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October, 2012 Blog: In lieu of producing another blog posting this month, I have written a  detailed, highly readable White Paper on how to use one particular network of Social Media to promote your association or services. Adhering to true White Paper format, I’ve named it : “Special Report: 10 Tips for Using Social Media Effectively in Your Association.”

This White Paper is available complimentary to you and your association.  All you need to do is ask! Send me an email message through my “Contact” page here (on this website. Please use the “Contact” form and not the “Reply” form at the bottom of the blog page.) Mention that you’d like to receive a copy of the White Paper on Social Media and I’ll send you a copy, directly.

October is also the month in which the American Writers and Artists’ Inc. (AWAI) holds its annual (North American-wide) Copywriting conference. I’ll be there, meeting Steve Slaunwhite, Nick Usborne and others–the most accomplished Copywriters in the business! More on that in future postings.

In the past couple of years, businesses and professional associations have realized that LinkedIn is the most useful Social Media network for most, if not all, B2B professionals. LinkedIn (hereafter “LI”), unlike Facebook and Twitter, is a professional networking website where personal information is not shared. Even more relevantly, LI does not feature (or allow) direct self-promotion or marketing: the “hard sell” is taboo on this network, where no one is allowed to sound like an advertisement (and those rules are enforced by system administrators). LI works indirectly by eliciting participants’ expertise and knowledge indirectly (e.g. in response to LI Questions and in discussions or exchanges in its many groups), by privileging content above sales. LI’s content-rich nature mirrors the nature of B2B Associations themselves (where “content is king”) and therefore makes the network so useful to us. Interviews of association leaders, YouTube videos on the latest techniques of SEO for B2B content pages and Twitter Updates and blogs on your association website can all be shared (indirectly) through discussions in LI “groups,” or in comments and responses to LI “Questions.” Continue reading “5 Tips on Using LinkedIn “Company Pages” Effectively in Your Association”

I have long been interested in the Psychology of Marketing and was interested to read the treatment of that topic in last fall’s release, Arlene Dickinson’s Persuasion: A New Approach to Changing Minds (Toronto: HarperCollins, 2011). Canadian readers may recognize Dickinson as the sole female “dragon” of  CBC’s popular reality show, “Dragon’s Den,” a show in which new cash-strapped entrepreneurs pitch their ideas to a panel of veteran (and wealthy) business developers, who may offer them financial backing and mentorship.

In a fusion of business book, biography and self-help guide, Dickinson first tells her “rags-to-riches” story. She was a broke divorcée at age 31, with only a high school education, no experience and four children to care for. In just one year, she became a partner of Calgary’s start-up “Venture,” which soon became one of the country’s most successful, independently-owned, marketing firms. And, 10 years later, she was the highly successful CEO of the company.

Continue reading “Highlights from Reading Arlene Dickinson’s _Persuasion: A New Approach to Changing Minds_ (HarperCollins:2011)”

Want to Write a Better Case Study? (with thanks to Steve Slaunwhite and Ed Gandia, who have written about this format for AWAI):

Case studies are a common format of B2B Copywriting that chronicle the creation and functioning of a successful product or process in a detailed “success story.” Recently I completed a case study on a high-tech food development technology, which gave me cause to reflect on how to write better case studies! Here are 5 major tips on how to improve the case studies that you may be writing . . . . . Continue reading “5 Ways to Improve your Case Study Writing”

A “White Paper” is a long article that explains a new and/or better solution to a problem. Although White Papers vary somewhat in length, the average length is usually about 2000 words (or 8 pages, including a front cover and the back page that details the company whose technology or product is being profiled).

Other names by which “White Papers” are known are the “Special Report,” “Creative Brief,” “Guide to X.” Continue reading “7 Tips to Write a Better White Paper*”