Is an Apple a Fruit?

The setup

It’s amazing how everyday, simple activities can highlight the importance of an editor. Take yesterday, for example. We were going to my sister’s house for dinner and were asked to bring to an apple pie. Not having gone apple picking this year and having a love/hate relationship with pastry (love to eat it, hate to make it), I opted to purchase one. In my guilt over not bringing something homemade, however, I chose get the pie from a local apple farm’s bakery.

In the busy bakery, I bee-lined straight to a wooden rack loaded with large, cake-sized boxes. The sign said “Special: All pumpkin and fruit pies $11″. While my eyebrows raised so high they nearly met my hair line upon seeing the price, I reasoned it out with a pat on the back for supporting local farmers and reducing my carbon footprint (a stretch, I know). In the pie’s defense, it was one of those large, mounded pies with a great deal of filling and perfect pastry, complete with traditional slits for the steam to escape—a beautiful pie well worth dinner with my sister. My eyes first fell to blueberry pies, raspberry pies, and then pumpkin pies. Finally, I saw the treasure of the journey: the apple pie. I waited in line with my $11 ready, exercising my patience as a mother, her daughter, and a grandmother tried to determine whether other family members would want a cookie or other baked goods, and who subsequently skirmished over who would pay for a bottle of water.

The sting

Finally, I was called up to another till. The cashier rang in the price of $14. Of course, I pointed out that the sign said all pumpkin and fruit pies were on sale for $11. Hesitantly, the cashier stated, “Oh, that’s for other fruit pies, but not apple,” to which I replied, “Really? Because an apple is a fruit.” I waited to see if she would give me the pie for the advertised price of $11, but instead she just awkwardly shifted from one foot to the other. As I turned to leave with my very expensive pie, the embarrassed cashier turned to a co-worker and asked if she should maybe change the sign because people think that apples are fruit. Had I not had my hands full, I would have whipped out a business card and suggested they hire an editor to make the sign more clear with precise wording. Had my red pen been handy, I would have changed the sign myself.

The fix

Of course an apple is a fruit, and I’m sure (or at least I hope) that those working at the apple farm know this. The problem was with the wording on the sign. All the words and even punctuation in the sign were correct, but it was the word choice that was less than appropriate. A good editor would have used the word “berry” instead of “fruit” or to save on card stock would simply have added “(apple pies excluded)”. “Special: All pumpkin and berry pies $11″ would have made it clear that apple pies would be the full price of $14, leaving no platform for irritated or even irate customers. Had I pressed, I might have been able to get the pie for $3 cheaper, but was it worth it?

The pie was delicious, and for $14 I got more than just a pie—apples as non-fruit became one of the ongoing jokes of the evening. If I had made my own pie, I never would have had the funny story to tell at dinner, nor had such an interesting blog post this morning on the importance of clarity to something as simple as a sign. I will never know how many others approached the counter at the bakery only to be confused, disappointed, and out of pocket an extra $3 but I imagine there were many.

The lesson

No matter how small your piece, it is important to ensure the correct and most precise words are used. Using an editor can save embarrassment, confusion, and can even affect the bottom line. Consider hiring an editor today… then go eat some apple pie.

Learn more about what an editor can do for you.

Apple Expo 2010: B2B Social Media

Forgive me, blog readers, for I have been out of touch. It has been 4 weeks since my last posting.

But this is just one of the many lessons I learned from the last seminar I attended during Apple Expo 2010, which happened to be only one well worth my time. Humphrey Ho of Agile Dudes Inc. presented an engaging and information-packed session on why and how to use social media for business-to-business communications and marketing strategies. Instead of regurgitating Ho’s presentation, I will simply share the points that rung true for me.

So why would a business want to jump on the social media band wagon? Studies have shown that an increase in social media activity results in increased revenue, while a decrease in social media activity results in decreased revenue. It’s time for businesses to stop limiting their marketing campaigns to advertisements, print pieces, direct mail-outs, and PowerPoint presentations and to start adding business-to-business (B2B) social media campaigns. While the traditional marketing formats may still work, it is the social media that will reinforce the marketing messages and increase loyalty among existing clients.

How to use social media in the B2B world

Just like any other marketing piece you are creating, you first must have a clear purpose. Creators/copywriters will need to know the following:

1. What you are doing
2. What the goal is
3. Who the audience is
4. How you will measure whether you’ve met your goal
5. How the social media project fits in with other branding/marketing strategies
6. What social media tool(s) you are using (eg, Twitter, LinkedIn, blog posts, Facebook, forums, YouTube, etc.)
7. What the SEO terms are in your industry

The important thing to remember is that social media is changing all the time, and you will need to have a backup plan for new and emerging trends in technology. However, social media is also a great way to keep in touch with trending among your clients/fans, whether that be  a trend toward using one type of editing or graphic design software over another, or a trend toward patients requesting a specific drug instead of physicians prescribing the drug at their own discretion. Social media tools can be used not only to create a network of existing and potential clients, but can also be a way in which businesses can create a more personal connection with those clients.

Points to remember when using social media tools

While many of us may already use some form of social media on a personal level, there are some things to keep in mind when launching your business blog or Facebook page.

Stay in line with your branding. Ensure you use the same colours/logos and terminology on your social media project. Social media tools should reinforce your brand and straying from the core messages of your business or even the look can create confusion among your customers. Hire a copywriter to write the copy to ensure it is professional and that it addresses the target market effectively. Remember, your media tool should always offer interesting and relevant information to your target audience.  Once the piece is written, employ an editor to review the social media elements and to cross-reference them with other published elements. A strong brand will be consistent in message, values, organization, and style.

Post regularly. This is where I have been found guilty. But seriously, a business wanting to use a blog to generate traffic to its website or its client’s website, or to get people discussing a certain topic needs to post new content on a regular basis. The frequency of posting new content will depend on the type of social media tool being used, the purpose of the tool, the target audience, and your topic. Remember that social media acts in real-time and posting content about something that happened 6 weeks ago may not be relevant to your target audience anymore. Whatever your needs, it is best to set up a social media schedule. Since the most difficult challenge businesses face with social media is creating enough copy, search out and hire a writer to do so for you. Your freelance writer can also re-purpose existing materials for the Web or for social media content, and turn existing online content into brochures and white sheets, etc. Professional writers and editors also have knowledge of SEOs, so be sure to hire out this task.

Get your legal department involved. As instant as social media is, remember that it requires much work on the back end. It involves handling highly personal information and requires that you secure that information. Ensure your business not only has an Internet policy but also a social media policy. If your media tool is for internal personnel, the tool will definitely need to be secure to protect proprietary information.

Monitor or hire a company to monitor your social media networks. What good is it to have launched a social media strategy and not be able to determine how effective it is? Applying tools such as Google Analytics can reveal key information about your audience, from how they got to your page and the length of time spent there to your visitors’ geographical location and service provider. With this information you can get to know your clients/fan base a little better and you can provide them with more engaging content and information that meets their specific needs. Set a schedule to review this data on a regular basis and explore how it might impact the content or the next steps in your social media B2B strategy.

And there you have it, folks: all the points to follow when engaging in B2B social media. Since attending this seminar, I have applied Google Analytics to my website, I review my blog and website stats regularly, and I am exploring how I can get more relevant content to you, the readers, on a more regular basis. If you would like to see a certain topic discussed, please let me know by posting a comment below. Thanks!