Category Archives: On writing

Professinal invitation

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I just got an invitation to go to a professinal networking meeting. I think I’m going to pass.

professinal_networking_group.png

Here’s the deal. I know you don’t have an editor – and you are marketing to professionals in transition. So it doesn’t matter if you make a typo, right?

But these are the same professionals that get called on the carpet for any tiny error like this. Some of them have jeapordized their careers because of a mass mailing with a typo.

I won’t even go into other discrepancies that I’ve seen along these lines. Not until I get worked up enough about them :p

Yes, I’m a blogger, book author, columnist etc. And I make mistakes too, lots of them. I am just happy I’m not the only one!

Last call for LinkedIn book input

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life_saver.jpgI’d like to get a few more one or two sentence quotes (gems) that are going at the end of the chapters… here are some examples of how they are going to look:

For the chapter on ANSWERS:

“When you ask a question on the “Answers” forum take the time to thank each person who tried to help. Then remember to close and rate the question. People have taken the time to help you; it is simple common courtesy to thank them.”

— Sheilah Etheridge, owner of SME Management

For the chapter on SEARCHING

“Browse the networks of others. Take the time to look through the networks of your direct connects. This is where you can easily find people you’d like to connect with and you’ll know you can ask your contact to help with the connection.”

— Scott Ingram, NetworkingInAustin.com

Note, I’m not looking for “LinkedIn is great” comments, rather specific gems that pertain to the chapters. Here is what I need (the number represents how many quote I’m looking for):

  • Account and Settings 4
  • Searching 4
  • How Degrees of Separation Works 5
  • Recommendations 4
  • Jobs & Hiring 5
  • Services 5
  • LinkedIn Groups 5
  • LinkedIn Answers 3
  • LinkedIn for Personal Branding 5
  • Shady Practices 5
  • On Netiquette 5
  • Complementary Tools and Resources 5

If you can, please send me one or two sentences for any of the above chapters… (jason at jibberjobber dot com) … thanks!

more typos, and bad news from rich companies

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Check out the image below, I grabbed it from my MSN news window:

msn_news_july11_2007.png

First, I’m not sure what my fixation is on typos hitting prime time. Probably because I’ve had crotchety old bosses that get really pissed when I’ve let something slip through (in one board meeting the chairman took a brochure we did, looked at it, and tore it in half. How’s that for leadership? Loser.) But even MSN doesn’t always spell stuff right. I think, last I checked, Microsoft Word comes with spell-check. (hey, just so you know, stay tuned on my JibberJobber site, I’m planning some typos of my own :p)

Second, Liz Claiborne recently died, and was credited with building an awesome dynasty ($5billion strong). Are they looking at ditching almost 20% of their revenue because those were the founder’s pet projects? Was she heavy-handed in managing the company, and this is a result of her not involved anymore? I’d love to get the inside story on this peculiar timing. I’d love to know if any of her family has ownership (and active management roles), and if the leadership that is doing this is brand new hatchet-men types, or if they have been quietly planning this for a while, etc. This kind of stuff intrigues me.

Of course, you know they should offer their terminated employees lifetime subscriptions to JibberJobber. It’s the least they could do.

Good Editing

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I have a monthly newsletter that I send out… it is a newsletter about JibberJobber. It’s actually kind of hard to write, for various reasons. I also blog daily and make comments on other people’s blogs. I am also towards the end of the first step in the book “I’m on LinkedIn – Now What??”

So I’m accutely aware of the quality of writing. Especially when I get called on it. Anything from typos to grammar to tone … I get called on it all. That’s why I enjoy seeing things from big rich companies where they make the same kind of mistakes I do. The first thing, in red, shows that they forgot to CHANGE one of the two. The second thing just shows that they thought about AND vs *and* … no biggie but I always find this interesting. At least I’m not the only one that wonders which would be better (hey, their solution is to use both :pplaxo_typo.png

Excellent blogging advice

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I like to critique other people’s blogs (probably should charge for it), and regularly recommend things to add or change. I was pretty excited to come across this list of “Twenty Usability Tips for Your Blog — Condensed from Dozens of Bloggers’ Experiences.”

If I were your blog coach I would say this is REQUIRED reading. And no, I haven’t incorporated *everything* from this list into my JibberJobber blog. But it would still be required reading :p

Really good writing resource

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the art of writingOver the last 12 months I’ve had to really work on my writing with regard to official pieces (like press releases). I’ve learned a lot, joined a PR forum and continue to thirst for good bite-size resources.

Harry Joiner, the Marketing Recruiter, put up a post today that points to a really, really cool word document called “Writing For Radio.” This primer is excellent, here are the subtitles:

  • The Copywriter and Commercials
  • Commercial Types
  • The Idea
  • Writing Without Clutter
  • The Words You Use
  • Constructing The Commercial
  • Writing It Out
  • Using Music
  • Sound Effects
  • Summary Checklist
  • Things To Remember

Its excellent stuff – fairly short but very meaty.

Writing can be a difficult task, especially if you don’t care for writing, or if you’re not into the subject you’re writing about.  One way to help yourself become a better writer is to enroll in some writing programs to help you.  If you’re a teacher, one of the hardest things to write is a lesson plan or writing a curriculum that covers a topic completely in a way that is easy to understand.