10-dollar words are the fancy words that you think make you look smart. You hope that by including a longer version of a rather simple concept you will make people go: “Oooh, sounds like he really knows his stuff!”

In reality, 10-dollar words make your copywriting suck.

I’m not suggesting that you should never use more than three syllables to communicate a concept. English is full of wonderful words that are a pleasure to say and see but when it comes to copywriting, your audience has to understand them if they’re going to be effective. If your reader has to spend even one extra second to translate your copy, you’ve lost the rhythm and you might just lose the reader.

Don’t Spend 10-dollars on a 2 Dollar Job

Really effective copywriting speaks the language of your audience so knowing your reader is really critical to making your copywriting more readable.

Cutting out 10-dollar words from your copywriting doesn’t mean you have to dumb everything down but 10-dollar words are unnecessarily complicated. If you botch up the execution you risk sounding pretentious. Unless that’s the tone you’re going for, communicate using simpler but more meaningful language.

Turn the Abstract into Something Concrete

Do you need to say cease when you could say stop? Or transportation when you mean lorries? You might think you’re adding sparkle to your copywriting but, really, you’re just blowing some hot air.

Here are some of my favourite* 10-dollar words and the words I think they should be replaced with. *When I say favourite, I mean the ones that make me roll my eyes and sigh dramatically.

Disintermediation = cutting out the middleman

Heuristic = Formula or guide

Exacerbate = Aggravate/make worse

Agrestic = Rustic or handmade

Reintegration = Integration

Nomenclature = Language

You May As Well Say “Wiffle Blah Pokem”

Overused words can be just as detrimental to your copywriting. When you roll out some of those overused words and phrases, they can lack their intended meaning and add nothing to your copywriting. Some examples:

Authority, Characteristic, Commitment, Information, Intrinsic, Operational, 

Procedure, Provider, Relationship, Standards, Strategy, Solution, System

Sometimes some of these are used in combination for extra points on ‘Management Speak Bingo’.  They fill the space but they don’t add anything concrete to your copywriting.

So now it’s over to you. Which 10-dollar words do you hate seeing? Which ones are actually ok to use? I’d love to get your thoughts…

The Copy Detective

Subscribe to The Copy Detective to get each new post delivered straight to your inbox. In secret of course.

Every now and then you come across something that is worth your hard earned cash.

Finding online courses that will actually boost your bottom line is tough. In the first year or so of running my business I was pretty sceptical of almost every online course I saw. I thought I could do it all myself, which was pretty arrogant. I quickly realised that investing in help from experts would improve my business much quicker than I could ever do on my own.

I got a chance to look over a marketing program run by Firepole Marketing and I was impressed. It’s like an ultra-marathon of marketing but the prize is a super accelerated business.

You run an ultra marathon one step at a time

I’m a big fan of Firepole Marketing and I can attest to their passion for really effective marketing. I recently interviewed Danny Iny, the force behind the “Marketing That Works” program, who explained that it’s a program quite unlike any others. “For starters”, Danny said, “we don’t start with tactics, we start with strategy. Then we help you figure out what are the tactics that are going to work in your business, and we help get real results.”

And he’s pretty confident, with a $1,000 guarantee. If by the end of the six-month program you haven’t added $1,000 to your monthly bottom line then they’ll give you your money back.

It’s pretty bold isn’t it?

How the “Marketing That Works” Program Works

So here’s the low down. The program is made up of video, audio and text spread over 26 weeks and covering five distinct marketing categories. Rather than something you just jump around in, each week builds on the lessons you learned in the previous weeks. Like scaffolding.

1. Identifying the Customer and Value Proposition. This module helps you nail down exactly what value you’re offering and to whom you’re offering it. This is your solid foundation.

2. Marketing Strategy. This section helps you create unique strategy that fits your business and audience. You’ll map out your promotions, your positioning, and messaging.

3. Execution and Implementation. Strategy is all well and good but this module shows you how to make it all happen, effectively.

4. Sales. Fantastic marketing brings in leads but you need to convert them. This module shows you how to sell even if you ‘don’t like selling.’

5. Advanced Strategies. This module show you how to use your network to get even more out of your marketing funnel.

In addition to the 26 lessons in the course, you get:

• An MP3 player loaded with the first sessions of the course, so can listen on the go
• Detailed lesson outlines complete with timestamps, so you can easily find and re-listen to any part of any lesson
• Action-focused “homework” for every single lesson
• Templates, scripts, and examples for you to follow
• Six special bonuses, including bonus audio lessons and interactive worksheets
• Instructor access: each lesson in the course is interactive, and you can ask questions on any related topic
• A 1-on-1 “Borrow My Brain” phone strategy session with Danny Iny ($250 value), a think tank to chat through your biggest marketing challenges

You might think that because it’s a US course that there will be a disconnect with the instructors, but the guys promise to respond to students within 24 hours. Email them at night and you have a reply in the morning!

“Hands down, Firepole Marketing is the most effective training program for growing a business with effective marketing.”

Your Investment Comes With A Money Back Guarantee

First there is a financial investment. You can pay for it all in one hit – $897 USD or spread the costs over 4 months – $247 USD. I’ve paid for more for less so I really think this is a great price for 6 months of expert marketing training.

You can back out in the first two weeks, no questions asked, and there’s the guarantee. 100% refund if you aren’t adding $1000 to your monthly bottom line after you complete the program.

Then of course there is the investment of your time, which is not to be discounted. Danny was at pains to explain, “It’s a thorough program. It’s absolutely not for hobbyists or people who are looking for a quick fix. That doesn’t mean you can’t be doing your business part-time, you’re early stage, you’re launching it, maybe you have another job.”

Opening Soon and Closing Soon After

The program opens on February 21^st and will close by 28^th, or as soon as it’s full. Danny pointed out they have just 50 places to fill and there are already over 4000 subscribers, so he suspects places are going to get snapped up.

You can get on the waiting list to be the first people to hear about the program opening.

Danny shared this testimonial from a student, “I’ve been in business for two years, I signed up to your program three months ago and we just had our first two months out of the red”. He said, “That’s the kind of feedback that we get and we’re very proud of that, it’s because it’s real.“

When you register your interest you get the Get More Cash video course. It’s a free video course to get you well on your way to more effective marketing.

As I mentioned, the program hasn’t opened yet so I feel really lucky to have previewed the content. It won’t be for everyone but it’s definitely worth considering if you want to step your game up.

The Copy Detective

If you didn’t realise, this is a sponsored review but it’s something I am confidant is relevant and absolute value for money. Otherwise I wouldn’t mention it. 

Subscribe to The Copy Detective to get each new post delivered straight to your inbox.

Danny Iny  recently published his book ‘Engagement From Scratch!’, a collection of essays from some of the world’s most prominent online experts that answered the question: If you had to start from scratch, how would you build an engaged online audience?

As I read each essay I had at least one light bulb moment that had me scrabbling for my ideas notebook. These ideas will definitely be shaping my business marketing over the year to come and I’ve jotted a few of them down for you.

Danny Iny (Firepole Marketing): Don’t sell yourself short. Create content people would pay for.

Brian Clark (Copyblogger): Engagement without conversion is useless. Plan a content schedule that builds up to a product launch or event.

Danny Brown (Bonsai Interactive): Don’t be afraid to be open and speak honestly.

Guy Kawasaki (Alltop/Enchantment): Set yourself up as a likable, trustworthy, quality-driven person in your niche.

Mark W Schaefer (Business Grow): A blogging community is only the beginning. My community has become customers, my collaborators, my friends.

Mitch Joel (Six Pixels of Separation): Your audience doesn’t have to be your client base but your client base must be part of your audience.

Anita Campbell (SmallBizTrends/BizSugar): Dream big dreams. Set small goals.

Marlee Ward (MarleeWard): Building an audience is like growing a garden; it needs tending.

Tristan Highee: No one wants to read blogs from a robot. Let people get to know you through your content.

Derek Halpern (Social Triggers/DIYThemes): Push 1, 2 or 3 buzz buttons to get your content remarked upon. Buzz buttons are: taboo, unusual, outrageous, hilarious, remarkable (really cool), or secret.

Now I actually had a lot more light bulb moments so this is a book with some serious value. Download or buy your own copy of Engagement From Scratch to find your own moments. You can download a copy for FREE.

An Interview with Author, Danny Iny

Danny very generously shared some of his time recently, which gave me a chance to quiz him about the process of creating quality content, self-publishing the book and his big lessons along the way.

I started off by asking Danny the person he had in mind when he started putting ‘Engagement from Scratch!’ together and what people can expect when they read it.

Danny: Well, when I started working on the idea of ‘Engagement From Scratch!’, the person I had in mind was the early-stager – whether it’s a blogger or an entrepreneur –  anyone who has a message of some kind they want to get out into the world. And they’ve got nobody right now.

If you look around, a lot of the literature – whether it’s books, whether it’s blog posts and so forth – about how to do anything relating to engagement, it always tends to assume that you’ve already got an audience: here’s how to get your audience more engaged; here’s how to interact with them. But what if you’re starting from scratch? I felt that there were a lot of people who were in that situation who weren’t sure where to turn, and so that’s what I was looking to do

Belinda: You have mentioned that you were quite surprised by the variety of responses you received from your experts, and I love the idea that there isn’t one right way to build that community. Do you have any steps that people just can’t avoid when they’re trying to build that momentum?

Danny: When I started looking for consistent threads what I found is that you need to know who you’re writing for, you need to know who your audience is, you have to work hard to create stuff that is incredibly valuable for that audience. And once you know who they are and what to create for them you’ve got to get to work and keep on working for quite a long time.

Success is there to be had by the people who are willing to do the work but the work is substantial and there’s a lot to be done, and a lot of my co-authors were very consistent about that – you’ve got to do the work and it’s not easy. This is, as they say, not for the faint of heart.

Belinda: What would you say are the big lessons you learnt from the whole marketing and promotion process, because it sounds like you approached it with a really good strategy – is there anything you’d go back and change?

Danny: Sure, I made tons of mistakes. I produced two video trailers; the reason I produced the second video trailer is that after investing lots of time, energy and money into the first one I realised it wasn’t all that good. After getting some very good advice from Mitch Joel, one of my co-authors, I went in a totally different direction. So that’s one example.

[You can read Danny’s post, Traffic Generation Café, that explains everything he learnt creating his video promos]

Danny: Another big mistake that I made is the Nominate Your Engagement Superstar contest that we ran to build buzz and excitement before the book launched. Well, I’m in Canada and our Thanksgiving is at a different time and I didn’t realise that I had scheduled this contest for American Thanksgiving, when nobody is in front of their computer. So that’s just a couple of examples.

The goal should never be to avoid making mistakes. The goal should be to find out what’s a mistake and what’s not a mistake as quickly and effectively as possible so that you can do more of what’s right and less of what’s wrong.

Belinda: I also wanted to mention the big competition you’re running on Firepole Marketing right now, of which I’m very pleased to be an entrant. Could you give everyone an overview about the Marketing That Works ideas contest?

Danny: For sure. Well, Firepole Marketing is about marketing that works. There is a ton of blogs, sites, resources, etc. that talk about marketing and most of them boil down to the five things to do with Twitter and the six things to remember when you’re doing your elevator pitch, and stuff like that.

And that’s not what we’re about, we’re about marketing that works and – despite being good at what we do – we are not arrogant enough to pretend that we have a monopoly on all the good ideas in marketing. We invited people to submit their best, smartest, most cost effective, most innovative marketing idea to the contest, and the 20 finalists, the 20 people who put the most interesting and valuable – in our opinion at least – ideas on the table were invited to write up a guest post explaining exactly how the idea works and how they can apply it.

Belinda is one of our very impressive entrants into the contest, so if you haven’t read her post then you should head over and you should read it; it’s really good. And there are other posts; you should check them out too.

[Aww shucks!]

Belinda: Thank you very much for your time today, Danny. I’ve been really impressed and I’ve found your book very interesting. Is there anything else you wanted to add before we wrap up?

Danny: Just that the book is available for free, EngagementFromScratch.com. If anyone has any questions for me or anything like that, go to Firepole Marketing. There’s a big button that says ‘contact us’, send me an email – it goes straight to my inbox – and I’m very happy to interact with anyone who’s interested in doing something.

That wasn’t all.

The interview also delved into:

• What quality content really is, when to charge for it and when to give it away
• The biggest trap writers face when trying to write for their readers
• The benefits of self-publishing your content, with some great advice to boot

Download the full transcript of my interview with Danny Iny.

It’s well worth your while to employ a proofreader; it’s hard to pick up errors in your own work. However, if you choose to proofread your copy yourself, then here is a systematic way to go about it.

Step 1: Read every word syllable by syllable.

This is the most important step as it’s when you’ll find you’ve written ‘enquires’, not ‘enquiries’ or ‘destintion’ instead of ‘destination’, or used ‘to’ when you should have used ‘too’. You’ll also notice if you’ve used a pesky preposition twice, or doubled up on a sentence or phrase when you copied and pasted. Many of us self-correct when we read our own work but reading syllable by syllable will stop you from doing just that.

Step 2: Expand acronyms and contractions.

Whatever it is, spell it out in full, followed by the acronym in brackets if you use it again; for example, Australian Taxation Office (ATO). It’s also a good idea to expand ‘e.g.’, ‘i.e.’ and ‘etc’. The two former are confused often but they won’t be if you write ‘for example’ and ‘that is’. Try to avoid using ampersands (&). Copy that’s peppered with ampersands just looks cheap. 

Step 3: Remove (most) adverbs, adjectives, jargon and ‘buzz words’.

This step is more for copywriters and editors but a good proofreader wears more than one hat. Use descriptive adverbs or adjectives only when the noun or verb really needs to be qualified for sense. Most copy is improved when you remove the flowery stuff and industry jargon. 

Most buzz words and phrases (‘passionate’, ‘proactive’, ‘moving forward’, ‘effective’ or ‘dynamic’, to quote a few) are overused to the point where they are meaningless so use alternatives.

Step 4: Check that your copy makes sense.

It’s easy to ramble when you’re familiar with a topic but you should read the copy from the perspective of your target audience. Will complete newcomers to the topic understand what you’re trying to tell them?

There’s much more to proofreading than simply picking up spelling mistakes and grammatical errors. Good proofreaders have general knowledge of a wide range of topics and industries. They’ll pick up clangers such as an article about the Indonesian Rupiah linked to the main article about the Indian Rupee, or recognise that Mr Mujherejee should be Mr Mukherjee. However, if you follow the four-step system, you’ll pick up any flaws (and learn to avoid those mistakes in the future).

Of course, if proofing your own work seems too hard (or you just don’t have the time), you can always give me a call on 0419 200 224!

It’s the Copy Detective here…. There have been some great proofreading tips shared on the Copywrite Matters Facebook page. How do you approach your proofreading? Can you add some tips for other readers?

Trish Arnott is a proofreader, copywriter and editor living in the heart of Sydney, Australia. She started Spell-Bound Services in 1995 because she could see the need for ‘another pair of eyes’. Over the past 16 years, she’s worked on myriad global brands such as American Express, Microsoft (across all channels) Qantas, Westpac and Fuji-Xerox, and smaller brands such as ANIA, Business Tax & Money House, MPS Architects and ENERGETIX Australia.  She sails competitively through the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia and reads the dictionary for fun.

Subscribe to The Copy Detective to get each new post delivered straight to your inbox.

So how do I dig deep to produce the copywriting gold? A detailed copywriting brief.

Is the copywriting brief really that important?

I know what you’re thinking: A short copywriting brief is better because it means you can get straight into the copywriting, right? WRONG.

I know from experience that a quick copywriting brief is light on details and heavy on generalities. The result is bland copywriting and an intensive revision process.

The copywriting brief will set the course of the project.

It gives me everything I need to create exceptional copywriting. Or not.

The more gaps there are, the more often I have to follow up with endless questions. That’s time consuming (and annoying) for my client and me. The other option is to take a guess, which is a sure-fire way to need a complete rewrite after the first version.

A detailed copywriting brief takes more time but it’s worth it.

More than just time, a detailed creative brief takes more thought and sometimes I have to tease the answers out. That’s where my marketing background can come in handy. Quite often I’m asking questions my clients haven’t really thought about in detail and they get to use their new revelations across the rest of their marketing.

So I thought I would share my copywriting brief with you. These are questions I ask and the reasons I ask them. Trust me. You’ll thank me when you see your copy.

My Copywriting Brief

• Name of the company and any nicknames it has [internally and externally].
• Your company tagline or motto.
• A contact person for the project.

Project-Specific Information

• Project description: What is it we’re doing here?
• Scope and inclusions: To make sure I don’t miss anything out.
• Objectives: What is it you need this piece to achieve?
• Target audience: Who exactly are you appealing to?
• Call to action: What do you want your audience to do as a result?
• Tone and style: What kind of vibe do you want this piece to have?
• Deadlines: When do you need the final draft done by?
• Constraints: Are there any constraints such as word count or design?
• Keywords: Do you know your keywords?

General Business Information

• Company background & values: How did you get started? What is your company philosophy?
• Customer pain points: What keeps your clients awake at 2am? What influences their decision to buy?
• Barriers to purchase: What makes it difficult to decide/buy?
• Value proposition: What do you do to solve those frustrations? What’s the real value you offer?
• Competitors and industry bodies: Give me a feel for the market/industry you work in.
• Alternatives: What are the alternatives to your product or service?
• Your USP or POD: How are you different? What makes you so special?
• Testimonials: Do you have any quotes or testimonials from clients?
• Brand personality: Describe the personality of your business in five words or fewer.
• Existing marketing material: I can ensure your new copy complements your current marketing.
• Clubs, industry memberships & awards: How can you validate your expertise?

Project-Specific Information

For each page or business service, detail:

• Objectives [if they differ from the project objectives].
• The Features.
• The Benefits each feature actually provides.
• Why someone would choose this over another product or service.
• Call to action [if it differs from the project call to action].

Must Haves: Is there anything you specifically want on the page?

Must Not Haves: Is there anything you really don’t want mentioned?

Time? Yes. Effort? Yes. Great Results? Every time.

So that’s my copywriting brief. It’s detailed and I spend at least an hour walking through the information my client provides. It helps me tease out more detail and nudge them towards important marketing realisations. The best part is that I usually find some copywriting gold in my client’s own words.

So next time you’re getting a grilling from your copywriter, remember that the detail will set a strong path that leads to mind-blowing copywriting.

If you are a copywriter reading this, how does yours compare? Can you see any gaps? Or maybe you’ve picked up some great questions to add to your own brief? Let me know.

The Copy Detective

Subscribe to The Copy Detective to get each new post delivered straight to your inbox.

I had an idea. I wrote it down. It’s just a small flame now but, with your help, that flame will ignite something big…

The following is an excerpt from my finalist submission in Firepole Marketing’s “Marketing That Works” Ideas Contest.

The Great Customer Service Hoax: Why Instant Customer Service is Painfully Stupid (and What to Do Instead)

We’ve all been there.

In a queue. Waiting.

You’re watching everyone else get served and asking yourself: “Why can’t they make this faster? Why can’t they put more staff on? Why is my time being wasted in this queue?”

You might be surprised to learn that the time you spend waiting in that queue has been mathematically calculated. That’s right. That place where you’re waiting knows exactly how long you will spend on hold, or stand in line, and they balance that time against customer satisfaction levels.

The Simple Truth about Customer Satisfaction

You might think that to maintain awesome levels of customer satisfaction you need to have outstanding products and services, diligent processes and reports and excellently trained staff who know when to make a decision that’s right for the customers.

Well, you do need those things but the truth about consistently good customer satisfaction is much simpler.

Customers are satisfied when you met their expectations. They are really satisfied when you exceed their expectations but the simple truth behind happy customers is how well you set their expectations in the first place.

Discover How To Skyrocket Your Customer Satisfaction Levels

You can read the full post here and learn the secret of improving your customer satisfaction levels while you make your customers wait.

Once you’ve read it, I’d love it if you could:

• Leave a comment with your thoughts (even if it’s to say that you liked the post)
• Share the blog post with your social media network by tweeting, liking, sharing, plus 1’ing
• Ask your friends and colleagues to leave a comment and share the post
• Share the blog post some more!

The reason I’m asking you to do this is that it’s a contest and, well, I want to win! The winner is decided by social proof, which means the greatest number of comments and shares. There is a small cash prize but the real prize is validation of a good marketing idea and sharing that idea with new readers.

What do you get out of it? Well, you get to help me out (go, you!) but, more importantly, you get to read through innovative marketing ideas from 19 up-and-coming marketers on the web.

Your marketing might never be the same again!

So what do you say? Read The Great Customer Service Hoax, leave a comment and share it with your friends. I’ll be your best friend…

The Copy Detective

Subscribe to The Copy Detective to get each new post delivered straight to your inbox.

We live in an age when internet scams are just part of “being online” and building trust is more difficult than ever before. Consumers are bombarded with thousands of marketing messages every day, personalised with their name and targeted to their demographic and interests.

They are getting wise to your motives and simply tune out most of the time.

So what can you do to get their attention? How can you really connect with your customers so they become loyal fans of your business? Well, firstly, you need to think differently about the way you communicate.

Rather than pushing your marketing onto your audience, you need to pull your customers in.

And you can do this using content marketing.

The Content Marketing Institute describes content marketing as “a marketing technique of creating and distributing relevant and valuable content to attract, acquire and engage a clearly defined and understood target audience – with the objective of driving profitable customer action”.

Simply translated, it means profitable marketing through education.

Content marketing isn’t new but the internet makes it oh so easy to create and share content around the world. Consumers are hungry for trusted resources to help them navigate through the decision-making maze. They see traditional marketing for what it is and they just don’t trust it. Nor should they.

It’s a competitive advantage you can’t beat.

When you take the time to educate your audience about your industry, best practices, pitfalls and the questions they should be asking, you become the expert in your field. When you do it all without asking for a sale you become a trusted resource.

When the need arises, there you are, top of mind with no one else in sight. And it’s all because you offered solutions to their problems without the hard sell.

So what type of content does content marketing cover?

• Websites
• Blog posts
• Online articles
• Ebooks
• White papers and reports
• Newsletters
• Online magazines
• Business videos
• Podcasts and interviews
• Product reviews
• Infographics
• Slide shows and presentations

Content marketing comes with stacks of benefits.

Content marketing is comparatively cheap. Sharing your expertise and knowledge will take time (which is valuable), but that’s about it.

Content marketing is global. Thanks to the power of the internet you can take your marketing from your town to the entire world.

Content marketing will build your database. Collect email addresses and names so when you do have something to offer, you’ve got a whole community opted in to hear.

Content marketing creates valueable resources. What’s more, you own the content to repurpose and reuse however you please.

Content marketing taps into the rule of reciprocity. When you help people out they are statistically more likely to pay you back, whether that’s telling their friends about you or actually buying something down the track.

Content marketing will skyrocket your SEO. Assuming you know the keywords your audience are using, you can optimise your content to use those keywords.

Content marketing brings you traffic. For every online article or ebook you publish, you get yourself a link back to your website or blog or landing page.

Content marketing can work for any business in any industry.

The key to successful content marketing is having a publisher’s mindset – not a salesperson’s. So rather than spending marketing budget on expensive advertising with questionable ROI, create valuable and relevant content that helps your audience succeed.

When your audience succeeds, so will you.

So is this the year you start really helping your customers? Let me know if it is.

The Copy Detective

Subscribe to The Copy Detective to get each new post delivered straight to your inbox.

If you’d like to learn more about the power of content marketing, I recommend this post by CMI: Best CMI Content Marketing Ideas.

I’m knee deep in the great mystery of Christmas holidays but I wanted to take time out from jingling my bells to wish you all a Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukah, Happy Holidays and Festive Family Time um … any other greetings you share with the people you love.

I hope you all enjoy some quality time off work, get to laugh until you cry, get to eat yummy food until you’re comfortably full with maybe just one more rum ball after that.

I hope you have a sense of achievement when you think about 2011, whether you frame that around business or personal goals.

I hope you’re putting together some great goals for 2012. Goals are important. Especially the goals that seem a little unachievable.

Actually, I hope you have more than goals.

I hope you have a mission.

My mission is to rid the world of “Welcome to my website”. I’m going to do that by showing business owners how they can improve the way they write about their business.

Treading water isn’t good enough. Stretch further. Do Better.

I hope the big holiday guy is kind to you all. I’ll see you in 2012. I’ll be back on January 9th (and not a moment before).

The Copy Detective

Subscribe to The Copy Detective to get each new post delivered straight to your inbox.

So you’ve decided to join the social media revolution eh? You’ve heard of plenty of other businesses making a killing from social media and you want a piece of that action. Well before you create anything, here is a list of home truths you need to know.

1. Social media marketing isn’t free. It costs you time (possibly your most valuable resource).

2. You need to make time to engage with people. It’s called social media for a reason.

3. You need to actively find relevant and value content to share with your followers.

4. You need to respond to comments directed at you.

5. You don’t need to watch your social media marketing every single second. Invest in tools that will help you stay relevant (and still sleep).

6. The rules of common courtesy still apply. Oh yes. A general lack of manners will get you shunned, just like in real life.

7. You will get out of social media marketing exactly what you put in.

8. Each social media platform has its own rules, guidelines, terms and conditions. And they change. All the time.

9. You won’t nail it overnight. It takes time and effort to make it a success [surprise surprise].

10. Social media marketing can be extremely rewarding if you put in the effort to make it work.

11. Each social media platform has its own culture. Its own vibe.

12. You shouldn’t spray exactly the same content across all social media platforms.

13. Automating some your updates is ok, but make sure you’re around for any comments. Engagement is the most important part.

14. You shouldn’t post one message across different platforms. Take the extra 3 seconds to customise it to the local culture.

15. Social media marketing won’t work as well on its own. Don’t forget your other marketing.

16. Facebook and Twitter aren’t indexed by Google but you can still use them to build a community and drive traffic to your website.

17. Google + content is indexed by Google so you should definitely get on to it.

18. You can build your word of mouth network beyond your imagination.

19. You can make some amazing friends while you expand your business network. Its true.

20. You will come across creepy spammers. Learn to block and report!

21. You’ll probably get your account hacked at some point. Don’t stress out. Just explain to your followers and move on.

22. You shouldn’t air your dirty laundry on social media. It makes you look bad.

23. Never get involved in public fights. They make you look bad.

24. Learn to take the good with the bad. If you’re not jerk, it should be mostly good.

25. You should be sharing your blog posts and any other content you create.

26. Don’t forget your international audiences. Post updates for different time zones.

27. Don’t just send out promotional messages about your business. The aim is to connect with people, not sell them to death.

28. When you get involved in other people’s discussions, you’re more likely to get more responses yourself.

29. You can use social media for market research.

30. Ask questions to get the wheels of discussions going.

31. When you ask questions, phrase them so that people don’t have to think too hard to respond.

32. When thinking about how often you’ll update your profiles, try and be consistent with your timing.

33. You should share other people’s content whenever it’s relevant to your followers.

34. You can actually ask your followers to share your content.

35. Don’t be afraid to show some personality but be professional.

36. It’s ok to just “listen and watch” but you’ll get more out the experience if you join in.

37. Don’t expect to nail it overnight. It takes practise and patience.

38. You shouldn’t outsource every part of your social media marketing. Part of being authentic is actually being there.

39. You need to be authentic because people can tell.

40. You should have a company blog and you should share it on social media.

41. Your business isn’t “too professional” to use social media marketing.

42. Think of ways to reward your followers with content or specials that are unique to each platform.

43. You should know if your location is relevant to your audience.

44. You shouldn’t be afraid to have some fun with it but remember it’s your business talking, right?

45. Following other people and businesses is a good place to start.

46. You should be reviewing your statistics regularly.

47. You should have a corporate policy or guidelines if you have a business social media presence.

48. You don’t need to invent new content for each platform.

49. You can turn one idea into many different pieces of content – it’s called content marketing.

50. Automated responses are lame and people might stop following you because of them.

51. You need to fill out your bio. People read them and use them to decide whether to follow you.

52. You don’t have to be on every social media platform.

53. Social media marketing isn’t for everyone. Don’t stress out if it isn’t right for you or your customers.

As you can see, there is a lot of reality behind the “magic” of social media marketing. If you take away nothing else from this little list, remember: 

• Everything worth doing, takes time and effort. So does social media marketing.

• Don’t be a robot. Be authentic and social and connect with people.

You can find plenty of online guides to using social media effectively so go and get learning!

Can you add to this list? I bet you can.

The Copy Detective

A press release (news release, media release or press statement) has traditionally been used to get your mug in the news. Actually getting on the box, in the paper or on the radio can be much harder than just distributing a great press release. It can depend on what other news is being announced, which news networks you distribute your press releases to and sometimes, the mood of the journalist on the day.

If you don’t get into the news, or you’ve had your moment in the limelight, here are some surprising ways to repurpose your press release for maximum gain.

Post your press release as a news item on your website

Regular news updates can show your customers, and potential customers, that you’re getting yourself out there. That you’re a professional business that is active and relevant to your industry.

Post your press release on your social media profiles

If you have loaded your press release onto an online distribution site then you should have a link you can share across your social media profiles. Make use of them and get your news out to different audiences.

Include your press release in your company newsletter

Email marketing is still a hugely effective form of direct marketing, which makes your newsletter the perfect forum to share your news with your subscribers.

Convert your press release into a blog post

Who hasn’t sat back and wondered what the heck they are going to write about in their next blog post. A recently submitted press release gives you one post for free! Remember to convert the language and tone to match your blog theme.

Convert your press release into an online article

A good content marketing strategy involves turning a single concept into many expressions. It makes sense then to convert your press release into an article for submission to an online article directory. Remember that your article has to add value to the reader so if you’re simply announcing your new MD, you need to find another angle for your online article.

[Extra Note from The Copy Detective: always try and find a newsworthy angle for your press release otherwise it stands no chance of being picked up by a journalist. Ask yourself, why would people care about this?]

Enjoy some SEO love from your press release

Press releases can be a really effective part of your SEO strategy as well. Take some time to look at relevant keywords and write those into your press release. Make the most of your bio paragraph and when you submit it online you’ll have a link back to your website. If you get into the press as well, it’s a win-win-win!

Submitting regular press releases can be a hard working part of your PR and online marketing strategy and you might just end up in the news to boot! If you don’t get your mug in the paper, then you could just become a familiar name and the first port of call for a local journalist.

Have you submitted many press releases? I’d love to know if you could think of any other ways to repurpose a press release.

The Copy Detective