Facttactic

Corporate and technical writers

Marketing

being an online local

Back in the day, an online presence was all about being easily seen and found by a wide audience. It’s interesting now to watch moves by many real-world businesses to use the net to communicate with local audiences — people in their own city or even their own neighbourhood.

You may also have noticed that Google searches have local searches showing up more often.

So what does this all mean if you want to communicate via your website with local people?

The first step is to have locality-based information in your page copy, links and titles. [Read more…] about being an online local

case studies — what are they good for?

Well-structured case studies are a powerful and easy way to show the results you achieve for your clients and establish your credibility.

Case studies are typically a written article about work you have done for your clients — the input you provided and the results your work got in providing your clients with benefits they did not have before.

Case studies are great to help:

  • highlight your skills and your ability to deliver successful solutions to your clients.
  • build your credibility by showing the organisations who have hired you or bought your products.
  • build strong relations with the case study clients by giving them free publicity and promoting their work.

[Read more…] about case studies — what are they good for?

how to ‘make headlines’ and get positive PR

Getting your company’s stories and views in the news is one of the best ways to quickly and freely get a high and positive PR profile.

But chief reporters and news editors can be a fickle and gruff bunch especially with stories they see as ‘just a free ad’ or PR for your business.

So how do you get past the gatekeepers with ‘news’ stories that are essentially PR or advertising? [Read more…] about how to ‘make headlines’ and get positive PR

is less more, more-or-less?

Can you say too much in your PR promotions or campaigns?

New research suggests that the less is more adage may not necessarily apply and letting your followers into a few secrets may be the way to get better buy-in or uptake. A study out of San Diego’s University of California suggests that spoilers and hidden hints in storylines don’t detract from the audience experience.

Researchers gave study groups two versions of three types of stories — ironic-twist, mystery and literary — by authors such as John Updike, Roald Dahl and Agatha Christie. One version contained spoilers, the other didn’t.

Readers of all three story types preferred spoiled versions of the stories to the unspoiled originals.

“I was quite surprised by the results,” researcher Nicholas Christenfeld told news agency Reuters. [Read more…] about is less more, more-or-less?