Posted in communication, copywriting, tools, intelligence, social media on Mar 1st, 2008 4 Comments »
Mindmapping is an essential tool that merits more use in many business processes. It increases quality and productivity. Whatever you’re currently using mindmapping for, you’re not using it enough.
This article could easily become a ‘40 uses of mindmapping’ list. It could be a mindmap. But I’d rather focus on a few examples, leaving the […]
Posted in blog, copywriting on Jan 3rd, 2008 No Comments »
Another year’s gone, and the time-sheets are processed. Hereby a few benchmarks for our blogs at Leonardo ENERGY.
The length of our posts varies between 100 and 500 words, and takes us between 0.5 and 6 hours, depending on the amount of fact checking needed (as well as insight checking) and how straightforward it is […]
Posted in communication, copywriting, the test of time on Aug 7th, 2007 No Comments »
Long lists (top 10 or longer) are popular with blogs. As checklists, they’re fine, but as communication tools, they violate one of the mantra’s of professional communication. A reference article [1] from psychology alerts us to the limits of short-term memory, where we can store typically seven-plus-or-minus-two items.
In [2], J-L Doumont argues that ’seven’ […]
Posted in blog, copywriting on Jul 1st, 2007 No Comments »
A challenge for bloggers is to make an original contribution, and avoid being a mirror of what’s already posted elsewhere. Offline writing can help bloggers meet this aim.
The choice online/offline is a matter of personal preference, but also depends on the type of article:
Speedlinking is best done online
Short posts can be written online, though they […]
Posted in communication, copywriting, the test of time, websites on Jun 17th, 2007 No Comments »
How Users Read on the Web?
They don’t
Jakob Nielsen, October 1, 1997
Jakob Nielsen’s article of almost 10 years ago certainly passes the test of time.
How can we make articles more web-readible:
Be concise. Less is more
Keep paragraphs short (25-40 words)
Use short posts. Limit text to a single screen of 3-4 paragraphs.
Use one or few links. Link […]
Posted in communication, copywriting, book review on May 3rd, 2007 No Comments »
A book, a white paper, a blog, a community
White papers can be extremely powerful marketing instruments. But since they require thought leadership, they’re not easy to write. And their use comes with many pitfalls. Michael Stelzer’s book on the subject provides a practical and accessible guide. In particular, I appreciated:
its definition of white papers, […]
