Basic B2B Content Marketing Takeaways:

• Content marketing is widely accepted among B2B marketers.
  Data from joint Content Marketing Institute / Marketing Profs research indicate that for leading marketers, content marketing comprises 46% of the marketing budget. Yet only 36% of B2B marketers believe their content is effective, despite the fact that they’re spending more on content.
• Content marketing is moving into the next level of detailed measurement and ROI.
  Measurement must go deeper than click throughs, likes, and followers. Engagement is another KPI, but most importantly REVENUE.  Most of the speakers admit that in our lengthy B2B buying cycles, it’s not easy to attribute a given marcom tactic to revenue, which brings me to my third point…
• Content marketing tools must be used to better measure, segment, target and map content to the phase in the buy cycle where it will be most effective based on the prospect / client need.
  It’s becoming clear that marketing automation and content management tools are necessary to measure the effectiveness of your content marketing efforts.  
  

B2B Content Marketing… are you doing it wrong?

Despite the avalanche of information about content marketing, some B2B marketers are struggling to make it work.  The top three challenges according to Aberdeen research include:

1. Developing and managing content
   56 percent of B2B companies manage content marketing in house, but outsource the writing to freelancers (shameless plus… like me) and agencies  (another shameless plus… I work with them too).
2. Generating engagement
   Good content appropriately placed at various points along the B2B buying cycle drives engagement. It takes about 10 marketing “touches” to deliver a successful buying journey. (I remember when it was 3-5 touches.)
3. Creating relevant content
   Knowing your buyer(s) personas combined with point 2 above ensure that your content is relevant.

One of the most obvious issues in B2B marcom relative to content is that content is too product or company focused and not customer focused.  The concept of storytelling was emphasized by several speakers with regard to focusing on the customer.  Several examples were cited including the recent Dodge Ram Truck “Farmer” commercial.

The commercial wasn’t about the truck, it was about what the customer can do with the truck.

As Marketing Profs Chief Content Officer Ann Hadley put it, using a quote from Tom Fishburne, “The best marketing doesn’t feel like marketing.”

So basically we know that, done well, content marketing works, but we need to do a better job tying it back to revenue. What do you think?

For more on the conference, search #B2BContentEvent on Twitter

By: Joan Damico

Effective mobile-friendly headlines should average ~50 characters.

“Does this headline make me look fat?” This was my initial headline. It’s a clever headline, and at 7 words and 36 characters, it doesn’t look fat at all. However, it doesn’t tell me anything and probably won’t drive search results, clicks or conversions?

The challenge for today’s B2B copywriters is to write compelling headlines that include keywords and are also an average of approximately 50 characters long. When you write for technical and industrial audiences, often the search terms alone can encompass a significant portion of your headline. Here are a few B2B copywriting techniques for headlines that produce results.

1. Keyword colon

   X-ray Microanalysis: Improve discovery faster (5 words; 45 characters)

   This B2B copywriting technique is effective when you have a technical search term that doesn’t quite fit into a compelling headline or includes a large number of characters. It’s also effective for SEO because the keyword is at the beginning of the headline.

2. 2- to 3-word mobile-friendly acronym headline

   CIO-friendly BYOD (2 words; 17 characters)

   These headlines are especially useful for mobile search, where readers tend to type shorter search strings on their virtual keypads. It’s most effective for industries where acronyms are well-defined and commonly used. I would suggest spelling out the acronym at least one in the body copy.

3. Short headline for long-tail keywords

   How X-ray Microanalysis Discovers Unexpected Elements (6 words; 53 characters)

   This could be a long-tail search term for materials scientists in need of the x-ray microanalysis system mentioned in the first example. Long-tail search terms are more effective at conversion. These are longer more specific search strings. Long tail search is often an indicator of greater intent to purchase, particularly in complex B2B buying cycles. In the future, as voice search becomes more effective, people will speak longer search strings than they are willing to type on a virtual keyboard. Often they’re looking for a solution. This technique will guide them to you.

It’s not always possible for B2B copywriters to keep their headlines to 50 characters. However, challenging yourself to do so will at least keep your copywriting effective for mobile-friendly websites, which are becoming the norm as more people conduct searches with devices instead of on their desktops.

By: Joan Damico

Additional copywriting tips for effective mobile headlines:

Your headline must be the story in 55 characters or less by Christopher Penn
Christopher takes a look at a number of New York Times mobile headlines that tell the story.

How to optimise headlines using the 65 character rule by Chris Lake

Clear concise copywriting and calls to action are key to B2B mobile content.

Despite responsive web design (RWD)—websites that scale based on the device accessing them—B2B copywriters must write even more concise and strategic for mobile readers.

Key mobile user considerations:

• Mobile users have a goal in mind – buy, download, listen, etc.
• Mobile users are rushed – in between flights, appointments or multi-tasking
• Mobile users have low comprehension resulting from smaller screens

B2B copywriting techniques for mobile users

Based on the above points, let’s take a look at the anatomy of a B2B mobile post. Keep in mind that mobile is one element in the B2B integrated marcom mix. Content should be produced from the broader integrated marcom perspective and not simply a one-off mobile post. That’s where strategy comes in.

B2B content covers technical and often complex subjects. Busy mobile users may not have the time or wherewithal to read the full text on their devices. Mobile readers need options.

Write Concise Headlines

For mobile, I treat headlines as I would subject lines—between 40 and 50 characters and use action verbs where possible. That’s a challenge for B2B content in which technical terms can take up 75 percent of the character count.

My advice… consider the audience. Acronyms that have become common jargon among industry professionals can be used.  E.g., Reduce Cost with Unified Communications Systems. Although the headline is within the 40- to 50-character limit, the term UCS is understood by IT (information technology) professionals. Use the acronym and write an even more compelling headline: How UCS Reduces Cost and Increases Productivity.

Write in Concise Chunks

Use bold subheads to highlight key points, adding a few sentences to elaborate on the point. Make one point per chunk. Link to other relevant content from your copy chunk.

E.g., hyperlink the subheads to anchor text in a full text version. Think of your mobile post as an expanded table of contents and each table entry links to that particular section in a full text article. Mobile content should be easy to skim and give readers the option to get more in depth information without sifting through large blocks of copy.

Use bulleted copy

Copywriters often break up large blocks of copy with bullets. For mobile readers, bullets have become the copy.

Consider Your Copywriting Objective

If a phone call is your objective, then include the number within the context of the copy.  Don’t make readers scroll to respond. Mobile devices are conducive to direct response copywriting. When you include a phone number the user need only tap the number to make the call.

Create an Obvious Call to Action

Large buttons or white space between hyperlinks makes it easy for large fingers to respond to your offer. Calls to action placed within the context of the article can be effective. However, include a call to action at the end of the post, such as click to read the full text article or go to the full site version.

B2B copywriting for mobile users involves more than shrinking content to fit a space. There’s a strategic copywriting element that must be considered and it involves putting yourself in the users place. Write to support an efficient mobile user experience.

By: Joan Damico

If a LinkedIn community is part of your B2B content marketing plan, use “Group Statistics” to evaluate a group.

Most B2B groups on LinkedIn fall into the community of practice category.  For example, in a community of practice, members share a type of work, such as “B2B marketing communications” or “knowledge management.” It’s a professional association where members discuss best practices.  If you’re seeking to participate in a community of practice-type group, don’t be deceived by the quantity of members.  Quantity definitely does not equate to quality when it comes to LinkedIn groups.

Remember the 90-9-1 rule?  When it comes to online participation, 90 percent lurk, 9 percent comment and 1 percent create.  While some have challenged that online participation is now closer to 70-20-10, depending upon the community or group, I believe that when it comes to LinkedIn groups, there is a lot of “participation” in many groups, but little dialogue or engagement.

Conversation versus content

Consider engagement and content quality.  Visit the group’s statistics and take a look at the “Activity” graph, which trends the number of discussions and comments.  In many groups, the trend lines diverge indicating much more “discussion” than comments.  I should point out here that the term “discussion” refers to a “post” and isn’t indicative of actual dialogue.

If your objective for joining a group is to get information, then high discussion-low comment groups may suffice.  If you’re looking to engage in dialogue with peers or potential customers, then you’ll want a more engaged group.

In an active group, where there’s engagement and dialogue, the trend lines should be close together indicating that for most discussions there are comments—a two-way conversation among members relative to a given discussion. Use the graph as a first pass at evaluating the group’s engagement, keeping in mind, however, that it’s not a qualitative metric. You’ll have to read through some of the posts to determine the quality of the discussion.

Convergent trend lines indicate more dialogue.

Divergent trend lines indicate little dialogue

When you find a number of groups that you think are worth your time, then narrow down your list to those which meet your criteria and objectives as well as your resource and time commitment.

What do you think?  Are LinkedIn groups worth your time?

Tell us what B2B LinkedIn groups you found effective and why.

By: Joan Damico

SlideShare offers a fast, easy way for B2B marcom to boost leads and search results by leveraging existing content.

A 2013 BtoB Magazine survey, “Social media: From Marginal to Mainstream,” indicates that only 13 percent of B2B marketers use SlideShare.  On the other hand, the same report indicates that 80 percent of B2B marketers use LinkedIn, the social site that acquired SlideShare in May of 2012.

In my opinion, LinkedIn and SlideShare go hand in hand for B2B marcom, and I expect the acquisition to integrate many of the SlideShare tools such as LeadShare within LinkedIn. That remains to be seen; however, SlideShare is still an excellent marcom resource for repurposing conference presentations and even internal presentations that are not “company confidential.”

While there have been numerous articles touting the benefits of SlideShare and the do’s and don’ts, my intent here is to make it easier for my B2B marcom colleagues to leverage this effective medium without a lot of extra work.

Leverage Existing B2B Marketing Communications

You already have the content from industry association meetings, trade show presentations and other sources. If there’s one thing B2B companies have in abundance, it’s PowerPoint presentations. Simply upload them to SlideShare and optimize them for search. Remember, SlideShare isn’t just for PowerPoint presentations. You can also upload documents and videos. Make sure your title tags and descriptions are keyword rich so you get a boost in search.

For example, let’s say you’re uploading a PDF file. Before you upload, review the properties of your PDF by opening the folder containing the file, then right click on “properties” and select the “PDF” tab. Make sure the fields for “Title,” “Author,” “Subject,” and “Keywords” are completed and accurately reflect the document’s contents.  Use the same title and tags along with a keyword-rich description on SlideShare when you upload the document.

Integrate with Other B2B Social Channels

SlideShare also integrates with other popular B2B social channels such as Twitter and YouTube—channels the BtoB Magazine survey says are used by 74 percent and 59 percent of B2B marketers respectively.  For example, you can have your Twitter stream appear on your SlideShare profile as well as Tweet when you upload a presentation to SlideShare.  If your company has a video library on YouTube, any YouTube video can be embedded into a SlideShare Presentation using the embed code from your YouTube video.

These are the free features.  Professional packages range from $19 – $50/month and include more business features.  Some of the features include advanced analytics, meetings with dedicated conference lines, lead capture forms and greater control over settings and look and feel.

Create Authority… Boost Search Ranking

SlideShare represents another outlet for sharing your thought leadership.  In addition, you gain another reason to tweet about your content as well as fodder for your blog, including embedding the SlideShare presentation into your blog post—all opportunities to boost your authority and rank in search.

Regardless of social channel, the data still point to search as a leading driver of B2B leads. The more you leverage your content and optimize it for search in each social medium, the more you’ll contribute to your rankings.

Additional Resources for B2B Marcom and SlideShare

• SlideShare Best Practices: Content Marketing Tips from Top SlideShare Marketers by Miranda Miller via TopRank Online Marketing 

• SlideShare: The Quiet Giant Of Content Marketing by Steve Olenski via Forbes 
• LinkedIn and SlideShare by LinkedIn
  

By: Joan Damico

B2B marcom that tells a story complements the Challenger Selling Model.

The Corporate Executive Board (CEB) estimates that nearly 60 percent of the buying journey is complete before the sales person meets the buyer. Thanks to all the marketing communications produced for each stage in the buying journey, prospects have taken control over a greater portion of the buying journey once controlled by the sales rep.  While the B2B buying journey in a complex sale still involves consensus of several buying influences along the way, the pace has accelerated over the last five years.

Extensive studies by Matthew Dixon and Brent Adamson, co-authors of The Challenger Sale indicate that sales reps who challenge the way prospects think about their businesses and their needs outperform sales reps who focus on building relationships. Challengers know their propects’ businesses well and aren’t afraid to challenge status quo and offer unique perspectives.

So what does Challenger Selling have to do with B2B marcom?

First, the Challenger Selling model supports the need for closer collaboration between sales and marketing communications.  Such collaboration ensures that the right content is produced for each buying influence and at each stage in the buying journey.  Though it may sound like what B2B marcom has been doing all along, there are a few subtle differences.  In the Challenger Selling approach, thought leadership plays an important role because that’s precisely the value that the Challenger Seller brings to the buying journey—a unique and sometimes contrarian perspective.  Let’s face it, if everyone towed the status quo line, where would the value lie?

B2B marketing communications that support the Challenger Selling model should reflect the unique perspectives that add value.  Blogs and case studies come to mind; however, it would be a mistake to become hung up on a given communications medium.  This is where working closely with the sales team can help.  While marcom is good at telling the corporate side of the story, there’s substantial value in creating content that presents unique selling perspectives and valuable insights using a variety of media that together tell a compelling story. The content calendar comes in handy here.

Secondly, using a Challenger Selling approach, the early-stage content in the B2B buying journey is highly influential in cultivating a relationship between the company and the buyer.  Therefore, integrated marketing communications play an even greater role in the early stages of the buying journey. Remember, this is the self-service part of the journey where the buying influences are gathering information via websites, search queries, industry events and the social sphere.  Is your content optimized for search, and is it ranking well? Does your content reflect a consistent message that exudes your position and unique selling proposition?

B2B marcom is helping to cultivate the relationship prior to the sales rep becoming involved. Consider Achim Klor’s infographic of an IDG study, “What’s Influencing B2B Tech Buyers.”  The graphic shows the influence of content consumed across various media in the decision-making process.  Often a majority of the content is consumed before the sales rep makes the call.

Sales reps are no longer the bearers of content

Gone are the days of a sales rep, armed with brochures, PowerPoint presentations and a good spiel, hot knocking for business.  They no longer discuss products or their features and benefits or even solutions to problems.  That information can be downloaded from a website. Today’s Challenger sales reps are business savvy individuals who aren’t afraid to push the customer into a different way of thinking. For B2B marcom professionals, Challenger Selling is influencing the content we produce. There’s a shift for B2B content to focus more on how the products and services influence the customer’s overall business and not simply a phase in a process or cost reduction.  The content we produce must tell this story, and each piece of content builds upon the story.

Tell us how Challenger Selling has influenced the marketing communications you produce.

By Joan Damico

Additional Challenger Selling Resources:

Inbound Leads – a Critical Success Factor in The Challenger Sale by Mark Gibson for Business 2 Community

Trends In B2B Sales And Marketing From “The Challenger Sale” by Lisa Nirell for Fast Company

With social media proliferating the B2B marcom mix, integrated marcom can increase your communications effectiveness.

Given the proliferation of B2B social media, in addition to traditional communications channels, there’s never been a more critical time for integrated marketing communications (marcom).  Let’s face it, our marcom messages need to deliver results and support the brand.  However, a lack of integration and message consistency diminish the synergies and results from integrated marcom. As a result the organization, sales in particular, is left clearing the confusion in the market.  But it gets even worse…

These same un-integrated marketing communications could reduce your online marketing results. Your messaging is an opportunity to differentiate you from your competitors. Are your social communications in sync with your other online communications such as your website and blog?

Keywords are the B2B integrated marcom glue

With lengthy B2B buying cycles, keywords and phrases are important to generating and nurturing leads at every phase of the buying cycle.  When a prospect conducts a search, your content, owned or earned, should show up in the results.

A study by Altimeter Group’s Jeremiah Owyang and his associates uncovered the message disparity of software vendors in the social media management space.  Granted, the study objective was to prove little market differentiation between offerings relative to each vendor’s website messaging. However, when you consider how the study included evaluation of on-page messaging and positioning statements, as well as meta titles, descriptions and keywords, you quickly see how important keywords become in the buying journey.

Take a look at your content calendar. Does it map to keywords based on the stage in the buying cycle?  For example prospects early in the buying cycle tend to search at a higher, more generic level, e.g., CRM software. Then, as they move through the buying cycle, search strings tend to be more specific, e.g., CRM software integrated with social media.

In addition, B2B buying journeys usually have more than one buying influence such as an economic buyer and a technical buyer.  This presents additional opportunities to tailor your content to keywords on which each buying influence would search. Ardath Albee’s Buyer Personas describe buyers at a more personal level than a product category keyword or phrase.  Personas can be useful in determining long tail keywords and phrases indicative of a buyer who is further along in the buying journey.

For example, let’s say you’ve published a white paper on the ROI of cloud computing, a piece that was designed to attract CIOs and CFOs in the evaluation phase of the buying cycle. Your marcom mix should be optimized for the phrase ROI of cloud computing including blog posts, banner ads, website content, tweets, G+ posts, bookmarking sites and SlideShare presentations.  With this level of integration and the right keywords, your content is much more effective at generating interest and leads.

Your content should be optimized for keywords at each phase of the buying cycle and for each buying influence involved in the purchase decision.  When you understand the keywords and phrases for each phase and persona, it becomes easier to manage your content resources and optimize your content across all media.

How do you ensure the effectiveness of your integrated marketing communications?

By: Joan Damico

You’re not alone if you’re in the B2B mobile slow lane. Take a strategic approach to mobile.

Several speakers and B2B marketers at a January 2013 New York Business Marketing Association meeting remarked that although they see the significance of mobile in their marketing communications mix, they’re proceeding with caution. They anticipate the coming of mobile in B2B towards the end of 2013. These are big companies like IBM and GE.

So if they’re proceeding with caution, I can’t help but think that the rest of us B2B marketers need to really understand the mobile landscape and how it may or may not fit into our B2B marcom strategy.  One thing was clear… B2B marketers are under increasing pressure to demonstrate tangible return, which could explain the trepidation to leverage mobile until it’s fully understood and aligned with business objectives.

B2B Mobile… What exactly is it?

I continue to hear the terms “mobile” and “mobile marketing” tossed around.  But I don’t think we have a universal definition of what it really means to be “mobile.”  For some B2B marketers mobile means making sure your website is optimized for mobile devices. That’s a given, considering that mobile will be the “first screen” for all web usage in 2013 (Gartner, 2010) or 2015 (Morgan Stanley, 2010) [Source: The Mobile Revolution & B2B by Christina "CK" Kerley, @CKsays, 2011, page 1].

For other B2B marketers, mobile means writing content that best leverages the mobile medium.  Still others think of mobile in terms of ad units or apps. Mobile strategy and application development firm, Applico, has an interesting definition: “The phenomenon of software melding with hardware.”  Hmmmm… as nebulous as mobile itself; but if you read on, you’ll see that the Applico definition makes sense.

So what exactly is B2B mobile?  It’s all of the above, but more importantly, it’s a communications platform that can support an overall business objective from which marketing communications plans are developed.

B2B Mobile is Social Media’s Attractive Cousin

B2B social media is mobile’s attractive cousin.

Much like when social media first came on the scene, I heard a lot about tactics, and how B2B marketing communications were using social sites to run campaigns or Tweet about their latest events or newest content. Today, effective B2B marketers have integrated social media into their overarching business objectives, which cascade down to marketing communications plans. The same can be said for B2B mobile. Eric Wittlake (@wittlake) explains it this way: “Mobile integration into marketing, not mobile marketing, is the future for mobile.”

Mobile is a lot like social media in that it’s happening whether or not you choose to embrace it. Your customers and prospects are accessing content on your websites from devices regardless of whether or not you designed your sites for mobile access. If you haven’t optimized your site, in all likelihood, the experience wasn’t efficient.  As Eric mentions, mobile represents a behavioral change for B2B marketers and communicators.  Data indicate that our audiences are primarily viewing our content from a mobile device, whether the content comes in the form of an email, video or social application. We not only need to optimize our content for the smaller screen, but also the social sharing functions and “call now” options that are now integrated in today’s smartphones and devices. This is a good example of the Applico definition of mobile as “software melding with hardware.”

Opportunity for Mobile in B2B Marcom

While no one disagrees that there are numerous opportunities for B2B marketers using mobile technology, many B2B marketers are taking a slower approach by focusing on mobile in a way that’s more strategic and meaningful to the target audience. For me, meaningful use of mobile means helping our B2B clients and prospects work more efficiently.  This can include making it easier to locate and consume content based on a prospect’s phase in the buying cycle or an app that makes it easier for a prospect to do his or her job.

My B2B marketing colleague, @AchintaMitra of industrial marketing consultancy, Tiecas, Inc., shared a few mobile tools for the industrial and engineering audience including calculators, CAD file viewers, and measurement tools. These represent useful tools for a specific B2B target audience. He also provided links to several more engineering apps, developed by CFE Media, and an ASME (American Society of Mechanical Engineers) link to 10 iPad apps for engineers.

When you consider the supply chains with which our B2B clients work, you can quickly see even greater opportunities for mobile and social integration.  B2B integration provider GXS developed a useful app, @GXS, that aggregates the latest news for specific industries including automotive, high tech, and manufacturing. Think about the advantages of mobile—it’s personal, social, instant and always on—and the opportunities to make our clients’ and prospects’ lives more efficient become apparent.  From a B2B marcom perspective, leveraging the advantages of mobile could mean giving our clients and prospects a choice in how to consume content on their devices by making our it available is several formats including, audio, video and PDF downloads.

You’re Already Mobile Whether You Like It or Not

Like it or not, you’re already mobile.

Forget about the decision to “go mobile.” You’re already mobile.  The decision is whether or not to build a strategy to address what is quickly becoming the primary screen for most business interactions.  Consider a study by the Content Marketing Institute and MarketingProfs, which illustrates the top content marketing tactics used by B2B marcom. Mobile content is number 15 on the list after social media, articles on your website, eNewsletters, blogs and others.  Yet most of the people for whom the most popular content is intended are accessing it via mobile devices.  @Wittlake is right.  Our perspective and behavior need to change from desktop mentality to mobile mentality.

Perhaps @RobertGillham says it best in his post, Risks of mobile for B2B & enterprise orgs:  “Right now, the readily available evidence making a case for B2B mobile presence appears to be provided by largely vested interests, technology companies and B2B marketers. The strategy seems to be to produce a vague sense of unease in customers that they should be doing ‘something’ in mobile – or get somehow left behind.”

I agree with Rob and my esteemed colleagues at IBM and GE. There is more to B2B mobile than a nicely optimized site. I think it all boils down to making mobile useful to the intended audience in a way that generates leads, provides personalized insights to nurture those leads throughout the B2B buying cycle, and retains existing clients. That begins with a shift in our perspectives.

Where are you with mobile for B2B… fast lane, slow lane or on ramp?

By: Joan Damico

Additional Resources for B2B Mobile:

3 Questions for When Mobile Is the First Screen by @wittlake

The Cost to Build a Mobile App: Is the Price Right? by @JennLeighBrown

For B2Bs, Mobile Is Key to Unlocking Sales and Loyalty by @eMarketer

How Mobile and Social Will Impact the 2013 B2B Marketing Agenda by Ethan Francis via @B2Community

Mobile Marketing Is A Strategy Not A Tactic by @BrennerMichael

Risks of mobile for B2B & enterprise orgs by @robertgillham

Typos are usually not acceptable, but there are a few conditions under which they may be more tolerable.

I ask this question as a B2B copywriter, who’s also active in social media. I’ve noticed more typos in social media content in the past several years, which begs the question, “Are we more tolerant of typos given the ‘always on,’  ‘always be communicating’ world of social media?”  Posting via virtual keyboards  and that embarrassing auto completion of a word you hadn’t intended, have contributed to the increase in typos.  I’m guilty of it myself, but does that make me a bad writer or you a bad communicator?

In listening to what my peers have said about their tolerance for typos, I summarized their overall sentiment.  I’ll preface my findings by saying that this post refers to typos within the context of social media.  For many B2B marcom managers who may be responsible for integrated marcom programs that include social media, there should be little tolerance for typos; however, acknowledging that they do happen from time to time, they should be the exception rather than the rule. That said, there seem to be certain conditions under which typos, though unacceptable, are tolerable.   Feel free to add your opinion too in the comments section below.

1. Context dictates the tolerance for typos.

   While it’s never acceptable to publish a white paper or blog post with typos, there does seem to be a tolerance for typos in tweets and even some comments to blogs for the reason’s mentioned above… more people are posting and responding via virtual keyboards, making the risk of a typo greater, and therefore,  somewhat more acceptable.

2. Email disclaimers aren’t a good excuse for typos.

   Here’s one that I’m not too sure about myself… the popular disclaimer that follows the signature line and asks the recipient to “please excuse any embarrassing typos as this message was sent from my <enter name of device>.”  Does the device increase typo tolerance?  I’m inclined to think not.

   In the context of an outbound business communication to colleagues or clients, typos aren’t acceptable regardless of device.  However, in certain cases, busy professionals, attempting to manage their burgeoning in-boxes in between flights, meetings, appointments, etc., will occasionally mistype a word as their fingers fly across the virtual keypad.  I can tolerate typos of this nature.  We’ve all been there…

3. There’s a difference between typos and usage errors.

   Inadvertently touching the wrong key, resulting in a typo, is not the same as misusing a word,  e.g.,  you’re typo vs. your typo. This type of typo is rarely acceptable.  Though I’m more tolerant when I’m mingling in the social sphere with colleagues for whom English is a second language.  This is particularly the case when I’m on an enterprise activity stream of a global company or multi-national blog.

4. Does message timing supersede the rules of typos?

   This is another case with which I struggle. I’ve often heard bloggers say that it’s more important to communicate your thoughts in a timely fashion than miss timing an opportunity because you were caught up in perfecting the post. In some cases, I tend to agree.  When you’re passionate about a subject and feverishly typing a comment or initial post, getting your thoughts out is often more important than dotting the I’s or crossing the T’s. That said, it’s usually better to hold off on emotional replies, that you may regret later.

5. Social shorthand, colloquialism and writing like we speak…

   In our more casual society, we’ve grown tolerant of ending sentences with prepositions and breaking rules for the sake of sounding more conversational. So within the context of more casual social channels, including blogs, activity streams and tweets, is it ever o.k. to break the rules? I’m o.k. with that in certain situations where it’s generally acceptable.  For example, Twitter only allows 140 characters, so saying, “C U at the mtg.” is acceptable within Twitter and other formats where it consists of casual conversation between several colleagues of similar stature. However, in the context of a formal email announcement or when communicating up to higher levels within a traditional organization, it’s not acceptable; unless, of course, your organization maintains a casual culture.  Texting is another example where short form words and phrases are almost always acceptable and understood… IMHO.

6. Some  typos are never acceptable regardless of context…

   I think it’s safe to say that misspelling someone’s name or a company name is never acceptable.  We may overlook a dangling participle or inadvertently transpose characters; however, a name is someone’s identity, and it’s important to them and to you to get it right.

In general, typos are not acceptable. They make us appear sloppy and amateurish and diminish our authority. That’s not to say that accidents don’t happen, because they do.  And when they do, it does make us look less-than-professional; however it also makes us human. Feel free to add your opinion in the comments section below… spelling doesn’t count.

Habit number two in Stephen Covey’s, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, is “Begin with the End in Mind.” When it comes to enterprise social media, it’s often ambiguous for colleagues to know how the end state is supposed to look.  Enterprises suffer from what marketers learned early on… you must not focus on social media tools; instead focus on what you’re trying to accomplish. Then, see if, or what, social tools can help you accomplish your goal. Slides 13 and 14 include an example of integrating social tools into the enterprise communications mix.