Thank god we still have blogs though, right? No character limits here, just sweet sweet freedom to share our musings with the world. Not so, says Chris Garrett in a recent post for Copyblogger.  Brevity is a virtue for blogs and tweets alike. If you blog for your business, be sure to deliberate over each post just as you would over a tweet.  You may have successfully piqued your followers’ interest on Twitter and lured them to the bulk of your content, but don’t assume you’ve won them over just because they’re on your  site.  Each blog post should show that you value your readers’ time. That’s not to say you can’t indulge in a few linguistic flourishes, but make sure that you have a clear point—that you have something of use to share with your readers.

Successful content marketing should benefit producer and consumer alike.  Blogging on its own can be a massive time commitment, but effective, succinct, well-edited blogging is even more so. If you aren’t sure you’re up to the task, or as Chris Garrett puts it, you are just “too lazy to write less,” you may want to consider outsourcing your content marketing efforts by hiring writers who have the time, energy, and expertise to tackle your blogging needs.

Nicola Fairhead is an ideaLaunch editorial intern with a ferocious appetite for writing, editing, and consuming content.  She has quickly become a content marketing evangelist.

Image courtesy of teamowens313.files.wordpress.com

A sample from The Oatmeal

You might be incredibly gifted at business. You might know your customers better than they know themselves. You might have invented the greatest product since sliced iPod. But if your content marketing efforts and website are littered with spelling errors, people are sadly going to think you’re an idiot. Plus, incorrect spelling can affect your SEO success, and for a bunch of content optimization freaks like ourselves, that’s a real shame.

Typos happen to the best of us. Not knowing the difference between “there”, “their” and “they’re” isn’t acceptable in business writing.

While I would encourage nearly everyone to hire a writer or a content marketing agency if you want to make a real go of your business, correcting the top spelling offenders is worthwhile for all.

The hilarious but not-always PC people at  The Oatmeal have developed a web page (and poster!) that highlight the ten words people need to stop misspelling – complete with little tricks and tips (some ruder than others) on how to remember the proper spelling. These are:

• Lose vs. Loose
• Weird
• Their vs. There vs. They’re
• Your vs. You’re
• It’s vs. Its
• Definitely
• Effect vs. Affect
• Weather vs. Whether
• A lot
• Then vs. Than

See any that give you trouble now and again? Educate yourself and have a little laugh while you’re at it.

First the basics. General Electric (NBC’s parent company) agreed to a joint venture with Comcast, essentially giving Comcast a 51% stake—and thus a controlling majority—in NBC Universal (including the broadcast station, cable channels, websites, and theme parks). To accomplish this, GE first had to buy out another partner, Vivendi SA, which owned a 20% stake of NBC Universal.

Blah blah blah… so what does this all mean and why is this news? It all boils down to content. NBC is a content creator (they create shows like 30 Rock and movies like Jaws) while Comcast with its internet and cable service is a content provider.

Comcast the provider now controls content creation. This means they will control content that Comcast’s competition in the delivery/providing space (Verizon, COX, Time Warner) also brings into consumer’s homes. Comcast execs could potentially say to their competition and consumers, “If you want NBC, you have to buy Comcast cable. We will not allow NBC programming to be shown via Verizon and Direct TV.” For internet users, it’s the same story. Comcast could forbid those browsing via Verizon FIOS from accessing NBC Universal content on Hulu.

This is all a big “could,” because there are antitrust laws in this country to prevent such behavior. Congress certainly will be reviewing the purchase and I’m sure Comcast will do its part to at least address consumer concerns.

In many ways it’s old news. We’ve seen the marriage of content providers and distributors before. The infamous studio system that dominated film production and distribution reigned over the movie business until the Supreme Court broke it up in the 1950s (basically, the major studios made the films and owned or controlled the theaters that showed them). More recently in 2000, internet service provider AOL acquired media giant Time Warner and its media/content assets. The two companies never quite figured out how to take advantage of the creator/distributor dichotomy and eventually split in May 2009.

My tweets usually get sucked into the big black hole that is the Twitter universe—or so I thought. This week I tweeted about a content project I needed to match with a qualified writer. Just another tweet, another 140-character brain fart tossed into orbit. But this simple little tweet did something astonishing. An expert freelancer out there saw my tweet, replied with her interest and online portfolio, and after reviewing her qualifications, she got the assignment.

This social media tool is rekindling my college-years activism too. (I know what you’re thinking. I went to UC Santa Cruz so I must have been a bra-burning, tree-hugging, pot head anti-establishment type. No comment.)

At the end of July, local press exposed a new Massachusetts law requiring scooter owners (like moi) to license, insure and reclassify our ride. With eight days notice before the law went into effect August 1. The catch 22: anything with a license plate can’t park on sidewalks. Where are we going to park our babies? They need to be locked up to prevent theft. Also, what a buzz kill! Shouldn’t this ecologically friendly alternative mode of transportation be rewarded and promoted, not vilified and over-regulated? Furthermore, fewer scooters in parking spaces = more parking for cars in this already congested city.

What’s a Boston Vespa vixen to do? Tweet about it. And follow others who are passionate about the cause. Just like the protesters in Tehran during the botched Iranian election, we mobilized (literally) via Twitter thanks to the ability to follow real-time updates. We protested against the asinine law on the sidewalk of the State Capital, scooters parked innocently on the sidewalk to prove our point. That’s my scooter in the Boston Globe photo (c/o Wendy Maeda).

How are you using Twitter in your personal and professional life? Any thoughts on what marketing, social media and causes around the world would do without Twitter now that it has such a strong presence in our lives?