This is my month and I wish you would pronounce it correctly.

My birthday — the first of the month — ushers in 28 (or 29) days of the most mispronounced period on the calendar. I understand that marketers are trying to personalize their message by inserting “you” in everything, but that doesn’t mean we have to accept Feb-YOO-ary.

Who put the "you" in February? I don't see it anywhere in there.

Yet professional newscasters and announcers lately have succumbed to widespread adoption of this error. Given the amount of time broadcasters historically have spent in bars, you’d think they could pronounce a word that has “brew” in the middle.

In honor of poor February — short, cold (except for 2012) and mispronounced — I am declaring it National Let’s Stop the Mispronunciation Madness Month.

Here are this year’s target words, collected during many tedious hours of watching local news in one of the nation’s top media markets:

• Temp-a-chur (a favorite of on-air weathermen)
• Ex-peer-i-ment (when we did these in high school chemistry, the second syllable rhymed with “air”)
• Im-por-dant (if it was so important, you should speak as though it was spelled with a “t” instead of “d” — because it is)
• Off-ten (please say “often” as if it does not have a “t”)
• Nuke-you-ler (here again, someone is trying to make us feel better about nuclear energy by inserting “you” in the word — and I swear I heard a spokeswoman from Exelon say it this way in a radio interview this week)
• Mu-zum (this is a place that houses fascinating exhibits, but I’m more fascinated with the process that is rapidly eliminating “myoo-zee-um” as the correct way to say it)

Hoping that the announcers among you may wish to practice on some additional words, please have a look at “10 Words You Mispronounce That Make People Think You’re an Idiot.” This article recently was promoted on Facebook by Chicago newscaster Charlie Meyerson, whose post attracted dozens of comments and contributions to the list.

I implore you to help commemorate National Let’s Stop the Mispronunciation Madness Month by delivering “Feb-roo-ary” clearly to the face of the next person you hear trying to pronounce it any other way.

A blog post should be 300-400 words.

A client recently sent me an article to post on the organization’s blog. Her email noted that it might be “a little long.”

No kidding! It was more than 1,300 words.

In this era of what I like to call the Internet-Induced Attention Deficit Issue, my client’s proposed blog post was about 1,000 words too long. Edit it, slice it, cut it or split it into three posts.

Bloggers and webmasters have become obsessed with SEO — search engine optimization — a collection of techniques that get your page ranked highly by Google, thus attracting visitors to your site and bringing bundles of fame and fortune. The folks at Google say the best way to get their attention is to create a page that is useful for a human reader.

The best length and format for a blog entry

Off the top of my head: Your heading (title) should be inviting but not obscure. “Company Results” doesn’t say anything. “ABC Company Reports Strong Third Quarter Earnings” tells the reader exactly what the article is about. Plus, useful information is getting indexed by Google.

The power of one: Focus your post on just one small topic, a single main idea.

Keep it short: A great length for a blog post is 300-400 words. Your busy reader can breeze through it quickly.

Headings, bullets and images

Two headings are better than one: Use one or two subheadings in your article. They help to break up the text, and make it easier for the busy reader to skim. Formatting the subheadings as “heading2″ (using the HTML tag H2) is a signal to Google that this text is important, so make sure the subheadings contain your keywords.

Magic bullet: Make a list of items easier to read by using bullet points.

Get the picture: An image helps to draw the reader into your story. The caption should summarize your main point. Giving the photo an “alt” tag tells Google what the picture is, and helps to improve your search ranking.

A lengthy, poorly organized blog post is like a meal at Denny’s: There’s way too much on the plate and it’s probably not healthy. Concise writing will keep your readers and your search engines happy.

Word-of-mouth is successful because it’s a marketing message from the most trusted source: someone you know. (Admittedly, not everyone I know carries the same amount of trust.)

Facebook, with its extensive friend networks and ability to communicate personally and honestly, ought to be the ultimate word-of-mouth tool.

If you’re a synagogue executive director or a leader of any non-profit, some of these ideas might help you get more out of Facebook. (Feel free to ask me for help!)

Make Facebook more effective in a synagogue, membership organization or non-profit

• Find volunteers to help manage the Facebook page – it’s one of the few projects that’s easy to “outsource” to someone who is not paid staff.
• Create a Facebook “fan” page (a fan page is much better than trying to create a personal page in the name of your group).
• Create a separate page for Youth Group, Sisterhood, Brotherhood, etc.
• Completely fill out the “info” page, and load it with search-term keywords.
• Be sure to include your organization’s logo.
• Make the page open to the public (not a “closed” group).
• Use all available resources (printed bulletin, email newsletter, public announcements) to encourage members to become fans of your Facebook page.
• Ask youth to show their parents how to become Facebook fans.
• Post at least three to five messages per week.
• Ask members to hit the “like” button and comment on the posts – this helps to give the posts more visibility.
• Encourage members to post comments promoting upcoming events or just telling the world how happy they are to be involved with your group. Even better, get them to include a photo or link to your home page.
• Make posts meaningful, thoughtful, thought-provoking.
• Consider a weekly, brief Torah commentary, or at least a title of the rabbi’s upcoming sermon.

Don’t be afraid to be creative. Just ask people to keep their posts friendly, positive and respectful. Just as you do in real life, if you practice derekh eretz (proper ethical behavior) online, all will be good.

When it comes to synagogue marketing (and very possibly marketing churches, too), technology is trumped by the old stand-by: personal contact. Paid newspaper advertising doesn’t seem to work well, and the jury’s still out on the effectiveness of social media.

As a lifelong professional communicator, and former president of Beth Hillel Congregation Bnai Emunah in Wilmette, Ill., I constructed an informal survey (using Google Docs) which I sent to Chicago-area synagogue executive directors and randomly selected rabbis, as well as Conservative synagogue presidents on a national listserve.

Facing competition from the Internet, iPads, the golf course and other non-religious distractions synagogue leaders are eager to find marketing techniques that will engage current members and attract new people, without draining the temple’s resources.

What’s working and what isn’t

My survey was intended to spark a discussion, but my method was neither “scientific” nor comprehensive.

Respondents were asked to rate the effectiveness of each tactic shown, on a scale of Very Ineffective, Ineffective, Not Sure, Effective and Very Effective. The charts show the percentage of respondents selecting Very Effective OR Effective.

In the first chart below, “new members” refers to prospective members. Since they are not yet members of the congregation, some of the tactics needed to reach them are different from what might work with current members.

Email usage is high

Use of email in congregations is widespread but not universal. Only 5 percent of respondents estimated that all of their members use email regularly, while most said the proportion of people on email was more like half or three-quarters of the congregation.

Social media is used, but not necessarily useful

Synagogues are using Facebook but the value hasn’t been established. Four out of five have a Facebook page, and at least half have a separate page for their youth group. But more than 50% said they weren’t sure whether Facebook (or Twitter) was an effective marketing tool.

It seems to me that Facebook is (or should be) the ultimate cost-effective word-of-mouth marketing tool. If word-of-mouth is so effective in synagogue marketing, shouldn’t Facebook be effective, too?

I’ve got a few ideas on how to use Facebook as a word-of-mouth marketing tool.

Marketing and promotional techniques that work in synagogues

In open-ended questions, several of my respondents mentioned these additional techniques that have been successful:

• Make the synagogue Web site more interactive
• Label some email newsletters as “Special Notice” from the rabbi
• Mailed postcard listing multiple events
• Full-time membership/marketing person on staff
• “Robo” calls or automated phone calls
• Weekly press releases to local paper
• Train support staff on how to speak to prospective members
• Creative programming, events outside the synagogue (“Shabbat at the Beach”)
• Lower dues to certain groups
• Community event participation (float in local parade)

“I’ve never seen anything like this,” he exclaimed to me recently, as we were working together to draft his responses to an important questionnaire. (As his consulting wordsmith, my role was not to create the responses, but to help him express his ideas in clear, accessible language.)

Google Docs plus Jonathan Lehrer's "live drafting" technique add up to effective brainstorming.

The client was talking about my technique of “live drafting,” which I recently described at Chris Ruys 1 on 1.

Live Drafting is a brainstorming technique that uses a large screen to make  collaboration quicker and more effective for team members. Rather than relying on flipcharts or dry-erase boards, I connect my computer to a projector and write or edit language live on the screen while all the participants watch.

Live drafting with Google Docs

This client, a successful engineer and businessman, surely has been involved in brainstorming, but the revelation was how Google Docs improved the process.

The statement that I had created as a Google Docs document was projected from my PC onto the wall of his office. I showed him how to log into his Gmail account and open the link to the Google Doc I had just sent him.

In a moment, he was able to simultaneously edit what I was writing.

“How would you like to answer Question 1?” I asked him. He answered verbally and I wordsmithed his ideas as I typed. When I missed his point slightly, he simply started entering his own text on his iPad, right into the live Google doc, and right onto the screen.

We were collaborating verbally and non-verbally at the same time.

Co-editing a document on Google Docs (or any other similar cloud-based service) is a liberating experience for those who have previously used only the looking-over-the-shoulder technique.

In this case, a different outcome superseded the client’s learning experience. A few weeks after we worked together on his messaging, he won the election by a comfortable margin. He’s well on his way to serving the voters in his community.

Using Google Docs to collaborate remotely

A variant on this example is the related technique of collaborating on a document when the team members are not in the same room. With Google Docs, you and your writing/editing partner halfway around the world can see what each other is doing in real time if you’re working simultaneously. You can chat about the project in an adjacent window; and later you can look back and see who made which revision.

It’s a lot more effective than emailing MS Word files back and forth. Track Changes is fun, but Google Docs can get the job done quicker.

Let me know if you’d like help drafting an important statement or maximizing collaboration to achieve consensus on your team.

I have this recurring nightmare that I’ve been found slumped over my keyboard. The medical examiner determines that my brain is riddled with bullet points.

Bullet points and Top Ten lists are everywhere: Image from LinkedIn group email.

PowerPointization is evident everywhere. Even the TV newscasts have resorted to summarizing their stories in bullet points on the screen, as the anchorperson reads a voice-over. Now it’s creeping into the Public Relations and Communications community on LinkedIn.

While we may blame David Letterman for injecting Top 10 lists into our culture, let’s admit that enumeration serves a purpose. But as professional communicators let’s also promise to stretch our creativity in different ways.

3 reasons I won’t give 3 reasons

1. Everybody else is making numbered lists. My message gets more attention if it doesn’t look like everybody else’s.

2. There aren’t enough good points. I started out to write Top 10 Ways to Work Less and Earn More, but I can only think of two, and I risk wasting the reader’s time by inventing another eight.

3. Enumeration interrupts storytelling. Journalism schools teach how to tell stories, not write articles. Numbering my content distracts the reader from a smooth flow (unless I’m writing about Snow White and those guys who hung around her).

Wait, what? Can’t bullet points help?

Yes, there are good reasons why I’ll continue to use bullet points and you should, too.

1. Get more clicks. Putting “Top 10 Reasons” in your headline may result in more click-throughs, as busy site visitors know the article won’t take too long to read.

2. The point is clear. Today’s reader spends approximately 1 nanosecond on a Web page. By counting off your points, you make an article very easy to skim quickly.

3. Save words. I love writing clever paragraph transitions. Using bullet points makes such connective tissue unnecessary. Your article can make the same point in fewer words.

Drop me a message and I’ll give you 5 Reasons Why You Should Work With Jonathan Lehrer.

That’s the question I considered today while reviewing some email newsletters on the Constant Contact user feature call, appropriately “Critique My Email,” a page where I landed while working on the enewsletter for my client, the Middle East Peace Network.

Regardless of which email newsletter service you may use, the suggestions I gave my fellow Constant Contacters may be useful tips for a better enewsletter for you.

BANNER IMAGE: Should be attractive, engaging and compatible with your Web site. And it should be fairly small. Try looking at your newsletter on a tablet or netbook computer. If the banner takes up more than a third of the page, it’s too big. Why? Because you want readers to see your most important content without scrolling.

BOREDOM: Engage your readers by replacing generic headings — especially in your Table of Contents — with specifics. Instead of “April Newsletter,” use something like “Spring Cleaning Tips You Can’t Live Without.”

FONT: Body type that’s too large also contributes to a newsletter that requires more scrolling than necessary. Size your body text at 12pt. If you go less than 10pt, people older than 30 (or 40?) won’t want to try reading it.

STYLE: I realize that your text is important, but it doesn’t all need to be in bold. Use bold for headings and subheadings; use italics for emphasis, but not too often; never use underlines, except for clickable links.

SPACES: While you’re editing your text, disregard what you learned in typing class back in 1972: Use only one space after a period, not two. Unless you are using a monospaced font, such as Courier, this rule applies to anything you do on your computer.

MUGSHOT: Maybe it’s just me, but if I’m reading your words in first-person, I’d like to see your photo, too. (See mine here.)

PHONE NUMBER: If the phrase “call today” is somewhere in your text, please include your phone number; don’t make me search all around to find it.

BREVITY: I love that you have a lot on your mind, but it doesn’t all need to be in your newsletter. Every good-sized article you are inclined to put in your newsletter should be on your Web site. Frequent fresh content on your site will get the search engines all excited and that will increase traffic to your site. For your newsletter, include just enough to whet the reader’s appetite; include a “read more” link that targets your site.

LOCATION: If you’re doing business on the Internet, don’t assume that I understand the shorthand you use for local streets and communities.

I may not know exactly where you are, but I’m here and if you need some help with an email newsletter, let me know.

Maybe Chicagoans are desperate for another national championship (after winning the 2010 Stanley Cup), or possibly we just want potential visitors to know we have The Worst Weather on Earth.

Regardless of whether it was the third or fourth worst blizzard in Chicago, my car was still buried under a lot of snow.

The Chicago Tribune’s Rex Huppke reported that a “meteorological coup broke out” when “For a short time Friday (Feb. 11), the National Weather Service tried to shave 0.2 inches off the Blizzard of 2011′s snowfall total and downgrade it from the third-worst snowstorm in Chicago history to the fourth-worst.”

The weather “coup” shared the Trib’s Saturday front page with news of Hosni Mubarak’s reluctant resignation. (Might as well note that the Tribune’s layout staff missed an opportunity to run this head over both stories: “Emotions boil in Cairo while Chicagoans freeze.”)

Huppke reports that the National Weather Service decided to classify the recent blizzard, which dumped a hundred feet of snow on my car, as two snowstorms, not just one. This effectively reduced the officially recorded depth of the snow. Then, in a moment of meteor-illogical revisionist history, the weather service went into the record books and re-calculated the snowfall total for the 1979 blizzard.

At a time when they should have been trying to forecast when (if ever) the snow will melt, Chicago’s TV weather folk got on a conference call to express their displeasure with the weather service’s Jim Allsopp, complaining that the change in ranking would “shake the public’s confidence in weather forecasts,” as the Trib put it.

“It’s a psychological thing. What are people going to think?” WGN’s Tom Skilling is reported as saying.

It’s not like one side is more knowledgeable than the other. These guys are all professional, trained meteorologists (unlike the old days of TV weathercasts, when some were cartoonists, like P. J. Hoff).

Afraid of an Egyptian-style uprising among the TV people, the weather service capitulated and the 2011 blizzard’s record as No. 3 remains etched in the perma-freeze ice sculptures where they keep track of these things.

The net result is that between the social media-inspired peaceful uprising in Egypt and the Chicago weatherman coup, we have two cases of government backing down because of the media.

Portion of the Panera Bread splash screen displayed when users log on to the Internet. My PR plan could help Panera Bread maximize the benefit of their free Wi-Fi

On a beautifully sunny (but freezingly cold) weekday afternoon, I’m sitting at Panera Bread in Skokie, Ill. using the free WiFi. There are at least a dozen other people doing the same thing.

At that table, three people are having a business meeting, reviewing printed documents and gazing at the screen of their laptop. At the next table, two women are having some kind of meeting involving something on their computer screen.

Several years ago, Panera made me a customer for life by establishing the trend of offering a free wireless Internet connection to diners, office-less road warriors and work-at-home types who were bored by their basements.

It became so popular, that now the fast-casual restaurant chain must remind me at every login not to stay in the cafe too long and not to single-handedly hog a table for four. That’s cool.

Here’s my creative idea, a sample marketing plan outline offered for discussion at your favorite business school.

These creative marketing ideas might help Panera expand on their popularity with the Internet-addicted masses, specifically the business folks.

Benefits:

• Increase catering sales for in-office lunch meetings or seminars
• Create more opportunities for affinity marketing
• Promote new products (like that yummy thai chopped salad I enjoyed today)
• Generate additional in-store revenue

The creative marketing plan:

Get my email address: I’m sitting here for free. In exchange, I’m willing to give Panera my email address. Just ask for it when I log in to Internet access. Tie this registration in with your new “My Panera” affinity card program.

Send me the news: Do a weekly email newsletter targeted to road warriors, with articles about cloud computing, mobile gadgets and business networking.

Be my friend: Offer me a 50-cent discount on a shortbread cookie if I join your fan page on Facebook.

Free cookie: Come to think of it, you should give me a free shortbread cookie right now in exchange for my plan.

More power: Install more electrical outlets, and require the use of a proprietary adapter, which you can rent for $1 an hour. When my laptop battery is dead and I’m on deadline, I’d pay any amount of money for electricity (please don’t tell Commonwealth Edison I said that).

A shortbread cookie is a great reward for strategic thinking.

Help me: Partner with Best Buy’s Geek Squad to offer limited support for popular software.

Meet me in St. Louis: Founded as the Saint Louis Bread Co., Panera could leverage social media to create a business networking group that meets for coffee (and shortbread cookies) in the store.

Ok, enough brainstorming for now. I’m hungry. Where’s my cookie?

UPDATE: Hey what do you know? I activated my MyPanera card and there’s a reward waiting for me: a Free Espresso Drink/Smoothie. I hope that means espresso OR smoothie, because I don’t drink espresso and I really like Panera’s smoothies.