The Importance of Microcopy « CoupSmart Blog

The Importance of Microcopy « CoupSmart Blog.

100 Word Story 6/13

Every Wednesday Madison Woods provides a prompt for writing. Every Friday she shares all the entries which have been posted on her comments section, with a link back to the original. It’s a great activity and I am jumping on board. As opposed to jumping on, bored.

Photo prompt for 6/13

102 words

My horse must think it queer, to have left him home and attempted this uphill path alone. I’m  first to travel this way or there would be no path to follow, right? What the hell, one foot in front of the other I say.  I am beginning to say anywa..what was that noise?! I am alone in the woods trying to be the first up the mountain and reserve my camping site at the top. What is that noise? It’s not a howl. A whistle? An unintentional whistle?  Some hot air escapes from a tight space, and where is it coming fro

LIKEing Facebook’s (FB) IPO

In the midst of the what is considered a scandal, and an uproar, and the main event of financial news surrounding Facebook’s IPO and first week of trading- what else has taken place? Zuckerberg obtained Instagram, the very best photo-sharing community for people who want their hi-tec digital pictures to look like lo-tec 35mm processed in a closet darkroom. Stock symbol FB went public last friday, as a bachelor party for Zuckerberg, who got married the next day, congrats.

What does this mean for all of the companies which use facebook as their cheap, or free, means of web hosting, marketing, blogging, and networking? The IPO ruckus and resulting lawsuits and Uber-coverage will only drive more traffic. The audit which brought FB’s value from 104 bil, to 97 bil, may mean something to high volume investors. For private businesses of all sizes, it is just more news fodder.It does not devalue what we have been trying to do on the world’s largest social network. We are trying to connect.

What social networking does for small business is allow us to reach our small niche markets in much the same way that a mass producer can reach the mass market. The factory model of cheap labor and fast machines is over, neither exists in the same place. The footrace of commercials and billboards is waning. We have a tangible and cost-effective outlet. The network of like minded individuals can meet and link, and become “friends.” The IPO news and resulting hysteria has made this outlet more popular than ever. It takes leadership and creativity, arguably one in the same.

Acquiring apps like Instagram may provide businesses with a way to throw ads onto pages, and onto followers and subscribers and likers (?) pages via a photograph, even when the mobile versions of FB don’t support advertisement and game apps yet. It also means that businesses better start getting their ads, brand management, and content (yes, they can be different entities) strategies together. When FB mobile start supporting game apps and advertisements, who will be the first in your market to pop up?

Now that both honeymoons are over, the FB IPO and the Zuckerbergs, let’s see how long it takes for the small business and marketing agencies to begin demanding that their favorite social platform become profitable for them in mobile. Given the profit FB makes on game apps alone, it won’t be long.

UPS Vs. USPS: One Letter Makes a Difference

“We revised our network consolidation timeline to provide a longer planning schedule for our customers, employees and other stakeholders, and to enable a more methodical and measured implementation. We simply do not have the mail volumes to justify the size and capacity of our current mail processing network. To return to long-term profitability and financial stability while keeping mail affordable, we must match our network to the anticipated workload. This plan meets our cost reduction goals, ensures seamless and excellent service performance throughout the implementation period, and provides adequate time for our customers to adapt to our network changes.” -Patrick R. Donahoe, PG and CEO of the USPS

Whaaaat? You’ve failed to make a profit again and are dragging out the inevitable? Just say so. Maybe superfluity, redundancy, and inefficiency is a problem in your workplace. Do you think you are the only company in America to lose employees and business? Or do you continue to keep the band playing as the ship sinks, bailing out with money from people who didn’t even buy a ticket, and still sink? Dismiss the band, get everyone to a lifeboat. Other passing ships are happy to take on the passengers and crew.�

Despite the television campaign, presenting mail carriers as competent and qualified business consultants, saving small businesses at seminars with the $5 (footloooong?) if it fits, it ships proposal, The USPS will be closing approximately 140 sites across the country. Seems that five dollar bill technique wasn’t quite as catchy. The USPS continued to focus on price (simultaneously raising stamp prices) without creating any value.

In the meantime UPS, without bragging about price, or creating any permanent coupons, asked, What can Brown do for you? Not even UPS, just Brown. There are no limits to that question. Nothing has to fit within a preconceived shape or size. Customer service is the proposed product. With the exception of the immensely-talented yet short-lived whiteboard artist with the self-important hair, the slogan and campaign showed much more succes. Need numbers? How about: ZERO. They aren’t in the news reporting mass closings and layoffs.UPS continues to thrive as a result.

Politics of GSE’s aside, if that is even possible, the two entities marketed differently. One promoted a limited product as a catch-all solution for business, a gossamer attempt at best to appeal and relate to small business who have to maintain a bottom line while USPS can claim the dubious luxury of being “revenue-neutral” as a semi-private agency; the other asked the customer to come forward with an answer to an open-ended question, not even promising a solution, just showing some examples of their succes.�

I’m not sure a synopsis and poignant lesson statement is needed here, unless you are the PG and CEO of USPS.

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Keep It Simple, Somebody

Keep It Simple, Somebody.

I like sitting in my little office at home. I feel blessed that I can work in such a simple way. I have no traffic with which to contend. I have a large window to let in the sun and air, or keep them out. I have a record player. My 7 11 is very close and offers great coffee for just a buck when I bring my own cup. That’s where the simplicity ends. I have 200 vinyl record albums. I have equally as many books, carefully arranged in no particular order. The books are at least on shelves. The records are in boxes and milk crates. Just a note, milk crates used to fit records perfectly. They don’t anymore. I could expound on the conspiracy of the dairy industry to resize their crates so audiophiles stop stealing them from 7 11’s. Let’s stick with: they have to be kept at an angle. My desk gets a little cluttered with bills and rejection notices ( I display the ones which are hand signed by the editors).

No description or slogans needed, right?

I crave simplicity and loathe chaos. I exist somewhere in between. Creativity and order don’t always co-exist either, but they seldom live exclusively. I find that a lot of the successful blogging and marketing copy trends toward the simple, and easy to use. I realize the cynic and pessimist’s rule that things ought to be simple so the increasingly illiterate world may make better use of it. I prefer not to condescend, and also to, well, simplify. Direct and to the point is more efficient. Show quality in your work. Let worrying about selling the drama be the dubious luxury of the snake oil salesmen.

I need not be constantly on the make. If the creative content and industry articles are true, sound human, and contain very few pitch lines, than I may sell myself, not some big company. Simpler: me or the machine. Who are you trusting? Businesses are also, after all, run by people. My ends are sure. I would like to write the copy and content for your company, and possibly manage your social networking as well. Aside from using it as an example, I don’t need to re-iterate it all the time. Business people understand that I am in business as well.

The office calamity bothers me a little. I need to find the proper shelving to keep the vinyl in order. That is the main culprit. There are some arts and crafts stuff that needs a home too. However the record player works fine, the computer works fine and the chair is comfortable. While I chip away at solving the clutter, I am still addressing what matters. The writing and the focus on learning each specific small business’s need in that writing is what matters. Keeping it simple comes in many forms. One of them is staying focused on what does work, and keeping it that way.