Category Archives: communication

Lost and Found: How to Be Found

author, communication, marketing
                             www.twitter.com

“If you build a better mousetrap, the world will beat a path to your door.” Or so the expression goes. Usually, it doesn’t work that way.

For example, how about if the world doesn’t know that you have a better mousetrap? What if they aren’t sure where you live – or how best to reach you?

“Surely that doesn’t happen in this day and age of the information explosion,” you say. Well, it could. And don’t call me Shirley.

Even though telephone books have pretty much gone the way of the operator, the fact is there is so much information out there, that we can’t keep track of it all. Have you ever changed your email address? What if someone sent a message to an old address of yours and you never received it? Likewise, have you ever changed jobs? Most of us have changed both – jobs and email addresses.

Unless you have a solid brand like Cheers (“where everyone knows your name” – and, for that matter, what you’re all about) or knows how best to reach you, some of your prospects could be falling through the cracks. Can you afford that?

Maybe you can. Perhaps you don’t want every lead that has an interest in what you provide. Maybe you have all the business you need at this time. Well, if that’s the case, more power to you.

But, Public Relations and Marketing are HUGE in this day and age, especially in the very competitive publishing market. If you want a brand that is congruent with who you are – which, essentially is (or should be) a purveyor of information that can be TRUSTED, it’s probably best if you can be reached successfully – the first time. That gets the communication off to a good start.

Stir in-between to uk cialis sales avoid charring of herbs. Honesty is the first viagra genérico 25mg requirement for a fulfilling relationship. This type of tadalafil india cialis still is not so straightforward. How should be taken The maximum recommended dose of 100 cialis on line mg or decreased to 25 mg. Here are a few things to keep in mind as a book author – or mousetrap builder:

  1. Keep the email address on your Linkedin profile updated. Some people export all of their Linkedin contacts into a CSV (Excel spreadsheet) file. If your address isn’t up to date, you may not receive their correspondence. This isn’t always bad, as many people do the export for marketing purposes. But if they are genuinely interested in you, you have missed an opportunity to connect with that person (if they email you separately from Linkedin).
  1. Consolidate your Twitter accounts (and optimize your Twitter profile). First of all, do you even use Twitter? You should at least be on it, even if you aren’t active. There are those who believe it shortens your attention span reading 140 character blurts, day in and day out. I get that and there is some truth to it. But did you know that nearly one-third of all Twitter users are journalists and media? Furthermore, members of the media tweet the most.
  1. Have a website and keep it up to date. Be aware that Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Pay-Per-Click (PPC) and Social Media all factor into the amount of traffic that visits your site. Having a blog with recent posts helps your ranking with Google.

If you can control the message, and therefore your brand, the flow of prospects to your products and services will increase. As a content provider, this should certainly be in your wheelhouse. Finally, make sure the web content (as well as your Twitter profile) uses keywords and images that align symmetrically with your brand.

In this day and age of fake news, you want every advantage you can get.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Frank Felsburg is a ghostwriter of books, blog posts, white papers and web content. Recent projects include a stint for Forbes magazine on angel investing, as well as articles on commercial real estate and medical technology.

What’s Wrong With a Few Typos?

communication, editing, publishing
Blood Type is Probably “Type O”

I’ll admit it. One of my pet peeves is misspelled words. Well, not just the words themselves. It just seems like when content contains typos – the person who created it didn’t bother to take the time to read it themselves. I find myself asking, “If they didn’t take the time to read what they wrote, why should I?”

Typos have been known to cause a great deal of embarrassment. Many years ago, I saw a headline in a major metropolitan city newspaper (one that has won 20 Pulitzer Prizes) that was trying to convey a story about how the famous Chinese revolutionary and statesman, Deng Xiaoping, came out of seclusion. The headline read “Deng Returns to Pubic View.”

Guy Kawasaki, in his book, APE: How to Publish a Book, tells the story of how Penguin Australia published a book entitled The Pasta Bible. In it, a recipe for tagliatelle with sardines and prosciutto called for “salt and freshly ground black people.” The company had to destroy 7,000 copies – although it became somewhat of a collector’s item because of the gaffe.

How embarrassing! And costly!

Microsoft to the Rescue?

Many think “Oh, there will be a squiggly red line under all words that are misspelled while I’m writing, so I’ll be fine.” Not true!

Some of you may be familiar with the Spell Check Poem below.

Candidate for a Pullet Surprise
(by Mark Eckman and Jerrold H. Zar)

I have a spelling checker,
It came with my PC.
It plane lee marks four my revue
Miss steaks aye can knot sea.

Eye ran this poem threw it,
Your sure reel glad two no.
Its vary polished in it’s weigh.
My checker tolled me sew.

A checker is a bless sing,
It freeze yew lodes of thyme.
It helps me right awl stiles two reed,
And aides me when eye rime.

Each frays come posed up on my screen
Eye trussed too bee a joule.
The checker pours o’er every word
To cheque sum spelling rule.

Bee fore a veiling checker’s
Hour spelling mite decline,
And if we’re lacks oar have a laps,
We wood bee maid too wine.

Apart from the dosage pattern make sure that you do not have get viagra in canada any health issues from which you are taking medicines to treat any of above problem, then it may side effect your body in which impotence is included. Images and formatting: Why do my emails look broken? Broken email campaigns are an increasing concern among email marketers, especially since several companies and web-based email providers now block graphics as a measure to combat spam. free samples cialis Other factors leading to tadalafil online cheap erectile dysfunction are available only after providing a prescription. Key ingredients are Nirgundi, Dalchini, Kapur, Sona Patha, Tulsi, Jawadi Kasturi, Samudra Phal, Javitri, canada in levitra Ashwagandha, Bulelylu oil and Jaiphal. Butt now bee cause my spelling
Is checked with such grate flare,
Their are know fault’s with in my cite,
Of nun eye am a wear.

Now spelling does knot phase me,
It does knot bring a tier.
My pay purrs awl due glad den
With wrapped word’s fare as hear.

To rite with care is quite a feet
Of witch won should bee proud,
And wee mussed dew the best wee can,
Sew flaw’s are knot aloud.

Sow ewe can sea why aye dew prays
Such soft wear four pea seas,
And why eye brake in two averse
Buy righting want too pleas.

It turns out that all of the words in this poem are spelled correctly. However, 123 of the poem’s 225 words are faulty. I think it makes a good case for not relying on a spell checker.

Watch Out for the Obvious Ones

Perhaps the word I see misspelled most often is the word “led,” which is often spelled “lead.” Ironically, I noticed, many who misspell the word think of themselves as leaders.

Here’s a link to what “Dr. Language” calls the 100 most misspelled words.

Copyediting vs. Content Editing: What is the Difference?

The two main things a manuscript – as well as a simple blog post – needs are: 1) content editing and 2) copyediting. Many people don’t understand the difference.

Content Editing is basically making sure what is in the manuscript is indeed in there and what isn’t in it (but should be), is. The content editor makes it more appealing by suggesting needed changes not only to the content, but also to the organization, structure and style.

Copyediting, on the other hand, is, in many ways, proofreading. The copyeditor improves the spelling, grammar, usage, style, and factual accuracy of the manuscript.

Don’t skimp on either of these. The consequences can be cringe-worthy, much like this one, which appeared in the New Orleans Times-Picayune in 2011.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Frank Felsburg is a ghostwriter, publisher and marketer of content. He can be reached at frank@spokenandwrittenwords.com , 484.278.4674, or @fjfelsburg

 

 

Turn Off The TV and THINK!

communication, publishing, Useful Tips

life-without-excuses-dot-files-dot-wordpress-dot-com

If you read good books, out of that will come good writing – and good thinking. The ancient orator Quintilian said an impressive or persuasive speaker is “a good person who speaks well.”

Last week, a friend of mine wrote on Facebook, “In the wake of this election cycle, consider the state of our public discourse. We seem only to be able to digest bombastic platitudes of no more than 140 characters. I believe the result of this election and the choices faced by voters, not to mention the general trend of our political environment, owe themselves in part to a weakness of our national conscience. This is why I educate my children using a classical curriculum. My hope is that they learn to think well, ask good questions, and recognize truth, goodness, and beauty. Encourage the reading of ‘boring’ books, for much wisdom lies there.”

He’s right! I would add that there is something to be said about boredom. In many cases, it simply doesn’t exist anymore, what with all the devices we have. There are so many “distractions” these days that peoples’ span of attention has diminished. And it is getting shorter each and every day. Look at the length of articles in Time Magazine and compare them with years ago. They are much shorter these days.

As a result of less (and shallower) reading today, there is also less critical thinking.

Former President Richard Nixon, in his book In The Arena, which I highly recommend (regardless of what you think – or thought – of him as a president), said “It became racist to teach Shakespeare to Hispanic children, racist to teach traditional English to inner-city black children, racist not to teach white children Latin American literature or not to teach non-English speaking children in their own language.”

He went on to say “Each student should leave twelfth grade reading English at a twelfth-grade level or better. He should have read great English writers such as Shakespeare, Dickens, the Brontës, and, in translation, great Russian writers such as Tolstoy, Spanish writers such as Cervantes, Latin American writers such as Borges. Black students should know something about Hobbes, Locke, and Rousseau, and white students should know about Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr.”

Wow! That sounds pretty ambitious! But why not? We send kids to school to learn to think. Often all they learn are what the latest fashions are and that they don’t particularly like school.

This body pack may cause dry skin. buy sildenafil viagra go to site This herbal supplement is developed under the supervision of highly trained and well-educated healthcare professionals using an advanced herbal formula to treat low sperm count and low sperm motility. 2.Female reproductive system: Saffron helps to ease the menstrual flow and acts as antispasmodic. mastercard cialis We have years of experience in moving our cialis price online happy customers all over the U.S. Herbal remedies viagra ordination are reckoned as safe and effective by FDA, and can be taken with or without foodstuff and if taking with meal one should make sure that he should not consume food rich in Vitamin C or iron supplements. We should educate them. Books are amazing. President Harry S. Truman read every book in his library while growing up. He didn’t go to Harvard or Yale or some other Ivy League school. Yet he read Plutarch’s Lives and Shakespeare’s Hamlet many times over. And he learned a lot from those books.

Why read fake news? There is plenty of good solid reading material in your local library in the form of books. Dust off one of these classics and dig in. Many of them are as relevant today as they were when they were written.

You could argue that Nixon, Truman or any of the 44 presidents we have had so far were great or awful. But. if that is your opinion, at least you would have some basis to defend your point, other than what television tells us. Turn off the TV and read! And, while you’re at it, you may as well read good books!

Do you agree?

What do you think?

 

 

 

Fifty-fifty: $50 Tablet from Amazon & 50% More Pixels from Apple

communication, dress, education, ,

Teleread.com

There were a few recent educational technology announcements worth noting.

Amazon

Amazon, it is rumored, is introducing a 6” Fire tablet by the end of the year. It will cost $50, which is half the price of the Fire HD 6. Expect lots of advertisements. Facebook is now loaded with ads and so, likewise, will this tablet from Amazon.

Bezos thinks they’ll reach a new consumer segment with this launch. We’ll see.

The device would lose margins on the sale of it, but the game plan is to make up for it with Amazon Prime memberships.

Are they going head-to-head with Apple? That appears to be the case. Amazon, I think, is hoping to throw a wrench in Apple’s launch of their iPad Pro and their new iPhone, announced yesterday.

I’m sure Amazon would love it if people picked up e-book readers or phablets that will facilitate their content.

Some people think you’d be better off buying a used HD 6 on eBay for the $50 because of the limited number of features, which will include mono sound, rather than stereo.

Amazon didn’t do so well with their smartphone. I read one report that said they have $83 million of them in unsold inventory and another report that said they’re sold out and are discontinuing them completely.  Either way, Amazon has struggled since the proliferation of Android tablets. While Amazon recently held 33 percent market share in tablets, they now own 2.3% as of the end of last year.

Oh, and Amazon will also be getting into delivering hot food. It sounds like they’re trying to be a new version of Publisher’s Lunch.

Apple

Dark chocolate consists of amino acid L-arginine that icks.org cialis usa online improves semen load naturally. This is why levitra online icks.org Yoruba and African based religions stress growth and development. Such medications are mostly given for heart check out for info now order generic levitra or BP problems can be the culprit for reducing lubrication and libido in general. Sildenafil citrate is cialis sales uk an effective ingredient of Kamagra is Sildenafil citrate. Apple seems to be a much more interesting company these days. As stated earlier, they announced that they’re updating the Apple watch, coming out with a new version of Apple TV and upgrading the iPad and the iPhone.

The bottom line is they’re jockeying for the enterprise space. The iPad will be much more of a creative device with the introduction of the iPad Pro. Apple already has the largest and most loyal customer base out there as they are masters of consumer products. Now, with deals with IBM & Cisco, they’re gunning for the business market – and the living room (with Apple TV).

First, the iPad Pro. It will have a 12.9” screen and will start at $799 and go up to slightly more than $1,000. It will have a woven fabric keyboard (optional) and a (pencil) stylus, will come in silver, gold and space gray and will be available in November. Pre-orders can be placed on September 12.

In addition to the new iPad Pro, they’ll have an iPad Mini 2, which will sell for $269 and a Mini 4, which will go for $399.

The most highly anticipated announcement to come out of San Francisco yesterday was the introduction of the new Apple TV. It will have voice activation (Siri) so you’ll be able to say things like “Show me animated movies, and just the new ones” and “I’m tired of the Kardashians, put on Merecat Manor.” The future of TV, we’ve learned from this announcement, is in apps and the apps are starting to look like channels.

You can use your phone and your tablet as a remote on Apple TV. You will also be able to shop from your TV set. This opens up gaming, shopping and music and could help brands like Airbnb, Zillow and Spotify become even more mainstream.

Finally, the big questions were whether the new iPhones would be called the 6s and the 6s Plus (they will) and will they have forced touch (yes, but they’ll call it 3D touch). The phones will be available in rose, gold and aluminum. They will have new, stronger glass and a new camera with 12 megapixels (upgraded from 8) and faster chips (supposedly 78%-90% faster).

Some people believe the Apple watch, which works with iPhones 5 & 6, will be the key gift this holiday season. I can envision millennials, who seemed to find them redundant as phones could tell them what time it was, changing their attitudes as they become fashionable. There’s no doubt that Apple sees them as a huge market.

With music, Apple broke up the album. Now they’re breaking up the cable TV model. And to “top” if off, they’re bringing back pencils and watches!

 

 

 

Why Helping Others Drives Our Success

communication, Professional Development, Useful Tips

Are you a giver or a taker? Wharton professor Adam Grant, who wrote a New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestselling book called Give and Take: A Revolutionary Approach to Success, says there are basically three kinds of people: givers, takers and matchers. While it seems like takers always wind up at the top, Grant says it’s quite the contrary. Givers, he says, come out ahead, provided that they take care of themselves.

give-take1

Takers believe in a zero sum world where you have to win at all costs. Givers, on the other hand, go the extra mile to do favors for people without expecting anything in return. Matchers believe in a just, quid pro quo world.

There are two kinds of givers: Selfless givers and Otherish givers. Selfless givers give without regard for their own welfare and therefore wind up at the bottom. They deplete all their resources and, as a result, can’t take care of themselves. They don’t have the ability to keep giving. They don’t know how to manage their lives effectively.

Otherish givers, on the other hand, wind up at the top. They know how to negotiate the giving boundaries, so they can continue to give.

Givers need to block out time for themselves. As long as givers have not depleted their own resources taking care of others, they’ll do well for themselves and society.

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Unfortunately, Grant says, the negative impact of a taker is double or triple that of a giver in a culture.

This week I attended a workshop by Patience Lehrman. Patience is a recipient of the Presidential Citizen’s Medal, the second highest civilian award in the United States. She was talking about transforming your life through an attitude of service.

Patience had us do an exercise where we were to come up with two things we wanted help with that somebody in the room could help them with. The two questions I got were as follows: 1) I’d like to know what Jamaican food trucks at Temple (University) are good, and 2) I want to learn how to create and market an interactive e-book with a cognitive tutor.

Well, I asked one of the videographers at their TED Talks Live! program at the Pyramid Club in Philadelphia if he knew the answer to question #1. He did. For those of you in Philly and attend (or live near) Temple he told me there is a good one on Montgomery right next to a Middle Eastern truck.

As for the second one, I didn’t get a chance to ask the person who penned the question what she meant by “with a cognitive tutor” but I thought I’d put the first part of the question out there to see how many givers there are.  How do YOU create and market an interactive e-book? Thanks in advance for answering.

5 Body Language Tips to Keep in Mind

body language, communication, dress, folded arms, movement, ,

How important is body language when presenting? Well, unless you’re using a nonvisual mode of communicating, such as e-mail or the telephone, it’s extremely important.

Body Language

For example, body language experts can tell how well couples get along by watching them from across a crowded, noisy restaurant. In the Nixon-Kennedy debate, those who listened on the radio thought Nixon won. But those who watched it on television felt Kennedy won. Kennedy was fit and tan and wore makeup while Nixon refused makeup and shifted his eyes back and forth.

Attorneys often read the body language of the jury to see how well they’re presenting their case and which jurors among them need further convincing. Likewise, juries (consciously or subconsciously) consider the body language of the attorneys as they present their case. The jury may also watch the defendant for signs of innocence or guilt.

With so much riding on the impressions people receive visually, let’s look at what body language includes:

  1. Eye Contact: The eyes are said to be the mirror of the soul. I recommend smiling with your eyes. Have Irish eyes. I find I’m skeptical of people who blink or flutter their eyes when speaking. I question their honesty.
  2. Facial Expressions: I used to be told I didn’t smile enough when speaking to a group. I didn’t realize the truth of that statement until I saw myself on video. Smiling helps you connect with your audience. Besides, everybody smiles in the same language. I even recommend smiling over the phone. It comes across.
  3. Arms: As a general rule, talking without using gestures can make it harder for your audience to comprehend what you’re saying, especially if you’re discussing something complicated. The most effective gestures are spontaneous ones. And yes, I also recommend using your hands when you’re communicating over the phone, as the movement can help your words come out more naturally.
  4. Movement and posture: Before your talk, visualize yourself moving smoothly and swiftly. Believe it or not, footwork is important. Interestingly, footwork is even important in a relatively stationary sport like golf. Likewise, presenters should be light on their feet, as opposed to being frozen in one place. You should move purposefully, too, because it gives you more authority.
  5. Dress: While clothes aren’t really body language, they’re part of the visual component of presenting. I’ve heard a number of suggestions regarding attire, not the least of which is “Always dress as well as or better than the best dressed person in the audience.” My all-time favorite thought on what to wear while presenting is “Dress as if you have somewhere more important to go.”

Now, I’d like to dispel one of the biggest body language myths. Just because someone crosses their arms, doesn’t mean they’re unreceptive to your message. They may be cold or even just more comfortable folding their arms. Therefore, you shouldn’t read too much into it.
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Also, keep in mind that not everyone is demonstrative. Some people communicate with their voice, their confidence, their content, and their sense of humor more effectively than someone who is very physical. Body language isn’t everything in presenting. Yes, it’s a huge part (some say over 50% of your message is conveyed visually), but it’s just one part.

For an excellent book on presenting, which addresses body language effectively, check out Bert Decker’s You’ve Gotta Be Believed to Be Heard.

 

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