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March 2010

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I’ve wanted to talk about proofreading for some time, but in the age of texting and tweeting I thought: to what avail? A recent subhead in a prestigious trade journal, however, revived my determination to do so. It read:

“Use this method to allogate (sic) limited maintenance resources to the most critical equipment.”

Now in the age of “ginormous” passing itself off as a legitimate word, I completed due diligence to determine that no such word as “allogate” exists.

So, here is my advice concerning proofreading:

1. If you do a lot of publications work, hire a professional proofreader with newspaper or publishing house experience. Alternately, identify a candidate for formal training.
2. After the initial draft and first round of editing and proofing, the author should not see it again until the manuscript is ready for publication or posting.
3. You should conduct three types of proofreading with three different proofreaders.
   1. Accuracy of content - Whether technical or mundane have someone check the correctness of the principles, theorems, relevance, facts, etc.
   2. Clarity of writing - No matter how complex or arcane have your spouse, secretary or even the UPS driver read the copy to see if it is comprehensible or at least tracks.
   3. Grammatically correct - Make sure voice and agreement are consistent, punctuation, spelling, etc., are correct and so forth.
4. Do not overlook the most obvious elements that will result in the most embarrassment if incorrect - the inside and outside / front and back covers.

True story: Whilst on a tour of a top tier commercial printer to solicit my business, the salesman was proudly pointing out an annual report cover they were running. I was impressed they were printing the report of a major auto repair chain and said, “Wow, you do work for Aamco?” To which he replied, “No, why?” “Well, it says here Aamco,” I said. The salesman turned ashen as the publication was the Armco annual report. Now how many times and by how many people do you think this piece was proofed?

Tip: ALWAYS proof the obvious first as this is often overlooked and the greatest source of embarassment. Check the company name, address and phone numbers, etc. A typo on page 31 will be forgiven; a mistake on the covers is unforgivable.

If you’ve been in this business for any length of time, I’m sure you have similar tales. I and those reading this blog would very much like to hear about them. Please share them with us.

The other day I was working on an online survey script for a customer. Midway through the project, I found myself overcome by the temptation to sneak in a few bonus questions in the hopes of picking up some extra intelligence. I added a couple of harmless questions and went home. After a good night’s sleep, I read through the survey again and came to my senses (thankfully). I was getting ready to break one of the golden rules of survey writing – KEEP TO ONE OBJECTIVE – all for an intelligence-gathering quickie. Before anyone else succumbs to the same temptations, I felt a quick recap of the dos and don’ts of online survey execution might be helpful.
Continue reading Online Surveys in B2B – Temptations Every Marketer Should Avoid

TriComB2B has learned a lot lately about product launches within B2B. Across industries, product development entails all types of activities, from market research to testing and launch to market. Research tells us that with the product developed and ready for sale, many companies simply pass it along to sales and hope for the best. A recent study published by AcuPoll indicates that as many as 80 to 95 percent of B2B product launches fail, typically after being evaluated against metrics such as revenue achievement and profitablity goals.

Continue reading B2B Product Launch White Paper

We’ve all railed against politicians who unashamedly, unapologetically and routinely communicate distortions disguised as verisimilitudes. Obtrusive earmarks are “critical investments” in infrastructure - not pet projects; tax increases (and not spending cuts) are necessary to balance the budget; etc. Unquestionably dreadful behavior.

Continue reading The Cranky Communicator: Write Truthfully

As we all know, U.S. health care reform has been a hot topic over the last few months. I have paid some attention to it - simply as a concerned citizen. I believe in improving the health care options offered to all, but have been suspect of the circumstances and timing. My personal opinion is that the U.S. has bigger problems at the moment, specifically a recessionary economy and unemployment wavering around 10%. And I also felt information overload; you can find a supporting blog, video, article, etc., for all of the varied opinions on the subject.

Continue reading The Future of the Medical Device Industry

The Dayton Daily News recently reported that regional utilities are closely watching large-scale test facilities for clean coal and carbon sequestration technologies (specifically noting AEP’s and the government’s investments in exploring these technologies). I find it surprising that many environmentalist organizations oppose government investment in technologies related to burning coal for energy. Perhaps my view is too simplistic, but here’s why…

Continue reading Clean Coal / Carbon Capture Technology Creates Paradox for Environmentalists

Among the several benefits of growing up in Brooklyn was the opportunity to see the “Christmas Spectacular” staged annually at the truly magnificent Radio City Music Hall at Rockefeller Center. My Dad and I never missed a show. (My Mom, who hated subways and was none too fond of Manhattan, would join us only occasionally.) It’s a tradition I have done my best to maintain, first with my children and now with my grandchildren.

Continue reading The Cranky Communicator: T’is the Season

Dayton Power & Light announced plans for its first utility-scale, photovoltaic solar power array with a target go-live date of March 2010. At face value, this is a nice shot in the arm for a region suffering from the Midwest manufacturing blues. Taking part in the new green economy is at a minimum good for local morale. While it’s easy to get overly excited, the promise of solar power comes with all sorts of cautionary notes.
Continue reading Solar Power in Dayton – A Small Step Toward SB221 Compliance? Or Something Bigger?

Google Goes Real-Time

The search engine wars are heating up. Bing’s surprisingly successful launch earlier this year has forced Google to fast-track some of their newer offerings. This week the search giant launched live search indexing, joining Bing in the real-time search results arena.

Continue reading Got Twitter? SEO Game Changes with Google Real-Time Search

I am a big fan of MarketingProfs  and consume their reports and data points with the same level of enjoyment of the day’s first coffee (preferably a tall mocha from Starbucks). MarketingProf’s recently published the “Digital Marketing Factbook,” a well-done report that covers recent online data, email marketing, search marketing and social media marketing. While much of the online data was focused on B2C research, I still find it interesting. For example, did you know that the Top 5 countries with the highest population percentages using the Internet are Greenland, the Netherlands, Norway, Antigua & Barbuda and Iceland? The U.S. placed 13th with a 72.3% Internet penetration rate.

Continue reading Social Media and Marketing: Here to Stay?

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