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Quick Copywriting (and Twitter) Tip

I’ve been writing a lot of google ads the past two days, which has forced me to re-evaluate my copywriting strategy. Copywriting, like tweeting, is known by many to be one of the absolute hardest forms of writing since you are trying to convey in a few words what could take paragraphs.

Of course, practice and time will surely help boost your copywriting skills, but here is a quick tip that may give you some more legs to stand on: when writing copy, write out everything you want to convey first. From there, analyze the most important details and go from there. Keep a thesaurus handy and make sure you’re using the most concise words possible. Finally, punctuate! Make sure your sentences flow smoothly and don’t use conjunctions or semi-colons that will just drag your sentence out longer.

Hope this helps!

Jon

Give with no Intention of Receiving

I was listening to a podcast featuring Chris Brogan yesterday that coincided perfectly with the Donald Trump story regarding the idea of giving to charity. It seems like the stars aligned this week because the company I work for is also pushing content related to “Giving with an Agenda,” and why that can be harmful.

Anyways, Chris Brogan said something on this podcast that really resonated with me. He was discussing ways in which we can effectively create relationships online through Twitter, our blogs, and anything else. He mentioned how we are used to be bombarded by sales, which everything ultimately comes down to. It seems like every conversation we have online or in life boils down to, “What can this person do for me?”

Brogan pointed out a simple truth. When you give with no intention of receiving, that is, you give without an agenda, people respond. Relationships and intimacy are formed between two entities. Giving without expecting a return may not always be easy to display, but when someone is convinced that you are genuinely trying to help them, they are much more likely to trust you.

I’ve experienced this myself just by writing this blog. I make no money from this and expect nothing in return from the people who gain value from reading this. That is why this blog has gained a following. It’s not because I’m some genius writer (although you’re definitely allowed to think that) because I make mistakes all the time. The point is that you will find much more success in branding something when your mission is trust, and real trust has to be earned.

Jon

Tweeting Influence: Should You Share More Than You Consume?

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What does every truly influential person have in common when it comes to, say, Twitter? If you just look at celebrities, one very obvious trait their profiles all share is that they have vastly more followers than people they follow.

What does that mean?

Well, they share more than they consume.

Sure, it’s their celebrity status that has elevated them to the point where people want to follow them because of their name, not their content, but that does not change the fact that the influential Tweeter in question is sharing content much more than they are consuming it.

In no way am I downplaying the importance of consuming content. That is how we gain the knowledge and insight that foster our creative, industrious minds. There is no reason why my retweeting an insightful article makes me any less influential, but the dirty secret is that retweets and reblogs alone do nothing to make you influential. They just make you a reference.

How else do bloggers, vloggers, and Tweeters rack up followers without being a household name? They’ve figured out how to create content that people like-that people have a demand for.

The next time you are looking for a way to bolster your own influence, whether it be online or even in the workplace, take a good look at how much you share and create, not just how much you consume.

Jon Negroni is the Director of Public Relations, Promotion, and Marketing at Richter10.2 Media Group. For more information regarding Richter10.2, check out our introduction video here.

Social Scoring Is Not Obsolete

ImageIt’s just getting better.

People don’t like Klout. That’s fair. Klout contains an unknown algorithm that no one outside of the company has truly figured out, making Klout’s credibility that much more uncertain.

People don’t like uncertainty.

That said, measuring influence online has to contain some uncertainty, lest we are left with scammers who manipulate the system. I like the fact that my social score can’t be measured against someone who achieved theirs unfairly.

In the meantime, competition is rising with Klout, forcing the brand to innovate and make our social scoring something we love not just because we’re addicted to it (and we definitely are), but because sites like Klout constantly make us better at being influential. Who doesn’t love that?

If you want to beef up your Klout score the fair way, use timely.is. This nifty site schedules post by when your audience is at peak interest and gives pretty awesome statistics on the performance of your tweets or posts.

My gift to you!

-Jon

Image courtesy of wired.com