MarketCopywriter Blog

Who Do You Write Like?

Lorraine Thompson — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 16:22:36 +0000

I write like Cory Doctorow.

No, wait: I write like David Foster Wallace.

Actually, I write like Stephen King.

And I have the badges to prove it.

In case you missed the meme ricocheting through social communities last week, here’s the story: A new website, I Write Like, uses algorithmic software to analyze your copy and compare it to that of famous authors.

Find out which famous author copies your work

To find out who you write like or (cough) who writes like you, go to the I Write Like website. Paste in your copy—a post, article or chapter of that novel you’re working on. The site’s algorithmic software scrutinizes your writing and juxtaposes your text with that of famous authors stored in the site’s database. Then the software makes a robotic executive decision about your authorial style and extrudes a nifty vanity badge.

Lorraine Thompson wearing her reading glasses.

I pasted a variety of copy into the analyzer. The website content I wrote for an NGO pegged me for Cory Doctorow. My client’s direct mail piece sounded like David Foster Wallace to the I Write Like bot. And based on one of my blog posts, the algorithm decided I read like Stephen King. Maybe it was the phrase “black hole.”

How does it work?

The algorithm, says its creator, Dmitry Chestnykh, a 27 year-old Russian software developer, is a “…Bayesian classifier, which is widely used to fight spam on the Internet.”

And how accurate is it? Well, according to a recent Gawker critique, Mel Gibson writes like Margaret Atwood. And when Margaret Atwood pasted her own work into the site, turns out she writes like Stephen King…

Who knew Madge and I had so much in common?

To learn more about the algorithm and its creator, read TheAwl.com’s interview with Dmitry Chestnykh.

But first, go paste in some of your work—and find out who you write like.

Photo of Cory Doctorow courtesy of Wikimedia.

The Art and Craft of Feature Writing by William E. Blundell Reviewed by MarketCopywriterBlog

Lorraine Thompson — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 23:34:38 +0000

Writers: William E. Blundell’s got our number.

In his book The Art and Craft of Feature Writing, Blundell describes me a typical blocked writer. Mel Bookstein sits at his messy desk littered with “…documents that now seem irrelevant, notes on uninformative interviews, jottings on half-formed thoughts.”

“He can’t say what this snowdrift of material adds up to, if it adds up to anything. Having read through it, he’s only sure that too much is missing. Lacking a fixed story theme, he can’t begin to write because he doesn’t know where to start,” writes Blundell.

Yes, oh yes.

The Art and Craft of Feature Writing is based on a brown bag guide that Blundell, formerly an editor at The Wall Street Journal, wrote for the acclaimed paper’s award-winning feature writers.

If you’re not a reporter or journalist, you may wonder about the book’s relevance to you.

Rest assured. Copywriters, bloggers and writers of all stripes will love—and benefit from—Blundell’s tough love. You’ll want to apply this book’s clarifying, narrative-strengthening, time-saving methodologies to just about everything you write:

Corporate or company newsletters
Collateral
Executive profiles
Blog posts
Website content
Any writing with narrative—and on closer look, isn’t that most of your copy?

Blundell demystifies non-fiction storytelling and makes the writing process less agonizing.

Blundell’s 4-stage narrative magic bullet

If you’re like me, story structure is an accident. After lots of false starts and long, sweaty labor, you finally give birth to a bloody first draft. But unlike birthing a real baby, your labor isn’t over: You’re in for rewrite after rewrite.

Blundell provides narrative triage with his “Law of Progressive Reader Involvement”:

Stage one: Tease me, you devil. The hook, an intriguing lede: “Give me a reason for going on with your story instead of doing something else.”

Stage two: Tell me what you’re up to. Okay, cut to the chase: What’s your story about? The nut graf or summary.

Stage three: Oh, yeah? Let’s see your evidence. I’ll stick with you—but you’d better make it interesting.

Stage four: I’ll buy it, help me remember it. Kicker conclusion.

That easy? No, that hard. But don’t worry. Blundell guides you. And he knows when to hold your hand and when to kick your butt.

10 takeaways from The Art and Craft of Feature Writing

I won’t try to synopsize this book’s detailed analysis, advice and many illustrative examples. You’ll have to read it yourself to get context for the following narrative-building gems:

Plan. Now. Guess what? Incisive thinking and planning come before research and interviews. I know: You’re a creative, free-flowing writer who can’t be pinned down too early in your process. News flash: Planning unleashes creativity, helps ideas flow and stimulates the moseying, myelin-sheathed fibers of your right brain.

Write a theme statement. The elevator speech of feature writing: Create a simple phrase that encapsulates your story’s theme. Draft it early in your work process. The theme shouldn’t include details or digressions, but rather crystallize the “main action currents” of the story. You may spend an inordinate amount of time on this little statement, but your efforts will pay off big time down the line.

Categorize raw material in chunks around key aspects of your story. Blundell identifies six crucial perspectives you need to consider with each story. Using his (rather complex) indexing system, you weigh your research and interview elements against your theme statement. If the elements measure up, you dump them into one of the six categories that reflect aspects of your story. I experimented with Blundell’s system. Even though I bungled it three-quarters of the way through, the indexing spared me hours—if not days—of blind redrafting and rewriting on a recent 2,000-word feature.

Don’t outline. Right brain, outline-hating writers will thrill to know Blundell eschews outlines. When you use #3, his method to chunk raw material (above), you’ll see the tremendous structuring flexibility and fluidity it allows.

Your story is a river. Once you read this brilliant analogy, you’ll make it your first-draft mantra. Here’s the premise: Your story is a rapid river dotted with dams and lakes; the river is your narrative and the dams and lakes are your observations, explanations and digressions. Your reader doesn’t mind passing through the lakes—if the scenery proves interesting. But don’t leave him floating for long. Hustle him over placid pools and back to the “white water” of your through line.

Rely on action to move your story. If your story is a river, action directs its currents. Above all, readers like action and forward movement. Blundell suggests you use this principal as a policeman to force yourself to slash repetitive material and avoid sprawl.

Keep related material together when drafting. While not a hard and fast rule, keeping your related indexed material togther helps readers follow your story and avoid confusion. Bonus: This technique also gives you many spontaneous structure options.

Try to isolate material from one source in one place. To strengthen and clarify your story and avoid over quoting—the “blight” of feature writing, according to Blundell—gather together all linked quotes, events and actions. Again, not a hard and fast rule—certainly not with profiles.

Let what you have already written suggest what you write next. The key to smooth transitions and engaging through line.

Get a grip on quotes. Brundell’s advice on quotes alone is worth the $14.95 price of this book. He comes down hard on writers (like me) who clutter stories with too many people and quotes. “A good writer is merciless in deciding who gets into his piece,” writes Blundell. He considers banal quotes “crutches” that “state the obvious for the writer too timid to do so himself.” Blundell excoriates writers (like me) who use quotes “to assure the reader”—or in my case, the marketing director—that “the writer has done his homework, has talked to a lot of people.” It’s fear, says Blundell, that “leads the writer to abdicate his job as story teller and hide behind sources.” Hi, my name is Lorraine. I’m a quote addict.

Our Gal Friday lost in the digital age

Before you run—don’t walk—to buy The Art and Craft of Feature Writing, let me share its only weakness, IMHO: Published in 1988, the book’s first 40 pages creak. Especially these days when you can’t load a news page without reading about another publisher or newspaper biting the dust.

Blundell’s incidental mentions of expense-paid reporting trips and lazy lunches spent picking sources’ brains over Sole Veronique and “an interesting chardonnay” are as quaintly entertaining as an off-Broadway production of Front Page.

Perhaps a few elite WSJ or New Yorker writers command fees that let them luxuriate over multi-day interviews and hangin’ out with sources. But the writers I know—whether journalists or copywriters—don’t.

That said, I enthusiastically recommend this book. And don’t borrow a copy of The Art and Craft of Feature Writing from the library. Buy it. You’ll want—and need—your own volume to dog-ear and stick with post-its.

Discover How to Write Ledes That Reel in Readers—With 5 Resources.

Lorraine Thompson — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 15:56:32 +0000

Beads of perspiration stung my upper lip and trickled into my eyes as I squinted at my computer screen.

It was the fourth day of record-breaking heat in my New York suburb. My home office’s “energy efficient” air conditioner droned, pretending to extract heat and humidity from the pudding-thick air.

Not that it mattered. It wasn’t the deficient AC—or even the weather—making me sweat.

It was anxiety.

With just two hours to write my post, I was frozen: I couldn’t put together an engaging lede. And without a lede, I couldn’t move forward.

Lede rhymes with bleed.

If you’re a copywriter or journalist you know what it is to wrestle a lede, the torturous segue between headline and body copy.

Hate them or love them—actually, I don’t know anyone who loves them—you have to get a handle on ledes. While digitalization may redefine—and even eliminate—some content formats, ledes remain crucial.

And today they have to work harder and faster than ever.

A killer headline isn’t enough.

You’ve read the dreary facts and figures on reader attention: People are overwhelmed with information and growing more distracted by the minute.

Your reader takes just ten seconds to decide whether or not to read your article, post or marketing tool. A killer headline, we’re assured, is the single most important means to grab your befuddled reader’s eye.

But a headline isn’t enough.

Once you’ve captured her attention, you need to reel your reader in. With a lede.

The lede gives your reader a sense of the story to follow. It piques her curiosity. It promises—directly or indirectly—an engaging tale or useful information.

And it works its magic in a just couple of sentences or paragraphs.

No pressure, right?

Never panic over a lede again: Build a swipe file.

The good news about ledes? You don’t have to reinvent the wheel to write them.

Yes, it takes skill to create effective ledes that flow harmoniously with your head and body copy. But it’s a skill you can learn with practice and study of lede masters: skilled journalists, copywriters and writing teachers.

And that’s where a lede swipe file comes in handy.

Whenever you read a great lede, copy it and paste it into your swipe file—I use Evernote to clip and store directly.

Later, take a closer look at the lede. Tease it apart. Identify why it works—how it moves you, pulls you in and entices you to read on.

Once you understand how and why it works, try using a similar lede in your own story.

In addition to lede samples, your swipe file can store lede articles, how-tos, advice and useful posts.

5 resources to help you write great ledes

To get you started with your lede swipe file, here are five of my favorite lede resources:

The Power of Leads. Poynter Online’s Chip Scanlon describes effective ledes and shares top writers’ opinions on writing them. Great introduction to Poynter, a writers’ resource you’ll want to bookmark and explore.

Power of Leads Brown Bag. File, read and refer often to this superb lede guide from Poynter. It includes samples of award-winning ledes, exercises in lede-writing, tips on revising ledes and list of lede resources. Download the Power of Leads Brown Bag.

Lexicon of Leads. Not sure what kind of lede to use? Scan this helpful post that lists ledes by type, illustrating each with examples and pithy descriptions. Check out the Lexicon of Leads.

The Lead from News Reporting and Writing. Get lede examples, analysis and advice from the man who wrote the book: Melvin Mensher, professor emeritus at Columbia Graduate School of Journalism. Read The Lead, a chapter from Mensher’s classic tome, News Reporting and Writing.

52 Ways to Write Interesting Leads or Introductions. Okay, sometimes you don’t need to read a thesis on ledes—you just need some quick ideas. You’ll find them in this lede list post.

What’s your lead on ledes?

How do you wrestle ledes? Care to share your lede-writing resources?

Photo courtesy of Jeferonix.

Copywriters: Should You Write Copy For Free? 5 Cases For Working Without Pay.

Lorraine Thompson — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 13:25:09 +0000

The idea that writers should work for free rubs me the wrong way.

Even when I was a starving playwright working in regional and off-off Broadway theater, I got a stipend.

Later when I started writing commercially, I approached copywriting as craft. It never occurred to me to write for free. Payment was the whole point of working for clients.

Yet hard-nosed as I am about getting paid to write, I sometimes give away my work.

What’s more, I boldly suggest you do the same. But only on a handful of occasions.

5 instances when you should write for free

When should you think about pouring time, energy, blood, sweat and tears into a copy project—for free? I propose these 5 instances…

As a donation to a non-profit organization that grabs your heart and soul. I don’t suggest you donate copy to any and all worthy causes—you’d be working without pay indefinitely. But sometimes a non-profit organization pulls at your heart strings, compelling you to involve yourself. Maybe you know the charity’s founders. Or you feel their work genuinely makes a difference in the world. Or it memorializes someone you love. Then you discover the organization needs promotional or fundraising copy. Should you write it for them? Maybe. Here’s my litmus test: I ask myself if I would gladly give them a cash donation equivalent to the estimated time it will take me to create the copy. The truth? Usually, “No.” But occasionally I take on a charitable “labor of love.” And I put the same time and effort into it as I do for full-paying client work. Check out my website content for Connecticut Quest for Peace, a Nicaraguan NGO founded by my friends, Randy and Linda Klein. I wrote most of the site copy gratis.

For barter. As a professional copywriter, sooner or later someone will ask you to trade his product for yours. Proceed with caution. Barter works well only when you exchange your labor for something you really want and need—probably something for which you already pay cold, hard cash. So while someone else may find genuine value in kayaking lessons, energy healing or a water filter, if you’re not paying for these things now, chances are you don’t want to trade your copy for them. But a gym membership, medical services or a child’s private school tuition would—for me—be win-win barters.

As self promotion. Like the cobbler whose child went to school barefoot, you may be so busy working for clients you neglect your own marketing content. Don’t. Remember the marketing wisdom you pass on to clients: A customer-focused blog drives traffic and builds community. Useful articles position services, add credibility and generate leads. These marketing axioms work for you, too. So when you spend time creating solid self-marketing materials, don’t consider it a giveaway. It’s an investment with measurable returns.

When a family or friend needs help—and you can do it in your sleep. Your husband’s blog post is crying out for editing. Your best friend needs a resume and cover letter. Your neighbor asks you to “take a look” at her Chamber of Commerce speech. Should you do it? When the work is easy and familiar to you, when it’s more about editing than from-scratch content creation, and—most importantly—when you genuinely have free time, I say yes.

As a portfolio enhancer. You want to break into a lucrative new industry or master an unfamiliar copy format. But without a track record and portfolio samples, who will hire you? Under these rare circumstances, you may want to create copy for free. Especially when #4 applies—the person asking the favor is a friend or family member. And when you feel assured the project will be beautifully produced, so you end up with a winner for your portfolio.

Is it ever okay to write copy for free?

What do you think? Do you ever work for free? Under what circumstances?

“Free” photo courtesy of klabusta

Discover 10 Ways Images Improve Your Marketing Content

Lorraine Thompson — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 23:04:04 +0000

Ten seconds.

That’s how long your reader takes to decide whether or not to read your post, article or collateral.

With time ticking away and distractions banging around her brain, she quickly scans your page. Is it worth the next few seconds of her time?

Breaking news: She’s not reading your copy.

While strong engaging copy is crucial, today it’s not enough to hook busy readers. That’s why you need to make your content as appealing as possible: With killer headlines, digestible formatting and appealing, magnetic images.

More than a pretty picture

If, like me, you have a design Jones, you need no rationale for making graphical images part of your content: Their esthetic alone justifies inclusion. But images do more than look winsome.

The right images work. Hard.

10 ways images enhance your copy

Photographs, vector designs and other images support and enhance your copy in a number of tangible ways. Images help you…

1. Grab eyeballs. It’s true that headlines remain the number one way to attract reader attention. But, according to a recent eye-tracking study, your reader spends less than a second glancing at your head before she decides whether or not to scan the rest of your copy. Eye-catching images help you capture a few more seconds of her precious time. Photos and graphics pack a subliminal punch that text can’t imitate: The double whammy of a killer headline supported by a strong image proves an irresistible hook. The trick is choosing the right image: visuals that reinforce, illustrate or add congruity to your headline.

2. Illustrate analogies. A picture may be worth a thousand words, but pictures and words together carry exponential power. Especially when you use analogy in your headline to make conceptual connections: A complementary image vividly illustrates and dramatically reinforces your analogy.

3. Pull readers into your lede. In addition to making sure your photo works harmoniously with your headline, try to choose a photo that points to or encapsulates a copy theme. As your reader’s eye moves between words and images, these complementary elements subliminally reassure and promise valuable content to follow.

4. Build rapport. Complementary headline/copy and images evoke an “aha” response that builds rapport for the writer’s point-of-view.

5. Illuminate and support copy. Graphical images’ usefulness doesn’t end with the lede. As your reader is drawn into your body copy, additional images can simplify complex concepts and explain information.

6. Evoke emotional response and convey mood. Because our brains think in pictures—not text—images carry huge emotional power and hit us on a primal level.

7. Lower bounce rates. The more your image-enhanced content engages, the longer your reader stays on your site, bookmarks pages—and returns to visit again.

8. Help readers identify themselves as customers. Unlike text—which we are trained to analyze and critique—photographs are perceived of as intrinsically truthful to viewers. When a photo includes people, viewers often unconsciously transfer themselves into the frame. An image showing people engaged with your product suggests to readers that they are already product users.

9. Imply benefits. Photos suggest benefits in a number of direct and indirect ways: A muscular man’s six-pack abs, a happy family at the dinner table, a beautiful female hand wearing a 10-carat diamond ring, viscerally convey benefits of their respective vitamin, food product and jewelry products.

10. Prime readers to take action. Helping readers through your copy’s conversion funnel is a lot like luring a wild kitten onto your porch with a bowl of food. The kitty won’t make a beeline to the chow. Instead you have to offer tiny nibbles and gain her trust. Once she understands that yummy rewards lie ahead, she’ll follow your snack trail—just as your reader will follow copy and supportive images—all the way to your offer. Remember, you can think of “conversion” and “sales” concepts broadly, e.g., Zig Ziglar defines selling as a transference of feeling or belief.

Discover more about images

Want to learn more about the psychological power of images? Need how-tos on incorporating images into your content? Want some great free—and almost free—sources for images?

Check out these resources:

How to Choose Effective Website Photos and Images. This superb three-part post gives you a comprehensive and easy-to-read overview of images’ sales and branding power.

Images in Email Marketing. While focused on email campaigns, this post includes loads of tactical and practical tips, including how-tos on formatting and sizing images, page placement, image alt tags and much more.

Free and almost free images
My favorite photo and image sources include:
- Flickr. You’ll find tens of thousands of fantastic, free photographs at Flickr, the photo sharing sight. Get details on how to use Flickr Creative Commons-designated photos for free.
- Wikimedia Commons. Need a celebrity photo? A picture of the Mona Lisa? Historic images? From popular to arcane, you’ll find a huge supply of great images—absolutely free—at Wikimedia Commons, a project of the Wikimedia Foundation.
- Google Images. Maybe like me, you assumed Google Images are licensed—read unusable. Turns out we’re wrong. Using a simple search method, you can gain access to loads of free Google Images stock photos.
- iStock. Okay, iStock isn’t free. But the site—stocked with images from 80,000 artists—is a godsend when you’re in a hurry and need high quality, no-royalty photos. I pay less than $2 for most iStock images.

How do you use images in your content? What tips help you find and select photos and other graphical elements?

Photo credits
(All free, of course!)
Marilyn Monroe: Wikimedia Commons; Eyeball: Look Into My Eyes; Painter: PedroSimoes; Tug o’ war: SteveWeaver; Boys Hugging: StuSeeger; Candle: Brenda-Starr; Lichtenstein-type cartoon: kurbanowicz; Boys jumping: BarrettHall; Thumb print: VinceAlongi; Jackpot: Boynton
Boy preparing to dive: BarrettHall

7 Interview Tips That Help You Get the Killer Quotes and Color Your Story Needs

Lorraine Thompson — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 00:28:51 +0000

“You need to interview key players for this story.”

Few words strike more terror in the heart of an introverted, reclusive writer than an editor’s casual mention of interviews.

“Why interview? Why me?”

Interviews are crucial for feature articles and news coverage. They’re essential for many corporate newsletters, press packages and internal communications.

They provide key information that helps you shape and move stories forward. They give you the detail and color you need to pull readers into your narrative and let them experience events firsthand.

And they provide those straight-from-the-horse’s-mouth quotes that lend your article credibility, merit and liveliness.

If you’re a journalist or copywriter, interviews are an inevitable part of your work. But you don’t have to approach the process with fear. Because interviewing is not a mysterious art conferred at birth along with an extroverted personality.

It’s a skill, with a practical methodology that anyone can learn.

7 tips for easy and successful interviews

No matter how awkward you feel about interviewing, you can come away with the information, anecdotes and quotes you need—by taking the following steps:

Do your research. Whether you’re interviewing a surgeon, chef, industry expert or celebrity, your interviewees share a common characteristic: They’re busy. So don’t waste their time asking redundant questions. Prepare for your interview by thoroughly researching the person, her industry and her expertise. Your research will start online, but may also include books, articles, profiles, biographies, company collateral and other materials. From these sources, gather all the hard facts, dates and numbers you can—you don’t want to bother your interviewee with questions she’s answered over and over again.

Identify the interview’s purpose and context. Why are you interviewing this person? The answer’s not always self-evident. On the surface, your purpose may be to satisfy your editor’s imperatives, pepper internal communications with names and quotes, or sprinkle the magic fairy dust of celebrity name-dropping over your story. Dig deeper. Go back to your research and start a rough mind map or outline. How can your interview add new dimension, insight and color to your material?

Schedule the interview. A few scheduling pointers:
- Decide interview logistics. Will you interview in person? On the phone? By email? If you have time, in-person interviews always yield richest results. But busy schedules and travel time often make phone interviews necessary. As a last resort, interview by email. But be warned: Email interviews generally yield less complete information and rarely deliver colorful, interesting quotes. People tend to edit and rewrite email responses, bleeding the liveliness out of them. Or, conversely, they truncate responses or skip questions altogether.
- Allow advance time for scheduling. Don’t wait until the last minute to schedule interviews: Your interviewee is busy and must fit your interview into a packed work/travel/vacation calendar.
- Make your introductory email short and sweet. I like to make first contact with email. Identify yourself, your publication and publish date. Briefly describe—one sentence—your story. Then tell your interviewee why her input is crucial—a little flattery here doesn’t hurt. Suggest two interview dates/times. Give your full contact information—I always include my cell phone number.
- Follow up communications. After scheduling the interview, I send a reminder/follow-up email a few days before the interview. In addition to mentioning the interview date and time, I synopsize the material I plan to cover in the interview.
- Avoid sending questions before the interview. Your interviewee may ask to see a list of questions in advance. Try to avoid sending this at all costs. Here’s why: After reviewing questions, people often over-think queries and deliver wooden and generic responses. But you can, and should, give your interviewee an idea of what you want to cover: “Readers will want to know about your new cardiac procedure and learn about your research and clinical trials.” And be sure to provide a heads-up if you need facts, numbers or dates you couldn’t find through research. Your interviewee will likely require advance notice to gather this kind of hard data.
- Don’t schedule back-to-back interviews. Comprehensive interviews are exhausting. If you must conduct multiple interviews, try to schedule them on separate days. Or at least allow a respite for yourself in between interviews.

Draft interview questions. If you’ve done your research you’ll know to avoid questions that can be answered at the interviewee’s website or in collateral or press materials. Compose queries to extract new information, different angles or expert opinions. Aim a few questions to reveal human interest and personality. A few more practical considerations:
- Order your questions thoughtfully. Your interviewee is probably as nervous about the meeting as you are. So open the conversation with questions that let her warm up. People like to talk about themselves: Ask how she became interested in her profession and inquire about specialized education and training. If you need to ask difficult or uncomfortable questions, place these queries midway on your list. And, no matter how exhaustive or thorough your inquiries, always end by asking, “Is there anything I didn’t ask that you feel is important?” “Any information you’d like to add?” or “Is there anything readers should know that I didn’t ask?”
- Avoid yes/no answers. Don’t ask questions that can be answered with a grunt, nod or “yes” or “no.”
- Frame questions for your readers. If you write for consumer audiences about medicine, science or technology, your job is to make complex information understandable. This can be tricky when interviewing a medical or industry expert who tends to use scientific language and industry jargon. I find it helpful to preface interview questions with a keep-it-simple request: “Using language the average person can understand, would you explain…” or “In words that a non-medical expert can understand, please share…”
- Ask for a story. You can glean great anecdotes, quotes and human interest angles by asking “Can you tell a story about…” or “Can you share a time when…”

Conduct the interview. The hour of doom arrives. The following steps make your ~~walk to the guillotine~~ interview easier:
- Google your destination ahead of time and print out directions and travel time, or bookmark the Google Directions’ URL on your iPhone or Balckberry.
- Make a checklist to help you remember all the items you need to bring to your interview: Your meeting will run more smoothly if you don’t stress out gathering interview must-haves at the last minute. Make a checklist—I use Evernote and insert check boxes for this. On your list include your Google map/ directions, digital/tape recorder, extra batteries or charger, extra blank tapes if appropriate, notepad, several pens, business cards, a bottle of water and your list of interview questions. How necessary is a checklist? Suffice it to say, I once forgot my list of questions for an important physician interview and had to wing it during the conversation. Make a list.
- Be prompt. Whether face-to-face or on the phone, be on time for interviews. If traveling, allow for traffic or public transportation and parking delays. Plan to arrive 20 minutes early so you can use the restroom, freshen up and present yourself at the reception desk 10 minutes before interview time. If your interviewee needs to be paged for a phone interview—many doctors, for example, stay on the floor until the very last minute—call a few minutes early.
- Take a few deep breaths and relax. If you feel especially jittery remind yourself that this too shall pass. As an actress—my first career—we had a saying: “Eleven o’clock always comes.” It means no matter how unfriendly the audience or bad the show, there’s an endpoint in sight: The curtain will come down. Your interview will come to an end.
- Interview in a quiet place. If your interviewee starts talking to you in the reception area, or you hear distracting noise outside the room, politely ask to move or close the door.
- Record the conversation. Unlike ace old-school reporters, I get frazzled trying to talk, listen and scribble longhand during interviews. I prefer to give my full attention to my subject. That’s why a tape or digital recorder is indispensable to me. Make sure you test your recorder before the interview and try to have a back-up in case of technical failure. (OCD confession: I use two recorders during interviews.) Put fresh batteries in your recorder or make sure it’s fully charged. Always inform your interviewee that you will record the interview. Place the recorder on a desk or table close to your subject and point the microphone toward her. Make sure the recorder sits at an angle that lets you see that it’s running—and check periodically during the interview to make sure it stays running. (You’ll want to be able to note its rolling numbers.) For phone interviews, you can buy an inexpensive adapter—I got mine at Radio Shack for under $10—that connects your phone directly to your recorder.
- Smile. Whether the interview is face-to-face or by phone. I firmly believe the warmth of your smile transmits across phone lines. Thank your interviewee for making time to speak with you.
- Shut up and listen. The interview is not about you. Your subject may raise issues of keen interest to you. Matters about which you could—and would love to—endlessly talk. Don’t. Smile, nod, encourage, but don’t dominate the conversation. Remember why you’re there: To glean the information and quotes you need to serve and support your story.
- Go ahead and look stupid. If you don’t get the answer, quote or information you need, don’t be afraid to repeat your question. Rephrase and re-angle it slightly and ask until you get what you need. Always be polite, cheerful and doggedly patient—even if your subject starts to get annoyed. Who cares if she thinks you’re thick as a post? Did you get the information you need? Good.

Review and transcribe the recording. My friend, Louise Tutelian, a veteran New York Times reporter, knows—right in the middle of her interview—when she hears the quote she needs. She simply notes the rolling number on the recorder. When she starts drafting, she fast forwards to the numerical point she noted on the recorder and pulls out her quote. If only it were that easy for me, but it’s not: I need to transcribe all or part of the interview. Occasionally I use transcription services. But more often I transcribe the recording myself, especially when dealing with medical and scientific subjects. Transcription time gives me another chance to immerse myself in—and better understand—the material.

Highlight cherry quotes. I print out my transcription and use a yellow marker to highlight key information and quotes. This makes them easy to slot into your mind map or outline—or quickly find when you need additional material as you draft.

Interviewing is highly personal. Likely you’ve developed a methodology that works well for you. So, as a good interviewer, let me ask you, Is there anything on this list I didn’t include? Is there anything you can add to help readers conduct better interviews?

Please share your favorite interview tips.

Discover 7 Ways Evernote Helps You Remember Everything

Lorraine Thompson — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 20:50:49 +0000

Your brain is sloppy.

It doesn’t think in lists and columns. It doesn’t arrange memories taxonomically by date, time or place.

Humming along 24/7, your mind captures emotional and sensorial memories, thoughts, concepts, responsibilities and tasks.

It stores all this data in something more resembling a bowl of chunky minestrone soup than an Excel spread sheet.

And that’s the trouble with most organizational systems. They force you to bend your brain to work the way they do—often within digital apps’ code-based confines.

Your brain wants to be free.

No digital device or application can duplicate your mind’s messy, elegant and intricate processes.

But Evernote comes close. Very close.

How Evernote helps you remember everything

Evernote is an organizational tool that works on your desktop and mobile platforms—your computer and cell phone.

It lets you bookmark, capture, organize, store and archive all the visual and text tidbits that bang at—and around—your brain all day.

This useful, free application has a loyal tribe of users who enjoy sharing their enthusiasm for the system.

Here are a few of my favorites ways to use Evernote.

Copywriter’s Pick: 7 Evernote organizational tips

#1 Capture and save content. How do you cope with your daily deluge of indispensable information? With desktop bookmarking? Delicious? Digital organizational applications? Moleskine? Post-its? Yeah, I tried all those, too. But in the end I found it impossible to keep analog systems organized and connected. And, as mentioned, I found digital apps ~~mentally coercive~~ difficult.

But Evernote makes saving information easy and fun. The app’s iconic elephant widget sits on my desktop linebar:

The elephantine Web Clipper waits patiently all day, ready to “remember” any and all of the stuff that ordinarily leaks through my sieve-like mind, including:

Online content. You can highlight text and photos—or save a whole webpage—and “clip” it to Evernote. Your clip is stored as a “Note” in “Notebooks” that you create and name. You can add searchable tags and edit Notes. And Evernote’s software recognizes text in photos and other graphical images, making them easy to search and find:
Quicknotes. Evernote lets you create text notes of any length on your desktop or mobile phone. I use them for work, family and home organization. Here’s the beginning of a Christmas shopping list:

# 2 Create to-do lists. If Evernote did nothing but store all that insanity pinging around my brain, it would be invaluable. But it does more. Ever so much more. I open it first thing in the morning to organize my day. My to-do lists have their own Notebook and I create a dated, daily to-do Note every morning:

You’ll love Evernote’s formatting flexibility: You can number, bullet, italicize and bold text as well as change font sizes. You can right-, left- and center-justify text. And you can insert horizontal dividing lines, tables or—my favorite—check boxes. (What’s more satisfying than checking off completed tasks?) The system lets you create two kinds of Notebooks:

Local Notebooks that stay on your desktop—great for privacy fanatics
Synchronized Notebooks that live online and can be accessed from desktop and mobile applications.

#3 Make recreational lists. Evernote helps me remember non-work related items as well. I make lists of things I want to do in my spare time (hahaha!), including:

Movies I want to see or rent
Museums, gallery shows and theater
Books I want to read:

# 4 Organize projects. Try using Evernote for your next project. Start by creating a project Notebook. As you brainstorm and research, dump everything associated with the project into the Notebook—all those “brilliant concept” Notes, project-specific to-dos and resources. You can easily add clips of digital text, webpages and blog posts. Evernote stores it all for you in one convenient desktop or cloud location. In addition to client projects, I keep separate Notebooks for each of my blogs, copywriting swipefiles, home improvement projects, journals and much more. You can edit, organize checklists and even attach pertinent documents to your Notes.

# 5 Share collaborative work. Evernote makes it easy to work collaboratively with features that let you share Notebooks with partners and co-workers.

# 6 Get a grip on Twitter. You don’t need me to tell you that, without discipline—and organizational tools—Twitter can be a huge time suck. So I use Evernote to manage Twitter time and tasks. Each day I create a new dated Note into which I dump all the day’s Twitter-related items: Tweets for reading later and my additions to retweets. Then, at intervals in my workday I check into Tweetdeck and Evernote—I keep these apps running in windows most of the time—to read and add tweets, click links and scan articles and posts. I use Evernote’s Web Clipper to save posts for closer reading and sharing. As I write this, I realize Evernote lets me make a Luddite compromise on automated tweeting. (Don’t judge me.) Evernote also automatically archives tweets for you: Simply type “@myen” anywhere in a tweet and Evernote stores it for you.

# 7 Get Things Done your own way. David Allen’s Getting Things Done organizational system is a little complicated for me—but I do find his “Capture” concept brilliant. The idea is to get all your mental flotsam and jetsam out of your head and put it someplace else—on paper or your laptop. After performing this simple act, almost magically you find yourself less distracted, better able to focus and capable of staying on task. Evernote is the perfect “capture” tool for all your mental detritus.

Evernote’s wrinkle

Evernote also instantly stores photos from your cell phone, archives voice notes and includes maps and geolocational capabilities I haven’t begun to explore.

Is there anything Evernote doesn’t do?

Well, yes.

Unfortunately, Evernote does not do a great job of explaining itself to non-digitally oriented civilians. Its explanatory videos contain more conceptual features and benefits than how-tos. And Evernote’s “Help” and “Support” are buried on their site and limited to FAQs, a forum—my idea of Hell—and last-resort “support inquiry.”

With its growing popularity—and user numbers—let’s hope Evernote will soon add terrific phone support. Please, Phil Libin (Evernote’s dynamic CEO)?

How do you use Evernote?

Have you tried Evernote? Another organizational system? What helps you “remember everything”?

Nervous About Jumping Into Social Media Marketing?

Lorraine Thompson — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 15:43:15 +0000

You stand on the platform sweating in the sun.

The edge of the high dive feels like wet sandpaper under your tightly gripped toes.

Waves of chlorine-scented air and children’s shouts waft from the shimmering aqua below.

A voice rises above the rest.

“Just do it,” your brother yells at you. “It’s not that hard, you idiot. Jump!”

Feel pressured to leap into social media marketing?

These days it’s impossible to ignore: Everyone from Oprah to Ashton to the yoga teacher down the block seems to be blogging, updating and tweeting.

The message is loud and clear. “Just do it. It’s not that hard, you idiot. Jump!”

But still…

Why dive in over your head?

It’s all so strange and scary. The technology. The digital lingo. The social media cliques.

You don’t feel a part of it. Not even close.

Maybe you’re a copywriter or corporate trainer. A restaurateur. A wedding planner.

Your boldest online endeavor is a website. Or (I won’t tell) yours is one of the 44% of small businesses that don’t own a website.

Why should you tweet? Join Facebook? Make grainy videos for YouTube?

Or why not?

While not a definitive guide, what follows are some pros and cons that may answer a few questions. And help you inch toward a decision.

5 reasons to leap into social media marketing

Social media offers a slew of tangible benefits to small businesses. Online community marketing can…

Bolster customer relationships. As a small business owner, you know relationships are at the heart of your business. That’s why social media is a natural fit for you. Once you feel comfortable using digital tools and social communities, you’ll see how easy they make it to find common ground, connect and build good will: Social media lets you listen and respond to customers. Its tools help you stay ahead of trends in your industry. Social communities can amplify the voices of your fans and friends—and let you diplomatically manage nay-sayers. Social platforms allow you to easily publish content that’s useful to customers. Content that positions you as an expert and builds authority, trust and credibility.

Strengthen your brand. When you think of branding, what comes to mind? Walmart? Apple? The Nike swoosh? Likely you see little connection between big brands and your small business. You’re interested in basics: more traffic, better customers and bigger sales. That’s exactly where branding can help. Solid personal and company branding differentiates you in a flooded marketplace. It amplifies your size and authority. It conveys quality and stability. You build online brand when people can find you easily through search engines. When customers hear people—not marketing tools—sing your praises. When customers and prospects use the helpful content you publish. When they see the human being behind your business.

Drive traffic, generate leads, and boost sales. Back in the day, it wasn’t so hard for businesses to get attention. Marketing was about aggressively—and relentlessly—pushing out company-centric messaging. Today loud, pushy advertising doesn’t get much traction. But social media lets you take a different tack. By building relationship and brand, you become familiar and trusted. Instead of pushing out organization-centric marketing, you pull people in with helpful, relevant content—top tips, links to other sites, social introductions. Now and then—without being sleazy or spammy—you remind folks of the value your products and services provide. You notify them of discounts, sales and special deals. Of course, you can’t force people to buy your stuff. But when they need and want the terrific products you—and only you—provide, whom do you think they’ll turn to? A stranger? Or a friendly, trustworthy community member?

Low entry costs. Compared to the price of a newspaper ad, direct mail campaign or quality collateral, social media is a steal. You can put up a nice, professionally designed blog for a very reasonable price—or even for free. It costs nothing to join Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, FourSquare and other social communities. And you don’t have to spend a dime for loads of sophisticated and useful online tools—Google Analytics, Google Places, YouTube, TweetDeck, HootSuite, EverNote, to name a few.

Level the playing field. You opened your own business because you didn’t want to live and die in Cubicle Nation. You don’t aspire to corporate domination. But admit it: It feels righteous knowing you—the small business David—can compete head to head with Goliath corporations. Digital technology and social communities provide unprecedented opportunities for people who think independently, work hard and take action.

So, it’s that easy? Build a blog and they will come?

Well…no.

**5 reasons to think twice before diving into social media marketing**

Be wary—be very wary—of wolves in social media lambs’ wool that tell you social marketing is a breeze. While well worth your efforts, it’s work. Hard work. And if you’ve been marketing with traditional tools, social media may also require education—and maybe some attitude adjustment.

Because social tools and communities will not work for you if…

You think social media is free. Yes, I know I just mentioned the great digital applications that don’t cost a cent. But that doesn’t mean they’re free. Because learning how to use tools—and executing regularly—takes time. It takes time to familiarize yourself with digital communities. It takes time to identify how—specifically—social communities can further your business goals. If you’re new to website technology, you’ll spend hours figuring out how to install a WordPress blog—or finding a trustworthy person to do it for you. After establishing a few hubs, you’ll need to commit hours to listening and parsing conversational context. More hours monitoring buzz with TweetDeck and Twitter Search. And what if you don’t have the extra hours? If you’re too busy managing, meeting, raising money or running operations? Can you hand off social media to someone on staff? Will they need training? Do you need to hire freelancers or consultants for key tasks? It’s true, you won’t spend a bundle if you invest thoughtfully. But don’t kid yourself: Social media marketing is NOT free.

You expect instant results. Social media marketing is about building authority, credibility, trust and community. Just like in the offline world, it doesn’t happen over night. A lot of your initial work may yield no immediate response: You start by lurking and listening. Then you follow, friend and network. You write posts, articles and blog comments. At a certain point, you feel like it’s going nowhere: You’re throwing your carefully crafted content out into a digital black hole—convinced no one’s listening. But over time, if you’re generous and considerate, if you create useful content, if you respond to people who reach out to you, you find friends, fans and followers. You build community and business. Over time.

You don’t have specific business goals. Why do you want to use social media marketing? Because people are yelling, “Jump”? Because everyone else seems to be onboard? Because your competitors are on Twitter? Not good enough. Before starting social media initiatives, set concrete business goals: To increase traffic to your website or brick-and-mortar store. To gain permission to market to customers with mail and email. To add people to your mailing list. Generate leads. Make it easier for people to find you—online, through search engines and offline, with maps and geolocation. Handle disgruntled customers. And ask yourself two questions about your social media marketing goals: Do my goals drive action—from me or my customers? Are results measurable?

Management is hostile. Though social media awareness is spreading rapidly, some businesses—or silos within them—still resist entry. A number of industries—healthcare and pharmaceuticals come to mind—grapple with privacy and regulatory issues. For others, generational norms create resistance. And some companies give social media a grudging nod, but refuse to allocate the time, money or resources needed for success. For social media marketing to work for your business, you need vertical buy-in from everyone in your organization—from the receptionist all the way up to, well, you. Be honest. Do you really want to commit to this?

You don’t publish content. Much of social media’s power comes from leveraging and linking your unique, useful content—blog posts, tip sheets, white papers, how-to articles, interviews, surveys, videos—across social communities. It’s tough, if not impossible, to reap benefits without good content—and lots of it. Where will you get this content? Will you create it yourself? If not, can you delegate the responsibility to someone else on staff? Will you hire a professional marketing copywriter?

Still not sure if social media marketing is right for you? Need help with content strategy and copywriting? Let’s talk: Contact me today.

The Betty White Guide to Small Business Marketing

Lorraine Thompson — Mon, 31 May 2010 18:49:01 +0000

How’s your small business hanging these days?

Is the sluggish economy killing off your competitors and helping you prosper? Or are you holding on by the skin of your teeth?

Whether successful, struggling—or somewhere in between—entrepreneurs of every stripe can take a lesson from Betty White.

At age 88, the sparkling, silver-haired actress is a model of professional adaptability and longevity.

And after 63 years her career is peaking. Again.

How to keep a career thriving over six decades

Betty started working during of the Great Depression. Through World War II and the 1940s she helped forge the Golden Age of radio. When television usurped this audio medium, she retooled herself to star in TV sitcoms, variety and talk shows.

As the 1960s and 70s youthquake shook our country, Betty broke cultural barriers of age and gender, inventing role after original, quirky role in television and film.

Hitting middle age in the 1980s, she starred in a long-running hit TV series, picked up her 6th Emmy Award and continued working nonstop through the 1990s and aughts.

Today Betty is busier than ever, hamming it up in Super Bowl commercials and hosting Saturday Night Live. With a Facebook following of over half a million, she is adored by fans of every generation.

8 lessons Betty White can teach you about small business marketing

You can apply Betty’s life lessons directly to your small business:

Betty’s Lesson #1: Be yourself. Though Betty transforms into hundreds of different characters, she brings gutsy integrity and pure originality to every role she plays. Our culture obsesses about youth, but Betty embraces her 88 years. Unapologetically herself, she proves that an older, white-haired woman can be smart, pretty, funny, outrageous and at the top of her professional form.
Small business takeaway: Don’t be afraid to be yourself. Today business viability is less about mass-market conformity and more about originality. Small businesses thrive by creating exceptional, useful products, finding niches and building communities—sometimes of no more than 1,000 True Fans. These fans and customers are real people—not demographic swaths, “consumers” or “end users.” And they want to hear from the real you, not a disembodied corporate voice.

Betty’s Lesson #2: Work hard. How does Betty manage to stay on top in a ruthlessly competitive industry? What makes her able to adapt to the seismic cultural and technological shifts that rocked her profession? How does she continue to innovate after six decades? Betty’s rock-solid work ethic surely plays a huge role in her endurance and success. When people half her age moan about hard knocks—in business, the economy, personal health—Betty sings, dances, plays tackle football and keeps on keeping on. Not because she’s immune to aches and pains—bodily or economic—but because she embraces a cheerful—yet steely—discipline.
Small business takeaway: Hard times present opportunities for hard workers. Maybe you’ll have to retool and learn new skills. Maybe you’ll need to work two jobs or juggle multiple clients. Guaranteed you’ll work long hours. And you may need to put in time on weekends. Or carve out hours early in the morning before your kids wake up. Or late at night when they’re asleep. Like Steven Pressfield says, “Do it anyway.”

Betty’s Lesson #3: Bust stereotypes. Old people get tired and cranky. They’re out of touch with popular culture. They lose their sense of humor and retreat into the past. They eschew social media. If Betty White bought into these stereotypes, she’d be playing bingo all day at the Screen Actor’s Guild Retirement Home. Instead she takes Facebook by storm. Stars in late-night comedy with 20-something actors. Picks and chooses projects and turns down guest appearances.
Small business takeaway: Are you caving to stereotypes? That Baby Boomers can’t master digital media? That Gen Xers are slackers incapable of leadership? That men aren’t sensitive and social? Women can’t negotiate? Stop. Free your mind. Think Betty.

Betty’s Lesson #4: Be a lifelong learner. Betty started work in little theater. Then came radio. Television. And film. And now the Internet. For entertainment professionals unable or unwilling to adapt, technological breakthroughs and cultural shifts brought job loss, alienation and heartbreak. But not for Betty. Challenges seem to energize her. If she’s not facing obstacles with utter fearlessness, she’s doing the best acting job of her life.
Small business takeaway: Don’t say, “I can’t.” Yes, it’s hard to adapt. It’s tough to start over. To admit—maybe in middle age, maybe after losing a job or watching your industry implode—that you’re not master of the universe. In the digital age, we’re all neophytes. We’re living through the biggest cultural shift since the Industrial Revolution. Don’t let digital gurus fool you: We’re all beginners. If you choose to, you can delight in the new. Remain curious. And continue to learn forever.

Betty’s Lesson #5: Let your hair down. On Saturday Night Live, sweet Betty White smiled angelically and chirped, “Happy Mother’s Day, mother f*ckers!” On a talk show she wore a prison guard uniform and joked about inmates’ affection for prison b*tches. She’s 88-years old for God’s sake! How can she talk like that? How dare she be so earthy, wicked and loveable? Oddly enough, Betty’s irreverence doesn’t alienate. Instead it connects us more closely to her—and through her, to the Divine Comedy of being human.
Small business takeaway: Don’t be afraid to voice an opinion, crack a joke or take a controversial stance on something important to you or your customers. That last word is key: Know your customers and keep in mind their sensibilities. Today a distant, authoritarian corporate persona doesn’t reassure as it did in the past—it makes us uneasy. As Chris Brogan advises, “Learn how human business works.”

Betty’s Lesson #6: Zig when others zag. What are most 80 year-old actresses doing? Perhaps enjoying their grandkids, relaxing over martini-soaked ladies’ lunches or watching TV and scanning the tabloids. Betty doesn’t seem interested in the status quo. Sixty years ago, when female identity meant marriage and housewifery, Betty embraced a career. When middle-aged actresses played grandmas, Betty starred as a man-eater. When older people harrumphed over “that Internet thing,” Betty amassed 500,000 Facebook friends.
Small business takeaway: Stay abreast of colleagues’ and competitors’ achievements and innovations, but do your own thing. As a small business owner, you renounced corporate control and its questionable benefits some time ago. Now, more than ever, your livelihood depends on independent thought and action. When you see others go this way, take a look at going that way. Warning: When you zig and zag, you sometimes fall down. Well all right. Stand up and dust off your pants. It’s a paradox: If you want to succeed, you have to fail.

Betty’s Lesson #7: Don’t whine. “I’m tired.” “My feet hurt.” “I can’t read small print.” “I don’t have a hard body and wrinkle-free, botoxed face.” Given Hollywood’s fear and loathing of aging actresses, Betty White could moan a lot. But she’s too busy working, playing, volunteering and enjoying life. She focuses on the positive and keeps taking action—and risks.
Small business takeaway: “Overseas competition is killing me.” “People don’t hire freelancers my age.” “I’m 20 pounds overweight.” “Banks aren’t lending to small businesses.” Give it a break. Yeah, the old ways passeth away and all. But the truth? The little guy has never had such unprecedented opportunity. Today, for the first time ever in history, “the proletariet own the means of production,” as Seth Godin notes in Linchpin. That means little old you can compete with Fortune 1000 companies. Entry fees are low: In addition to Betty’s Lessons, all you need is a laptop and high-speed Internet connection.

Betty’s Lesson #8: Stay the course. The Great Depression, Marcelled hair and FDR. World War II, shirtwaist dresses and Elvis. Vietnam, macramé vests and stagflation. Masters of the Universe, big shoulders and the Internet. Middle East conflicts, leggings (again) and the Great Recession. Betty survived it all. How? She takes the long view. A cursory glance at Betty’s career reveals a lot of peaks. You don’t notice the valleys, but she’s surely weathered her share of failures, setbacks and personal and professional losses.
Small business takeaway: It takes time to build a business. Overnight success and instant fortune are as rare as 88 year-old media stars. Have patience with yourself. Create a plan for your business with specific goals and timelines. Remember that successful marketing involves a strategy—not just one-shot tactics. Impulsive advertising and promotional bursts—followed by periods of fallow lethargy—waste your time, money and creative energy.

Want to stay the course with your small business? Need help with content strategy, marketing tactics and copywriting? Contact me today.

Betty White photo courtesy of Wikimedia.

Once Upon a Time Small Business Didn’t Need Social Media

Lorraine Thompson — Sat, 22 May 2010 10:35:56 +0000

Is social media a fad? Or the biggest shift since the Industrial Revolution?

Social Media Revolution, Erik Qualman’s newly updated video, below, makes no bones about it: The digitally social future is now.

No surprise if you work or play in social media. Likely the video’s stats and Fatboy Slim soundtrack will make you feel all warm, tingly and I-told-you-so smug.

But what if you’re not active in social media? What if you’re among the 63% of small businesses who find social media “not helpful at all” according to a recent Citibank For Small Business survey?

Or if you’re one of the 24% of women-owned businesses who don’t use any form of social media outreach?

All I can say is—well, I won’t say anything until you watch the video…

Chew on the social media numbers.

A reprise of a few Social Media Revolution facts and figures:

400 million people use Facebook
Facebook gets more weekly traffic than Google
25% of search results for the world’s 20 top brands link to user-generated content
78% of consumers trust peer-recommendations
14% of consumers trust advertising

What does social media mean to your small business?

Think for a minute what these numbers mean to your business if your customers…

Rave online about their terrific experience with your company or brand.
Rant online about their horrible experience with your company or brand.

Are you listening?

What’s the ROI for social media? Your business will still exist in 5 years.

The painful truth: If you’re too busy for social media, you’re too busy.

Need help figuring out social media content strategy? Looking for quality content for your blog, video scripts and social media sites? Contact me.