Archive for Write Speak Sell
The 7 Links Challenge and the Best of the Web — From Me
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Pick your best blog posts
I’ve been inspired by my fellow blogger and marketer Danny Iny at Firepole Marketing and taken up his challenge to curate seven of my blog posts for my readers.
These will be my own selection of seven posts that I’ve written: the most beautiful post, the most popular post, the most controversial post, the most helpful post, the post whose success surprised me, the post I didn’t feel got the attention it deserved, and the post I am most proud of.
Danny, in turn, got the idea from Stuart Mills at Unlock the Door who borrowed the idea from…you get the idea. Hey, viral marketing at it’s best. So, here goes. Read More→
Is Your Website Set Up for Mobile Phone Viewing? That’s the Future
Posted by: | CommentsA few weeks ago I told you about my visit to the Network Solutions Booth at Blog World New Media Expo 2011 in New York City. While I was there, a company representative set up my iPhone for mobile, or smart phone, viewing. There were a couple of kinks to fix later. But I’m happy to report that it has been working like a charm.
If you don’t have your website set up for for mobile, you should consider these statistics from a study released in July by the well-respected Pew Research Center. In its first standalone measure of smartphone ownership, the Pew Internet & American Life Project found that one third of American adults — 35% — own smartphones. Mobile phones are a main source of internet access for one-quarter of the smartphone population, according to the study.
Some 87% of smartphone owners access the internet or email on their handheld, including two-thirds (68%) who do so on a typical day. When asked what device they normally use to access the internet, 25% of smartphone owners say that they mostly go online using their phone, rather than with a computer. Those are startling statistics and, I believe, will only grow over time. I see in my Google Analytics that a growing number of visitors to my blog are coming via their mobile phones.
Here is How My Website Looks on my iPhone
I took this picture myself so excuse the quality but here it is what my site looks like if you search for Write Speak Sell on your mobile phone. I love the functionality and how my logo pops. When you pull up my site you will see these links:
- Tell a friend. Click on this icon and you are taken to a screen with three options for sharing my site: email to a colleague, or posting to Twitter or Facebook.
- Call Us. Click on this icon and my phone rings.
- Full Website. Here you have two choices when you click on the icon. You can view my mobile friendly website or the standard website. If you’ve trolled the internet recently you know that viewing a standard website is difficult because the view is so small. You need to keep moving around the various parts of the site and, unless you can enlarge the view, it’s almost impossible to read the copy. The mobile friendly version takes the content from your website and delivers it in easy-to-read text along with your images.
- Write Speak Sell Blog. If you only want to read my latest blog post, you can click on this icon and be taken directly to the blog section of my website where you can read my latest posts in mobile format.
- Keep Me Informed. Click on this icon and you can subscribe to my blog.
If you want your website to work harder for your business, then consider making it mobile friendly. It’s easy and you will be rewarded with more traffic that may lead to more business.
Rebranding My WordPress Blog
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If they can rebrand, so can I
If you’re a subscriber, you may have a noticed a change in the look of Write Speak Sell. You would be right. I have changed templates from the Red Essence to the Flexx theme, which, as it indicates, is a flexible theme with more options.
Why did I do this? I advise clients on sharpening their brands. But I felt my own was a little fuzzy with my old theme. A tab in the navigation bar for “Business Writing” was just too generic. My business has evolved over the past year and I’ve been gravitating to three focused offerings: blog and web copy, employee engagement and branding. Now even the term branding is a little broad, but it’s such a recognized term that I think people will get it. The top three widgets with these services tell visitors right away what I do – and they are “above the fold.” That is, they are visible even on the small screen of a laptop.
If I can get it working properly, I’ve also added a new podcast product called audioboo, which allows me to create podcasts on my IPhone and they are published directly to my blog. Neat. It’s a small technical problem that I will get worked out shortly.
My categories and blog role are now on my home page and I’ve added a search box. I still need to add content to my right sidebar on my home page because there is quite a bit of white space there. I’m open to suggestions.
It’s a constant process – tweaking, trimming, adding to – and hopefully — improving a business. That’s why I thought I’d share my process with you. Any thoughts about how you’ve adapted and changed your brand or business model? Would love to hear from you.
Employee Communications: Internal Branding = External Success
Posted by: | CommentsIt’s a simple equation. Internal Branding = External Success. Employee communications programs should embody the brand and foster a culture of communication that rallies employees around the mission and business goals of the company. Yet many organizations neglect internal communication. With an economy in the tank, some companies feel that employees should be happy to have a job. But when things are bad, employees need to be hearing frequently about the true state of the company, what management is doing about it, what it means for the individual employee.
Even in bad times, smart companies are able to mobilize their employees to support the company and its brand by being twice as productive as before and in their communication with customers. Employees want their company to succeed, so why not give them an opportunity to be part of the solution? It works in a company that has nurtured a culture of communication that it can rely on to see it through both the good and bad times.
In communication with employees –
Trust is the core component – all communications must be reliable, truthful and contain the full story. At the heart of trust is:
Openness – there must be an unwavering commitment to and support of a healthy two-way communications environment.
Simplicity – communications must be clear, meaningful and accessible.
Consistency – messages must be strategic and integrated.
Caring – there must be concern for the individual.
The most important element in communicating with employees is speed. They need to hear news from the company — both good and bad — before they read it in online forums and news programs.
