Writing online content is relatively simple. After all, writing is relatively simple, right? Most of us have been writing since the first grade. But maybe that's part of the problem: We're so familiar with it, we forget that writing to suit our audience and the delivery medium is a skill and a craft. It's something we need to spend a little time and energy getting right.
How often do you read what you've written? Not just proofread for grammar and spelling, but read like your audience would? Can you easily identify the key points of your message? Are they clear? Before you publish, do you figure out what works, what doesn't, what flows and what's missing? Think about the balance of your time and effort across the three writing basics: drafting, reading and editing. All three are important.
Basics matter. They matter even more when you want to be brief and to the point. In the digital age, communicators can't afford to ramble; it's unlikely our audiences have the time or energy to ponder what exactly we were trying to say.
Common mistakes I've seen (and made myself) include drafting the same point from different angles and leaving all of them in the final cut; writing a summary before understanding the bigger picture; not reading a message before it's released; and thinking that spell check fixes everything. Along the way, I've also discovered five tips to improve written messages online.
1. Keep it short and simple.
Be brief. People read more slowly on screen than they do on paper. Employees today are also more likely to be distracted or interrupted. Put yourself in their position—the phone is ringing, someone is waiting for a quick word, an e-mail notification just came in and the next meeting starts in six minutes.
You want people to understand your message and do something about it. So use short words. Make it quick and get to the point. Use bullet points, subheads, links and related images. Through careful editing, aim to reduce your first draft by at least 25 to 50 percent.
2. Stay active when possible.
Be brave. Active sentences are shorter, more direct and focus on who's doing what. I often find myself sliding into passive sentence structures when I'm not confident in what I'm writing or concerned about presenting too strong a view. Have the confidence to remove bland phrases. Say "I do" rather than "Done it is, by me."
3. Make a deliberate choice of tone.
We don't talk in the same tone throughout our day. Our tone of voice varies from when we say goodbye to our loved ones as we leave for work, to when we greet our boss or the head of the company, or laugh with colleagues. It's as much how we say something as what we say. Yet sometimes we forget to introduce this into our writing.
Our written tone needs to match our topic. I always imagine how I would say a given sentence, then try to inflect some of that voice into my writing. If I'm bored writing it, I doubt anyone will have the energy to read it. Be joyful when writing a conversational article on social activities and energetic when encouraging employees to participate in an online survey. You may want to convey a more somber and dignified mood when detailing company policy or relaying quarterly business results.
4. People engage with people.
Make it personal. Let some personality come through in what you have to say. After all, why are blogs so successful? Because they come from a real person and are infused with that individual's character. Remember your content and the context, but where you can, pick a point of view to tell your story: I am, we are, they are.
You can't force someone to be something they're not, and people can smell a fake tone online just as easily as they can in real life. That's why I firmly believe that some people should not blog. If you have to force yourself to write it, people will struggle to read it.
5. Stand out from the start.
Engage your audience from the very beginning by turning your headlines into star attractions. When writing online content, you should know who your audience is. You know what they like and are passionate about. Use this when brainstorming ideas for your perfect title.
Always write your headline after your article is complete. Then have some fun! Be outrageous. After your brainstorm, review your ideas and filter the options based on your organization's culture, the topic, the author and the audience. A play on words may not work as the title to a CEO message or an IT service outage. Remember to keep your headlines functional and use language that your audience relates to.
Here are some actual headlines that would be hard to skip over. These referred to articles about driver safety, winning an employer of choice award, an upgrade of fleet vehicles, and company values, respectively.
- "Do it with the lights on!"
- "Leaders in looking after our people"
- "Start your engines"
- "We don't live for work either"
Spend the time to draft, read and edit your work before you publish it online. Think about your readers. Think about the outcome you want to achieve. Keep it simple, inject some personality and most important, stand out from the start.
