Social Media Writing for Smart People » web 2.0

How to Write Killer Headlines Like Andrew Chen: 21 CopyWriting Do’s and Dont’s

Ivan — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 06:14:05 +0000

If you want to see great web copy, read Andrew Chen. I’m going to show you his top 15 posts from last year. What do you see? The headlines are very compelling; smart little nuggets that draw you in. The secret is how he combines several copywriting techniques so well. It looks seamless. And that’s what makes it so great.

What Andrew Chen Can Teach You About Writing Killer Headlines

Let’s look at the first seven. Remember, Andrew writes about business models, design and metrics. Not very sexy. But, armed with the right attitude…

1. How to create a profitable Freemium startup (spreadsheet model included!)

Includes Freemium (good keyword) and adds the spreadsheet teaser. How many headlines have you seen include offers in brackets?

2. Built to Fail: How companies like Google, IDEO, and 37signals build failure-tolerant systems for anything!

Nice twist on Built to Last, the best-seller business book.

3. Free to Freemium: 5 lessons learned from YouSendIt.com

Squeezes two killer keywords, uses a number to grab attention, lessons learned implies that there will be some benefit for you the reader into the same headline

4. Product design debt versus Technical debt

Product design Technical debt. Four short words, nice and punchy.

5. Friends versus Followers: Twitter’s elegant design for grouping contacts

Do you see a pattern emerging here? Andrew counterbalances popular keywords (Twitter) against Friends and Followers. Also, ‘versus’ implies conflict or tension. A nice way to stir the reader’s emotions.

6. 5 warning signs: Does A/B testing lead to crappy products?

Crappy isn’t seen in too many headlines. When’s the last time you saw it?

7. Freemium business model case study: AdultFriendFinder ARPU, churn, and conversion rates

The 7^th most popular article has 13 words, including several acronyms, all flying in the face of convention wisdom.

FYI Andrew is here http://andrewchenblog.com/2010/01/03/top-posts-for-2009-freemium-design-and-metrics/

Those are the first seven on his list. Here’s the rest.

8. Which startup’s collapse will end the Web 2.0 era?

9. 2009 conference schedule for the digital media industry

10. Does every startup need a Steve Jobs?

My Fav!

11. Why low-fidelity prototyping kicks butt for customer-driven design

12. What if interviews poorly predict job performance? What if dating poorly predicts marital happiness?

13. How to calculate cost-per-acquisition for startups relying on freemium, subscription, or virtual items biz models

14. 5 crucial stages in designing your viral loop

15. Age (and ARPPU) ain’t nothing but a number: Data on how age impacts social gaming monetization

Over to you

What do you think of these headings? It’s not PC, it’s not the ‘correct’ way – but I think it works?

Does it work for you?

Should Gmail be the Hub of Your Company's Social Media Strategy?

Ivan Walsh — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 07:49:13 +0000

Louis Gray makes a case for putting Gmail as the heart of your Social Media Strategy.

Does it add up?

Well, Yes and No.

Let’s start with why use a Google account?

1. Access to Google Reader

2. Create a link blog using Google Reader

3. Use Feedburner to distribute your blog through RSS

4. Tracking statistics via Google Analytics

For most of us, this makes sense and we’re probably doing it already.

However, Louis argument that: ‘By using Gmail, companies can centralize all social media-related communication, make it available to third-party vendors who may be participating, and easily integrate with other Google tools.

Needs a little re-think.

Why?

Well, later on he concedes that Gmail can’t solve every account. You still need a Facebook ID to start a fan page, and a Yahoo! ID to use Flickr.

Ok, so it’s not perfect.

But if Gmail can accelerate your social media strategy, then take what you can and run with it.

Here’s Louis plan of attack

1. Secure an official company Gmail ID (my italics)

2. Use it as the hub of you social networking activity.

3. Twitter, FriendFeed, YouTube, SlideShare accounts should use that same e-mail

4. Setup new connection notifications and direct messages through Gmail and stats from SocialTooNow, I go along with this.

Indeed, there are other smart ways to integrate social media activities into Google.

These two from Digital Inspiration show you

1. How to monitor your website/blog with Google Docs and how to track changes automatically http://www.labnol.org/

2. Even better is this Google Docs trick to find Your Most Popular Web Pages on Twitter http://www.labnol.org/internet/Ok. Back to Louis.

However, others have pointed out that the following suggestion may violate Gmail’s terms of service.

‘Whether you structure the e-mail address as companyinc@gmail.com or companycorp@gmail.com doesn’t matter, so long as it’s clearly official, and the “From” data is a company name, not that of an individual.’

Daniel Pritchett sees it as a bad plan. ‘Shared accounts tend to violate TOS.’ While John Wang hopes that Google Wave will make this all easier. “It looks more and more like what SharePoint should’ve been but never became.”

Perception is (almost) everything

My concern is a little different.

If you surrender or retire your corporate email address (hard to see that getting signed off!) you also run the risk of how customers, especially new ones, and potential clients will react to your Gmail account.

It might be an ‘official’ Gmail account but the question in many minds will be: ‘Why can’t they get a real one?’

Give your 2 cents at: http://www.louisgray.com/live/2009/07/gmail-should-be-hub-of-your-companys.html

Social Media & Web 2.0 Mosaic

Ivan Walsh — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 08:55:56 +0000

LOGO2.0 part I

Originally uploaded by Stabilo Boss

Social Media & Web 2.0 Mosaic.

Click on this image and it will open in Flickr.

You can then click on all the logos – the links are active.

Excellent piece of work.