World of Words

The wonderful thing about the English language is that there is often five words to a meaning.
The problem is, people react differently to different words. Examples:

War - Conflict
Debate - Discussion
Tactics - Strategies
Clients - Customers, Consumers
Sunglasses - Shades
Laptop - Notebook
Professional - Expert
Spy - Intelligence Officer
etc.

Every day we are faced with choices over what words to use, based on what reactions we want.
It may seem like a minor detail, but the words we choose could have a significant impact on the intended message and emotions that we wish to convey.

Take this mission statement:

"Our Roadmap starts with our mission, which is enduring. It declares our purpose as a company and serves as the standard against which we weigh our actions and decisions."- The Coca-Cola Company Mission Statement

What the hell is a Roadmap? Why is their mission enduring? What is it serving? Why are they weighing things?
The whole sentence doesn't make sense... Yet, I still feel good about it. Something about it makes me trust in this.


What it means, I think, is "Coca-Cola makes decisions based on a set of company morals."


... Not nearly as glamourous.


Choose your words carefully, and remember that humans are emotional beings. Stir us and we weep. When we weep, we forget. We forget the pain, we forget the past, but we are left with the tingling residue of emotion... We can't explain it. Sometimes, we just want to cry. Sometimes, we want to laugh. And sometimes we get so caught up in emotion and word selection that we forget what we were typing.

Small Social Media

Social Media is an ever increasing need for small businesses.

Small businesses need it:

• to keep up with competitors;
• to understand clients;
• and, to look better.

But social media is only a small part of the public relations picture.

Social media can make or break a business, but with the sudden adoption of social media into society, it's safe to say 'a lack of social media will break a business'. Which is why small businesses need to get social media, and get it right.

Here are a few tips to keep your business afloat with social media:

1. Have a consistent voice, not an annoying one.
   Tweet at least, but no more than, once a day. Post on facebook no more than once a week, unless the message is important. Over-saturating consumers is never a good thing.
   
2. Keep it relevant. Don't communicate anything that doesn't relate to your business.
   No tweets of how cute your cat looks.
   
3. Be aware. Take note of who 'likes' and 'retweets' and how many people did so. Also take note of the conversations that take place regarding your product. This information is invaluable!