A Penny's Worth

Most small business people and freelancers do their own marketing, especially in the present economy. Many work hard to keep up with new venues in advertising and the new technology that goes with it.  I sympathize. I struggle with these things too. However, it never ceases to amaze me the number of postings I see that are poorly written. You may hurt your image, and your credibility, when you take on too much or try to reach beyond your abilities in these areas.

Some postings are obviously written by people for whom English is a second language. Even so, if a person isn’t fluent in the language they are using–especially if that is the language used in the media and audience they are addressing, they need to get help. In other cases, I can’t decide whether what I see is carelessness or poor skills or both. Spelling and typing errors run rampant. Posting for discussions in professional groups on Facebook or LinkedIn isn’t the same as throwing together a quick email to your friends. You won’t make points with the agent who happens to read your post if your work looks like it was written by a first grade student.

Another issue is blatant disregard for the group rules and the annoyance of the group members. There are new marketing “gurus” that teach people how to use the groups to market themselves. The problem is that most of what they are teaching can get you banned. It may work for a while. On the other hand, it may annoy the members so badly that the only responses you get are a lot of angry comments. I’ve seen it happen. Some groups are very proactive.

These groups are set up to discuss professional issues and offer helpful information. Admittedly, some of them are not well monitored. In those cases, people tend to drop out or just turn them off. Obviously, you can’t sell something to a group that isn’t reading your posts. All members need to take responsibility for abiding by the guidelines.

One other issue I see a lot is misdirection. If you want to sell your skills in investment writing or your expertise in restoring antique cars, you need to belong to groups where you will find customers. For example, peer groups of other writers are for learning the trade or asking for advice about resources. They are not your target audience. In fact, some of them are likely to be your competition.

The wide variety of media that’s growing daily is confusing. It’s also widely misused. If you misuse it, you waste time that can be used to grow your business. Slow down and read some tutorials. Take it one step at a time and don’t go overboard initially. A presence is good. However, all visibility is not equal. Poor choices can hurt your image and take a long time to overcome. Move cautiously.