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Welcome to Z Connections: The Social Media Edition

Welcome to the October issue of Z Connections.

Like any good addict, I dreaded having to reduce my coffee intake. But, my two cups somehow got to four a day and the lulls I filled with tea.

However, to kick-start Spring I took the opportunity to reset my love of the luscious bean and found that I actually don’t need it – what I thought was a mandatory start to the day, was just an addition – something not serving my mind or body.

It got me thinking, what were the vices we have in our organisations? What are the quick little fixes that give us a headache when we have too much of them? Recognise any of these?

The too-hard basket, the shrug off - ‘I’ll think about it’, the declaration - ‘I’m too busy’, the buck-passer, ‘see what everyone else thinks’ or what about the golden oldie - turning a blind eye.

Spring is a great time to detox; why not start with your business? This month we focus on how to achieve your marketing goals via social media, some useful grammar tips, tips for writing web copy and tips for writing media releases.

Felicity

Social Media Has Changed The Way We Communicate

With over 600 million users, Facebook is the largest social networking site in the world. Mashable reported last September that users spend more time on Facebook than Google. Facebook users share photos, videos, links, questions and status updates, sharing their lives in meticulous detail. Businesses are also using Facebook to communicate with their customers and create their own pieces of owned and earned media.

There are now more social-networking accounts than there are people in the world, according to figures from In-Stat. The Social Web is not just a fad; it is a fundamental shift in how humans communicate, interact, collaborate, create, inform themselves, prioritise, organise, buy, sell, and play.

Social Media; The Online Future of Your Business

Have you created your business a Facebook page? Tweeting daily on Twitter? Set up a profile on Linked in? Think you’ve got social media covered for your business? Guess again, Social Media is growing faster all the time, let us show you how to use these key marketing tools!

The first step to social media is… Planning! Who are you targeting? What do you want to achieve through these sites? How do you want your business perceived? We also recommend that you implement a ‘Social Media Policy’, with Do’s and Don’ts, as a guide line for your employees to follow.

Tips For Getting Your Writing Style Right

1. Website copy

Writing content for your website requires a different style to writing for print. People read differently on screen and research has shown that their attention span is shorter (i.e. avoid long copy pages).

Here’s our top tips for textbook web content:

• Make sentences and paragraphs short.
• White space is your friend. It makes reading on screen easier.
• Nothing is harder to read than a solid block of copy.

• Use the simplest possible word and sentence structure.
• Read it out loud and make sure you don't get stuck on complex construction.
• If you trip on a word in the midst of reading a sentence aloud, re-write the sentence.
• Use bullet points and sub-headings whenever you can.

2. Media release tips:

• When you're posting press releases on your website, the best place to put them is in a section of your site called your Media Centre.

• Ideally, the Media Centre button will be on your home page so that journalists, one of your key audiences, can find it immediately.

• Nine out of 10 organisations that archive their press releases separate them according to the year in which they were written. The problem with that, however, is that a journalist searching for a press release on a certain product you sell probably wouldn't know where to start looking.

• Best practice is to include the list of releases in two separate formats: 1) categorised by year of release 2) categorised by product/topic area.

• To make it even easier for anyone to find what they're looking for, make sure there is a search function on your website.

Modern Day Grammar Tips and Definitely or Definately?

1. Abbreviations

Abbreviations are shortened forms of words or phrases. Users of social media challenge theories of abbreviations by using initialisms which are abbreviations using only the first letters of words in a phrase. The Oxford English Dictionary selected a number of noteworthy "initialisms" for their March 2011 online release including:

LOL (Chiefly in electronic communication) used to draw attention to a joke or amusing statement, or to express amusement.
FYI For your information
BTW (Informal) by the way

And you may be asking – why are these initialisms being included in the Oxford English Dictionary? Well the answer is – usage. The more the word is used over a period of time, the more likely it is that it will be included in publications. This emphasises the strength of the digital world – especially in terms of the way we communicate.

Let’s go back to basics – do you know the correct meanings for these abbreviations below? Share your thoughts on our Facebook page.

ad lib. ad libitum as much as you like
ca. or c. circa around
cf. confer compare with
e.g. exempli gratia for example
et al. et alii (et aliae, et alia) and other things
etc. etcetera and so on
ibid. ibidem in the same source
i.e. id est that is
loc. cit. loco citato in the place previously cited
NB nota bene note well
q.e.d. quod erat demonstrandum thus proved
sic sic thus, or literally

2. Common misspellings

According to the Oxford Dictionary, these are 12 of the most common misspellings:
Accommodate, Argument, Believe, Committee, Definitely, Existence, Foreign, Grammar, Privilege, Rhythm, Tomorrow and Unfortunately.

What other words would you add to the list? Post your commonly misspelled words on the Zadro Facebook page!

Know Your Colours

The Pantone Color Matching System is largely a standardised color reproduction system. By standardising the colors, different manufacturers in different locations can all refer to the Pantone system to make sure colors match without direct contact with one another.image goes here

By Joanne McGuinness, Senior Graphic Designer

The Pantone Colour Matching System is largely a standardised colour reproduction system. By standardising the colours, different manufacturers in different locations can all refer to the Pantone System to make sure colours match without direct contact with one another.

Pantone colours are described by their allocated number (PMS 130). PMS colours are almost always used in branding and have even found their way into government legislation (to describe the colours of flags).

The CMYK process is a method of printing colour by using a variation of percentages of four inks—cyan, magenta, yellow, and black. A majority of the world’s printed material is produced using the CMYK process.

The RGB process is an additive colour model in which Red, Green, and Blue light is added together in various ways to reproduce a broad array of colours. Like CMYK the name of the model comes from the initials of the three additive primary colours, red, green, and blue. The main purpose of the RGB colour model is for the sensing, representation, and display of images in electronic systems, such as televisions and computers.

Latest from Facebook...! You no longer need 25 friends!

Facebook used to require pages and individual users to have at least 25 friends in order to claim a customized address extension. That meant any newbie had to accept an ugly URL usually including a long number. No one can remember URLs like this and they’re too long to put on your marketing materials.

Now you no longer need 25 friends for your profile or page to get an easier-to-remember address. Go to facebook.com/username to choose custom URLs for your pages.

227 Commonwealth Street, Surry Hills NSW 2010 T 02 9212 7867 advice@zadrocommunications.com.au

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