Slides depict social media goals, demographics, post frequency guidelines and questions we asked our panelists of local Social Media experts.

1. Writing for the Web.

2. Writing for the Web.
KNOW YOUR PURPOSE
SPEAK TO YOUR AUDIENCE
POLISH YOUR STYLE
PERFECTING YOUR PROCESS

3. Know your purpose.
All marketing content is essentially composed to
achieve the same goal:
To get people to read it.

4. Know your purpose.
 Why do we want them to read?
 To educate
 To build rapport To SELL!
To build credibility
( Generate Revenue)

 To develop a relationship

5. Know your purpose.
Before you start: Get your head on straight.
 Don’t assume viewers  Make an adequate
will read what you’ve timeline to achieve
written simply because your process
you wrote it  Know your support
 Writing is selling, it is group
not meant to meet your  Hold true to your
emotional needs process
 Forgive yourself

6. Know your purpose.
Before you start: Set goals.
 What do you want your viewers to do or learn?
Knowledge Action
Your agenda Their agenda
To foster an interest in the Click on the link to visit the
EXAMPLE home buying process. website for more information.
HOW?
Share the number of houses A big link button leading to a
currently on the market and page on the website with more
buying incentives. stats and a call to action to
contact an agent.

7. What’s your goal?

8. Know your purpose.
Before you start: Set deadlines.
 When do you need to:
 send your email
 publish your post
 finalize your content
 Create a timeline working from end to beginning

9. What will your timeline look like?
Allow for wiggle room.
Two days for revisions.
How MayeCreate works as a group.

10. Know your purpose.
Before you start: Brainstorm keywords.
 What are keywords and why are they important?
 Search terms or phrases
 Resonate terms or phrases that evoke emotion and/or action
 What are key words or phrases you need to include
for SEO or to relate to your audience?
 Make a list to use during editing.

11. What keywords do people use to search
for your business online?
What keywords resonate with your
audience?

12. Speak to your audience.
When trying to reach to everyone you end up
touching to no one at all.

13. Speak to your audience.
Who are you Income
speaking to? Relationship Gender
Will these factors
impact effective Education
Location Interests
delivery of your Level
message?
Communication
Age Style
Life Style

14. Who are you talking to?

15. Where are they?
How to build a bridge.

16. Sometimes in the process this is a good
stopping point. Let your thoughts
simmer and come back in a day or two to
start writing.
Now…What to write?

17. Speak to your audience.
Goal: Get people to read it…but what to write?
You don’t just have to write about what you do.
You do have to write about topics that interest your audience.
 Subscribe to RSS feed of other  Check out your competition
popular blogs in your industry. and those you admire.
 Keep a list of FAQ from clients  Summaries explaining current
& prospects. events or technological
 Share photos, video, events and advances in your industry.
event summaries.  Featured clients
 Testimonials  Industry specific controversy

18. Speak to your audience.
When writing about a specific product or service place
yourself in the shoes of your audience:
? What information would they expect to find?
 Read competitor sites to see how much information they provide.
 Will you share pricing? (Does your competition?)
 What questions are you commonly asked in a first meetings or
phone conversations? Should those be addressed or left open to
encourage viewers to contact?
? What will tip the scales in your favor?
 Example: Brag about your competitive advantages using video,
testimonials, pricing and most importantly your personality!

19. Speak to your audience.
When writing for social media:
? Are you promoting or conversing?
 Social media is about building a relationship, selling constantly
and never bonding does not build relationships
? Are you contributing too little or over contributing?
 Everyone likes a chuckle or a helpful hit but steer clear of
continually talking about mundane tasks
? Are you keeping true to company culture?
 If you’re formal everywhere else keep your conversation formal
yet inviting in social media, don’t change your persona.
! Stay positive, no one likes a whiner.

20. What is your communication style?

21. Speak to your audience.
Communication Style: DISC
D I S C
 Strong-Willed  Sociable  Steady  Precise
 Competitive  Talkative  Laid Back  Exact
 Demanding  Open  Modest  Analytical
 Independent  Enthusiastic  Trustworthy  Systematic
 Direct  Energetic  Family Oriented  Follows Rules
 Self-Centered  Persuasive  Sincere  Quiet
 Decisive  Spontaneous  Patient  Careful
 Tough  Emotional  Careful  Formal
 Impatient  Impulsive  Calm  Disciplined

22. What communication style are your readers?
It’s okay if they’re not the same.
Get mentally prepared…

23. Speak to your audience.
Communication Style: DISC
D I S C
 Brief and to  Positive and  Take your  Go into
the point conversational time details
 Results  Quirky and  Do what you  Keep it
oriented friendly say you’ll do formal
 Focus on the  Ask for  Remember  Explain why
future feedback the little  Reflect on
 Get to  Get personal things the past
business  Be excited!  Human (working
interest results)
Doesn’t matter what style you are, everyone loves to see their own name!

24. Polish your style.
Tonality: What personality do you want to portray?
 Conservative  Distinct
 Clinical  Brave
 Traditional  Courageous
 Professional  Heavy
 Resonate  Steady
 Powerful

25. Polish your style.
Tonality: What personality do you want to portray?
 Agreeable  Innocent
 Fair  Warm
 Friendly  Calm
 Pleasant  Easy going
 Helpful  Gentle
 Tender  Laid back
 Kind  Neutral
 Quaint

26. Polish your style.
Tonality: What personality do you want to portray?
 Lively  Comfortable
 Light  Open
 Charming  Encouraging
 Curious  Energetic
 Thoughtful  Enthusiastic
 Cheerful
 Witty

27. Polish your style.
Tonality: What personality do you want to portray?
 Trendy  Unusual
 Youthful  Wild
 Clever  Funny
 Alive  Different
 Outrageous  Noisy
 Bold

28. Polish your style.
Tonality: What personality do you want to portray?
When we do website design When we do website design
for others we make sure for others we keep them on
they don’t stray too far from track ensuring they reach
the yellow brick road. Now -VS- their goals. Now we need
we need your help to keep your help to make sure we
us from being attacked by don’t stray from our
those darn flying monkeys. original objectives.

29. What tonality will you use?

30. Polish your style.
Format for success: Textbook meets inverted pyramid.
website navigation
A textbook organizes information with a table of
contents, easily identifiable chapters, sub-titles and
page titles
captions on images.

31. Polish your style.
Format for success: Textbook meets inverted pyramid.
 Vocal story telling  Inverted pyramid
 Build interest  Bang!
 This is so funny  If you don’t get past this
 That reminds me of this statement it’s OK, the
one time when… reader still got the
 You won’t believe this
information they needed.
 Supporting details  Supporting details
 Bang!  Less important
information
You only have 3-5 seconds to hook your reader.

32. Polish your style.
Format for success: Textbook meets inverted pyramid.
 Create visual hierarchy with text sizing and colors
 Bold key information
 Break apart information into bulleted lists
 Place captions with graphics to emphasize key
elements
 Use meaningful original graphics instead of clip art
or stock photos whenever possible

33. Polish your style.
How long is too long?
Blog Posts
 Keep entries around 250-300 words, less than 500
 300 words not enough? Breakdown your article into logical
parts and make a series of entries.
 Keep paragraphs short, 3-5 sentences
 Break up every few paragraphs with a sub heading
to help viewers skim for content
 Remove all content that is not needed

34. Polish your style.
How long is too long?
Twitter Email Newsletter
 Max is 140 characters  Take the very best content
 This includes links names  Put that in your newsletter
and all! So shoot for 124.  Link to everything else on
your website
Facebook  Try for 500 characters or
 Ideal length is 100 to 119 less
characters
 Max 63,206

35. Polish your style.
E-Newsletter Styles
Magazine-style Hybrid Single-Topic
Short copy Medium-length copy Long copy
Your newsletter is Both inform readers Include all the
primarily used as a and promote a information readers
portal to content on product or service — want into the email
your website. one large excerpt itself. No links
with link to site for necessary unless
more. needed.

36. Polish your style.
How often is too often?
 Facebook
 1 time every two days
 Twitter
 As many times as you want
 Blog
 At least 1 time every two weeks
 Email Marketing
 1 per month is effective, effectiveness
drops until 5 then holds steady

37. Polish your style.
Tasty title writing tips.
 Short and sweet is best, keep it 50 characters or less
 Pack a punch, make it interesting, the subject is the first thing
viewers see and maybe the only thing if it’s not intriguing
 Capitalize Letters of Each Word for Easy Recognition.
 Consider starting emails with the business name so they know
who the email is coming from
 AVOID: help, percent off and reminder, special, ALL CAPS,
!!!!!!!, free
 Create urgency and the must read feeling

38. Polish your style.
Tasty title writing tips.
 Examples from Bnet.com
 Shut Up! Why Your Company Needs Quiet Time.
 What Cleaning Toilets Taught One Exec.
 Is Someone Stealing Your Ideas? Let Them.
 Why you should go home early.
 Stop the Whining: How to End Corrosive Complaining.

39. Polish your style.
Test your call to action.
 Close your eyes and open them, what do you see first?
 Put yourself in the shoes of a viewer, be objective.
 Do you know where to click instinctively?
 Did you ask your viewers to take action? Is it front and
center?
 Look for consistent punctuation and capitalization of bulleted
lists and subtitles
 Don’t forget your contact information!

40. Polish your style.

41. Polish your style.

42. Polish your style.

43. Polish your style.
The final edit.
 Plug in additional key words (web content only)
 SPELL CHECK!!!
 Read it out loud
 Skim it backwards
 Send to the proofing authorities in your process

44. Polish your style.
The final edit: Grammar check.
 Grammar
 Consider composing in Word to easily recognize spelling and
grammar errors. Note: Writing in Word doesn’t negate reading
proofing your grammar and spelling upon completion!
 Look for consistent punctuation and capitalization of bulleted lists
and subtitles
 Check for correct comma, semicolon and colon usage

45. Perfecting Your Process.
Put your new found knowledge to work!

46. GOAL: Knowledge Action
Your agenda Their agenda
To let readers know about the Tell them how to donate
Joplin situation. supplies.
HOW?
Tell our story about Home Highlight needs list and how
Depot and share a picture. to contact for pick up.
TIMELINE: Sooner the better, supplies are needed. No approval needed from
superiors, I’m the boss of my own blog!
AUDIENCE: Followers of the task force blog. Friends, family, fellow search and
rescue professionals. Varied communication styles and backgrounds.
KEYWORDS: Joplin, MO, Needs List, Search and Rescue, Task Force

47. OUTLINE:
• Explain the mission
• Share the GPS story
• Street sign not right
• What Home Depot?
• Share Nancy’s contact info
• Needs list

48. Our experience in Joplin.
Our taskforce was deployed to Joplin, MO to search for missing persons. We
were assigned to search the Home Depot area. We piled in the car and drove
toward the corner of Main and 20th Street. We drove in circles around the fallen
19th Street sign a few times in search of 20th Street, looking for Home Depot but
didn’t see the store anywhere in sight. Finally we consulted our GPS navigation
system and searched for the Home Depot. Turns out we were on the corner of
Main and 20th Street all along! The street sign from 19th Street had been torn out
of the ground by the tornado and thrown a full city block to the corner of Main
and 20th were it lay impaled in the ground. All that was left of Home Depot was a
bunch of shelves sticking out of a bunch of concrete that looked like a parking lot.
The people of Joplin would greatly appreciate all supplies and donations you can
provide. Much needed items are water, bandages, blankets and canned food.
Please contact Nancy with the Red Cross at nancy@theredcross.org to coordinate
supply pick up.
Get it all out.

49. First impression? Be a critic!
What information is the most important?
What makes you think, “Wow I’m glad I read that?”

50. Our experience in Joplin.
Our taskforce was deployed to Joplin, MO to search for missing persons. We
were assigned to search the Home Depot area. We piled in the car and drove
toward the corner of Main and 20th Street. We drove in circles around the fallen
19th Street sign a few times in search of 20th Street, looking for Home Depot but
didn’t see the store anywhere in sight. Finally we consulted our GPS navigation
system and searched for the Home Depot. Turns out we were on the corner of
Main and 20th Street all along! The street sign from 19th Street had been torn out
of the ground by the tornado and thrown a full city block to the corner of Main
and 20th were it lay impaled in the ground. All that was left of Home Depot was a
bunch of shelves sticking out of a bunch of concrete that looked like a parking lot.
The people of Joplin would greatly appreciate all supplies and donations you can
provide. Much needed items are water, bandages, blankets and canned food.
Please contact Nancy with the Red Cross at nancy@theredcross.org to coordinate
supply pick up.
Get it all out.

51. Our experience in Joplin.
Our taskforce was deployed to Joplin, MO to search for missing persons. We
were assigned to search the Home Depot area. We piled in the car and drove
toward the corner of Main and 20th Street. We drove in circles around the fallen
19th Street sign a few times in search of 20th Street, looking for Home Depot but
didn’t see the store anywhere in sight. Finally we consulted our GPS navigation
system and searched for the Home Depot. Turns out we were on the corner of
Main and 20th Street all along! The street sign from 19th Street had been torn out
of the ground by the tornado and thrown a full city block to the corner of Main
and 20th were it lay impaled in the ground. All that was left of Home Depot was a
bunch of shelves sticking out of a bunch of concrete that looked like a parking lot.
The people of Joplin would greatly appreciate all supplies and donations you can
provide. Much needed items are water, bandages, blankets and canned food.
Please contact Nancy with the Red Cross at nancy@theredcross.org to coordinate
supply pick up.
What else can be done to improve this piece?
Revise for style.

52. Our experience in Joplin.
Our mission was to locate missing persons but first had to locate the missing
Home Depot store formerly located on the corner of Main and 20th Street. The
landscape in Joplin was so unrecognizable we needed a GPS to find our task force
location, the Home Depot
My task force circled the impaled 19th Street sign near Main Street for 15 min
before we thought to use our GPS. We then discovered we’d already reached our
destination; the street sign had flown a full city block to reach its new location.
What was once Home Depot is now shelving standing in a parking lot.
Help this city in need.
Email Nancy with the Red Cross at nancy@theredcorss.org to coordinate supply
pickups. Items needed include:
 Bottled water
 Bandages
 Blankets
 Canned Food
Revise for style.

53. Joplin: Shelving , Street Signs & Needed Supplies.
Our mission was to locate missing persons but first had to locate the missing
Home Depot store formerly located on the corner of Main and 20th Street. The
landscape in Joplin was so unrecognizable we needed a GPS to find our task force
location, the Home Depot.
My task force circled the impaled 19th Street sign near Main Street for 15 min
before we thought to use our GPS. We then discovered we’d already reached our
destination; the street sign had flown a full city block to reach its new location.
What was once Home Depot is now shelving standing in a parking lot.
Help this city in need.
Email Nancy with the Red Cross at nancy@theredcorss.org to coordinate supply
pickups. Items needed include:
I find I tend to write the most
 Bottled water important information last in my
paragraphs. I often move the
 Bandages
last sentence to the beginning.
 Blankets
 Canned Food
Revise for style. Write title. Test call to action.

54. Joplin: Shelving , Street
Signs & Needed Supplies.
The landscape in Joplin was so
unrecognizable we needed a GPS to find our
task force location, the Home Depot. Our
mission was to locate missing persons but
first had to locate the missing Home Depot
store formerly located on the corner of Main Joplin, MO Home Depot wreckage.
and 20th Street.
Help this city in need.
Email Nancy with the Red
What was once Home Depot is now
Cross at
shelving standing in a parking lot.
nancy@theredcorss.org to
My task force circled the impaled 19th Street
coordinate supply pickups.
sign near Main Street for 15 min before we
Items needed include:
thought to use our GPS. We then discovered
we’d already reached our destination; the
• Bottled water
street sign had flown a full city block to
• Bandages
reach its new location.
• Blankets
• Canned Food

55. Writing for the Web.
KNOW YOUR PURPOSE
SPEAK TO YOUR AUDIENCE
POLISH YOUR STYLE
PERFECTING YOUR PROCESS