So it’s International Quit Facebook Day. I’ll be interested to read tomorrow how many people actually quit; I’m sure it’ll be in the news somewhere. Or someone will tweet it. Here’s the news so far.

There’s been a lot of panic in the media over here this month – see this article and this one for examples. Facebook’s privacy policy is an overlong nightmare, but let’s be realistic for a moment.

Key advice: be sensible what you put on Facebook. Carefully look at your settings to see how much information you’re giving out. For example, don’t be daft and display your full date of birth and the town you were born in. Identity thieves may love you for it, but do you really want their love? (And if you’re worried that the folk at Facebook themselves might do something nasty with your identity, cross your fingers behind your back and type in a different date of birth to your actual one. Not nice, I know, but we all have a ton of information out there in the ether these days; protect it as you can.)

If in doubt, click the options which give out the least information to the world, and keep your wider profile visible only to your friends (and even then, do think about just how much info you want to give out). As with LinkedIn, it’s a good idea to only allow people you actually know to befriend you, or possibly friends of people you trust, if you are concerned about your privacy and identity. Yes, that might mean you don’t have 567 friends – you might only have 80 – but they are people you actually know.

If you’re a business person and you’re using your personal Facebook account for business, be sensible about what images you load up. Nobody wants to see you drunk and disorderly at a party. It might have been fun at the time, but it could influence the way future clients think about you. You have less control about the tags other people put on their photos, but you can control your own account as you like.

Realistically, if you’re going to use Facebook for business, start a business page. Keep it businesslike. Attract fans. Direct your clients to it. Make it a separate identity to your own Facebook personal page.

Facebook is growing in popularity as a business tool. I don’t, at this point, use it for my own company but I do maintain a business page for one of my clients. It’s another way to advertise your products and services for free using viral marketing.

Oh, and think about this: Facebook has received a ton of publicity this month. Even if it wasn’t all good, it’s the name that’s on everyone’s lips, or fingertips.

Do you only need a little website? Up to three pages and a blog? We can build you one for $499 inc GST and one year’s hosting. You’ll be able to make your own changes so maintenance costs could be zero.

We know there are lots of options out there for business owners and people who want a personal site to download a free or low cost Content Management System (CMS) template for their website and then tailor it to their own needs. If you’re a business owner, and customising website templates isn’t your specialty, it’s probably costing you more time than it’s worth to try. What do you charge an hour? And how many hours might you be spending tweaking a template and getting frustrated when it doesn’t work like it should? And lots of hosting companies also offer free website templates, but when you read the fine print you could be up for $80 or more a month in hosting costs. These are reasons why you should talk to us. We know what it’s like being in small business, with a lean budget to work with. We can save you time and frustration, and most of all, money.

If you’re a small business or need a personal site and would like a website with up to four pages*, this deal is for you. Your site will have:

• Content Management System which allows you to edit pages
• A unique look and feel appropriate to your type of business, your branding and corporate colours, or your personal interests
• A Home Page, About Page, Contact Page and
• The option for a blog
• Tailored Search Engine Optimisation on every page to increase your search engine rankings
• Links to your social media pages, ie Twitter, LinkedIn, should you want them
• RSS feeds so people can automatically get updates from your site
• Site stats and analytics
• One year’s web hosting
• Training on using your new site
• Up to 3 email addresses for your domain name

If you want an e-commerce shopping cart, that’s another story and will cost you more (price determined after we sit down and have a chat about what you need). The site will have a template customised to your needs and your preferences for colours.

We’ll throw in the hosting costs for the first year as part of the deal, but after that, hosting costs and domain name renewal should be the only costs you need to budget for with your new site. We arrange hosting with a reputable supplier and have not experienced any downtime with any of our clients’ sites. Current cost for hosting is between $50 – $120/yr  with the two hosting providers we recommend but that fluctuates, so we’ll keep you informed of changes.

You’ll be doing all the updating yourself using one of the simplest CMSs available – unless of course you’d like us to maintain it for you. We’ll give you free support for the first month after your site is uploaded. After that, if you need our help, we do charge an hourly rate (with 15 minutes the shortest billing period). It’s unlikely you’ll need us though unless do you want a new look and feel for your site, or you’ve done something horribly wrong which you can’t repair yourself (unlikely… but we’ve seen it happen).

Contact us to talk more about this special offer.

*The fine print. Registration of your domain name, if you don’t already have one, is at your cost. Domain names are pretty cheap these days and we can arrange for registration through our hosting suppliers at from as little as $12/year (current as at May 2010). We supply you with three pages and a blog. If you’d like extra sections or pages added to your site we can arrange that for $25 for a basic page. We can also give you add-ons such as photo galleries starting at $25 per gallery setup.

Who doesn’t have a website? Hands up!  If you’re in the hospitality or retail industry or you’re a tradie, you might be able to get by having a listing on a website such as etradesman.com.au, truelocal, or eatability.com.au

However, you can say much more about yourself and your business with your own website and your own domain name. If your business is a consultancy, for example,  a website is a must. Even if it’s only one page, it’s a far more personal and professional look for your company name and brand than just a listing on a site that uses the same template for every listing.

If you own a website, it does need regular care and feeding though. Think of it as a pet or a tamagochi. If you don’t look after it, it’ll die.

Who out there has updated their site in the last week? Couple of weeks? Last month? Any time in the last year?

Imagine you’re a visitor to your own website. You read that the last bit of news posted there was in 2007, and the copyright info at the bottom says 2008.  Hmm, you think, perhaps Joe Bloggs is so busy he can’t update his site, or perhaps his business has gone down the tubes and he can’t be bothered any more.

Your website is there working for you 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.  You need to keep it looking fresh.

For example, you have to give people a hook to connect with you. Have a call to action on your home page, such as Special offer for June 2010. 5% discount to all new clients. Or Contact us for your free report on FairWork. Make sure you change your ‘hook’ regularly.

If you enjoy talking and writing about what you do or your industry, consider writing a blog and having the latest posts show up on your home page. You’ll have to make time to maintain the pace though – nobody’s going to return if the last blog entry was six months ago.

Make sure you have Search Engine Optimisation on each page of your site, to help you through the rankings. Reciprocal links with other sites help you too.

Consider using Google adwords. This is a cheap and cost-effective way of advertising and because it can be tightly targeted demographically is an excellent spend for your dollar.

Do you know who’s visiting your site? You should have access to your statistics or have Google analytics installed. You should be able to find out from your stats what people are typing into search engines to find you, and what other sites have referred you. If you discover the majority of visits to your site are from your Mum showing you off to her friends, you have a problem with your search engine optimisation.

Add “Share” and RSS options to your site, so people can tell their friends about you or see when your site changes and new content is added.

And of course add your social media links – preferably with the smart little icons you can download from Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, YouTube etc. If you use Twitter as part of your internet and social marketing strategy, have a Twitter feed on the home page of your site. I’ll be writing more on branding and using social media soon in another post and how you can use viral marketing to enhance your online presence.

We have a special offer for new clients ordering our $990 small business website package in June 2010 – we’ll throw in 250 single sided full colour business cards which complement the design and colours of your new website and/or your logo or wordmark. Business cards are for one individual only. We can do you a special price for reprints or extra cards for colleagues – just ask. Your business cards will be professionally printed by one of Australia’s most reputable printing companies. They will be ‘plain’ cards in that they won’t have embossing or coatings on them, but they will look great. This offer applies to Australian businesses only.

Contact us to find out more.

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Having started this new blog with the current incarnation of my website the intention was to post something every couple of days, but the last week has been tremendously busy. I’ve hardly had time to think about what to write; even worse, I did have a good idea, didn’t jot it down and now I’ve forgotten it in the cocktail of things I’ve been doing for people! Grr!

Busy I might be but it’s all exciting stuff. I’m currently working with Martin Sekel of StreetViewHQ on rebuilding the Ryde Business Forum website in Joomla. Martin’s doing the lion’s share, especially some of the back end stuff with databases and online payments. I get to do the pretty graphic bits among other tasks. With all the work I already do for RBF I don’t have the time to build the site myself, and as I’m not as experienced in Joomla as Martin he can get it done in far less time. Monday and Tuesday this week passed in a fug as I spent about 14 hours each day, coming up occasionally for food, working on the site and flicking ideas back and forth with Martin. We hope to have the site live sometime in June.

Last weekend I did a rebuild for OctoberFirst’s website. It didn’t too long as it’s not an extensive site, but it certainly put paid to at least half of the weekend. I knew I had fat chance of rebuilding it during the week as the RBF site was beckoning.

In addition, it seems some of my smaller clients think it’s a good idea to update their websites this week. So far I’ve done changes for Christian Community Aid and BlandsLaw, and now Devine Law at Work has sent me a bucket of changes too. Something I’ll have to get out of the way this morning as this afternoon I have to head to an Economic Development Advisory Committee meeting at the City of Ryde.

Oh, and  I’ll have to write and send out an e-news for RBF by the end of the week.  As well this week I’ve had a board meeting with RBF, recorded a slot for 2RRR-FM, and the usual several hours’ worth of admin/marketing work for RBF.

I’m hoping to have some time off this weekend and put the work/life balance back in better order.

Sydney’s a multicultural city, and people whose first language isn’t English can sometimes find it hard to market successfully to a wide and sophisticated audience. You can have the best idea, product or service in the world, but you need to be able to tell people about it clearly and professionally.

That’s why one of the services I offer is editing material for people for whom English is a second language (ESL). Often these people can speak English fluently, but written English can be a much harder challenge. How many of us have had a giggle at the “Engrish” photos people have posted on various websites showing signs, products and other material translated into English, which either don’t make sense or are downright suggestive. Admittedly most of those photos are taken in countries where English isn’t readily spoken. Writing in a language that isn’t your native tongue is hard and fraught with spelling, punctuation and grammar dilemmas which could leave you looking less than professional. Sometimes words and phrases just get lost in translation.

My editing services help ESL speakers engage with their Australian audience without losing their own personality. I met a lovely lady at a function very recently; she’s Chinese and is a super sales person with a vivacious personality. We got chatting and I told her some of the things I did in my business, and she’s keen to talk more with me about my proof reading and editing her hard copy marketing materials. I’d love to help her, because she’s very professional in her outlook and honest in her business, and it wouldn’t take much to rework and polish her marketing documents. I’ve put a call in to her office and we’ll see what comes of it.

First impressions count, and if you get a flyer or brochure in your letterbox that has spelling errors or sentences that don’t make sense, what’s your first impression of the company that sent it? Are you going to trust them and use them? Or do you think, “Hmm, if they send out information full of mistakes, how good a job are they going to do?”

Think about it.

If you know someone I can help, or if you ARE someone I can help, contact me now to talk about my rates, which are very reasonable.

Have you noticed how Apostrophe Man has been leaving his mark more and more often? How much marketing material do you receive, by email or hard copy, with apostrophes either in the wrong place or not there when they should be?

Many of us use apostrophes to incorrectly denote a plural, eg: CD’s $19.99, in the 1990′s, PC’s on sale now. You see this everywhere, don’t you, and assume it’s common usage. It might be used everywhere but it’s still incorrect and pedants like me itch to get the TippEx out and fix it. These apostrophes are not denoting plurals, they are being possessive when they have nothing to be possessive about. In short, they simply shouldn’t be there.

Sadly even the most educated of us fall prey to inappropriate apostrophe usage; I’ve received many letters and emails from marketing managers and experts with degrees in communications who still get it wrong. This is a personal thing but bad punctuation does turn me off using or buying the product or service it’s promoting.

Then there’s the confusion between its and it’s. “It’s” should only be used as a contraction of “It is”. “Its” is actually a possessive pronoun like “yours” or a possessive determiner like “my”.

There are several good books about language and punctuation which are easy reads, can set you straight and ensure your marketing material doesn’t fall prey to Apostrophe Man and his evil band of language assassins. One is the stalwart Style Manual produced by the Australian Government Publishing Service. The other is the marvellous Eats Shoots & Leaves by Lynne Truss, which you and your employees will fight over. It’s serious, but also seriously funny. Both these books can be purchased at booksellers.

End of gripe…go and check your marketing material and website now and consider your apostrophes! If you’re in doubt about what’s right, contact me to proof read your material for you.

I was reading a memoir by an Australian author a few weeks ago. I won’t name and shame, because that would be unfair; especially as this was the most badly-edited book I’d read in a long time. Blimey, the punctuation was painful! Commas in the wrong places, colons and semi-colons inserted apparently at random because they’re punctuation marks and deserve to be used. Every proper name (ie Christian name, name of town) was italicised every time it was used.

By the time I crawled through Chapter Three I was in two minds: do I get the red pen out and do a proof on the book as I go, or do I write to the publishers expressing my frustration at trying to read something so unreadable? Both options would make me feel better and I opted for the latter.

The publishers replied within a day, and I could feel their embarrassment jumping off the screen. The book had slipped through the system with minimal editing in an effort to get it printed. The author has now written a follow-up, which is being heavily edited (my heart goes out to the editor). The first book, which the publisher wished they’d pulped before too many copies got loose, is going to be reprinted next year after a heavy editing session. I offered my services there. The subject matter was one that really appealed to me and I’d have a ball turning it into readable English.

Now when I bought that ill-fated book it was on the remaindered pile, despite only being published the year before. That’s sad news for a local author with a good tale to tell. I suspect the poor writing style had something to do with the remaindering.

Really, there is no excuse for not presenting a well-written document to the world, whether it’s a memoir of your fantastic time living overseas for ten years, or a company newsletter with a casual feel.

Casual doesn’t mean sloppy, by the way. You can be friendly and casual and still conform to the rules of punctuation and grammar. This post is an example.

It IS worth asking an editor to check your work. Isn’t it better to have a second pair of eyes go over your work, make any necessary corrections – especially those little typos which may have slipped your notice after you’ve redrafted something many times – and leave you with a document that presents a professional image to your clients? I get numerous e-newsletters in my inbox every week; most are well-written and professional, some make me wince. The ideas are good but the grammar and punctuation isn’t.

Editing is a powerful tool that can make a massive difference to how people perceive you and your company. If in doubt, try it out! Mention this post and I’ll give you an hours’ worth of editing for free. Contact me if you’re interested.

We design all of Ryde Business Forum’s marketing material, and because cost is an issue for every not-for-profit organisation we use specific, simple templates for invitations, rather than design something completely new for each event.

Events can be anything from workshops for a maximum of fifteen people to lunch or breakfast for around 200 – as this invitation was for.

Arion Productions  changed RBF’s branding from staid and traditional three years ago to fresh and inviting, with sans-serif fonts used in all marketing material, and the ‘wave’ device of blue, green and white common across all invitations, the website, stationery and newsletters. Aqua and green colours have been introduced as part of the corporate look, which was previously Reflex Blue and white. We believe the change in branding has definitely made a positive impact on the way RBF is perceived by members and future members.

I’ve designed the annual report for the wonderful people at Centre for Disability Studies since the early 2000s. When I was engaged to do the job initially the brief was to modernise the look and feel of the report. Budget was a real issue and for several years we did the whole job in two process colours. Careful use of white space and those two colours taking specific roles in the document still made the annual report look clean and fresh.

The 2009 report was the first we did in full colour and it looks one hundred per cent better again. Those two colours – the red and the blue – are still very much in evidence and apart from full colour photos and black body copy they are the only colours used in the document, retaining a clear link with the organisation’s corporate colours and previous reports.