Facttactic

Corporate and technical writers

Communication

great ideas for successful blog posts

So, you have decided to commit to writing a blog for your business. A blog can be a great tool — it lets you communicate directly with your customers and can really boost your online presence.

But it does take time and effort, like all good things; and I know well that it’s not always easy coming up with fresh ideas.

I’ve been writing this blog for four or so years now. I don’t update it as often as I should but it is an important part of my communicating with clients about what my business does, what we know (this is important for a service provider) and a bit about who we are.

So, where can you get ideas for regular and effective content? Brainstorming will bring up a few, but it pays to have some resources on hand for when you hit ‘blogger’s block’.

Here are some thoughts on what to do to keep those creative juices flowing and to stop you heading off on the wrong track.

[Read more…] about great ideas for successful blog posts

sharing’s caring — useful online document services

In our work we spend a lot of time sending written documents back and forwards with our clients, and sometimes email just doesn’t cut it, especially if we want to send large documents or collaborate on writing.

Luckily there is a huge range of free, online tools to help make it easier to share information and collaborate online. Here’s a good list of some useful services [Read more…] about sharing’s caring — useful online document services

word of the day

Mamihlapinatapai … well, I guess you already know it’s a word from the Yaghan language (Tierra del Fuego), but what does it mean?! It’s a … “look shared by two people, each wishing the other would initiate something that both desire but which neither one wants to start.”

We won’t be squeezing it into a media release any time soon, but we like it and think it deserves its place in The Guinness Book of World Records as the “most succinct word” and its reputation as one of the hardest words to translate.

online and growing — fast

Here are some numbers: online advertising now accounts for around 10 percent of the total advertising spend in New Zealand; and the total online advertising spend for the first quarter of 2010 was $53.32m, up 12.31 per cent from the previous quarter.

It’s a not dissimilar level to the global online spend, with the Internet increasing its share of the global ad market from 10.5 per cent in 2008 to 12.6 per cent in 2009, (overtaking magazines for the first time) and expected to increase to more than 17 percent in 2012, according to communication firm ZenithOptimedia.

Put that alongside a trend visible mainly in the United States so far, where wealthy sponsors are starting to back online community newspapers to fill holes in local news coverage caused by shrinking newsrooms at traditional papers, and a pronounced swing to online communications is becoming clearly visible.

Or perhaps, more accurately, the value of online communication is being recognised and understood.

Do you get your news by picking up a paper from the dairy on the way to work, or is it easier to do some surfing at morning tea from your desk? Do you find products and services in magazines and newspapers or on TV; or do you turn to the net as your first port of call?

And, more importantly, where are your customers finding out about you? Online, online, online.

from street urchins to circus stars

We spend a lot of our time as a business working out ways to communicate our clients’ core values and messages in different representations to different audiences. In light of that, I enjoyed this article about a circus troupe of Colombian street kids who now tour the world and thrill people with their skills, and in particular a quote from their trainer, who said: “What we do is change the representation of these kids … because when somebody who before maybe sniffed glue or begged on a corner is suddenly doing a double somersault, you’re not looking any more at a poor, illiterate delinquent, but you’re saying, ‘Wow, that’s a double somersault.’?”