Author Archive

Google’s Eight Best Tools for Online Creators

on July 1, 2011

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GoogleAt Google, some very bright engineers are working tirelessly to make sure everything you do all day somehow involves one of their products. It’s a little bit scary. Fortunately, lots of Google’s valuable tools are available for free, to help anybody learn from the vast volumes of data the company collects. So if you’re working on an online marketing campaign, building a blog, or just maintaining your personal website, you should put Google to work for you.

As someone who writes a blog about copywriting, I find Google beyond helpful in tracking how people use language. Here’s a list of my eight favorite Google bookmarks, going from serious and pragmatic on to fun and frivolous.

Google Analytics

Thanks to its longevity, reliability, and unbeatable price (free), Google Analytics is the standard way that many of us measure website traffic. It takes some technical aptitude to set it up, but when you get it humming, you’ll wonder how you ever lived without it.

Google Webmaster Tools

This is Google’s way of showing you how its search engine analyzes and crawls your site. Again, it takes a little bit of technical work to set it up. But if you’re trying to attract search engine traffic, it’s worth your time to understand Google Webmaster Tools.    Read More →

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Is Your iPad Ruining Your Writing?

on June 15, 2011

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Is the iPad bad for writing?Ask a writer to describe his or her favorite tool of the trade and you’ll probably get an earful. Some writers are loyal to a particular kind of pen or pencil. Some have a thing for typewriters. Personally, I fondly remember the old computer keyboards that had a satisfying snap to them, like the click of a switch. I like my keyboards loud. That clattering racket is the sound of progress!

Which brings us to the iPad. Over the last year a lot of people have switched from carrying laptop computers to iPads. And that’s great.

But despite all the things the iPad does well, it is a mediocre tool for writing. Mashing your fingers on that slippery, smudge-prone glass ranks among the least enjoyable ways to input text into a computer. You would probably have to ask a hundred writers to find one who enjoys typing on an iPad.    Read More →

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When Sending an Email Is a Terrible Idea

on May 31, 2011

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Email is probably responsible for saving more time in the office than any other recent technology. Tasks that used to require letters and phone calls–which often went unanswered, and had to be followed by a series of messages left and ignored–can now be handled with a few taps on a keyboard.

But email can also waste hours and hours. Think about how many times you’ve been inundated with a dozen messages in a row from people hitting the Reply All to weigh in on some point of trivia that could have been solved with one conversation. What used to be a dialogue between two people becomes a conversation among four, five, or fifteen. It’s like part of our brain is always in a meeting.

I once worked in an office where Reply All was responsible for so much lost efficiency that managers actually announced a plan to disable the Reply All button on all our computers. The plan was abandoned when they discovered this was impossible—but you could understand where they were coming from. Email also strips vocal tone and body language away from our words. Without that nonverbal information, criticisms sting harder, requests seem abrupt, and genuine praise can fall flat.

After all this time, why are we still struggling with email? I think it’s because different jobs carry different expectations, and norms vary drastically from office to office. And the plain truth is, email is writing, and some people are better writers than others.

Even if you aren’t a champion writer, you can still keep from flailing when you use email. Here are ten guidelines that can help your emails turn out better—or help you know when not to send an email at all. Your approach may vary, but I’ve found that these work for me.

1. Only send an email if it’s faster than a phone call or a person-to-person conversation.    Read More →

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What Groupon Knows About Writing That You Don’t

on May 16, 2011

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Think First Then Type, a column by the copywriter par excellence Daryl Lang, comes with tips and techniques to help you use language more effectively at work. After all, even the best and brightest ideas won’t catch on if you can’t get them understood.

Good writing is scientifically proven to enhance your sex appeal, persuade colleagues to do your work for you, and help you communicate with some of the more intelligent species of reptiles.

OK, I confess: I copied the style of that last sentence from Groupon. And why not? The fastest-growing company ever must be doing something right. Certainly, Groupon knows a thing or two about copywriting. Read this opening to a recent Groupon offer:

It’s no accident that soccer is the most popular sport in the world–it requires little equipment, is fast paced, has clear rules, and can be played while holding a baby. Witness some graceful and free-footed fireworks with today’s Groupon: for $15, you get two premium sideline tickets to any one of the Carolina RailHawks’ regular-season home games (a $30 value).

That’s classic Groupon: Begin with a quick, snort-inducing joke, then tell somebody they can save a few bucks on something fun. Groupon took a simple idea–a daily, local, social-driven coupon–and turned it into a massive business on the strength of good writing. A marketer might tell you this is a well-executed example of the AIDA (Attention, Interest, Desire, Action) method.

But this is not some cookie-cutter marketing formula. Groupon editor-in-chief Aaron With recently told Mediabistro that Groupon writers generate enough copy to fill a 190-page novel–every day. That’s a lot of writers employing the cheerfully weird Groupon tone that persnickety advertisers and fickle customers expect.    Read More →

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The Haiku Resume: Boiling Down Your Career into One Line

on May 2, 2011

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Think First Then Type, a column by the copywriter par excellence Daryl Lang, comes with tips and techniques to help you use language more effectively at work. After all, even the best and brightest ideas won’t catch on if you can’t get them understood.

Japanese sceneYou’ve spent hours perfecting your resume. It glows with relevant skills and accomplishments, it’s optimized for keyword-crawling job sites, and it’s been PDF’d in perfectly kerned Helvetica.

Great work. But when somebody visits your website, your resume isn’t the “front door.” Your visitors want to see a few words that describe what you do. And if the first words that greet them are a boring biography (“an award-winning whatever with X years of experience”), you’re missing an opportunity.

You are a brand in the marketplace, and the best brands say what they do in a few concise words. You can identify many companies by their taglines alone. “The ultimate driving machine.” “Good to the last drop.” “What’s in your wallet?” You need a compelling tagline too.    Read More →

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Social Media Remorse–It’s Preventable!

on April 18, 2011

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Today we welcome to The Hired Gun blog family Daryl Lang, who blogs about copywriting at Breaking Copy and whose day job is as senior copywriter at Shutterstock. His monthly column, Think First Then Type, will cover tips and techniques to help you use language more effectively at work–after all, even the best and brightest ideas won’t catch on if you can’t get them understood.

Social media can be a real love-fest. Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn have opened new channels to reach people we care about, both personally and professionally. But you can kill the good vibes when you spark an ugly online fight or post a status update that accidentally offends someone. Call it social media remorse. Symptoms include pangs of regret, profuse sweating, and a knot in the pit of your stomach.

Luckily, it’s within your power to avoid social network-induced stress (Twulcers?). Just slow down and think about what you write. Here are a few more tips to prevent social media remorse.

1. Be your best self. Let people hear your voice when they read your posts. Share what you love and what you know best. Use short words and breezy sentences. When your personality and expertise shine through, people connect with you in a positive way.    Read More →

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Product Management, User Experience, Information Architecture, Interaction Design, Usability Testing

Project Management, Program Management, Production, Content Production

Animation, Art Direction, Creative Direction, Corporate Identity, Flash Design/Dev, Graphic Design, Web Design

Content Strategy, Editorial, Copywriting, Copy Editing, Research, Blog Outreach

Brand Management, Business Development, Sales, Product Marketing, Event/Conference Planning, Promotions, Marcomms, Corporate Comms, Direct Marketing, E-Marketing, Public Relations, Market Research

Account Management, Account/Brand Planning, Media Strategy, Communications Planning, Media Planning/Buying, Social Media, Search (SEM, SEO), Web Metrics & Analytics

Web Development, Front End Development

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