Use Twitter to follow journalists

Follow this link to follow journalists who are on Twitter. Join up with them and perhaps be a part of their stories.

10 AdWords to avoid in 2009

Entrepreneur.com shares with us 10 Google AdWords that you should avoid in your copywriting for 2009.

Says the article:

1. Free
Ads that include messages about a free product or service promotions can work well during an economic downturn, but consumers need to see the products perform well. E-mail spam filters are tough on messages that include "free" in the subject line. While it might be tempting to use a subject line that says, "Open now to get your free widget," that's an e-mail spam filter red flag that will send your message to most recipients' spam boxes. When the economy is tough, you can't risk having your e-mails not make it to the intended recipients. Replace "free" with "complimentary" or "gratis" to sneak by spam filters without compromising the effectiveness of your message.
2. Guarantee
Few people believe in guarantees these days. Unless you can prove your guarantee is real, use the valuable real estate space in your ad for a more effective message that consumers are likely to believe and act on.
3. Really
If you want to waste space in your ads, include "really" in your copy. This word does nothing to help your messages. Instead, it slows consumers down, and they are not likely to wait around for the complete message. Don't risk losing them by loading your copy with useless filler words. Make sure every word in your copy is there for a reason.
4. Very
Does a message sound more compelling with "very" in it? Is "When you need very fresh flowers, call ABC Florist," more effective than "When you need fresh flowers, call ABC Florist"? If you answered, yes, reread the last paragraph.
5. That
Once you finish writing copy for your ad or marketing piece, reread it and make note of every time you use "that" in your copy. Chances are, you can delete 90 percent of them because "that" is a filler word that doesn't advance the consumer through the message. Instead, it slows down time-strapped consumers. Deliver the messages your audience is likely to respond to, and deliver them quickly.
6. A Lot
Don't use vague copy with words like "a lot" that do nothing to differentiate your business from your competitors. Instead, quantify your messages. If you offer 20 varieties of roses in your flower shop, say so. If you respond to customer service calls within five minutes, tell people. Which is more compelling: "You can choose from a lot of shoe styles at Sally's Shoe Boutique" or "You can choose from more than 100 shoe styles at Sally's Shoe Boutique?" No doubt, "100 shoe styles" is more intriguing than "a lot of shoe styles". A lot can mean different things to different people. Don't leave room for guesswork in your copy. Make your messages extremely clear with no room for confusion.
7. Opportunity
You're not helping anyone when you offer "opportunities" in your copy. Consumers don't want opportunities. They want to feel confident handing over their hard-earned money. They want to know they'll get the results they want and need, not the opportunity to perhaps get those results. Don't let them wonder what they'll get when they pull out their wallets. Tell them.
8. To Be (or Not To Be, For That Matter)
Write your advertising and marketing messages in the active voice, not the passive voice. If any form of "to be," "has been" or anything similar appears in your copy, rewrite it. Writing in the passive voice doesn't command action. Writing in the active voice does.
9. Synergy
This overused piece of jargon has had a long life, but it's time to move on. Leave jargon and 10-dollar words out of your advertising messages. There's no room in copywriting for buzz words and words that consumers need a dictionary to understand. Consumers don't care about your "unique value proposition." They care that when they pay for your product or service, it will deliver the results they expect. Naturally, there are some exceptions to this rule, such as B2B copywriting, where jargon might be expected. In most copywriting, however, keep it simple.
10. Drinkability
Budweiser is already using "drinkability" in its ads. Seriously though, the point is valid--don't copy your competition. Instead, differentiate your product and business with unique copy and messages that your target audience is likely to respond to.

Great vintage advertisement

TapTapTap

A MUST read for iPhone users.

More Twitter advice for getting people to follow you

Can you tell I'm all about maximizing the use of Twitter right now? Maddie Grant comments on Guy Kawasaki's comments on how to get more people to follow you on Twitter.

Copied and pasted:

I was recently asked to do a quick summary of this post by Guy Kawasaki, "Looking for Mr GoodTweet: How to Pick Up Followers on Twitter" which has been doing the rounds. It's a long post with a bunch of tips, so here's the short version for those of us with many hats and/or short attention spans and/or not much time in the day, etc. etc. etc. Please note this version includes my own commentary, for which I make no apologies. : )

1) Follow the "smores (social media whores)", those with large numbers of followers who could be considered opinion leaders. Guy says 1) many will "autofollow" you back; 2) you may learn something, 3) you may want to appear that you "have a clue" when people look at your profile. My take? NO. Personally, I call b.s. on this one. Follow people you KNOW are thought leaders because you may learn something, that's it.

2) Send @ messages to the smores - eg it's not who you know, it's who appears to know you. NO. Guy says himself that this is crap. Real thought leaders will reply to you if you say something worth replying to (unless they have 10,000 followers in which case I wouldn't waste my time regardless). Better yet, talk to speakers at conferences, for example, if you like their stuff. Then you actually have a beginning of a relationship.

3) Create an effective avatar. YES. Show your face. be a real person.

4) Follow everyone who follows you. YES - at first. Eventually, this will become too much to deal with and you can choose to follow only people whose Twitter profiles show that they are relevant to you.

5) Always be linking. YES. Don't JUST post random day to day stuff about yourself, post lots of links to interesting sites or blog posts.

Guy then lists a bunch of places you can find stuff to link to (StumbleUpon, CNN, Alltop, Truemors, etc.) NO. Link to more interesting, niche or personally/professionally relevant stuff than the headlines everyone else is linking to. Yuck.

6)Establish yourself as a subject expert. (Step 1 - actually be an expert on something). Express your opinion. YES. We all know how to do this! Either that, or ask questions about something you want to learn about.

7) Incorporate pictures or other media. YES. Mix it up.

8) Use the right tools. Guy has a selection of his favorites, I won't repeat them here, you can go check them out on his post. SORT OF. The "right" tools change all the time. Just try stuff. If you like it, keep using it, if you don't, don't.

9) Repeat your tweets. Take your most interesting tweets and post them again. YES. People check in at different times and unless they follow very few people, were possibly not paying attention the first time you tweeted. Also you'll find those people who are active during the week are not active on weekends or in the evening and vice versa. Or consider the different time zones of your followers.

10) Ask people to follow. YES. Tell people on your blog sidebar and in your blog posts, on your website, in your email signature.

That's it. You can also check out the hundreds of comments to Guy's post, if you have time, but hopefully this little list will help you even if you don't!

Twitter tips

I was just on a webinar with DuctTapeMarketing.com and he offered three quick Twitter tips to remember:

1. Don't be rude
2. Don't be boring
3. Give to get

Very simple rules but it's surprising how many people don't follow them.

Follow me on Twitter!

It might be a good idea to get a Twitter account. Check it out here.

Follow me at FMGMcNabb on Twitter. Tell me you found me from this blog and receive a FREE thank you note.

New Pepsi Max suicide ads

Pepsi Max has a new print ad campaign that shows their one lonely calorie committing suicide. Personally, I don't think it's that bad, but you have to know that it's going to raise a bunch of problems, don't you? Not one executive at BBDO Dusseldorf knew ahead of time that people would complain? Who knows, maybe that's what they wanted.