When I write, my first drafts, even of email messages to friends, are often very formal. Specifically I write them without any contractions. Even if I am thinking the word as a contraction as I am writing it, I still write out all the involved words. Then I have to go back and turn all (or most of them) into contractions so I do not sound so stilted.
What is that?
Time for people to start waxing poetic about the year that is almost over.
MediaPost’s Search Insider jumped in early with this review of whether last year’s predictions for this year (in the space of online search marketing) came true. And asks the key questions: was 2007 the year of the online video, mobile marketing, and behavioral targeting? The answer is the same for all three–yes and no.
My request for 2008–Let’s stop looking for new or unusual places to plant marketing and advertising messages. The more places the industry finds to put ‘em, the less attention consumers pay to them anywhere they may be. And please, please…drop the idea of mobile marketing.
In the coming weeks, look for my predictions for next year in the marketing and content space.
What are yours?
Bill McCloskey has shared some interesting thoughts on written communication: The Pyschology of Words
Writing is something most of us do to some degree every day, whether or not that’s our job title. So think about it…that means it really is all about the words you choose to use. To make an impact, it’s important to put some thought into what you say.
Growing up, my parents admonished me: It’s not what you say, it’s how you say it. It’s true that it’s how you say it, but it’s also true that it is what you say.
And, as Frank Lutz reminds us, it’s also what people hear.
Happy writing!
Technorati’s is now tracking over 70 million blogs. That’s a lot of blogs. That’s one blog for every 4.5 Americans or, since it’s a worldwide phenomenon, one for approximately every 94 people in the world, based on the population data for this morning.
So exactly how do you get your blog noticed in this fog? Copyblogger has some advice. And it is all about finding a niche and giving the readers what they want. And about finding the overlap between your passions and what is hot in social media.
Sometimes that feels like a tall order, but perhaps I’m just not thinking creatively enough?
Yogi Berra can teach us a thing or two about persuasive writing.
Yogi Bear can teach us a thing or two about being true to yourself and your brand. Despite always in the ranger’s hair he was, as many of you know, smarter than the average bear.
Someone is actually working on a stupid filter for email messages, as Josh Quittner writes in this week’s Fortune magazine. This “promises to do to idiotic online comments what a spam filter does to unwanted e-mail: put it in a place where it can’t hurt anyone.”
We all can write stupid sometimes. But irony and sarcasm, not generally considered stupidity, are harder to keep on the right side of the filter. Here’s an intriguing quote from the article, and something to think about if you want not to be seen as stupid.
“…Ortiz, who studied linguistics as an undergrad, recently noticed a pattern in the way some writers use letter repetition. The clueless tend to repeat consonants: ‘This video is amazinggggg!!!’ By comparison, say Ortiz, ‘when you repeat a vowel, you are being sarcastic–’Yeaaaaaah.’”
Visit StupidFilter if you want to help out.