The consequences of poor proofreading

Posted on January 26, 2012 by John Wilkerson

The consequences of poor proofreading

A couple days ago I received an email from a company I visited at a trade show last year. It is time to go see them again next month and their well written email provided a direct link to register free tickets through their name.

Given the chance to save $100 bucks I clicked on the link without reading too closely. To my surprise their Ecommerce department had neglected to proofread the mail message and omitted the registration link. The link I followed was actually the unsubscribe link and I found myself removed from their mail list.

I feel sorry for the company in that they have invested so much time and money into developing this email list to have it suddenly be pared down due to a poor proofing job. I have no idea how many leads they had unsubscribe from the list due to this blunder but imagine if the enticement had been higher and a large portion of people followed the link.

This brings up some important issues on proofing:

Try to never do the final edit on a piece of literature and then send it to print on the same day. Sleep on the final edit and then review it with a fresh mind.

Have someone else and more than one person proof your work for you. And try to include a person not from the Ecommerce or Marketing department. They will have a totally different perspective on how the literature looks and functions.

Have a documented procedure on the how the literature is to be proofed and who makes final signed approval. “In the past I worked with a firm where all literature had to be signed off by the President – they had only made one mistake to print in 30 years”

****

John Wilkerson is a Marketing/Sales Professional specializing in online branding, ecommerce sites, blogging, email advertising, content creation, print media, and direct mail. Follow @johnwilkerson

863-398-2199
JDW.Wilkerson@Gmail.com

http://www.johnwilkerson.com
http://www.linkedin.com/in/johndwilkerson
http://twitter.com/#!/johnwilkerson

Posted in Tips and Tricks | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Klout VS Credit Scores

Posted on January 16, 2012 by John Wilkerson

Klout VS credit scores

Klout has received a lot of blog press lately and it mostly seems to revolve around Klout’s desire to rank online presence in the same way the big three credit rating bureaus rank individuals credit scores. They continue to run into an adamant group that speaks loudly about how Klout provides no real service and in fact is creating a false measurement for the online world.

It is interesting that the online community has not embraced Klout and tried to work with them in developing their product. Fore in the long run Klout is already here and will not go away. It may not be called Klout in 10 years but the model has been built and the desire by the non players to be able to measure the players has been identified.

This is the same with the credit bureaus. They have created an unfair playing field to measure and rank individuals credit worthiness and they did so in a vacuum. What would have happened if the consumers had united and started demanding different forms of checks and balances when the industry was developing?

I don’t mean to make an opinion positive or negative about Klout and what they are trying to accomplish but in the end this one fact will remain true.

” Klout is in business to make money and now that it is proven that money can be made ranking online personas; more companies will enter the market.”

It seems to me to stop trying to tear Klout down and instead create on open dialog with them that helps them create a truly inclusive and accurate product. This in turn will allow the industry to develop with guidance from the assets they are trying to measure.

I cringe every time a prospective client wants to run a credit check on me to determine if I am a worthy employee and the same is going to hold true in a few years where all Ecommerce players are hired or fired by their Klout score. Maybe we should help stack the deck?

For a little more reading on how Social Media will start to affect hiring practices checkout:

Social Media technology will one day come back to bite HR and Recruiters

 

****

John Wilkerson is a Marketing/Sales Professional specializing in online branding, ecommerce sites, blogging, email advertising, content creation, print media, and direct mail. Follow @johnwilkerson

863-398-2199 JDW.Wilkerson@Gmail.com

http://www.johnwilkerson.com

http://www.linkedin.com/in/johndwilkerson

http://twitter.com/#!/johnwilkerson

Posted in Why We Do What We Do | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Social Media technology will one day come back to bite HR and Recruiters

Posted on January 5, 2012 by John Wilkerson

Social Media technology will one day come back to bite HR and Recruiters

I have had the joy of interviewing for new positions and/or contracts recently and am surprised with how the market has evolved the past couple of years. It has always been one of the HR black hole when submitting resumes or making initial phone calls but I am surprised with how HR and the hiring managers disappear even after a face to face interview.

This is going to be a dangerous slope for HR to continue to take due to the prevalence of Social Media. Soon someone is going to become so disgusted that they start leveraging big social sites in a way that does nothing but bash HR and Recruiters.

I don’t mention this as a bashing exercise of my own. Only that with Social Media being used by the organizations to research potential employees; it is probably a safe assumption that over time HR and Recruiters that are not responding to active job hunters will find their online persona become very damaging. And that will eventually lead to their inability to find work. Fore when they once again reenter the job market their online background search will yield the good and the bad of their handling of applicants.

It will be an interesting situation when potential employees start doing online background checks on the HR department employees as part of their job hunts. Of course all the standard liability and slander issues will exist, but some enterprising group is going to develop and add-on to LinkedIn that does nothing but log complaints about HR.

I would enjoy comments on this on my primary site so that I can post a follow up review in a few weeks. If you found this post on one of the sites that syndicates my post please feel free to leave comments on their site but I may not get to respond.

 

Posted in Why We Do What We Do | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment