1. Color can provide visual cues that direct the reader’s attention to certain parts of your document. If you want to highlight key product features, a quote, or a contact phone number, a splash of color will draw the eye to that section of the page.

Which headshot is more inviting, the left or right?

2. Color encourages readers to act.  A prospective customer reading your sales brochure is more likely to move beyond the cover if the piece uses color to appear inviting and welcoming.

3. Color conveys emotion. Red is an attention getter and expresses vitality. Green conveys freshness and health. Yellows are happy, while blue portrays a corporate look.

4. Color adds professionalism. Use of color in today’s world is expected from a professional company. Black and white print implies old technology and out-of-date methods, while color implies newness, freshness and cutting-edge technology.

5. Color adds personality. Since we live in a virtual world that often transcends borders, people like to see others (who they may not meet in person) when they view marketing materials or advertisements. The use of color brings life and personality to staff photos, images of customers in testimonials, and more.

What is important is to make certain you use color wisely. Too much color can detract from your message. Poorly-planned color schemes just convey ugliness. Lastly, remember to work with a graphics and marketing professional who can ensure that the color in all of your printed materials matches.

BREAKING: Witnesses reporting screams and gunfire heard inside Capitol building

And then it didn’t post anything for 10 minutes—an eternity in cyberspace after posting a headline like that.

If you headed to the Onion’s website, you saw a story about a dozen Congressmen taking a class of schoolchildren hostage. A false story, thankfully. Satire, meant to poke fun at a dysfunctional legislative branch whose approval numbers are lower than the thermometer on a January morning in Alaska.

Now, this is hardly the first time the Onion has posted content that rode the razor’s edge of good taste. And really—who looks to the Onion for their news reporting?

But there’s no doubt that more than a few hearts skipped a beat this morning when readers saw that headline. Maybe they didn’t notice the source. Maybe they had children on a field trip to the capitol Thursday morning. And there have been occasions in the past when non-traditional sources end up reporting hard news, simply because they’re on the scene when it happens. Anyone who was watching the 1989 World Series between the Oakland A’s and the San Francisco Giants can remember when the Bay Area earthquake hit, and watching sportscasters Al Michaels and Tim McCarver report on what had happened simply because they were there and on live national TV. They said “This is not a sports story…”

So, yes, the Onion went too far. In 2011, when reports of guns in schools and terrorist attacks on government buildings around the world are far too common, the Onion went too far.

In March of 2010, TPS blogged about using humor in business communications. Our observations then hold true now:

…if not handled with tact, comedy can backfire and ruin an otherwise fine piece of writing…As Shakespeare, himself no stranger to satire and the clever use of humor, wrote in Henry IV, “The better part of valour is discretion.” When in doubt, don’t.

As soon as the news broke, the analysis began, long before any details were in. What are the long-term impacts on the war on terror? What’s the impact on the Pakistani-US relationship? What will world reaction be?

Within a week, cable channels were running documentaries on the SEAL mission and retrospectives on 9/11 and the life of bin Laden. The same types of stories could be found in news magazines, newspapers and on news websites.

The lesson for businesses is that while stories spread incredibly fast in 2011, people’s desire for analysis has grown even faster. People want to know “How does this impact me? What does this mean for my life?”

To take it a step further, maybe it’s no longer enough to report a fact. Now, it needs to be explained or given context. In a business context, this means it’s not enough to make claims about your product or service. It’s more important than ever to explain why those claims are important, and what impact they have on our audiences, whether they’re B2B customers or consumers.

You manufacture a tougher, cheaper plastic bag—so what? What impact does it have on my bottom line? How will it benefit my customers? How will your more capable, faster software help my company improve its cash flow?

Customers are demanding more and more that we cut to the chase and explain how our products and services get a company from point A to point B. Trade Press Services can help your company craft messages that resonate with your potential clients. Call us at (805) 496-8850 or e-mail gerri@tradepressservices.com.

Why not? That’s considered advertorial content. You’ve likely seen this kind of content in magazines—it’s labeled “ADVERTISEMENT” or “special advertising section.” This is to distinguish it from editorial content, which is journalism and is assumed to be fair and unbiased. If a magazine were to publish an article by Bill Gates about the many wonderful features of Windows 7 without any kind of disclaimer, it would be crossing the line between advertising and journalism and would seriously damage the credibility of the publication.

So when our client seemed to be the only provider of a certain service, we faced a real challenge—how to discuss this ins and outs of a particular service without writing a purely self-serving, essentially advertorial piece. Here is how we handled it. We did extensive research and came up with an angle that positioned the service as an emerging trend. Secondly, we decided not to have someone from the company take the byline (authorship of the article). Instead, one of our freelance business writers authored the piece and framed it as a news story. This solved our “Bill Gates” problem. Third, we explained the situation to the editor in advance. By doing so, we maintained our integrity, asked for input and came up with a solution together.

Since the market reality with emerging technologies sometimes dictates sole provider status, which was the case here, there was really no way around the bulk of the article being focused on just one company. However, our resourcefulness, creativity, flexibility and collaboration resulted in creating a solid editorial piece that met the needs of the client and publication as well.

To me, this sounds like Twitter, text messaging or other abbreviated, modern forms of communication rubbing of onto e-mail, which has become a rather old-fashioned way for the young and socially adept to communicate, just ahead of the antiquated phone call.

Gaertner-Johnston says, and I agree, that the goal of an e-mail (and any form of communication) should be to communicate effectively. That being said, certain forms of communication are more effective than others, and also more appropriate for given circumstances.

It’s remarkable how many young people entering the business world (and “seasoned” business leaders who should know better) don’t know which forms of communication are appropriate, and which aren’t. To help address that gap in their knowledge, I’ve put together a brief list of modern communication methods and when they’re best used.

Twitter: Best used informally, for non-confidential communications, and for fun. Never fire anyone with a tweet (I shouldn’t have to say that!).

Text message: More formal and private than a tweet, but similarly short. Best used for conveying brief snippets of useful information (“meeting moved AGAIN now 5 pm LOL”)

Facebook: A well-managed Facebook presence can be a great asset. Remember, however, that your clients can see your prim and proper updates (“Rolling out version 2.0 to enterprise customers Thursday”) and your weekend updates as well (“Drank too much last night…go figure!”). Use good judgment.

E-mail: E-mail is a wonderful tool for conveying facts and even brief proposals or communiques. For longish documents, attach a .pdf or Word file instead to take advantage of the security and formatting advantages those file types offer. Remember, avoid trying to give an opinion, discuss controversial topics, or heaven forbid, discipline or fire someone over e-mail. These topics are best handled with a phone call, or in the case of personnel issues, face to face. And never fire off an e-mail in anger.

Voice: Once known as a “phone call” in the pre-digital era, voice is the preferred way to discuss many controversial or complicated topics so that subtleties and small nuances make it across. For example, “Bob is a real asset” typed into an e-mail means just that. However, said with the proper intonation in a phone call, “Bob is a real asset” can mean he’s anything but.

Face-to-face: Yes, it’s cumbersome and expensive in the internet era of world commerce, so dropping in on the gang in Delhi may be not practical. But nothing beats a good-old face-to-face when it comes to building relationships and keeping clients for a lifetime.

Click here to view the embedded video.

What are the lessons to be learned for communicators, whether you’re a journalist, writer or marketing manager? These five stand out to me:

1. Don’t assume I’m stupid. Today’s media consumer has access to more information at their fingertips. If you’re going to cite “facts,” make sure they’re correct. Better yet, include your source. On a related note…
2. Keep things in context. Don’t bend quotes, misquote, or cherry pick from quotes to try to make up something that just isn’t true. Remember the recent Andrew Breitbart-Shirley Sherrod dust up, involving a Dept. of Agriculture employee fired for supposed racial comments that were posted by a blogger? That was the result of quoting someone out of context. Don’t let this happen to you.
3. Stay positive. Our mothers told us that if we couldn’t say something nice…you know the rest. Your message will always resonate better with its audience if you point out the positive aspects of your product or service, and not the negative aspects of your competitor’s. Going negative only reflects poorly on you.
4. Keep it simple. Don’t try to cram too much information into your message. Readers and media consumers will only remember a few items from anything they read or watch. Focus on a few key themes and save the rest for another time. Remember to key in on benefits and answer the question, “What will it do for me?”
5. Be different. Don’t write the same piece over and over again. Your audience will get five words into it, remember it as old news, and their brains will mentally check out.

Yes, these political ads are awful. But maybe if we can learn something from these 30-second glimpses into the worst of America, we can start making the media a little better place on Wednesday, Nov. 3.

The article describes how Steve Gibson, founder of Las Vegas-based “Righthaven,” is going after websites that have allegedly stolen content from his first and only client to date, the Las Vegas Review-Journal. Under the federal Copyright Act, violators can be fined up to $150,000 per infringement, according to the article, and Gibson hopes the potential for high fines will force quick settlements.

This is the latest chapter in an effort by copyright holders to prevent unauthorized sharing of their content over the Internet. Previous efforts by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) to stop illegal music sharing via torrent sites and other means met with limited success and generated a lot of negative publicity for the music industry. Artists protested, too—Radiohead released a new album for free online, allowing downloaders the option to pay whatever they felt to be a fair amount.

Of course, writers and the media publications for which they write need to be able to protect their investment. This is an increasingly difficult thing to do in the digital age for several reasons. First, it’s simply hard to find copyright violators due to the sheer mass of the Internet. With millions of websites out there, finding someone who has reposted a news article on their website is like finding a canoe in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.

Second, the nature of today’s Internet encourages sharing of information. The most popular websites, such as Facebook and MySpace, bank on it, as do news aggregators like Google and Yahoo!. And third, it’s questionable whether or not media outlets would even want to go after alleged violators. In cyberspace, there are few scoops. If someone doesn’t want to (or can’t) read a news story on a certain website, odds are they can find the same story, or a similar one, somewhere else. Media outlets are almost forced to sacrifice control of their content just to get eyeballs on their website in the hopes that visitors click on their ads.

Generally, fair use allows the news media (including bloggers) to quote from and source copyrighted material, if it’s their intent to report on it, critique it, or parody it. My advice—feel free to continue to quote from and cite copyrighted news sources for these purposes. But don’t reproduce entire articles on your websites or in publications—include a link instead. And always refer back to the original source. It’s my opinion that the original news source will welcome the free publicity and the website traffic that your referral may generate.

While newspapers long excelled in delivering local news, the Internet is less fertile ground—for now. While online national and international news sites such as CNN.com and Yahoo! news, and newsy, political blogs like Huffington Post and the Drudge Report are wildly popular, the local news scene has been hit-and-miss, depending on whether or not local media established a strong online presence. Social media have filled in the gaps where local media have fallen short, helping users to stay connected with happenings online while sharing information and interacting in real time—something that print newspapers can’t do.

The decision by major media companies like AOL and Gannett to go local from the top down—delivered by a national company to the local market—brings up several questions that remain unanswered. First, what about credibility? Consumers can smell an outsider a mile away. If the hyper-local media offerings put forth by these companies don’t “sound” local, with real local knowledge, then consumers will tune them out.

For example, many of the traffic and weather reports given during drive-time on AM news talk stations aren’t originating in a “traffic center” in the local studio. They’re being phoned in on a high-quality digital telephone line from a desk at a location that can be hundreds or thousands of miles away. And sometimes it shows—the announcer will mispronounce a town or street name that any local would know. Hiring local writers and reporters will be key to the credibility of these efforts.

Second, local newspapers aren’t ignorant of the fact that local news sells. In an age when the Internet is a far more efficient source for national and international news, offering up-to-the-minute breaking news and a wide variety of perspectives, the local newspaper—and its online counterpart—remain the best place for Little League news, local human interest stories, and other news that the national companies don’t cover well for obvious reasons. They’re sure to mount a strong challenge, paralleling the fight between mom-and-pop retail stores and WalMart in many communities around the country. What’s uncertain is whether the local news media can be more successful than the mom and pop stores have been.

The battle for hyper-local news dominance is worth watching because it’s part of the much broader debate and battle for the future of the publishing industry. Some major players have decided that this is where at least part of their future is at. We’ll see.

However, if not handled with tact, comedy can backfire and ruin an otherwise fine piece of writing. Writer Suzan St. Maur penned an article a few years ago on using humor in business that makes several good points. She writes that it’s easy to get humor wrong, especially when communicating over the Internet, which is often devoid of context. Sometimes, it’s the body language or the inflection that turns a tasteless joke into a tasteful one. When that human element is missing, all bets are off as to how the recipient of the message will take it.

Still, humor can be used successfully if the proper precautions are taken. St. Maur advises writers to use jokes about situations, not people. All of us can relate to certain situations—a plumbing emergency, a toothache or a speeding ticket, for example—but we may take offense at jokes aimed at ethnic groups, minorities or public figures. St. Maur goes on to say that humor is best used like a spicy condiment in business communications: sparingly, and avoided altogether if one doesn’t know the tastes of one’s audience.

There are other ways in addition to those mentioned by St. Maur to inject a little levity into one’s writing. One is to be self-deprecating. While readers may be quick to condemn an author if that author pokes fun at someone else, they may be inclined to laugh along with the author if they’re poking fun at themselves. And the ability to laugh at one’s self and point out one’s own foibles can be viewed as a sign of wisdom, humility, confidence and a certain level of comfort in one’s own skin.

Another way is quote famous and respected humorists, whose work has gained a measure of respect and acceptance in general society. For example, Mark Twain once said, “Suppose you were an idiot and suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself.” A comment like that might offend if an unknown author made it, but coming from Twain, it is likely to make others smile.

Whatever approach an author uses, it’s always best to have respected co-workers (or two or three) review the piece before it goes to print. If it causes raised eyebrows in the office, it’s likely to do a lot more damage with a wider audience. As Shakespeare, himself no stranger to satire and the clever use of humor, wrote in Henry IV, “The better part of valour is discretion.” When in doubt, don’t.

Click here to view the embedded video.