A holiday weekend beckons, so it’s time to share some great and not-so-great links to go with that maple syrup margarita you’re working on for Canada Day.
But First, A Translation!
Stop me if you’ve heard this:
Client: What does lorem ipsum dolor mean?
You: Nothing. It’s just dummy text to show you how the piece will look.
Client: But what does it mean? Lorem ipsum sounds a bit rude.
You:(shocked) Of course not. It’s just greeked text. It’s for position..
Client: I know Latin when I see it, and that’s Latin.
My friend is probably not the first person to stuff lorem ipsum into that most useless of Google applications, but he’s the only one who has shared it with me. Here come the Vikings
Spelling Fukcing Matters
Hubspot doesn’t usually indulge in the shaming of the careless, but they really should — they’re quite good at it. They’ve rounded up a few lovely and very public typos to remind us all that our brands kind of depend on us not to be careless or stupid.
How Can We Miss Him if He Won’t Go Away?
The same people who bring us great stuff like the post above, can’t resist the urge to dip that ladle into the Steve Jobs well one more time. Folks, none of this new. Much of it is, arguably, not Steve’s work, and it’s just kind of lazy pandering to a dead guy.
Couldn’t You At Least Take A Photo of a Soufflé?
Just so you know: if you’re going to go out and promise me a cookbook about how to measure social media ROI, you really ought to make an effort to work the metaphor a little harder. That aside, this white paper tackles that little knot in your upper back that has to do with justifying your social spend to a guy who thinks Twitter is a budget airline. Personally, I chose not to defend social with ROI; it’s just too difficult for most B2B marketers. But if you’re game to try or you need some more ammunition for the BS canon you’ve been using so far, this is worth a read.
Content Marketing with Pictures for B2B?
Thank you everyone for yelling at me for the past five years about the importance of content. Thank you, especially, to the consultants and agencies who want me to be more visual, and to help me, they send Dairy Queen commercials for inspiration. Got it. But surely there is visual life beyond an infographic? Well, Lords & Ladies of the Spin Cycle, here’s a pretty good post about B2B visual marketing that doesn’t include Steve Jobs.
How Can 140 Characters Possibly Take So Long?
I have no idea why it takes so much time to do basic social media, and I’m a B2B marketer, where that kind of thing isn’t exactly table stakes. Our friends at Nabisco and Honda, doubtless, have airless rooms full of unpaid 24-year-old interns cranking out the social, but what do you do when you don’t have professional Facebookers? This nifty infographic from Ragan gives you some ideas.
Stop Handing Pitchforks to Your Villagers
This excellent piece in Strategy+Business will help you get over your fear of imposing fees and penalties on your customers. Mostly it reminds you of what you already know, which is that most customers want to do the right thing, and the smarter ones understand that in exchange for decent products and services, you can impose a tax on the stupid. If you have terrible customer service and inflexible penalty rules then you’re in trouble, but this article does offer good guidance on when to bend a little and waive the fees or dish the discounts. Note to sales: just because you were allowed to waive a late fee last Tuesday, does not now make all Tuesdays Seniors Day. Just so you know, this post is behind a registration wall, but the registration is free and S+B is a pretty good resource.
Where Do I Enroll for the Toner-Changing Course?
You can become certified in taxidermy, cake decorating and Morris dancing. Now, apparently, you can be certified to write a value proposition. Are we really so bad at value propositions that we have to seek certification?. The link is above Please don’t click it.
And a Bad-Ass Panda
These videos are B2C advertising. They’re from Egypt. They involve a bully panda and some cheese. I spend a lot of time thinking about how I would adapt this for ERP software or freight forwarding.
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Six tips for proofreading your work
BizMarketer is Elizabeth Williams
You can reach me at escwilliams@gmail.com
or follow me on Twitter @bizmkter
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