One afternoon I’m sitting at my laptop and a new message pops into my inbox. It’s from co-worker, so like any good employee I read said email right away. All I see at first is “LOL.” I scroll down to reveal their e-signature and then a string of email back and forth between them and a client. After reading this string of email I failed to see what was so funny. What was this “LOL” all about? Maybe I missed an email? Maybe I missed a meeting? I was so sure that there was nothing funny in any of the emails, that I wasn’t afraid to question what was going on. In mere seconds my co-workers translation came back via their trustee Blackberry… LOL = Lots Of Love. In hindsight it makes perfect sense.

Communication has moved almost completely into the realm of electronic format. We email instead of writing a letter by hand. We send text messages or “text” instead of making an actual phone call. And when email becomes too cumbersome, we send an instant message or “IM.” Not only are we sending more communications, but also our communications are becoming shorter, sweeter and hopefully more concise. We abbreviate sentences, phrases, and even use emotions when typing these quick communications. This new language however is becoming more convoluted and more difficult to understand if you aren’t constantly staying in the know.

To this particular co-worker “LOL” means “Lots of Love.” To most others it means “Laugh Out Loud.” So to keep any further miscommunication from happening internally or externally we’ve created a small dictionary of basic IM/Text acronyms and just for fun an emoticon (emotional icons) translator as well.

TEXT/IM:

LOL – Laugh Out Loud
ROTFL – Roll On The Floor Laughing
LMAO – Laugh My A** Off
TTFN – Ta-Ta For Now
TTYL – Talk To You Later
JK – Just Kidding
GF – Girl Friend
BF – Boy Friend
BFF – Best Friends Forever
BRB – Be Right Back
NP – No Problem
BTW – By The Way
WTF – What The %&$@

EMOTICONS:
:-) - Smile
;-) - Wink
:-P - Tongue sticking out
:-D - Big Smile
:-$ - Money Mouth
:-( - Frown
:’( - Tear/Cry
B-) - Sunglasses Wearing Smiley

Potential pitfalls:

While blogging can be rewarding in a number of ways, there are potential pitfalls to avoid.

Authenticity is a big buzzword around blogs. Flogs, or fake blogs are a big risk. If you are having your blog ghost written by a pro, be careful. A lack of transparency can hurt your credibility, just look at Walmart:

It all started last month, when a folksy blog called Wal-Marting Across America was set up. The site featured the musings of a couple known only as Jim and Laura as they drove cross country in an RV, and included regular interviews with Wal-Mart workers, who were dependably happy about the company and their working conditions. BusinessWeek.com wrote the first exposé about the blog. The story shot down speculation that Jim and Laura weren’t real people, identifying the woman as Laura St. Claire, a freelance writer and an employee at the U.S. Treasury department. But it also disclosed that Wal-Mart was paying plenty for the couple’s support, including money for renting the RV, gas, and fees for writing the blog.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/1531992

Dead Air can be problematic. A blog needs to be updated on a regular basis, but not daily. Focus on the quality of the blog posts, not the quantity.

Eric Kintz of HP writes:

Why blog post frequency does not matter anymore

“Thou shall post every day” is the most fundamental and most well known principle of blogging. Every new blogger is warned about “the” ultimate rule and is confronted with the pressure of a day going by with no new post. Every one has in mind the examples of successful bloggers, like Robert Scoble at Microsoft, who post several times a day. Daily posting shows that you are serious about blogging, generates traffic and drives reader loyalty, as readers come back daily to check your new posts. You cannot be successful if you do not go by the rule, right? RIGHT?

Wrong. Daily posts are a legacy of a web 1.0 mindset and early web 2.0 days (meaning 12 months ago!). The pressure around posting frequency will ultimately become a significant barrier to the maturity of blogging. Here are 10 reasons why.

Read them here: http://h20325.www2.hp.com/blogs/kintz/archive/2006/06/05/1120.html

Comments can be a blessing or a curse. This is a forum where people can gripe, it can also be a place where you address and fix that gripe:

Rusty Williams has 10 tips on iMediaconnection:

Tip 6: Address criticism head on.
You’re going to read things about your products or services that make you uncomfortable. Just like any customer complaint, the best thing to do is turn the negative into a positive. Show that you’ve taken some action to address the problem, or if it’s misperception, explain why. It’s also OK to explain the business reasons behind decisions that may upset some of your customers. People’s initial reactions are emotional, but they will almost always understand that businesses exist to earn money and cover costs.

http://www.imediaconnection.com/content/11390.asp

Now, hopefully I have not scared you away with the potential pitfalls.

To blog or not to blog.

The fact that you are reading this shows the impact a blog can have on conversations and communication. A blog is a forum for you to showcase your expertise, it is also a forum to put your foot in your mouth. Blogs are not for everyone, but they can be a key piece in your PR strategy.

I am going to start of with the standard definition of a blog:

blog - n
Definition: an online diary; a personal chronological log of thoughts published on a Web page; also called Weblog, Web log
Example: Typically updated daily, blogs often reflect the personality of the author.
Etymology: shortened form of Weblog
Usage: blog, blogged, blogging v, blogger n

Webster’s New Millennium™ Dictionary of English, Preview Edition (v 0.9.7)
Copyright © 2003-2007 Lexico Publishing Group, LLC

Why Blog?
Blogging provides you with a unique opportunity. It allows you to have a direct 2 way conversation with your consumers, while establishing yourself as an expert on your topic/product/field. A blog can help you hear of problems and start a proactive dialouge about a solution. It can also help put a ‘face’ to an organization. While a blog will help your search engine ranking, it is important to have a blog for more reasons than that. You need to want to engage your consumers.

Getting your message out there.
What do you know that will interest your consumers? Is you company involved in the community? Give yourself a pat on the back. Did you have a great event? Show some pictures. Your blog can make your consumers feel as if they are getting information sooner than the general public.

The folks behind the No More Landing Pages movement claim that landing pages are broken and do not work. They suggest using landing experiences. “Don’t use a single web page that contains several link choices and paragraphs of text. Instead, give the user very little text and only 2 to 3 link choices”, quotes Marketing Monster.

This has been tested and tried since it’s unveiling at Ad-Tech San Francisco in April. Results? Nothing yet. The landing page still prevails.

So you’re running pay per click campaign, investing a certain amount to stay competitive with everyone else, but what is happening after your user clicks on your ad? Many advertisers link directly to the homepage of their website. Is this the best plan for attack? Is there a way to take it a step further when targeting your users?

Ahhh the landing page. Some love it. Some hate it. It is a strategy used by many to create a unique, more personalized experience for each of your targeted campaigns. Your landing page should contain copy that resonates with the user that got there. For example, the active adult searcher may want to read more about the golf course, the club house, and social activities, while the family move up buyer may want to read more about area conveniences, schools, and amenities such as the pool. Think about the user when planning your landing page.

Don’t leave out design and layout. Digital Web Magazine sums it up nicely: “Even after a customer has decided to accept your offer, the conversion can be lost. Any flaw in site functionality and usability can cause you to lose the conversion, so ensure there are no hiccups.”

Case Study: “European Travel Deal”
Here’s a real Google AdWords ad for the search term “European travel deal”. The ad copy tells me there’s an incentive – perfect, exactly what was searched for.

My expectations after clicking on the ad are to be taken to a page that contains more information about the offer and what discounts are available with the sale. Instead, I am directed to the airline’s homepage where I must start navigating throughout the site to find the information I am looking for.

Take your landing page to the next level. Embed those calls to action, particularly a button to the sign-up form. Targeted landing pages resonate with your users and create an interactive experience that encourages site stickiness. The content is molded for them specifically and no one else. These conversions are one less step to a sale that the user has to take.

The reach of the web is infinite… this can be a positive or a negative when it comes to advertising online. Pay per click campaigns effectively allow you to have control over who you want to target, when, where, and for how ever much you want to invest. Targeting the twenty-something first time buyer? Targeting the leisure traveler?

Don’t think that you have to have one campaign out there to attempt to reach both. Split your campaigns up and have them rotate with each other. Select keywords that each demographic would possibly use when searching.
Want to focus in a particular area? Geo-target your keywords upfront: ‘washington dc condos’. Write ad copy that specifically connects with each market you are advertising to. Expand your reach within the search engine networks to promote your message on websites where your audience frequents. Now you’re ready to launch.

Let’s focus on the brand side of the debate for a bit….

If you’re in real estate, be it broker, builder or sales, you’ve become accustomed to competition. Fierce, fierce competition. The once standard formula of Price, Product and Location, while still valid, has begun re-arrange and re-work itself depending on the customer. With dozens and, in some cases, hundreds of projects to choose from in a category consumers often look for that one variable, that one thing that makes a project stand out from the others to help them make their choice.

This is where a strong brand becomes invaluable. A brand is a collection of thoughts and perceptions about a product or company. In “Brand Asset Management” written by Scott M. Davis, he points out that a brand is an intangible but critical component of what a company stands for. While a consumer generally does not have a relationship with a product or service, often they DO have relationship with a brand. Brands drive repeat business. Brands drive referrals. Both of these drive profits.

Not convinced of the importance of branding yet?

• 72% of customers say they will pay a 20% premium for their brand choice relative to the closest product offered.
• 50% of customers will pay a 25% premium.
• And 40% of customers will pay up to a 30% premium for their brand choice.
• Over 70% of customers want a brand to guide them in their purchase decision and over 50% of these purchases are actually brand driven.

Just a little food for thought for your next marketing budget meeting…

In today’s market sales are king and image is everything. Put simply, you want the phone to ring, you want traffic in the door and you want your consumers to resonate with the brand your company embodies. You want them to connect. While sales and branding are both vital to the success of any company, on both sides of the advertising and marketing table we often feel forced to choose between the two. We can either focus our efforts and our dollars on direct response advertising to drive sales OR we can invest in branding – but we can’t do both. More often than not, branding is the first to get nixed. Sadly, that choice can often undermine all of the communications efforts being put forth by the marketing team.

Those who have been in the biz a while remember the infamous ad for McGraw-Hill Magazines. A stern looking executive stares at you from the page and the copy reads:

I don’t know who you are.
I don’t know your company.
I don’t know your product.
I don’t know what your company stands for.
I don’t know your customers.
I don’t know your reputation
Now-what was it you wanted to sell me?

The headline looming at the end? Sales start before the salesman calls.

So, the million-dollar question is – how can you NOT afford to do both?

That depends on both your needs and the needs of your current and potential customers. It could be that all you need to start is a mobile friendly site, or perhaps you want to go after the early adopters and a Bluetooth campaign is what will differentiate you from your competition. The mobile space offers you many options to choose from. As of today, mobile is known as the ‘Third Screen’. Given that people have these devices with them almost all the time, how long is it going to be before they are known as the ‘First Screen’?

“The same agencies that missed the Web revolution are even less equipped to answer the call of mobility,” he recently wrote in Adweek, adding that “Just as there were dangers when agencies tried to force the TV model onto the Web, there are more dangers in forcing the Web model onto mobile (or even worse, forcing the TV model onto mobile.” Bob Greenberg, CEO of R/GA
Read more

Bluetooth technology is still an up and coming form of advertising, but the idea is compelling. Your ad pings the cellphones that are within a certain distance and asks the user if they would like to receive its content. Pepsi recently launched a campaign that leveraged this emerging platform:

teleclick.ca had this report:

Passers by are encouraged to approach the billboards and download a viral video clip onto their cell phones, via a Bluetooth wireless connection.

“Bluetooth delivers a truly interactive user experience. It supercharges a campaign by allowing delivery of brand-driven content to a consumer’s cell phone, a part of their daily lives,” explained Karen Robinson
Read More

Your custom content finding an audience and engaging them. How cool is that? Just another way to augment your print campaign, deliver multimedia content and develop a conversation with your customers via a mobile device.