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Section 2: Recipe No. 9 | Report on an event
Exhibitions
Hot Tip
Exhibitions are another source of content:
• Could you write an interesting article about your company’s preparation for the exhibition?
Ask open questions
of the people you meet. Questions starting with the words why, what or how will get people talking.
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• What products are you exhibiting?
• What do you hope to get from the exhibition?
• How many people are you expecting to see?
• What should visitors to your stand be expecting?
After the event
• How many sales did you get?
• What was the customer feedback?
• Were you able to network with other companies?
• Who was the best speaker at the event? What made you like them? What did
they say that was so enlightening?
• Would you recommend the event to other companies?
• What tips would you give on surviving an exhibition day?
More adventurous work
At larger events, you might want to ask a member of your team to act as a roving reporter, responsible for interviewing other attendees, Twittering, blogging, and producing a review of the event. Take your notepad around the event and speak to the leading figures:
• What do they feel about the event?
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Section 2: Recipe No. 9 | Report on an event
• How does it compare with previous years?
• What products are they promoting?
• Who are their competitors? Compare their presence at the event.
And remember, when name-checking people and businesses, make sure they are aware that you intend to publish.
And you don’t just have to report on the event itself. Some of the speakers may throw up article ideas that you can follow up. I went to the 2009 Guardian newspaper summit in the UK, where industry leaders discussed the future of media. It included a series of presentations on how newspapers and television production companies will make money in the future. This sparked an idea for an article I wrote called ‘Would You Pay to Read Newspapers Online?’
When writing any kind of content, engagement with your audience is the main goal. By posing different questions and getting your readers involved you will build up a solid reputation within your industry ’s community and become an attractive site to link to.
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Jargon buster
10
The Penguin English dictionary defines jargon as: “language peculiar to one art, trade or branch of learning.” If an expression is mainly used within your industry and not outside, it’s jargon.
Using obscure or little-known language Decide your strategy
runs the risk of leaving your customers When you set up your own jargon buster, make sure to
feeling confused and frustrated. provide links to any of your related products. Order your
list alphabetically or with some of the most queried
It’s important to speak in a language your readers
understand. Writing a jargon busting article forces you to consider the language you use more carefully, helping you to engage with your customers on their level. This can be just a glossary of terms where you mix industry language with keyword rich phrases.
A jargon busting crusade
There are many examples of jargon busters, for
accountancy firms, attorney offices, financial advisers, charities, and marketing consultants. London-based Digital Strategy Consultancy claims to be on a “jargon- busting crusade” because jargon is “unnecessary, confusing and a barrier to everyone‘s understanding”. The firm has developed a booklet that explains terminology used within its industry. It is 15 pages long and is fully searchable. Each term is explained in plain English. Other companies are free to post it to their own sites.
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words near the top of the list. If you want your jargon buster to be more sophisticated than a list of definitions, then check out Ask Oxford , the online Oxford Dictionary, which contains clear definitions. If the language in your industry doesn’t change very often your glossary of terms should have a long shelf-life.
It can be a good idea to invite people to add to your list or to offer a comments tool, because as your industry evolves so too will the language. Or add in the buzz words we love to hate.
Epicurious.com
Imagine you run a cookery school website — you could have a glossary with links to pages containing definitions for carbohydrates, proteins, free range, organic, E-numbers, trans fats and so on. You could also link to recipes that are rich in fiber or low in fat. Check out Epicurious.com . It’s a food dictionary that has a list of
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Section 2: Recipe No. 10 | Jargon Buster
cookery terms and descriptions of food. Each page links to other relevant pages on
Hot Tip
Get someone
from outside your company — it could be a professional
the site.
Business in the Community , an organization which helps businesses make a positive impact on the communities around them, has a jargon buster too, which may be useful to have a look at. It gives its members one sentence definitions of business terminology, terms such as, ‘cause-related marketing’, ‘green electricity ’ and ‘venture philanthropy ’. Business in the Community has placed its jargon buster in the resource section of its website and organized it alphabetically.
proofreader, a willing student, or even your mom to read through your site and pick out the jargon.
Explaning jargon makes great keyword rich content.
Don’t alienate your customers by talking gibberish; educate them and help them join in with the conversation. All industry is built on dialogue. Jargon or unnecessarily complex language should never be a barrier to that.
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Admit your mistakes
Making mistakes is an inevitable part of owning and running a business. It is human nature to make them, and imperative that we learn from them.
11
Hot Tip
As entrepreneur and billionaire Donald Trump said, “If you
don’t learn from your mistakes, that’s the biggest mistake.”
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It takes an honest and bold person to discuss their mistakes, poor choices or foolish decisions.
Even the big guns get it wrong. Remember Sir Richard Branson’s failed Virgin Cola venture, Donald Trump’s bankrupt businesses, or the PR disaster of Walmart’s fake blog? Sir Alan Sugar, who’s reputedly worth $1.16bn, once told reporters, “You haven’t got enough time to listen to my mistakes…In the rest of your life you will not earn 10% of the money I’ve lost.” Most successful entrepreneurs and business owners will tell you that making mistakes is inescapable when running a business.
Discuss your mistakes
Cleveland, Ohio has a great online newspaper which has a section called My Biggest Mistake where small business owners talk about their experiences and, more importantly, how they overcame them. Some of the titles include:
‘Our Biggest Mistake Was Not Having a Backup Business Plan’; ‘Broken Machines Put A Wrench In Business Growth’, and
‘New Business In Web Development Tried To Do Too Many Other Things.’
The Chicago Tribune business section used to run a similar series, again called My Biggest Mistake.
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