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There is a divide between researchers who study the relationship between texting, grammar and spelling. Some claim that texting, which includes shortcuts, homophones and omission of non-essential letters, has a detrimental effect on grammar and spelling. On the other hand, others claim that texting as a casual style of writing adds on to one’s writing repertoire.

The popularity of Spelling Bee competitions is one of the ways that schools engage their young to encourage them to learn proper spelling. Then again, some might ask who needs to know how to spell words like vivisepulture or esquamulose. Yet people are quick to pick on spelling gaffes posted on social media, for example. During the 2012 US presidential campaign, Republican candidate Mitt Romney and his campaign team were left red-faced at the consequences of bad spelling in a phrase “a better Amercia”. It went on to spawn several Internet memes and #Amercia became a hashtag that trended on Twitter during the campaign period.

The bottom line remains, that good grammar and spelling mean credibility. Imagine the criticism annual reports and newspapers receive when grammar and spelling mistakes are found in them. Or perhaps, how a job candidate is overlooked because of mistakes made in grammar and spelling in his résumé.

In an age where efficiency is valued it is acknowledged that shortcuts in grammar and spelling in texting are tolerated. The key thing is to know and recognise situations when shortcuts are accepted and when they are not – it begins with being exposed to good, proper writing so as to know what is correct and what is not.

Here’s an interesting fact: Less than 6% of the world’s population speaks English well enough to conduct business. Even if they speak the language, they may not be able to read it.

In a globalised economy, any writing is likely to have an international audience. In other words, there is a tremendous opportunity for your business to reach a wider market once inaccessible despite differences in geography.

While translation tools make it easier to engage a larger audience, they do not capture the linguistic nuances such as colloquialism and humour that make content interesting.

It is also important to appreciate cultural differences to ensure political correctness in the content. Details such as colour, religious references, sports, fiscal years while seemingly minor can cut off audience if they are misunderstood.

Being aware and sensitive as such can make a difference in the content that you broadcast. Remember to respect your audience, whether local or global and provide content that is relevant and useful to them.

Today, just about every person is on Facebook. It is the largest and most visited social networking site in the world.  It is here to stay. With practically no barriers to entering Facebook, everyone is having a field day. For organisations, it opens a way to promote their business and engage with customers meaningfully.

A Facebook business page needs close attention and monitoring so that it serves its purpose. It requires research and planning keeping in mind the needs of your company. Smart management of your social media presence leaves you time to focus on your business.

To remain connected online, a business needs certain social media strategies. The success of many social media campaigns is only because of strategies.

Frequency of page update: A reasonable Facebook strategy commands that you know the right time to update your page. At least 3 to 5 updates a week is counted as acceptable to maintain a strong online presence. The only exception is when you have a new product launch or some special events. People don’t like to see intrusive updates every second.

Genre of content: A Facebook page devoid of content is worse than not having a page at all. Don’t let your page just sit there. Think of all the contents that you can post that will be of interest to your followers. The right content ultimately converts your followers into sales. You can upload inspiring messages and photos but don’t sound too desperate.

Avoid self-promotion: Stay away from shameless self-promotion. Rather, focus on your fans. Never overdo on promotional materials. At the end of the day, your brand is what your followers judge it is, not what you go out of your way to convince them.

Be thankful: Respond to comments and queries of your fans whenever you can, though it is way too difficult considering their size. A kind gesture of acknowledgment will make them feel important and special in their engagement with your brand.

Guidance & management: Guide your social media presence through certain plans and parameters; don’t let it go stale. Update on a regular basis with relevant contents. Use social networking analysis tools like Google Analytics to measure the effectiveness and traffic. A managed Facebook account offers a direct line of communication between you and your consumers. It helps create a buzz around your products and/or services. And from there, it doesn’t take long to translate it to revenues.

Try to be more organised about what you say, how you say, and when you say. Focus on keywords and target audience, and let your fan page go viral.

Brochures are a reliable tool of businesses to promote their products and services.  This is because a good brochure grabs the attention of your target audience with its creative design and engages them with a crisp copy.  As a business owner, you need the expertise of both a creative designer and a strong copywriter to come up with an effective brochure that speaks to your audience.  Besides the talent of these two professionals, your active involvement in the process is a prerequisite for designing a great brochure.

Here’s how it works:

Know what you want to achieve:  As a business owner or entrepreneur, you should have a clear understanding of what you want to achieve with the brochure.  While some brochures focus on spreading awareness, others are designed to enhance the sales of a particular product.  Once you have made up your mind, your homework should be thorough in terms of collecting product literature, data and images.

Engage the right resources: Brochure designing is a niche process that calls for talented designers and seasoned copywriters.  If you do not have the expertise, the best idea is to hire a proper agency that has a proven track record of delivering quality on such work.  Before engaging such an agency, you should have a look at their previous work samples and the clientele they handle.

Conduct a detailed briefing session: Once you have finalised the resources to work on your brochure, it is imperative that you have an extensive one-on-one session with the team.  Share your expectations from the brochure in detail and solicit suggestions from them.  Listen to their ideas on how they are going to engage your target audience.  In this session, you can provide the designer and copywriter with the product literature, data and images that you want to use. Your designer and copywriter may also have suggestions has to how to best present your product or service. In some cases, it may be beneficial to engage a photographer to ensure a consistent, quality look that will support your design and copy.

All these steps appear to be simple, but are very crucial if you want a great brochure. Remember, your brochure is the face of your business. Engaging experts is crucial for your clients to get a good first impression.

Come end-March, we will be wrapping up our series of training sessions for the team at NTU Libraries. Over the past one year, we at Project Ink have been training the library staff in writing captivating articles for their regular newsletter.

The tricky part is their target audience – a group with a wide spectrum of ages, from 20 to 60. 

We were really glad that the participants had fun during the sessions and, more importantly, went away with new ideas to amp up their articles. Feedback has been that the quality of the articles has improved since we first appeared on the scene.

Thanks for the privilege, guys. You have been a wonderful bunch to work with!

So earlier this year, we were engaged to do the write-ups for a few collaterals for Yale-NUS College. This included a series of press ads – the first of which recently appeared in The Straits Times.

Nothing quite like seeing your work in the final product with an eye-catching photograph and captivating design.

Yale-NUS Ad 1

Copy text – Yale NUS Ad 1