MediaVision Blog » Catherine

Copywriters: remember your readers

Catherine — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 13:58:07 +0000

Though SEO is a vital ingredient in the recipe for successful web copy, quality is also very important online. Whether it’s for your blog, website, e-mail newsletter or Facebook page, the words that communicate information about your company are significant in shaping your brand image and how customers/users/clients relate to you.

The most important thing to know about producing written web content is that the manner and context in which copy is consumed online is not the same as reading words on paper. If you consider the reasons people use the internet you’ll see why applying certain principles to the way you write web copy will get a more positive response from users.

Reading off a screen is 25% percent slower than reading off paper and Jakob Nielsen recommends that anything written for the web should be 50% shorter than it would be in print. This is to do with various factors such as the shorter attention span of online readers and the glare of computer screens.

When people read online, particularly copy on business websites they are usually looking for specific information, which means that instead of reading every single word they will skim over a page. Your writing should therefore be simple and navigable – Nielsen uses the term ‘scannability’.

Information should be grouped into small, manageable chunks with catchy – but clear and explanatory – headlines and subheads between every few paragraphs. Also find ways to highlight or emphasise important keywords and phrases within your copy so that readers can spot them easily and get the gist of a paragraph.

Also keep your writing style clear and informative, but relaxed and accessible at the same time. Present your most important information upfront, telling users either what they want to know, or pointing them in the right direction. Don’t be afraid to repeat words in your copy as long as they are relevant. It will make your writing clearer and can help improve your rankings in search engines.

Also where it’s appropriate you can personalise your writing – use conversational tones and phrases which convey the personality behind the words. Your users will respond better to an approachable human voice, than to formal corporate style copy. Be wary of trying too hard to be light-hearted or funny as this can come across and disingenuous and annoying.

While it is important to optimise copy for search, web writers must also pay attention to issues of style and presentation so that copy impresses both search engines and users.

Copywriters: remember your readers

Brand butlers: the future of online business

Catherine — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 14:58:35 +0000

We know that different mediums require different business models, but because digital platforms – online and mobile – change and progress faster than their predecessors, it takes some time to identify trends and pinpoint exactly how to use current technology to your business’s advantage. In its latest brief, Trendwatching.com identifies and comprehensively discusses the development of online business practice over the past couple of years.

The brief outlines a concept called ‘brand butlers’ and I think they’ve hit the nail on the head. In the colonial days of yesteryear butlers were employed primarily to assist people in their daily lives, to take care of the tedious administrative part of an experience so their masters could indulge in the pleasurable part. They provided a service which enhanced the lifestyle of those who could afford to pay for it.

This is exactly how businesses need to approach their online strategies. Web 2.0 has turned the internet into a user-centric environment where individuals spend time on social networks expressing parts of their life experience, which often includes their wants and needs, and their satisfaction or frustration with certain products, services and systems.

Essentially there has been a significant power shift. Previously advertisers would create a branded image aimed to elicit desire for a certain lifestyle in their target market. But online consumers are less naïve and impressionable. If they desire a particular lifestyle it is that of their contacts on Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn. Confident in their identities they know what they want, which means that as a business you need to offer them a service, a way to supplement or enhance their existing lifestyle, rather than convince them to buy into a new one.

From Trendwatching.com’s post: “In uncertain times, there’s also a consumer longing for institutions that truly ‘care’, which is more about showing empathy and providing customers with a status fix than being purely practical. This too requires brands to master more service-oriented personae.”

Like the Trendwatching brief describes, time, convenience, control and independence are the new currencies as the consumer continuously seeks ways to streamline and better their personal experiences. They are looking to interact with brands on and individual level in a conversational manner, which will add value to their lives – not to be confused with gimmicky entertainment marketing or traditional customer service.

The brief is very detailed and provides numerous examples of good quality ‘brand bultering’: “Domino’s Pizza Tracker allows US customers to follow the progress of their pizza order from preparation through to delivery via a web interface…Beck’s Gig Finder app helps users to find local music gigs. The app’s map and GPS interface allow users to see where he or she is in relation to the gigs”.

The full post is well worth a read and will give you ideas on how best to harness the online medium for your business. An innovative and value-added approach to branding strategy coupled with good SEO is a winning recipe for online business.

Brand butlers: the future of online business

Aim high: 80% of users stay above the fold

Catherine — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 08:06:30 +0000

Leading web usability consultant Jakob Nielsen has found that Internet users spend a massive 80% of their time engaging with the information that appears above the page fold. Information ‘above the fold’ is that which is immediately visible on a page before a user has scrolled down.

Nielsen observed that while users do scroll down and glance over the content that occurs lower down, they allocate the majority of their attention to the information they are immediately confronted with.

This confirms what we already know about typical user behaviour. People don’t like having to work for information on the Internet – they expect that what they are looking for will stare them right in the face within the first few seconds of arriving on a page, and will move swiftly along if it doesn’t.

A corollary of this is that people prioritise information, albeit subconsciously, according to its position on a page. This means that users assume that content at the top of a page is more important than that at the bottom, and will distribute their attention accordingly.

Scroll down for more

Although some industry players have disputed Nielsen’s high 80% figure, most agree that the findings have interesting implications for design and SEO, and serve to reaffirm key page building principles.

Information should always be presented in easily digestible chunks as users are easily overwhelmed. Key page elements such as internal search boxes, navigational menus or links and calls to action must all be incorporated above the fold. If people are unable to locate the required information they are likely to abandon a page quickly, driving up its bounce rate. Remember also that search engines view pages like users do. This means that a search engine will consider your page more relevant if important links and search phrases appear higher up.

However, Nielsen points out that this research should not spell the death of scrolling. A reasonable number of scrollable pages are preferable to many separate pages, particularly for long written articles, as people would rather scroll than have to click away to a new page.

If you expect a user to scroll down to find relevant information, you should specifically instruct them as such, using eye-catching ‘scroll down for more’ or ‘continues below’ icons.

Criticised though it may be, Nielsen’s research confirms the complex nature of SEO, and how all elements of a website, from copy, to design, to linking, must be integrated into a cohesive strategy for success.

Aim high: 80% of users stay above the fold

Multimedia makes for better online business

Catherine — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 13:25:54 +0000

Websites which integrate multimedia content into their presentation tend to have a higher conversion rate than those that do not. Multimedia such as video, podcasts, or interactive animation, graphics and other features add different dynamics to a website. Visitors are able to engage with more content in different ways, keeping them interested in your site for longer.

Experts have found that a video sales pitch or explanation of a product is much more effective than wordy written content. Multimedia is more time consuming and expensive to produce than traditional copy, and it is because of this that not many companies make the extra effort to include it. This means that those businesses that do dabble in multimedia are a minority with a significant competitive advantage.

Like all content on your business website, multimedia needs to be optimised for SEO. Though you should consult your SEO specialist on how best to integrate extra dynamic content into your online marketing strategy, there are a number of fundamental steps you can take to increase hits on your multimedia and gain traffic for your site.

Before starting the production process for any multimedia develop a thorough plan about what the piece should communicate, and which medium would be most suitable for the message. Multimedia content should give the viewers something extra that copy cannot. A talking head giving a sales pitch will bore viewers, but a video demonstration of a product in use is more likely to pique their interest.

The title of your multimedia content is all-important in terms of SEO.
Titles must be short and catchy or intriguing, but should also incorporate search phrases relevant to your business. Carefully considered tags are also important as these help define the category of your content. People searching for specific content will often run a search through YouTube, Flikr or other content aggregators, and a good title and solid tags, as well as the file name of the upload, will make your material more visible.

SEO still primarily centres on text, so make sure to include a short written description with your multimedia. The text should supplement rather than repeat the content, and should also contain your key search phrases.

The primary upload destination for your content will obviously be your own website, but you should also maintain active channels for your business on distribution platforms like YouTube and Flikr to gain further exposure for your media. Multimedia content is well suited to social media networks, so be sure to use your accounts for extra promotion.

Exploring multimedia is a worthwhile endeavour for any business with a website. Spend some time thinking about how to make a new approach work for your company and start experimenting to find the best way to tap into the benefits of multimedia.

Multimedia makes for better online business

South Africa all a-Twitter

Catherine — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 14:39:32 +0000

As a copywriter at MediaVision’s South African office I often find myself contemplating the implications of being in the online industry in a third world country. Of course the beauty of the globalised internet age is that it doesn’t matter too much where in the world you are, as long as you have the right clients, and a working computer and functional internet connection, which I sometimes take for granted.

In a country where less than ten percent of the population has access to the internet it is crucial for businesses to analyse their market and its internet usage trends, if indeed they are online. Since social media and micro blogging are increasingly becoming indicators of a business’s online activity, the most recent statistics for Twitter use in South Africa provide some interesting insight into the subject.

According to Alexa Twitter is the 7th most popular website in South Africa, behind Google (.co.za and .com), Facebook, Yahoo, YouTube and Wikipedia. According to the Sysomos report of June 2009, South Africa was tenth on a list of most Twitter users by country, accounting for 0.85 percent of the total Twitter population.

If this figure is correct then at the time the report was compiled 467 500 out of a total of 4.5 million South African internet users visit Twitter in an average month (this figure is contested in different reports). This means that roughly one percent of all South Africans are on Twitter, though the figure may have increased since last year and will undoubtedly continue to grow.

Lists of the most active South African Twitter users are also revealing in terms of online behaviour in our country. While the top American Twitterers are celebrities like Ashton Kutcher, Oprah Winfrey, Britney Spears and Barack Obama, the most popular South Africans, or those with the biggest Twitterholics, are people such as Alain van Heerden, Bruce Attridge, Tina Cook and Gareth Cliff. While the USA Twittersphere is indicative of their dominant celebrity culture, our main players tend to be bloggers or social media and SEO gurus – people directly involved in the online industry.

This suggests that our online activity, at least on Twitter, is mostly generated by working professionals, rather than younger people who use the internet as a means to get closer to their celebrity idols.

For South African businesses this means that although the Twitter population here is relatively small, those who are using it are influential. It also means that while the network continues to grow there is still space for businesses to make a substantial impact and innovate, particularly in sectors which have yet to jump on the Twitter bandwagon.

South Africa all a-Twitter

Don’t forget your website!

Catherine — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 14:51:32 +0000

Years ago online activity was static and simple. People visited websites and then emailed the address at the bottom of the page for further interaction.
How we use the internet now is very different and dynamic, with online interaction increasingly transferring to social network sites.

In the era of social media businesses are constantly advised on how best to establish a presence on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn and other networks. Experts insist that in this day and age no business can afford to neglect their social media strategy because of the nearly limitless possibilities for reaching consumers and liaising with other businesses.

Of course this is correct. But be wary of losing yourself in a frenzy of company blogging and company twitter feed updating at the expense of maintaining what is still the most stable and important part of your business’s web presence – your own website. Vibrantly engaging with consumers, participating in online conversations, and convincing people to click on your links are worthless pursuits if there’s nothing exciting waiting at your website.

Social media are a means to the end of drawing potential customers to your website, essentially the headquarters of your online operations. Blog and tweet your heart out but don’t forget to keep cohesion with your website, which must stay fresh and updated. As your business evolves, so should your website, so always include new products, promotions or major company news.

Your home page needs to make an impression. Remember that it takes mere seconds for a user to decide whether to exit a site immediately or stay and look around. The general appearance, design and layout of your home page are just as important as the copy on it in communicating information about your brand.

Your home page should tell users straightforwardly what you do, subtly how well you do it, and simply direct them where to go next. After the Home page the About and Contact pages are most important so details on these should always be accurate and up to date. In terms of SEO it is also good to ensure that copy on your website is optimised for commonly searched phrases, and that content is grouped on clearly arranged and easily navigable pages.

When thinking about your business’s online presence conversation on social media networks is crucial, but don’t forget your general housekeeping duties to keep your website clean and healthy.

Don’t forget your website!

Social media (for the laggards)

Catherine — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 11:16:37 +0000

Today I read this post about Access Agency, a cool company with cool ideas; and this post which is an analysis of a recent Twitter campaign by upmarket South African retailer Woolworths.

I’m sorry if I am so two thousand and late right now but I have finally started to understand social media! I had an epiphany, the penny dropped, the switch went on. And I didn’t even know it was off in the first place! So while I am well aware that this is probably old news, I’m writing this post for anyone else who may still be in the dark.

Of course I started using MySpace, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and others as soon as they became popular. And of course I told anyone I knew who owned a business or managed a project that they needed to get involved and use the channels to promote their brand.

But then I started receiving hundreds of invitations to join or follow Facebook groups and applications, and Twitter feeds of organizations and products in which I had absolutely no interest. I ignored those and joined a few groups which appealed to me, but the administrators either spammed me with inbox messages and status updates, or allowed the groups to become neglected and boring.

You have 10 000 new requests.

My reformed understanding of social media is that it is a translation of our social behaviour – how we exist and what we do in our offline lives – onto various internet platforms. So if your business is stagnant and not doing anything original or appealing for your target market in real life, then your social media campaign will fail.

Social media is just another way for us, people, consumers, to discuss our lives and interests. So your business needs to do something exciting that will get us talking. Have a Facebook page and Twitter account, sure. But remember that these are only channels, and it’s the material you create for these that will keep them alive.

Social media is not email

We don’t want inbox messages telling us you’re running a special; you could’ve done that just as easily in the days of email. If you’re running a ‘ReTweet and Win’ competition the prize better be awesome and worth all that spam. But, if you can entertain us online, or excite us enough to become involved in a project, then we will happily populate your channels for you. It needs to be a natural conversation: don’t ask us to talk, rather produce something talk-worthy then discuss it with us. It’s called social media, so socialise with us.

This is challenging because engaging with your customers on a social level opens up the possibility to do literally anything. It is also difficult in countries like South Africa where internet access is limited to only around 10 percent of the population. We’re a very active and keen-to-engage 10 percent though, and you should reach out to us. Just ask Steri Stumpie, Perdeberg Winery, or Kulula who are all on the right track.

Social media (for the laggards)

Google you’ve changed. It’s definitely not me, it’s you.

Catherine — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 10:42:31 +0000

Google is now dealing with the backlash of its latest product. Google Buzz, a social networking service, was launched last week Tuesday, and within only four days it caused a massive outcry amongst users, with most complaints concerned about gaping flaws in the service’s privacy policy.

On Saturday 13 February Google issued a statement on the official Gmail blog, attempting to salvage the search giant’s biggest and most epic fail to date.

Buzz was automatically added onto the Gmail account of every single user. The initial configuration of the product was such that information from Gmail profiles became immediately available to a network of friends created by Google, based on contacts that users most frequently interact with. This network was then visible to a vast audience, widely revealing the personal contact lists of users, with severe repercussions.

It seems Google forgot that people don’t use Gmail only to interact with their actual friends. Secret lovers, business associates, confidential journalistic sources and anonymous commentors within the blogosphere were all blatantly exposed.

It also seems that Google has not read a news article in the past few months. If it had it would have noticed the harsh criticism suffered by Facebook (which Buzz was set to rival) because of its privacy shortcomings, and might’ve been more careful to protect its users’ information.

In the Gmail blog post, product manager Todd Jackson said that the company was working to correct certain aspects of Buzz based on user feedback.

“We quickly realized that we didn’t get everything quite right,” Jackson said. “We’re very sorry for the concern we’ve caused and have been working hard ever since to improve things based on your feedback.”

“…concern we’ve caused” – understatement much?

Google has since amended the Buzz service by no longer facilitating auto-follow of existing contacts. Instead it generates a list of suggested followers, giving users the option to accept or deny certain contacts. It also made the checkbox for the option to hide a contact list more prominently visible, following complaints that its initial location was confusing.

The whole episode has excited privacy activists as well as Google’s seasoned critics, who for years have claimed that the company’s primary aim is to collect and expose as much information as possible.

Marc Rotenberg of the Electronic Privacy Information Center in Washington told the NYTimes that the group plans to file a complaint regarding Google Buzz with the Federal Trade Commission because the service was deceptive and unfair.

Google’s behaviour over the past year has seen an uncomfortable change. There seems to be too much innovation and very little preparation or evaluation. It’s all becoming a bit too publicity stuntish and deviant from the classy and trustworthy Google I used to know.

Google you’ve changed. It’s definitely not me, it’s you.

Why you need outstanding personal branding

Catherine — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 13:14:06 +0000

Why do you need to know about online personal branding? Well, because Imogen Heap wore a Twitter dress to the Grammys last night, obviously.

Heap’s outfit demonstrated once again that the internet and social media continue to penetrate popular culture and our lifestyles at a rapid rate. While most stars opted for designer couture on the red carpet, the British singer wore a neck piece with a wireless router embedded into it which enabled a live Twitter feed, and her bag was a small television set.

Throughout the Grammys the outfit displayed pictures and videos sent in by Heap’s Twitter followers, enabling them to join their favourite artist at the awards show in a unique way. Despite being deemed a fashion fail, the ‘Twitdress’ is an interesting landmark as it hints at the possible movement of internet technology from our desks and briefcases to our actual clothing.

Heap’s Grammy get up is yet another piece of evidence indicating that our digital and real life personas are growing closer and that it may be only a matter of time before they are entirely one and the same.

And with this insight comes the realisation that online personal branding has never been more important. Who you are and how people see you on the internet has direct consequences for your relationships, both professional and personal. For this reason it is important to know how best to maintain and enhance your personal brand.

The following general tips are a starting point, but do some independent research to find out which methods best suit your particular brand.

1. Before you do anything you must establish the essence of your personal brand. Take time to think about what you want out of life and then do some research on how best to achieve it. Decide what kind of person you want and need to be, find your niche and set some goals. This process should be well thought-out, and may take some time.

2. Once you’ve discovered and developed your brand start marketing it online. Put your resume online and optimise it for social media by integrating it with your social network profiles and incorporating elements of multimedia where you can. This will make your resume both accessible and shareable.

3. Maintain a blog which you regularly update with content relevant to your personal brand. If you’re trying to establish yourself as a search marketing specialist, for example, then write about search marketing topics. If you do this well you will gain respect in your field over time. Also get recognised by posting insightful comments on other blogs in your industry.

Give it some thought, and put the thought into action so you can stay with the times in preparation for the day when we all step out of our Twitcars wearing our Twitsuits.

Why you need outstanding personal branding

Newspapers vs. Online: the saga continues

Catherine — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 15:30:32 +0000

The ongoing Murdoch versus Google story continues to unfold, providing food for thought about the future of online news and user behaviour.

The stand-off between the newspaper and online industries went up a notch last week when America’s largest metropolitan newspaper The New York Times announced that it will start charging readers for online content from 2011.

Following the subscription model of the Financial Times and Wall Street Journal, The New York Times will offer a limited number of articles for free viewing, after which users will have to register and pay for any additional content.

NYTIMES.com is the most popular online newspaper in America and New York Times Company executives are hoping that the new system will enable them to profit from the loyalty of regular users, without completely blocking the site from its millions of occasional readers.

It’s risky: a segment of the New York Times readership may well be staunchly loyal and happy to pay for quality content from their trusted brand. However there is surely another (possibly bigger) group of users who like the brand just fine, but wouldn’t hesitate to change to another publication if it saved hassle and money. And that’s not even factoring in the website’s traffic from search, which accounts for at least 10 percent of total traffic.

Then there’s also the possibility that the age of social media and information overload is spawning an undiscerning, any-link-clicking generation who happily accepts Tweets and blog posts as news, or is disinterested in news on the whole.

This group of users consumes online content by following links posted by their contacts on Twitter, Facebook and other social media, or by using a search engine. They will rarely go and check an established news site to see what might’ve happened during the day, and prefer to wait for someone else to point them to a specific story or event.

This confines the group of users who will potentially pay to more intellectual or serious thinkers and my guess is that this is an ever decreasing minority (there’s a reason journalists everywhere are being retrenched).

More and more newspapers are jumping on the paywall bandwagon because revenue gained from online advertising is simply not sufficient to sustain their operating costs, largely due to Google and friends dominating the online advertising market.

The Guardian, second most popular online newspaper in the UK, revealed that it is also considering charging for content on its digital media news website PaidContent.

It may work. We won’t know until they try. But didn’t they already try?

Newspapers vs. Online: the saga continues