

Writing for the Web series

 

May 10, 2011

Offline Retreat Time

Posted by deirdrereid under Writing & Blogging | Tags: , |
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This week I’m offline for an at-home retreat — lots of reading, thinking, setting goals, making a visionboard, planning, and writing for pleasure. I’m digging into Patti Digh’s Creative is a Verb, Anne Lamott’s Bird by Bird, Rolf Gates’ Meditations from the Mat, Baron Baptiste’s 40 Days to Personal Revolution and a few other books, blogs and resources that have been wooing me.

Now you know why my blogs will be dark and my Twitter quiet. I’m pretending I’m in a cabin in the woods, not so hard to do really. I’ll be back next week!

raleigh freelance writer blogger

Photo by James Lee

 

May 3, 2011

What I Missed by Not Going to the ASJA Writers Conference

Posted by deirdrereid under Writing & Blogging | Tags: , , |
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I know there’s nothing like being there, but when you can’t be there, at least there’s Twitter. For three days, April 29-May 1, the American Society of Journalists & Authors 2011 Writers Conference went on without me. That’s happened a few times these past months – excellent conferences I’ve sadly missed. Where are my sponsors? Seriously, I’m worth it.

But since the magic carpet didn’t appear to whisk me off to NYC, I reviewed the #asja2011 tweet transcript so you don’t have to.

I’m skipping all the good tweets aimed at book authors because I’m not one, nor do I have plans to be one, at least in the near future.

Association tweeps, be proud. There were definitely more tweets during #mmccon, #ideas11 and #diginow than for this conference. Is it because association professionals are earlier adopters of Twitter than journalists and writers? Or are we less competitive and more willing to share with our community? Or better at multi-tasking? Whatever the reason, I’m very glad I have one leg firmly in the association camp.

@JenSinger, one of the keynotes, would like our community. She spoke of “coopetition” – working with fellow bloggers in your specialty. I think we do that well. She advised authors to protect their assets and not give publishers the rights to your brand or website. Her most retweeted remark: Save journalism, don’t save the medium.

Here’s an interesting Twitter tidbit: the Wall Street Journal (@WSJ) says that their clicks increase when they insert a colon between the tweet and the URL they’re sharing, like this, blah blah blah: URL.

Another tip that needs to be shouted from every rooftop from Penny Sansevieri (@bookgal): Recycle what you create. She’s so right, recycle, repurpose and reuse.

ASJA Writers Conference #asja2011 writing blogging

photo by Steve Snodgrass

Other social media tips came from Sree Sreenivasan (@sree). He advised checking someone’s (an editor’s, for example) profile before contacting them, so you have a clue as to what might be going on in their life and don’t catch them at a bad time. He never cold calls, he always reaches out first online. He says one of the secrets of social media is that you will miss almost everything people are saying. Isn’t that the truth! I love these other takeaways:

  • Writers bring order to the information chaos of the world. (Hmm, I think I’m doing that right now!)
  • Facebook is for people you went to college with. Twitter is for people you wish you went to college with.
  • Social media is a permanent book tour.

There was a lot of talk about using the web and social media to promote books. @MichelleRafter shared some excellent tweets that she tagged with #bookpromotion. Susan Johnston (@urbanmusewriter) blogged a bit about the changing role of the writer in her ASJA wrap-up post.

Another great one-liner, this time from Jennifer Abernethy (@saleslounge): Facebook is the world’s largest trade show, and they’re offering you a free booth.

Samuel Freedman talked about interviewing:

  • He prefers using a notebook during interviews because it’s less obtrusive, but he rarely takes out his notebook right away.
  • Interviews should be a conversation, not an interrogation; truths, not sound bites.
  • A lot of the drama of humanity takes place between the ears.
  • Don’t fill up the air. Let the other person think they have to fill the air.
  • Be willing to give up parts of yourself in an interview. It’s highly unnatural to ask for your source’s deepest thoughts while being opaque to them.
ASJA conference writing blogging writers #asja2011

photo by John Althouse Cohen

Maria Perez (@ProfNet) blogged about the Beating Blogger Burnout session, and included the steps to start blogging. The first three deserve reemphasis:

  1. Identify your objectives and audience.
  2. Find your niche.
  3. Create an editorial mission.

Here’s one more piece of advice: “If you want to be serious about your blog, you have to have an editorial calendar.”

In a session on pitching ideas, Amy Klein gave the new 5 W’s of journalism: what, where, when, why and who gives a shit? Jack Hart of @Oregonian said, channeling Stephen Sondheim, if you can’t write your idea on the back of a match book, it’s no good. Most people think of topics, not ideas. A statement of causality (if/then) helps create a saleable idea. How do you know if you’ve done enough research to query? If you can distill your idea into a short statement, you might be ready.

Here’s something for my food blogger friends. Cookbook publishers are looking for books in these niches: soul food, Moroccan, Mexican, southern and natural bread starters. Don’t bother if you’ve got a pitch about gluten-free, farm to table, cupcakes, no knead bread or Top Chef contestants; they’re tough sells right now.

Update: Maria Perez also blogged about the Writing for Women’s Magazines session.

This conference is not a tough sell. Looking over the program, which includes speaker Twitter handles (kudos!), my eyes were bugging out. I’m adding this one to my wish list for 2012.

Did you go to #asja2011? What were your big take-aways?

 

April 20, 2011

Speaking Elsewhere: April 2011

Posted by deirdrereid under Web and Social Media | Tags: , , , , , |
1 Comment 

What do I do when I’m not writing?

Every now and then I share what I know with others. Recently I did a few presentations that I thought I’d share with you too. Of course it’s not like the real deal when you get to experience my witty banter and stories. Consider this the Cliff Notes version.

In March I went to Chicago to speak to a group of association volunteer leaders about creating and nurturing an online community – Community 2.0 – PowerPoint or PDF version with slide notes. My slides for this presentation are more text heavy than usual because they were recording the audio for a webinar for the members who couldn’t attend in person.

online community, associations, membership organizations, community

Ignore the icky template. That asked me to use it, I did. I'm a rule follower.

I also did a short session for the same group on Writing for the Web.

writing for the web, online writing, blogging

When writing, always start with a good breakfast. Yes, another template.

Last week I spoke to a group of association professionals here in North Carolina on the basics of blogging – And Now You Want Us to Blog Too? – PowerPoint or PDF version with slide notes. I love that title! I can’t take the credit; it was AENC’s idea. In this presentation I talked about objectives, strategy, content and making a blog work.

blogging, associations, membership organizations, nonprofits, blogs

 

February 10, 2011

You’ve Got to Read This: February 10, 2011

Posted by deirdrereid under Good Reads | Tags: , , , , , , |
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Innovation starts with self-critique (which is why it’s so rare), says Peter Linett. Go against your type, don’t put on “an exhibition that feels like an art museum designed it” or “a concert format that feels like a symphony orchestra designed it.” His litmus test for innovation: “I ask myself whether it feels like it was designed by that kind of institution, within its traditions, values, and personality — its comfort zone.” What does a conference or work meeting look like that doesn’t feel like an association designed it?

Kivi Leroux Miller reminds us that we are not our target audience. Before communicating with that audience, do all you can to put yourself in their shoes – research, listen and seek advice of those who are like that audience. Just because you’re in charge, doesn’t mean you get it.

It kills me when an organization doesn’t get the fact that helping their staff connect to their members, prospects or customers is the smart thing to do. Janet McNichol writes about making association business cards social media-friendly but her advice works for any organization.

Lindsey A. Zahn has a very informative post on the Palate Press site about website scraping, copyright, fair use and wine bloggers. I’m seeing more and more sites that scrape content without permission and then get higher page ranking and increased advertising revenue. Bottom-feeders! As one commenter puts it, “it just pisses me off that our hard work and content is contributing to someone else’s bottom line.”

“Please, don’t hire a social media director,” says Dion Algeri. He’s right. Too often organizations start their journey into social media by hiring someone to do social media. Instead hire someone to collect, curate, repurpose and create content. Hire a chief content officer. Ok, you don’t have to call it that, but focus on content as a tool to create conversation and connections.

In December I wrote about the Smithsonian’s censorship of a video in a National Portrait Gallery exhibition. In case you were wondering if anything was done about that ignorant decision, ArtInfo tells us, well, yes and no.

If your appetite for resources on nonprofits and social media is not sated, Beth Kanter shares a bunch from the Zoetica Salon, including posts on editorial calendars, strategy tune-ups, benchmarking and more.

I’m riveted to the news from Egypt. We (they, it’s all the same now, isn’t it?) are either on the cusp of something amazingly positive for that country, although the obstacles are formidable, or we are in for a huge disappointment if the military regime holds onto power. They are so intertwined into the political and economic infrastructure, it’s hard to imagine them ceding power at all. I created a Twitter list of  29, at last count, Egyptian activists and journalists worth following. Respect.

egyptian twitter list

Image by Nick Bygon

 

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