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From Print to Phone to Web. And a Sale?

"Item Level Intelligence" (Radio Frequency Identification) will eventually replace bar codes on products. Smartphones will integrate that function to make point-of-sale more interactive and possibly ad/PR more interactive. In the meantime, to get more product info available to shoppers and ad/PR measurement for business, publishers are using scan/web/text messaging to get consumers to interact.

Smartphones that can read bar codes are allowing magazines to add Internet-like interactivity to print graphics and advertisements.

NY Times

By STEPHANIE CLIFFORD

Published: January 10, 2010

Print may be a flat medium, but that has not stopped magazine publishers from trying to add dimension to their pages. For at least a decade, they have been experimenting with bar codes and icons that could take readers to Web sites, trying to add a bit of Internetlike interactivity to their pages.

But the average consumer did not own a bar-code reader — until now. With the sudden ubiquity of smartphones, which have apps that can read bar codes, and cameraphones, which can easily snap pictures of icons, magazines like Esquire and InStyle are adding interactive graphics to their articles, while Entertainment Weekly and Star are including them in ads.

Click to Read NY Times Article

Use Wikipedia as a Marketing Tool

In the age of social media, you can use Wikipedia -- the world's online encyclopedia –- as a marketing tool. Small businesses are finding that getting a listing in Wikipedia can help validate their existence and more.

By Minda Zetlin Use Wikipedia as a Marketing Tool

Copywriting that Works in Social Media

You can write anyway you want to market your products, services, and relationships. Are they listening? Are they acting on your words? Do you get more qualified leads, traffic, sales, or relationships that matter?

I’ve always written to engage people as simply and personally as possible with the idea that a personal, helpful approach leads to a relationship.

The point is to add value to someone else. Adding value in relationships leads to two-way influence. A sale can come from that relationship – or not. You might get something better… world changing advice, a great friend, a business partner, or more.

Many in the Social Media world write like they speak or sound like they do at work.

As William Zinsser says in his classic book On Writing Well, “Clutter is the disease of American writing. We are a society strangling in unnecessary words, circular constructions, pompous frills, and meaningless jargon.” I would add acronyms to that list.

When I was writing speeches for IBM and Motorola executives, I would ask to interview the speaker at their home. Most thought it strange but went along with it. The reason was to find out what they sound like when they are a real person. Not their work voice - their personal voice. A spouse or kids won’t put up with corporate-speak. Those tech and “leadership” words make executives all sound the same at work and bore an audience.

They make you sound the same as everyone else on social networks too.

If you aren't getting more leads and meaningful business relationships on social networks, consider hiring a professional writer. Social Media has become a vortex of content.

Professional writers help your content break through the clutter. They know, and have practiced, how to reach your audience and start relationships. To learn more about my freelance writing services, click here: Get Words That Work For You!