The pretty average return

May 23, 2013 by Leave a Comment

I am not – nor have I ever been – Catholic, but I think I know how it feels to skimp on the confession front. It seems that the very fabric of the universe has changed since the last time I posted anything on this blog. Okay, I’m being slightly hyperbolic, but scientists did discover the God particle since my last post.

In November 2011 I resigned from Medios and set out to make my own way in the world. Wordsmyth, this thing of miracle and wonder, turned into its own little business of which I am now the boss. Ironically, as soon as I became the boss I stopped blogging and instead divvied up my time between trying to get work and worrying about not having work. I also spent a lot of time in silence and poverty. Who knew working from home isn’t always fun?

Luckily, with a little pleading and perserverance things started picking up and I currently find myself at Finweek magazine – a financial publication of all things. I am lucky enough to work as the magazine’s lifestyle and web editor and our readers are lucky enough never to receive any financial advice from Ms Debt Trap Sucker over here. The Finweek team is a young and slightly unusual mix of people and certainly not what I expected when I accepted the gig. The magazine has been around since the Apartheid years and started out as a very stately and serious Afrikaans publication called Finansies en Tegniek. When I got offered the position many of my friends in the industry warned me not to take it – partly because print is dead and partly because the magazine’s Big Bad Businessman tried to shut it down more than once.

As fate would have it, I got offered another position on the very same day I received the Finweek offer. Had I taken that position I would have been a copywriter for an online gambling company that mostly operates outside of SA and I’m sure my life would have looked slightly different. After three years of semi-corporate work, however, I felt the alluring call of casual working hours and informal attire and joined this team instead.

I decided to opt for a retainer instead of permanent employment because I can still run Wordsmyth after hours without the risk of breaking contractual agreements. Of course, now that I don’t have all the time in the world I often get contacted to work on big projects that I can’t take on. Figures, right? On the upside, I get opportunities to travel and I get to write about wine a lot, so I reckon I’m moving in the right general direction.

I’m hoping to return to my regular blogging schedule now that things have settled down (although I do have a wedding competing for attention. That’s another part of the universe that changed since my last blog). I have a lot to learn here.

Filed Under: writing

Is it enough?

October 1, 2010 by Leave a Comment

This morning the office is a disaster. Boxes of perfume obstruct walkways; chairs face away from desks; files are sprawled open in a very ungainly fashion; open cupboard doors reveal unorganised office supplies; dirty coffee mugs and scraps of paper cover every surface. A three-quarter bottle of rosy, pink wine covered in oily finger marks is oddly alluring among pizza boxes and jellybeans.

It’s hard to understand how we’ve gone from running like a well-oiled machine to a mechanical calamity within a week. I could think of about a million things and a couple of people to blame, but what would be the point?

I love coming to the office. I love catching up with colleagues and hearing about office politics and shooting the bull with Abigail. I even love it when it’s a fiasco, like today. It’s frustrating that I can’t shoulder some of the responsibility to give the people I love a breather, but it’s nice to know that my presence here makes a difference.

While Sparrow puts out fires in a meeting with Medios’ biggest client, I will unpack the dishwasher. While he tries to convince another client that a cut in the marketing budget is likely to result in a further reduction in profit, I will clear the dirty coffee mugs. While Abigail drives to the other side of town, I will refill the coffee pod holder, put water in the kettle and put the bottle of wine in the fridge. While she tries to correct a design error, I will organise a desk for the new intern. When we have a meeting later today, the two of them will come back to a pleasant office. This won’t make a difference to our current circumstances – it might even be a little silly – but it’s all I can think of to make things a little more bearable. That’s something, right?

Filed Under: Blog

The non-blog

September 23, 2010 by 1 Comment

Honestly, I don’t feel like blogging today. A lot of crazy things happened this week.

I saved a kiewiet (apparently it’s called a plover in English, but that just sounds stupid), we’re in the midst of organising the Selected Energy Dealer Conference, new clients dropped by, everyone had a lot of questions, and my body decided it would be a wonderful time to get a cold.

On the upside, it’s wonderfully warm in Jozi, the garden at the office has never been more beautiful, the office cat is especially flirty, I figured out how to make the coffee machine obey me, I caught up with an old acquaintance and my playlist has been giving me ear hugs all week.

Because I don’t feel like blogging, because it’s National Braai Day tomorrow (Get in my belly, Veggie Sausage!) and because I’m feeling flowery and springy and happy, I’m posting music. Deal with it.

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With:

Wonderboom joins social media

September 20, 2010 by 2 Comments

I recently posted the South African Musician’s Guide to Social Media. Here’s what local rockers Wonderboom had to say about social media.

Wonderboom takes the social scene

South African rockers Wonderboom have embraced inbound marketing for the promotion of their new album Automatic Shuffle.

“For many years we relied on the tried and tested marketing networks created by record companies. These networks depend on so many variables and reaching your audience is never simple,” said Cito, Wonderboom front man.

“For Automatic Shuffle we decided to take cognisance of the changes in the music industry and to take charge by promoting the album ourselves,” continued Cito.

The band approached Medios Marketing Communications to explain the basic principles of inbound marketing, with a strong focus on social media as a promotional tool. The band will manage all social media accounts.

The music industry is no stranger to social media platforms. Bands like Arctic Monkeys and OK Go went from relatively unknown bands to world-famous international acts through viral campaigns. Wonderboom’s approach differs from these campaigns because the band’s campaign has its foundation in new marketing theory. According to Jacques van den Bergh, managing director of Medios Marketing Communications, new marketing requires communication with the market rather than communicating at them.

“We are one of the last founding SA rock bands,” said Martin Schofield, the band’s lead guitarist. “Few people realise that we have been around for almost 15 years with a discography of eight albums,” Schofield continued.

The band understands it is not a mass-market band, yet there is a section of almost every demographic to which their style and attitudes will appeal. Wonderboom is banking on these niches across the board.

For Cito, the success in marketing the album lies with connecting not only with the band’s current fan base, but also with its emerging fans.

“Wonderboom isn’t the kind of band that adapts to the needs of a particular demographic. Instead we will put ourselves out there, interact with whoever we appeal to and take it from there.”

Wonderboom fans can find out more about Automatic Shuffle on www.wonderboom.co.za, interact with the band on Twitter or join the band’s Facebook page.

Filed Under: Blog, social media Tagged With: ,

Feed your copywriter (information)

September 16, 2010 by 1 Comment

Copywriters are great! They translate difficult information into digestible chunks, they encourage consumers to buy two pairs of studded leggings instead of one, they amuse, they explain and sometimes they even inspire. Despite the sheer awesomeness of your average copywriter, they aren’t very good mind readers. Or maybe they are, but I’m not.
To write a good article, I need a good brief. What constitutes a good brief? I’m so glad you asked!

1. An interview

To understand what you need, I need to talk to you. I need your undivided attention for an hour to ask questions, to make sure that I understand what you need and to ensure that we agree on the angle of the article.

2. Detail

To understand your product or service, I need access to every single piece of information on the product and the industry. This includes technical information, an overview of recent developments in the industry, the key role players and industry gossip. If you think the information you have is irrelevant, you’re probably wrong.

3. Context

I need to understand what made you identify the need for the article. When I understand why I’m writing the article, I understand what the article has to achieve.

4. A source

Quoting a reliable industry source outside of your company gives the article credibility. An industry expert might also contribute valuable information that you are unaware of. I will need the name, contact number and email address of a person that is well known throughout your industry.

5. A deadline

Whether it’s a week, a month, or a day, I need to know how much time I have to read up on your product, gather additional information, set up interviews, produce a first draft, make the final changes and edit the article.

You should also do the following:

Filed Under: Blog, copywriting

A musician’s guide to social media

September 9, 2010 by 1 Comment
Wonderboom band

Wonderboom

To us normal folk, social media is the perfect way to see what the cool kids are up to, and we all know there’s nothing cooler than a Fender-wielding, bearded muso in skinny jeans. Later today South African rock veterans Wonderboom will stop by to talk about a social media strategy for the band. Here’s what we’ll tell them about social media:

1. Your blog is your HQ

Fans want to know everything about musicians, including what they eat and who their friends are. Take a moment to thank MTV for that. While most social media platforms allow you to share your entire life, your band’s blog should be your social media headquarters. Your blog should have:

  • Your band name as a URL, for example www.wonderboom.co.za
  • A link to each of your band’s social media accounts
  • A Twitter feed widget
  • A gallery with show and promotional images
  • A very visible gig guide
  • A media player with samples of your music
  • A link to an online store where fans can purchase your music
  • An RSS option

2. MySpace isn’t enough

For years MySpace has been a favourite among musos. While sharing music is fairly easy on MySpace, these days all blogging platforms allow you to share music and videos. Your band should be on MySpace, but your MySpace account should be secondary to your blog.

Blogs are fully customisable, whereas MySpace can only be altered superficially. MySpace pages tend to be cluttered and hard to navigate. Load your music to your MySpace page, and add a link to your blog.

Visit Wonderboom’s MySpace page here.

3. Twitter is your friend

While many South Africans seem reluctant to join Twitter, there’s no better platform to share gig information and last-minute changes to line-ups. Twitter is easily accessible from cellular phones and gives fans the chance to interact with the band directly.

Your band’s Twitter account should be active and interactive. The idea is to talk with your fans, not to them. Take a look at Ashtray Electric’s @rudi_cronje and Werner Olckers’ @wrestlerish to see how it should be done.

4. You should have a Facebook group

Facebook is the security blanky of social media. If your fans aren’t on Facebook, they won’t be on Twitter, they won’t read your blog and they’ll probably only come to your Barnyard shows.

Facebook groups allow you to send invitations to shows; share links to your blog entries; post photos and music and to interact with fans. What’s more, your Facebook updates can be duplicated on your Twitter account automatically.

View Wonderboom’s Facebook group here.

5. Foursquare is worth it

Because bands travel all the time, checking in on Foursquare will let fans know when you’re in their area. Your Foursquare updates can be linked to your Facebook and Twitter accounts, which means you can update all three accounts in one go. Do it! Do it now!

Filed Under: Blog, social media Tagged With: , , , ,

Six tips on technical writing

September 2, 2010 by Leave a Comment

Corporate copywriting can be bitch. Copywriters have to interpret technical information and translate it into something the target audience can understand. Over the past two years, I’ve produced copy for a variety of industries, ranging from engineering to fashion to solar water heating. What’s been seen can’t be unseen, my friends, and sometimes understanding the advantages of low iron anti-reflective tempered glass just isn’t worth it.

Because the left side of my brain is a mushy pulp, dominated by my right brain in a severe and kinky way, I’ve had to find other ways of understanding technical information sufficiently to write about it. Follow these steps when dealing with a particularly challenging topic:

1. Identify the expert

Every company has one person that understands your subject matter better than anyone else. Let’s call him Mister X. In all likelihood Mister X will be part of the technical team or in management. Mister X will be your best friend. Be warned: Mister X is never the beefy surfer with the washboard abs and guitar. It’s unfortunate, but it’s true.

Mister X

Mister X

Tim Riggins

Not Mister X

2. Schedule a face-to-face meeting

If the person you have to speak to is part of the technical team or management, odds are your emails will be ignored or a low priority. Schedule a face-to-face meeting in a boardroom or a coffee shop away from the office. Odds are you aren’t the only person craving a moment of Mister X’s time, so do all you can to get his undivided attention.

3. Have questions ready

Never walk into the interview unprepared. Do research on the product or field and identify specific questions relevant to your article. Don’t expect Mister X to educate you. Respect his time and his skill if you want him to respect yours.

If you’re writing an article on solar water heating, familiarise yourself with the basics, like how the systems work and the kinds of systems available. Look at solar water heating in South Africa, at competitors, at major industry players like Eskom and Nersa and at recent news coverage on the subject.

Identify how Mister X and his company fits into all the information you’ve acquired, and then work out questions based on the Five Ws (and one H) principle. If you don’t know the Five Ws (and one H) principle, look that up and then start reading this blog from the beginning.

4. Write it down

Jotting down information while Mister X pontificates is uncomfortable and distracting (especially when Mister X keeps rubbernecking to see if you wrote ‘thermosiphon’ just like ha said), but it’s a necessity. You will forget. Trust me.

5. Ask permission to follow up

The writing process involves sorting and structuring information. You’ll probably find that you forgot to ask for Mister X’s official title or how to spell the surname of the MD. Prepare Mister X for the fact that you’ll be dropping him a line for urgent information within a day or two of the interview. Ask him if you should contact him directly, or if you should talk to a Lesser X.

6. Share the first draft

While I’m not advocating taking writing advice from technical staff or management, it helps to share the first draft with Mister X. He’ll be able to tell you if you misunderstood any of his points. If you did, it’s best to find out before you spend too much time writing the wrong article.

High five if you read to the end of this very wordy post. Let me know if I forgot anything in the comments section.

Filed Under: Blog, business writing, copywriting, technical writing Tagged With: ,

Apostrophes and possession (not the demonic kind)

August 26, 2010 by Leave a Comment

This morning I drove past an Eddies Removals truck. What, thought I, would Eddies be? Are Eddies a group of individuals predestined to become movers merely because they’re named Eddie? Are Eddies the Igors of the modern world? It must be, I mused, because Eddies Removals certainly isn’t a removals business belonging to a man named Eddie. I had no doubt, because the English language has a little blob called the apostrophe. This little blob exists to help people like me understand when something belongs to someone.

It seems the rule of thumb for people who are unsure of apostrophe use, is to use it when they shouldn’t. Therefore, I’m suggesting the following: If you don’t know how apostrophes work, do the opposite of what you think is right.

Of course, you could read this The Oatmeal comic. It explains apostrophe use. You can even buy the poster if you find that you’re ready to commit to the apostrophe in a big way.

Apostrophe use

Visit The Oatmeal

Filed Under: Blog, Spelling and grammar Tagged With: , , ,

Media freedom – Is that really, really what you want?

August 19, 2010 by 3 Comments

Over the past couple of months I’ve shared my opinion on the importance of the media in general, and investigative and in-depth journalism in particular. I wrote about journalism here, about the Mail & Guardian school of investigative journalism here and my respect for editor Nick Dawes here. I think it’s obvious that I find the idea of controlling information preposterous.

Yesterday Pick n Pay’s chairman Gareth Ackerman joined the press freedom debate. According to this article by The Times, Ackerman pointed out the link between economic and political freedom and the dependence of economic freedom on the free flow of information.

I find it ironic that one of the first businesses to join the debate would be the first business that ever made me doubt press freedom in South Africa. A couple of Jozi years ago, I was part of the ZOO editorial team. While the kind of reporting we did had no effect on national security, we did a lot of important in-depth research.

ZOO magazine Image

Keeley Hazell in ZOO magazine shoot

The magazine irritated a lot of people, including my poor parents who couldn’t reconcile my Christelik-Nasionale education and promising start at Beeld newspaper with my sudden interest in tits and ass. I think they finally accepted it when they realised it would have been a lot worse if I were actually in the magazine. In my time at ZOO a lot of us came under fire for the kind of content (or lack thereof) we published. However, we were all secure in the knowledge that we live in a democracy where press freedom gave us the opportunity to cater to a niche market.

ZOO magazine UK cover

ZOO UK cover page

Despite our relative notoriety in the industry, the only business owner that ever actually boycotted ZOO in my time there was none other than mister Ra Ra Press Freedom Gareth Ackerman. If memory serves his outrage had something to do with a photo editing blunder that rewarded the more perceptive among ZOO readers with an eyeful of punani on page seven.

I appreciate the fact that he’s taking a stand in this whole debate in his capacity as an important participant in the South African economic environment. However, I have a problem with the fact that mister Ackerman is advocating press freedom on the one hand while preventing the distribution of publications that don’t fit in with his idea of journalism on the other. I’m sure the media coverage of his patriotic point of view didn’t hurt either.

If we accept the South African Oxford Dictionary‘s definition of freedom, it means that the media has “the power or right to act, speak, or think freely”. Media freedom therefore encompasses all forms of media, regardless of quality or subject matter. Mister Ackerman is talking the talk. I sincerely hope that he and the rest of the press freedom choir remembers to walk the walk when this blows over. Live and let publish.

What do you think of Gareth Ackerman’s participation in the press freedom debate? Let me know in the comments section.

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: ,

If only they had a copywriter

August 12, 2010 by 4 Comments

Between my Google Reader subscriptions, my Twitter feed and content shared by friends and colleagues, I consume a busload of online information every day. Pair that with the fact that I’m obsessive compulsive (read: anal) about language, I have certain standards when I take the time to read something.

I understand as well as the next person that mistakes slip in, but unless you’re still rocking a typewriter, spell checkers and tools like After the Deadline should eliminate most spelling errors. I can forgive the your/you’re or advice/advise slip, but badly written copy puts me off a product or service completely.

A colleague forwarded me the below email recently. I changed the name of the company and the suburb, but the rest is verbatim:

I hope that you are well.
I would like to take this opportunity to introduce X Company to you,
We are an up market and ultra modern Conferencing and special events venue based in X Suburb. We boast with over 9 different meeting rooms and our capacities can accommodate from 4pax – 500pax.

We can do EVERYTHING from product launches, conferencing, banquets, exhibitions, teambuilding, seminars, training, amazing themed yearend functions, cocktail parties etc, basically whatever your heart desires!

Our prices are really competitive!

I would like to Extend an invite to you to attend a site inspection of our venue at a time convenient to you.
It would be my pleasure to show you our venue and meet you in person.

I don’t know if an “ultra modern” company that does EVERYTHING instead of everything, Conferencing instead of conferencing and that Extends instead of extends is the right company for my “teambuilding” function. I thought pax had something to do with kissing. Also my heart desires! a company that’s not quite so competitive! in the ! department.

I’m not saying everyone should spend thousands on a copywriting service. If you can’t afford a permanent copywriter, pay a linguistics student or an underpaid newspaper subeditor to do it. A couple of bucks could save you a lot of embarrassment.

Freelance writers, editors and such folk, feel free to link to your website in the comments section below.

Filed Under: Blog, business writing, writing Tagged With: , , ,
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