MacroBlog

In this modern era of the Interwebs, every business is a publishing business. As a result, instead of being clustered exclusively at magazines and newspapers, writers are finding their way into into a variety of companies, whose owners are finding a need for writing ability that didn’t exist ten years ago.

If you run a business, you may already know people who write well and are versatile. Sure, they have talent with words– they didn’t get to be pros without getting their point across clearly in a style appropriate to the audience, all while avoiding grammatical and punctuation errors.

But what about their other skills, such as the ability to research a topic quickly and thoroughly? Suppose you find a writer who also knows his or her way around the Web and social media? Now you have someone who can affect a company’s bottom line in all sorts of ways, with powerful, polished writing that resonates with customers, staff, suppliers, business partners, and the world. Here are five points to ponder:

1. Professional writing applies not just to websites, marketing and advertising, but to business letters, conference summaries, internal documents, knowledge bases, even articles for submission to publications. Published articles in industry trade journals are a wonderful way to complement your marketing strategy, raise awareness of your brand and increase your company’s prestige in the minds of customers. All the above will have a positive effect on revenue.

2. Website content management – Are there errors, bad links, and outdated information on your company website because nobody updates it regularly? Is your site being optimized to attract search traffic, and organized to serve visitors efficiently? Is there any reason for people to read what’s on your site? Time after time, usability studies show that if you build a clean, compelling website, you’ll have a competitive advantage.

3. Search engine optimization and marketing (SEO and SEM) – Do you have anyone in charge of these areas? A writer’s skills figure heavily in these word-based disciplines. Hiring a writer to manage them could make a big difference in leads, conversions, and sales.

4. Social media marketing – Agencies can help get you started, but who inside your company is paying daily attention? Knowing what’s being said online about your business is important to protect your business reputation. You can’t fake this or hand it off to outsiders. Learn by interacting with customers, both happy and unhappy. If nobody at all is mentioning your business online, it’s the perfect time to step in and take control of your online image!

5. Effective email campaigns – Here too, an internal staff person who can write professional copy, hire graphic designers, set up and manage mailing lists, administer and track results can be more effective– and cost-effective– than an outside agency.

The list of potential uses for a writer goes on and on. How about powerfully written request for testimonial letters? Use of testimonials on websites and other marketing media can greatly increase the odds of acquiring a new customer. What about customer surveys? Even small companies can benefit from regularly polling their customers and analyzing responses.

Now that I’ve advocated the idea, where can you find such a person? You’re reading one of his blog posts right now. How’s that for a call to action?

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Update: This A/B switch episode finally ends with today’s post, third in a series that began with Sentient Life Not Found via Email at Comcast, then progressed to Found: Sentient Life at Comcast before ending up here. It  started when Eric Stark wrote in his May 23 Stark Ravings column in the Lancaster Sunday News, Preserving over-the-air HD requires the right hardware, that Comcast would furnish a free coaxial A/B switch to customers.

A/B switch (left), instructions, three coaxial cables and splitter (right)

The switch arrived yesterday and it works as advertised. It came with a splitter and three cables, plus some mounting screws and Velcro if you’re into that sort of thing (I didn’t use them).

Why you need this switch is to get back the the unscrambled HD channels for local broadcast networks that were stomped on by the mandatory “digital transport  adapter” most customers are getting.  That gizmo is necessary because they’re switching the standard-definition channels from analog to digital to free up bandwidth for more channels.

It took me 15 or 20 minutes to hook up. I keep it on “A” and use the remote Comcast supplied with the DTA, unless I want to watch a car race on Fox or ABC in high-def. Then I hit the “B” switch and use my TV’s remote. When I’m done, and want all the Comcast digital channels back, I have to remember to put the TV on channel 4 so the DTA can see it. Then I hit the A switch.

Getting pretty messy behind the TV now.

One other note. With all the additions and changes Comcast has been making to their channel lineup lately, don’t forget to go into your TV’s menu and have it re-scan them. For some reason I couldn’t get NBC HD on 8-1 until I did this.

Rhonda from Comcast Corporate called a few hours after the A/B swtich had been delivered by UPS.  I assured her I was happy, and she responded with noises of corporate contentment. I guess I could make this sound creepy, but it wasn’t.

OK Comcast, you win this round. However, my huge monthly bill and your refusal to provide à la carte channel selection are– pardon the current-events analogy– kind of like the BP oil spill. You can pour on the dispersants, but the underlying issues are still there.