e-Networking: Content Writing

You're in for a bit of a treat today- we're going to be doing another article for someone shortly and here's a short snippet of our section on content writing.

Content Writing
Content is, and always will be, your weapon of choice on social media sites (and any e-Networking sites) as this is how people come to know you. You don’t have to be a brilliant writer, an excellent poet or even have any experience- you just need a passion.
You have to love what you write about, or at least are able to write as if you do, in order to write content that makes people come back to your sites. Below are some tips which may help you there:

1. Factual is great but what people want is insight. Take news sites for example, why is it that people choose Sky News over BBC News? Or the Financial Times over the Economist? The core of the information is always the same, the facts always exist, but the presentation- that changes. Some people are overly pessimistic, some funny and some are unbiased (in a true sense) and that is what helps them associate with their readers.
2. Compliments cost nothing, yet you would be led to believe you have to pay in blood for the amount you actually get. It’s not hard to say “Thank you for reading” and it means a lot. Personally, I think some people have the greatest ideas but have the manners of a rusty fork. If I were to judge them on their character, not their content, I wouldn’t read their content much if at all.
3. Try to be consistent in your approach and stick to what you do best. Writing is hard work when you write about a lot, but even if your topics change your mannerisms don’t have to and that’s reassuring. Think of it like music, why do you listen to your favourite artists? What about their recordings make you inclined to listen?
4. Impersonal, personal, formal, informal- it’s all good. Too often when we think of writing for other people we think it has to be as formal as a starched shirt. It doesn’t. Of course typing in what is considered “netspeak (how r u?)” is a bad idea, usually, but at the same time typing informally never hurts. Type however it comes naturally to you; so many people struggle to get their message across because they want it to look perfect- it really doesn’t have to.

These are the things that, personally, I have always taken into account while writing these blogs (and any content). It's good to have a consistent, natural and honest feel to your work. Above all else- people trust it a little bit more and are likely to react better than if you are overly formal. They might feel they're not professional enough, or something of the sort, in that case.

And that's all for now!
Thank you for reading, as always, we hope this has been insightful.

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e-Networking: Not a Replacement

I've found that in the last few weeks we've been talking about e-Networking and using the internet as some kind of online networking tool, people have become increasingly concerned with it replacement for traditional networking/marketing- but this is not the case!

e-Networking is simply another way to do things that you can do any other way.
For instance, the use of Twitter and Facebook is not an exclusive marketing strategy and will replace the traditional marketing methods- it's an augmented method- to be done as well as all the other things you're already doing.
While blogging and even customisable platforms like WordPress are no replacement whatsoever for an actual corporate website with all of your information on it.
All in all these things are nothing more than an extra method, a new idea or something different you could try to generate some more traffic and some more business. They're not designed to replace anything- in fact, if anything there's simply not enough available that you could.

They're just something new.
Well, new for the older generation who probably grew up more akin to a pen and paper than a keyboard and monitor. But they're also something new in terms of business and corporate activity.

Also, while we're at it- let's dispel a few other myths about e-Networking in general.

• There's no way someone could access your information from it. Not a one. Other than what you upload on profiles all of your other information (IP addresses, e-mail addresses and so on) are all safe and held by the parent site- not the networker.
• Privacy is a big issue. In the days where people spend more time online than they do in their everyday lives there's a big issue of privacy- do we have it? How do we get it? Are we secure? The answer to these questions and many more is: there are easy-to-use privacy settings on each of these sites. They take minutes to set up.
• Spam is not something you'll get a lot of. We all hate spam (though some like the tinned variety) and it's a big issue, as much as privacy, on the internet. Mostly because spam becomes scams and then all sorts of disagreeable things happen. These days many sites are committed to lowering how much spam is recieved and overall it's a lot safer experience than before.
• Opt in, opt out- whatever you prefer. Most sites are free and do not force you to be on them for a "trial period" or something of the sort, you can join them and leave them as easy as you can open a web browser. Deleting your account is always an option and you have no obligations to stay if you'd rather not.

And that concludes this post! We hope it has been informative and helped to show a few of the better sides of e-Networking that otherwise might have been confused. Understandably so, as this is a new and exciting form of technology and there's all sort of myths and horror stories around the internet- but it really is all good. For the most part!

Got any e-Networking stories you'd like to share? Feel free to comment and let us know what you have to say.

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