On Words and Business

As a Red Sox fan, I’m still coming down from the high of the team winning the World Series on Sunday. And have plans, along with tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of other fans to watch the celebratory parade through town.

All the hubbub reminds me of something I read a while back about the Sox and, I would guess, is true of most sports teams and their loyal fans. If the Sox traded their entire lineup with that of their arch-rival NY Yankees, it would take a bit of time to get over the shock and mourn the loss of favorite players, but Sox fans would remain Sox fans and Yankees fans would remain Yankees fans. It’s the brand that people love.

It’s a powerful brand, and one that stays relentlessly on message, that has such a loyal following. How can those of us who don’t run major market sports team create such loyalty in our customers?

As the web and other technologis grow quickly, and people struggle to catch up, to keep up, and to measure their success, we need an objective and studied viewpoint. The Society for New Communications Research is all about that.

Their 2nd annual Research Symposium is coming to Boston in December, and promises to have some interesting things to say about trends in blogging and other new media.

We all like to hear stories. They’re the best part of hearing about a friend’s vacation or date. They’re why we enjoy movies and some of us still enjoy scripted t.v. shows. It’s why we read novels and mysteries and romance.

So is this something you should consider for your marketing and branding? Absolutely! A good story draws in listeners, makes them want to know more, keeps their interest. So why wouldn’t you want to do that for your brand?

Check out this MarketingProfs riff on P&G and Mr. Whipple and the lost art of telling the story.

Why do people use the term zoo to define a place or situation that is hectic, overcrowded, or frenzied?

Have you ever been to a zoo where the animals were running around unconfined, bumping into everyone and everything, were loud and obnoxious, or were unaware of their surroundings?

If you have, let me know. I’m interested in visiting that zoo.

In my search for new blogs or blog entries writing about writing, or marketing, or small businesses, I decided to do a Google search. I could go on and on about how useless that was in finding anything interesting or useful, but I’ll let the first half of this sentence suffice.

Off to Technorati for some help. It was a bit more helpful.

And a fabulous example of what I learned in library school. Sometimes the answers are in plain sight, in a general encyclopedia, for example. And other times you really do have to look in the most specific resource possible–such as the Chemical Formulary when you need the recipe for invisible ink.

To me, the granddaddy of all stylebooks is the Chicago Manual of Style. Nowadays, like the AP Stylebook, it has an online forum for questions and answers. Things not yet covered in the book or online version, or questions from folks who need clarification. (Because it sure can be obtuse sometimes, especially when you don’t know exactly how to define what you’re looking for.)

Not glamorous really. But to those of us who, like me, just really enjoy our language and words, and who enjoy playing around with how to express it in writing, it’s fun to browse (or thumb) through Chicago.

To keep up to date on the official rules of our language. And to better know exactly how and when to break ‘em!