This is a guest post by Alvina Lopez, a freelance writer and blog junkie, who blogs about accredited online colleges. She welcomes comments via email at alvina.lopez@gmail.com.
It’s a self-evident truth that every website has written content in one form or another. Unfortunately, the universal nature of written web content means that the quality of that content varies from site to site. For every website covering one particular subject, there exists dozens of imitators whose content ranges from illegible to near-literary. How do we wind up with such a wide array of written content? It depends on the webmasters and bloggers and how they approach the writing on their sites. Some people just can’t write well, and those who don’t recognize it choose to generate their own written content at their own peril. If you spend the majority of your time in another arena related to your website and/or business (marketing, web development, design, etc.), you’re likely to be better off hiring a professional to tackle the writing featured on your site. Not quite convinced? Here are some more points to consider.
Outsource Detailed Work to People More Qualified
To expand on the point above, hiring freelancers optimizes the workload for everyone involved. Freelancers are hired to write attractive and engaging content, leaving you (the webmaster, the CEO, the salesperson, etc.) free to do what you do best. There’s no shame in outsourcing work to people more qualified—in fact, it’s better business. Your content might not be “in-house,” but it will likely convey information more effectively than if you tried your hand at the task, and that’s all that really matters. With the writing task in someone else’s capable hands, you’re free to invest yourself in your business uninhibited.
Better Writing Attracts Better Business
Freelance writers will (hopefully) generate content that appropriately addresses your target audience, and that’s good for your business. If you’re an inexperienced writer, you run the risk of writing generalizations or mixed messages that could read as sloppy and poorly planned writing. If your business runs primarily through the web, then presenting great content is of critical importance—it’s the most immediate way that you communicate with your customers. It goes without saying that stronger writing increases likelihood that you’ll connect with your readers.
And bear in mind that even though you hire someone else to do your writing, you have the final word on what content is and isn’t acceptable. Through constructive edits and meaningful criticism, you can shape the overall theme of your freelancer’s writing so as to fit the ethos of your website or business.
A Temporary Hire
Perhaps the most appealing aspect of a freelancer is their limited involvement with your enterprise, particularly if you’re looking to have content written only for your website. There’s no need to burden your payroll with another full hire; simply draft a basic contract with a freelance writer outlining the services required within a specific timeline. If you like a freelancer’s content, don’t balk at their hourly fees: a sizeable one-time sum is a small price to pay for the potentially huge clientele you’ll attract with quality writing that engages your readers. Think of hiring a freelance writer as a long-term investment for your enterprise, one that is likely to yield returns long after you’ve concluded your contract.
I must have said this 100 times, and I’m going to say it again. The total number of Twitter followers that you have isn’t the most important statistic. It’s who they are. Do they engage in conversation, reply to your tweets, and re-tweet your content.
Unfortunately, many people don’t understand this concept, Newt Gingrich included. According to some reports, a whopping 92 percent of Newt’s Twitter followers are fake (other reports say the number is closer to 80 percent). In either case, over 1 million of his followers are not real.
If you scroll down Newt’s list of followers, you’ll find that many of them don’t have profile pictures and are essentially inactive users, with less then 10 total tweets, and followers, such as the following handles:
Why does Newt have so many fake followers? Apparently, he decided to purchase followers – that’s why someone on his staff has told reporters. This is not a new concept, but it is certainly the most glaring example of it, and a good reminder that Twitter follower numbers can be very misleading.
Everyone knows that the media industry has experienced widespread changes during the past few years. As a result of these changes (particularly the creation of a 24/7 real-time news cycle) many media outlets have changed the way they work with businesses and PR companies.
There have been a few outlets that have been the driving forces of these changes, most notably TechCrunch, which has done its best to make the embargo extinct. Unfortunately, TechCrunch often takes on the role of the the schoolyard bully, blasting theentirePRindustry. That is why I want to take a moment to call your attention to Wade Roush, the chief corespondent at Xconomy.
I’ve worked with Wade many times in the past when he was located in the Boston area (he’s now in San Francisco) and each time he was an absolute pleasure to work with (I also did a Q&A with him for RaceTalk, which you can view here). After (what I believe to be) years of frustration around broken embargoes, Wade faced the music on May 6 and declared the embargo dead (for him). As TechCrunch did, Wade wrote a story about why he’s no longer going to work with embargoes. However, instead of attacking an entire industry while making this announcement, Wade provided reasoning, explanations and advice.
On July 29 Wade wrote another story related to PR, this time focused on how he decides which stories to write about. In this three page article, Wade explains the various ways that he finds story ideas, the types of articles that he wants to write and the best ways to approach him in order to maximize everyone’s time. Once again, the article was informative and respectful, and it was clear that Wade spent a great deal of time trying to educate and help the PR people that he currently works with and may work with in the future.
The purpose of this post is not only to share Wade’s tips and advice, so PR people can work well with him and other reporters and bloggers. I also want to take a moment and point out how Wade is a shining example of a great media person to work with. He is thoughtful, respectful, considerate, and most importantly, a great journalist.
As anyone reading this blog is aware, News Corp CEO and Chairman Rupert Murdoch is in a bit of hot water. Newspapers that he owns – particularly British tabloid paper News of the World, was caught in a shameful and embarrassing phone hacking scandal, where they hacked into the voice mail messages of a murdered schoolgirl, relatives of deceased British soldiers, and victims of the 7/7 London bombings.
Since this news broke, people from News of the World and News Corp have been blamed, fired, arrested, and even found dead. And to make matters worse for Murdoch, the FBI is now investigating to see if News Corp publications hacked into phones of September 11th victims.
While Murdoch states that this is the most humbling time of his life, it also creates a very difficult time for his 51,000 employees at newspapers, magazines, television stations and online outlets around the world. Quite simply, they are forced to report on the despicable actions that that their company, and potentially their CEO, are responsible for.
Just imagine how uncomfortable it must be to report that the person in charge of your company, and ultimately responsible for your job, could be guilty of illegal and unthinkable actions. In the video below, staff from FOX News makes it clear that the topic is not one they’re enjoying when the topic first breaks.
However, as information around the scandal has developed and hearings have taken place, Murdoch has been at the mercy of the enormous media empire that he himself built. And the reporters that he hired to report the news and share their own opinions and insight into our current events are now looking at him and his gigantic media conglomerate in the most critical light, with no choice but to report the despicable acts that have occurred.
Yesterday VentureBeat announced that Jolie O’Dell has joined the outlet as a technology and business writer. O’Dell is a terrific writer that will allow VentureBeat to cover more areas of technology and businesses, and comes to the publication after a year-long stint at Mashable.
The big question I had whens seeing this news, is why did O’Dell leave Mashable, a blog growing whats seems exponentially every day?
O’Dell wrote a blog post explaining her decision, which complements Mashable and all of the people she worked with there. However, she is very clear about why she decided to leave: too much fluff coverage. Here it is in her own words:
I was beginning to kick against the pricks, so to speak, about some of the directions Mashable was taking. The posts that have made Mashable the powerhouse it is have been by turns in-depth/insightful and popular/timely. Perhaps because I’m a lifelong cultural contrarian (and certainly because I loved the company enough to want to make substantive positive contributions to its overall tone and character) I was becoming more and more cynical about latter category, regardless of the fact that a large portion of Mashable’s audience very much wanted to read those posts — the celebrity news, the infographics, the current events coverage, et cetera.
I’ll be honest, I do enjoy reading Mashable’s infographics and some of the fluff pieces. However, when I see an entire article on something Justin Bieber posted, I wonder if Mashable’s just trying to get those extra page views.
O’Dell’s honesty and openness in explaining her departure is quite fascinating, and it will be interesting to see if other voice their opinions about Mashable’s topics of coverage moving forward.
On June 28 Google launched the Google+ Project, which is billed as real life sharing, rethought for the web. Simply put, Google+ is a social network that allows you to easily communicate with various groups of people, each in a specific and decisive way.
Google+ is currently being marketed towards individuals as social destination. Through the videos and content produced by Google, Google+ is marketed as a way to separate your work friends from college buddies, and family from acquaintances. Google+ allows you to communicate with each group of people separately, so that you can feel more comfortable sharing information with the group of people that you want to.
Aside from personal relationships, Google+ is going to have an impact on businesses. But as with every social network, platform or tool, it will have a different type of affect and purpose for each organization. Here are a few things that all businesses can expect:
1. New features for Facebook pages: After Twitter became popular Facebook quickly modified its news feed to include real-time updates from users, and it is no secret that Facebook employees (including Mark Zuckerberg) have been quick to sign up for Google+ and ask people for their feedback. Expect Facebook to soon offer some of the features that Google+ members find most beneficial.
2. Better internal communication: Google+ could become an extremely valuable internal communications platform, especially at large companies. It allows businesses to separate people by department, level and location, and have focused real-time conversations on every topic within those groups. In some ways, it is like a Yammer on steroids. It can also be beneficial if businesses want to conduct real-time meetings via the web, especially if people are in different geographical locations.
3. A new channel for better user relationships: Businesses using Google+ will have the opportunity to directly communicate with circles of users. Using Apple as an example, there could be various set up to communicate directly with Apple users. One can be made up of key enthusiasts, influences and evangelists, one of early adopters, another of general users, and even location-specific Apple customers. Apple can then communicate with each one of these groups differently, in a way that will best engage each audience member.
These three areas address what we should expect to see from Google+. However, it is important to remember that this platform is still very young, and a lot can change depending on how well (and quickly) it can attract and handle users, and how people decide to use the platform.
Also please note that Google+ is currently available by invitation only, and it has been difficult for many people to get on the site. The best thing to do is find someone who is already registered that can send you an invitation, or sign up on the homepage and wait for an email invitation from Google.
Every once in a while the New York Times has to roll its eyes, take a deep breath and figure out what to do next. Why, you ask? Because of technology columnist David Pogue.
As one of the most well known and influential technology columnists in the world, Pogue’s name is always appearing in the press. However, sometimes the news isn’t always good. This week there’s been a lot of discussion around a $159 seminar that Ragan Communications is selling, where people can learn what types of pitches Pogue likes and dislikes.
While other reporters participate in paid information sessions like this (HARO puts on these seminars once in a while), New York Times employees are not allowed to participate because it’s a violation of their policy:
It is an inherent conflict for a journalist to perform public relations work, paid or unpaid. Staff members may not counsel individuals or organizations on how to deal successfully with the news media.
It’s unknown if Pogue or Ragan Communications was the driving force behind this paid seminar, but in either case it’s a very tricky issue.
This is hardly the first time Pogue’s activities has been touchy subject for the New York Times. He also had a romantic relationship with a PR executive, which to his credit, he disclosed to his editor. However, it still caused a stir publicly, as Pogue regularly covered clients at her PR agency.
Pogue also accepted a paid speaking gig from CEA, another clear violation of the New York Times policies. And to top it off, The New York Times opinion page published a feature story in September 2009 about Pogue’s conflict of interest when it comes to Apple:
Two Thursdays ago, two of Pogue’s interests seemed to collide. In his Times column, he gave a glowing review to Snow Leopard, Apple’s new operating system for Macs. At the same time, he was writing a “Missing Manual” on Snow Leopard — two, actually — already available for pre-order on Amazon. If you are now running Leopard on your Mac, Pogue wrote in the review, paying the $30 to replace it with Snow Leopard “is a no-brainer.”
This entire subject is difficult for the New York Times, since the line between journalists, reporters and influences is becoming quite thin. It is hard to say who is gaining more from this relationship – the New York Times or Pogue. While the New York Times is one of the top news outlets in the world, Pogue has turned himself into a his own brand, especially through the use of social media. So while the New York Times is currently receiving criticism for not treating all freelancers and columnists the same, sometimes there is no right answer.
While you’re clearly frustrated that your hockey team was unable to capture the Stanley Cup, your behavior after the game is concerning. For now, we can set aside the fact the lighting cars on fire is dangerous, destructive and illegal. I want to examine how you could possibly think that you wouldn’t get caught by the police and be in some serious trouble.
Have you seen how police investigate riots these days? They search Facebook, Twitter and YouTube for pictures and video of the events. They identify people doing constructive things (pushing police, breaking windows, lighting things on fire) and track them down. With social media, you’re only a few degrees separated by anyone, so it really isn’t that difficult for them to find you, especially when you identify yourself. And if you’re tagged in a photo it becomes even easier. There is even a website set up to help police identify people!
And did you not see the news crews that were everything? There was even a helicopter taking video of the riot, showing people flipping a truck on its side and lighting a police car on fire, before smashing through the windows. Did you not realize the police would have that video by sunrise?
In today’s world, privacy is hard to come by. Almost every single person has a camera and video camera at their fingertips, and can post whatever content they capture immediately, to share it with the rest of the world. Before people were even done looting stores on Wednesday night, images of the events were online.
Let me give you an example:
This picture (along with many others) was published by the National Post. The people burning and trying to flip this car are clearly visible, and you can bet that the police have this picture hanging on the wall.
I know you’re upset about your team, but take a second and consider what just happened. You broke a ton of laws, put a lot of people in physical danger, destroyed parts of your beautiful city, ruined people’s cars and stores and cost your city a ton of money in damages. And to top it off, all of this has been captured by pictures and video that are now online for everyone – including police – to see.
Next time you’re upset after a loss, try to use some common sense.
This graphic was on the front of SI.com most of the day on Monday, and it is currently sitting second, only behind a story about game 7 of the NHL finals. For not winning anything, LeBron James is attracting a lot of attention, and not in a good way.
There are so many areas where people are criticizing him: he didn’t play hard when it counted, he can’t live up to his championship promises, he’s crowned himself king before actually winning anything, he doesn’t understand that winning takes hard work, he’s alienated fans with one bad comment and decision after another.
If LeBron hasn’t hit rock bottom yet (in terms of his popularity), he’s awfully close. The other athletes who shared this unwanted spotlight at one time are another are few (think Tiger Woods, Alex Rodriguez). But no matter how deep LeBron digs his hole, the U.S. is a forgiving place for sports stars, and even LeBron can find some sunlight if he manages to make some good decisions. That’s why we have some PR advice for him:
Stop talking: Every time you says something it comes across as arrogant and self-serving, so right now the best thing to do is say nothing. Go sit by your pool or spend time with your family, as long as you don’t talk to any reporters or tweet.
Hire people that will tell you what you don’t want to hear: Yes, it’s that time, LeBron. You can’t just surround yourself with enablers that only tell you positive things. You need people that are critical, that say no, and that force you to say and do certain things no matter how much you don’t want to.
Apologize: Make a YouTube video and post it via your Twitter account. In this video apologize for your collection of bad decisions and degrading statements. Use whatever excuse you want (you’re young, immature, delusional, whatever), but take accountability, and say that you’re going to change. Apologize for humiliating Cleveland on national TV. Tell fans that like everyone else, you are going to work harder because you have to earn a championship, it’s not something God has planned for you. And explain that your comments after game 6 were said in the frustrations and pain of losing, and that you value the NBA’s fans.
Apparently, the advertising department at the Miami Herald is in denial.
This morning, underneath an article about the Miami Heat loss and elimination from the NBA playoffs, the Miami Herald ran a half page advertisement for Miami Heat championship gear. “CONGRATULATIONS MIAMI,” shouts the ad in bold capital letters.
Not only did the heat lose last night – but even if they won Sunday night’s game, they would have to win a game 7 as well in order to be crowned the champs. Ops!
