January February 2010 - Issue #73

• Intro
  
• Article - Defer to your website visitors and come out a winner!
  
• The Office Corner
  
• The Human Resources Corner by Anne Caldwell
  
• Grammar Question of the Month - Evacuate: building or people?
  
• Tech Tips by Terence Kierans - Microsoft Word
  
• Writing Corner
  
• Word of the Month - immanent
  
• Recommendations
  
• Judy's Corner
  
• Judy's Photo Gallery
  

* http://www.extremeexposure.com/ This is the website of two powerful communicators who use photography to convey their love of Hawaii and of nature in general. I recently received a calendar of their work, and it is exquisite. I urge you to visit this site, and if you enjoy it, send them an email. Affirmation works.

* NASA's use of Twitter is a good sign to marketers that Twitter can be used to create valuable connections. On Mike Massimino's Open Web Awards page, (http://www.nasa.gov/connect/2009_TweetofYear.html) NASA's website explains clearly why Twitter is of value to their organization:

A leading Internet guru says that any organization or company can benefit from using Twitter in similar ways to generate conversations about the topic at hand, answer questions, discuss benefits, and create relevancy.

* CONFUSING HEADLINES: I recently got a spam message with a subject line that threw me. For a moment. "Get Your Hair Back in as Little as 4 Weeks." Reason: I have a granddaughter who donated her hair some years ago to a worthy cause. So when I read this headline, I thought, "What"?

Okay, our minds all work differently! Now if it had said something like "Restore your hair in as little as 4 weeks," it might have made more sense. Then again...

Incidentally, here's the link to a dandy little eBook by Sean D'Souza that gives all kinds of important tips for writing amazing headlines: http://www.ossweb.com/psychoheadlines.pdf

By Judy Vorfeld

Is it necessary to say "Welcome to our website, etc."? My guess is that it depends. One of my favorite consultants is Gerry McGovern.

The Web reflects a new era in consumer behavior, says McGovern. He believes that the rational consumer does more research, more comparison shopping. They are less impulsive and more considered. They place more trust in their peers than in the brands. They are increasingly skeptical and cynical. They are increasingly averse to warm, fuzzy, emotional words and images.

McGovern has a point. Or two. When you say things on your website like "we care" or "it's simple," the rational consumer thinks: "If you have to say you care, it's obvious you don't, and if you have to say it's simple, it's obvious it's not."

Today visitors to our websites are perhaps more interested in authenticity than phrases that may appear trite. They want credentials, affiliations, testimonials, and the sure knowledge that you are a real person in a real community who strives to give superb service and deliver a quality product.

"When you listen to people who have been through many growing pains," says McGovern, "and who stay determined to help the rest of us, you are a winner."

Here's a link to McGovern's blog: http://giraffeforum.com/wordpress/

I recently noticed an excellent corporate website that needs to add its physical address to (at the very least) the contact page. But it would look even better at the bottom of every page. We need to recognize that some visitors will consider this critical to the efficiency and savvy of the corporation. Ignoring this could mean lost business. Just a thought.

Another favorite of mine is Jodi Kaplan, of "Fix Your Broken Marketing." Her blog explains her business, "It's designed to teach creative services businesses (videographers, web developers, film editors, exhibit designers, graphic design firms) how to turn their expertise, their skills, and their desires into dollars. Browse her blog, and especially this article on three common website mistakes. http://cli.gs/qpdZ5J

Try to think of your home page, and any page with significant content, as important enough to have that content placed "above the fold" (a newspaper term). Yes, there are still some newspapers around. Make sure to have your site designed in such a way that people can get right to the meat of your offering/product.

1. 7 SECRET SHORTCUTS FOR WRITING GREAT HEADLINES
http://mail.google.com/mail/?shva=1#inbox/125b6b593a060ae0

2. HOW TO MAKE YOUR SERVICES ESSENTIAL BY DISCOVERING YOUR LIFE PURPOSE
http://www.actionplan.com/tc/int_kelley_10.html

3. HOW TO DO ALMOST ANYTHING ONLINE IN 2010
http://mashable.com/2010/01/02/how-to-guide-2010/

4. WHY SOCIAL MEDIA ISN'T FOR EVERYONE
http://cli.gs/b4b8rZ

5. 5 FANTASTIC FREE TOOLS TO SHOWCASE YOUR PORTFOLIO
http://mashable.com/2010/02/11/web-portfolio/

6. FILLANYPDF: NO-COST PDF EDITOR CREATED IN YOUR BROWSER
https://www.fillanypdf.com/

Earlier, we discussed thoroughly the importance of identifying the mission and vision for your company. Without this, you are like a pilot with no flight plan. And if you aren't clear about where you are going, how will you get there?

Furthermore, how can your staff help you to get there if they don't know where the company is headed? When it comes to the vision of your company, make sure that it has been communicated clearly and thoroughly.

When you have defined where you are going, you will have a clearer idea of what you want from your employees in terms of productivity and performance. Some companies do this by actually defining position by position what high performance looks like. Others define the results they want produced by each department and let their management staff determine how to get there. It is imperative that the management team is on the same page in regard to results.

Anne Caldwell is President and Founder of Outsourcing Solutions http://www.azoutsource.com, a human resource strategy firm committed to helping small and medium sized businesses succeed.

Now and then we run across a news story reporting that people were evacuated from some place. But "evacuate" means to make empty; thus we should use "evacuate" in speaking of a building, for example, or a room containing people, and not of the people themselves... Professor Harold V. Cordry

Click And Type

Word has a Click And Type feature that will allow you to start typing anywhere on a blank page, however you must first of all enable this feature.

  1. Go to "Tools / Options".
  2. Select the "Edit" tab.
  3. Select the "Enable Click And Type" check box in the "Click And Type" section.
  4. Click OK.

To use this feature you need to be in Print Layout view.

Suppose you want to type a title in the middle of the first page. In Print Layout view, double-click in the middle of the page where you want the title to appear. Your cursor will be placed there so when you type the title Word will automatically centre-align the title. Inserting non-text items works this way too.

To place a clip art picture in the bottom right corner of your page:
" In Print Layout view, double-click where you want the picture to appear.
" Insert the picture.
Word will automatically right-align the picture at the bottom of the page.

Terence Kierans
Cyberspace Virtual Services
tkierans@virtualservices.com.au
http://www.virtualservices.com.au/
We keep your project on the boil, while you sleep

1. HOW TO USE AN APOSTROPHE
http://theoatmeal.com/comics/apostrophe

Main Entry:im£ma£nent
Pronunciation:-n*nt
Function:adjective
Etymology:Late Latin immanent-, immanens, present participle of imman*re to remain in place, from Latin in- + man*re to remain - more at MANSION
Date:1535

1 : INDWELLING, INHERENT *beauty is not something imposed but something immanent - Anthony Burgess*
2 : being within the limits of possible experience or knowledge - compare TRANSCENDENT
-im£ma£nent£ly adverb

*By permission. From Merriam-Webster's Collegiate(R) Dictionary at www.m-w.com by Merriam-Webster, Incorporated.

1. THIS IS THE FUTURE OF SOCIAL MEDIA
http://businessesgrow.com/2009/12/06/this-is-the-future-of-social-media/

2. TEN CLIENT REQUESTS YOU SHOULD ALWAYS REFUSE by Jodi Kaplan
http://cli.gs/Ghh9as

3. Where to Spend Your Marketing Dollars in 2010: Since it's hard to be the expert at everything in the online marketing industry, outsourcing expertise ends up being the most efficient strategy. Now, you just need to balance your limited budget so that you spend your marketing dollars in a way that realizes the highest return on your investments (ROI).
http://cli.gs/5EtEBR

4. SEVEN THINGS TO ASK BEFORE YOU TAKE YOUR NEXT PHOTOGRAPH
http://cli.gs/u73DB1

5. THE PIONEER WOMAN
http://thepioneerwoman.com/

6. My friend, Tom McCarthy, is a gifted photographer. He also put together an excellent site for the National League of Postmasters, Hawaii Branch. Do click on the "Photos" link. Stunning photography. And his daughter's artwork is quite special. Use the "Art" link.
http://web.me.com/tommccarthy1/Site_2/Home.html

I hope you enjoy the pictures shown online, which were taken recently at Desert Botanical Garden. Two months ago, I was nestled in the mountains of Washington State, tramping through enchanted forests. Now I'm back to wandering through an enchanted desert. These are my photos, redigitized to reflect my artistic self.

Let me hear from you.

Enchanting pink flowers: Desert Botanical Garden, Phoenix AZ

Ice plant: Desert Botanical Garden, Phoenix AZ

Bee leaving daisy: Desert Botanical Garden, Phoenix AZ

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Allan Houser sculpture: Desert Botanical Garden, Phoenix AZ

Bee in daisy: Desert Botanical Garden, Phoenix AZ

Hummingbird: Desert Botanical Garden, Phoenix AZ

Allan Houser Sculpture: Desert Botanical Garden, Phoenix AZ

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