Content Mastery Guide

Editor and Ghostwriter

Social Media Writing Sin #1 – Texting Like a Teenager

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Texting-teens Yes, I know that it's difficult to say everything you want to say when social media platforms limit the length of your posts (on Twitter you've only got 140 characters!).

Yes, I know that you want to capture your up-to-the-minute musings via your mobile device – and that you're only using your thumbs to do it!

But you're still writing, and quality still counts.

Using texting-style abbreviations like UR or GR8 may save you space, but it comes at the expense of your credibility. If your ideal clients are teens, then go for it, but otherwise, I challenge you to write your messages using full words.

While some of the people I love and respect the most (you know who you are) use plenty of these abbreviations, they already had my love and respect. If my first impression of them had been what I saw on Twitter … who knows?

The upside? This self-editing and enforced brevity will help you focus your writing.

Bonus tips:

  • Abbreviations aren't the same as acronyms (e.g., LOL for laughing out loud or WAHM for work-at-home mother). Go ahead and use those, as long as you're sure your target audience knows the terminology. After all, do you really want your readers to need a dictionary to understand your message?
  • Swearing is something else that's best left to the "cool kids," unless it's truly who you want to be in your brand. Or check out how this blogger shared both "clean" and "sailor mouth" versions of her "Should I Work For Free?" chart.

Warning: Indulging in this social media writing sin can lessen your credibility and limit the effectiveness of your online writing.

Thanks to @AmyCourser for the link to the text messaging glossary!

My Top Five Social Media Writing Sins – Revealed!

Is what you type today going to hurt you tomorrow?

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As Chris Young pointed out in a recent post, the Internet never forgets, and what you do online today may hurt you tomorrow.

Over the next two weeks, I will be rolling out my list of the Top 5 Social Media Writing Sins. Indulging in any of these sins can lessen your credibility and limit the effectiveness of your online writing.

You could lose the respect of someone who was already warming up to you, or fail to capture the attention of a potentially ideal client.

If you're not seeing the results you want from social media, maybe your writing is to blame! Or maybe you've been hesitant to participate in social media because you're concerned about your reputation or your brand.

If you'd like to learn the ins and outs of writing for social media, check out this presentation:

How to Socialize Your Writing Without Losing Your Credibility

Here's what I'll cover on the call:

  • The Top 5 Social Media Writing Sins (a review)
  • Five social media writing principles that will improve your results and ease your mind
  • Online writing tools that will help you with social media

Trackbacks, Reactions and Link Love – How to connect with someone you wrote about in a blog post

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Link-lovew150-h113 On January’s Content Mastery Action Day, a member of the Action Club asked, “How do you tell another expert that you’ve mentioned them in your blog post?”

“Link love” (linking back to someone else’s blog or website) is truly a win-win-win proposition. It’s also the heart of connective content – the content you don’t have to create from scratch.

Your readers win because they read and learn about something they may not have discovered otherwise. Hopefully you’ve chosen resources and information that relate to your topic, and hopefully that topic is highly relevant to your readers.

The other bloggers win from having new readers. If they’ve done their own work in producing great content, the right people will be led to follow them. By the way, if that means your reader hires another person instead of you, he or she wasn’t the right client for you in the first place.

You win by having richer content for your blog, introducing different perspectives that you and your readers can learn from, and making connections with other experts in your field.

But how do you get the attention of those experts, especially if you’ve never met or connected online before?

Email, Twitter, trackbacks and tracking

Contact them directly

You can send them a brief email with a link to your post, and let them know you wrote about them. If you are connected via a social network, you can send a direct or private message there as well.

Show up on their screen

There are several ways to show up someone’s screen and get their attention, even if you don’t have direct access to their email.

  • Tweet – I’ll usually post an update to Twitter and include the person’s Twitter ID (example). If you’re posting several tweets about your blog post (as I recommended in a blog post and call about conversation starters), that means two or three more opportunities to connect with that colleague when they see your tweets in their list of “mentions.”
  • Trackback – If you and the other blogger are both set up to enable trackbacks, you can automatically notify the person and even have YOUR blog post displayed in a special section on their blog! First look on their post for a trackback link (example). Then paste that link into the box in your blog post editor (here are screen shots from Typepad and WordPress).
  • Sit back – If the other blogger is monitoring their online mentions, they’ll see you. Especially if you type out their full name in your post (versus just linking from some words that describe the topic). For example:
    • Google Alerts – When someone has an alert set up for their name, your post will show up in their report. This even works for tweets, though I’ve noticed it can take a couple of weeks for tweets to show up in my report.
    • Mention
    • Others? – I know there are many other ways to track who is writing about you and your blog. Please leave me a comment about which one you use and what you like about it.

Everyone wins when you link to high-quality content from your blog. Take the win even further by creating or deepening a relationship with the other expert.

Five Writing Resolutions that are Worth Keeping

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Want to write more and better blog posts this year? Then

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  1. I will plan out my writing time and topics.
  2. I will write masterfully, always pausing to step back and ask, “How can I make this even better?”
  3. I will read my writing out loud before I send or publish.
  4. I will publish more frequently than I’m publishing now, by first getting more consistent, and then gradually increasing.
  5. I will share my writing with as many people as possible, in as many places as possible, while always aiming to treat each reader as if they were the only one.

My newest book will help you with all these resolutions, with five sections devoted to how to:

  1. Plan Mindfully
  2. Write Artfully
  3. Edit Skillfully
  4. Publish Consistently
  5. Share Widely

Write Your Way to More Clients Online: How to craft captivating content for newsletters, blogs and social media is available from Amazon.com and Coaching Toys.

NEW: Write Your Way to More Clients Online is now also available for your eReader.

Writing your online bio: Who are you and why should they care?

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When it's time to write your online bio, you may be relieved to think, "Finally, it's all about me!" But is it?

Up until now, I've been encouraging you to put yourself in your reader's shoes and remember that they are online looking for solutions and information. In order to make that crucial connection and build a long-term trusting relationship, you need to give them what they want.

There will be plenty of time down the line to share the wisdom YOU think they should know.

That goes for your articles, blog posts and other online content, but what about your bio? Your bio may seem like the perfect place to let loose and say whatever you feel like saying. But before you do, consider the following:

  • Your bio is where you establish credibility: In fact, 3 out of 10 of Stanford's Top 10 Guidelines for Web Credibility point to how well a site identifies and describes the person or people behind the scenes. Does your About page make the grade?
  • Your bio is where you spark a connection: People use your bio to decide whether or not to follow you, visit your website, subscribe to your newsletter, hire you or refer you. In Twitter, we have only 160 characters to make an impression!
  • Your bio is where you express personality: There are countless other professionals who do exactly what you do. Some have exactly as much training and experience as you do, and comporable client success stories. It's your hobbies, passions and personality that will set you apart to your ideal client and help make a match.

Writing prompt: When it comes to writing an online bio, it's still all about your reader. Choose the words that will help people get to know, like and trust you. Help your ideal client hone in on your unique qualities and capabilities that make you the perfect fit.

We'll be discussing this topic on the next Content Mastery Action Day. This full-day event is designed to help you jumpstart your content writing goals for the month. There is built-in accountability, a Q&A call and the opportunity for live editing assistance to make your article the best it can be.

While the full day is only available to Action Club members, anyone may attend the presentation call in the morning.

What: Writing an Online Bio – Who Are You and Why Should They Care?
When: Thursday, December 9th, 2010, 9:30-10:00 a.m. EASTERN (in, out and on with your day)
Where: Webinar

This presentation will cover:

  • Why you'll need five versions of your online bio
  • Which questions to ask yourself when you are writing each version
  • What to leave in and what to leave out – including how to deal with having outdated or unrelated experience or no formal credentials
  • BONUS: A worksheet for preparing your own online bio (subscribers only)