2. Agenda
• Why we need this
• Voice & Tone
• Formatting Basics
• Spelling, Grammar & Punctuation
• Images
• Text of Articles
• Citation of Sources
• Wrap-up
3. Why the Style Guide is Important
• Need a Consistent Voice
• Improves customer perception of our brand
• Survey by DemandGen and Genuis.com
• Found 66% of population make key purchasing decisions
based on consistent communication between departments
• Consistency influences customers to buy
• Combine your personality with image of our company
4. Voice & Tone
• Consistent tone of voice adds to our authenticity and credibility
• Influenced by our achievements, future goals and values
• Be informative, educational, helpful, and entertaining
• Our customers will see us as interesting as well as a trusted
source for information
6. Voice & Tone
• Keep articles conversational with simple and concrete words
• Use vivid language that evokes a strong mental image or
emotional connotation
• Use an active voice
• 1st or 2nd person language
• No swearing, no profanity
• Let your personality and opinion come through
7. Formatting Basics - Font
Blog Postings use Baskerville Font Only
•36 pt. for Title
• 24 pt. for Section Headings
• 18 pt. for Text
Why Baskerville? Font that most likely influences the minds of readers
• Can use Bold, Italics, or Underlining to highlight key points
• Main body text BLACK only
• Hyperlinks should be in the default accent color of the site
8. Spelling, Grammar & Punctuation
• Grammar, punctuation and spelling matter.
• Use AP style guide
• Free Resource:
https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/735/02/
• The 2016 edition will be released June 1st
• Spelling – Use the online Merriam-Webster Dictionary.
Use the first spelling listed.
• Refer to our House Style Guide for spellings of industry specific
terms and acronyms
9. Images
• Use at least 1 image per post
• Images should be:
• Clean
• No Watermarks
• In focus
• Complement the article
• Image should match the tone of your article
11. Images
Images must be in alignment with the values of our company
• No nudity or sexually suggestive images
• No profanity
• No derogatory statements
• No badmouthing our competition
Make sure you can use it legally and are not violating
any copyright laws.
• Access to copyright free images:
• http://search.creativecommons.org/ r
https://www.flickr.com/search/advanced/
12. Images & SEO
• All image should be optimized for web viewing
• Image File Names
• Directly accessed by search engines
• Use focused, detail names for all images
• First image in post – use main words from post title
• Remove all small words (a, an, the, etc.)
• Add dashes/hyphens between words of image (not underscores)
• Use Alt Tags & Title Tags
13. Text of Articles
• English Only
• Capitalization
• Capitalize the first letter of all words in Titles and Section
Headings, except connectors (an, for, but, etc.)
• Capitalize a person’s title only when it is used directly
before their name
• Do not use contractions
• Add a blank space between paragraphs and sections
14. Text of Articles
• Numbers
• Use numbers (1, 2, 3, etc.) even with percentages (43%, 90%)
• Spell out ordinal numbers – first, second, third, etc.
• Try not to start a sentence with a number, but if you must, spell it out.
• Can start a Title or Subheading with a number, do not have to spell it
out
• Hyperlinks
• Do not use the words “Click Here” for a link
• Use the words that describe the page you want to link to
15. Citation of Sources
Use Endnote Format
• Place a small superscript number after the reference in the
body of the text
• Add the corresponding full citation reference in AP Style at the
end of your article
• Superscript numbers for footnotes should not be hyperlinked
Welcome and thank you all for coming to the Employee Training on our Corporate Style Guide.
Why we need this:
With so many active voices all contributing to our company blog it is important to have a consistent voice. It will help our content be consistent as if just one person were creating all these amazing articles.
“by providing a consistent tone of voice, the perceptions consumers get from an advertising campaign will match their day-to-day dealings with brands” (Joseph, 2012, para 3).
in a survey conducted by DemandGen and Genius.com, 66 percent of respondents indicated the “consistent and relevant communication provided by both the sales and marketing organizations” was a key influence in choosing the company they ultimately made a purchase from (Handley, 2012, p. 123).
References
Handley, Ann; Chapman, C.C. (2012-05-08). Content Rules: How to Create Killer Blogs, Podcasts, Videos, Ebooks, Webinars (and More) That Engage Customers and Ignite Your Business (New Rules Social Media Series) (p. 123). Wiley. Kindle Edition.
Joseph, S. (2012, May 16). Inconsistent tone of voice will damage brands. Marketing Week. Retrieved from http://www.marketingweek.com/2012/05/16/inconsistent-tone-of-voice-will-damage-brands/
Yes, we want your personality to come through in your individual contributions, but it still needs to match the styles that present the image of our company and that “speaks” to our audiences because your contributions are part of a larger whole. Everything we create must match the personality and image of our company. This style handbook will guide you as you work on your content.
References:
Handley, Ann; Chapman, C.C. (2012-05-08). Content Rules: How to Create Killer Blogs, Podcasts, Videos, Ebooks, Webinars (and More) That Engage Customers and Ignite Your Business (New Rules Social Media Series). Wiley. Kindle Edition
As you write your articles, keep your voice consistent with that of our organization.
Should be EASY to read. So our viewers will be able to READ your content.
According to a study, Baskerville is more likely to influence the minds of the readers (Brownlee, 2015)
References
Brownlee, J. (2015, May 18). Errol Morris: How typography shapes our perception of truth. Co.Design. Retrieved from http://www.fastcodesign.com/3046365/errol-morris-how-typography-shapes-our-perception-of-truth
Should be EASY to read. So our viewers will be able to READ your content.
The AP Style Guide provides basic guidelines for the writing style including spelling, language, punctuation, and usage.
4 Major Threats In Financial Services This Year
by Eugene Sefanov on March 10th, 2016
Very serious article
Which image would you choose to complement this article? The one of the left, the one in the center or the one on the right?
[Let audience vote. Then discuss why the center image is the best]
Left Image: http://277kty2ux3pg3am1id27wnab.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/financial-services1.png
Center Image & Article Link: http://blogs.perficient.com/financialservices/2016/03/10/4-major-threats-in-financial-services-this-year/
Right Image: http://ldn.net.au/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/xfinancial-services-marketing-tips.png.pagespeed.ic.CECSyZr5kJ.jpg
Load Times: Large images slow load time – optimize them for web viewing
Image File Names: Are directly accessed by search engines. Therefore it is important for you to: [go over the points in the list]
Alt & Title Tags: Search engines, especially Google places high importance on alt tags and title tags of images. These pieces of content help search engines understand what the images and their surrounding text are about – this will help the search engine ranking results.
Reference:
Manning, T. (2016, January 11). SEO image optimization – Everything you need to know. Mad Lemmings. Retrieved from http://madlemmings.com/2016/01/11/seo-image-optimization/#tab-con-8
Extra Info: https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/114016?hl=en
References:
HubSpot. (n.d.). The internet marketing written style guide. HubSpot. Retrieved from https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwit7dn23ejLAhUBYyYKHUE7DbMQFgggMAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fcdn1.hubspot.com%2Fhub%2F53%2FThe_Internet_Marketing_Written_Style_Guide_Sept_2012.pdf&usg=AFQjCNFHfQfknXqkZsCpWds
References:
HubSpot. (n.d.). The internet marketing written style guide. HubSpot. Retrieved from https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwit7dn23ejLAhUBYyYKHUE7DbMQFgggMAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fcdn1.hubspot.com%2Fhub%2F53%2FThe_Internet_Marketing_Written_Style_Guide_Sept_2012.pdf&usg=AFQjCNFHfQfknXqkZsCpWds
References:
HubSpot. (n.d.). The internet marketing written style guide. HubSpot. Retrieved from https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwit7dn23ejLAhUBYyYKHUE7DbMQFgggMAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fcdn1.hubspot.com%2Fhub%2F53%2FThe_Internet_Marketing_Written_Style_Guide_Sept_2012.pdf&usg=AFQjCNFHfQfknXqkZsCpWds
