business Archives - Peter Grandstaff

Become a Better Communicator in 7 Minutes

Three Writing Books Worth Having Do you think you can find 7 spare minutes each week? Do you think you could improve one of your most vital business skills with that time? Yes, I’m talking about communication. Whether you’re sending a text or drafting a formal letter, getting your thoughts across quickly and clearly can make a huge difference.

Your writing will affect the impression you make. It will impact how quickly people are able to start acting on your instructions and how well they’ll understand you. It’s easy to forget how much it matters.

Find 7 minutes in your week (or everyday if you’re up for it!) Use that time to read 500 to 1,000 words. Then, keep what you’ve read in mind during the week.

Anyone can read a book about writing. It’s what you do with that information that counts.

Take in just a bit of instruction and, if you actually incorporate it into your thought processes, it can make a huge difference. Do that every week and you’re sure to see steady improvement.

You won’t become the next Shakespeare this way. Practice can’t turn you into a virtuoso, but it can help you improve. Every little bit helps.

You’ll need a starting place for your 7 minutes. Here are some books that I’ve found especially potent.

On Writing by Stephen King – I just finished this one. It’s the reason writing is on my mind today. There are some interesting autobiographical parts with a very solid writing guide in the middle.
The Elements of Style by William Strunk Jr. and E. B. White – King’s book turned me on to this one. It’s full of short sections (perfect for 7 minutes) about all aspects of writing clearly and vigorously.
The AP Stylebook – This is more of a reference book, but I find that I can usually find something worth knowing by flipping through it for a few minutes.
Persuasion: The Psychology of Influence by Robert Cialdini – It’s not a writing book, but so much of business writing involves persuasion that I think it belongs here.

Of course none of the advice you’ll read is written in stone. Writing is communicating. The correct way to write something is the way that gets your idea across with clarity. Rules and advice help you do that better and with less effort.

Why don’t we make this post count as your 7 minutes for the week? For the next week, keep these things in mind when you write.

Omit needless words.

–William Strunk Jr.

Use short sentences.

— Kansas City Star style guide (where Hemingway got his start)

The most valuable of all talents is that of never using two words when one will do.

–Thomas Jefferson

Do you have a favorite writing resource? I’d love to know about it.

One Step to More Local Search Traffic

There’s one easy thing business owners can do to increase the amount of local traffic they get from Google, and many aren’t doing it. I’m talking about claiming your listing in Google Places. Those are the listings that show up in Google Maps and, increasingly, in location-specific search results.

Often times when someone searches for a local business, or category of businesses, Google will show a “7 Box” of local results along with a map. The normal results generally come after this. For example, here’s what I found after searching for [chapel hill coffee].

Example Local Search Results

If you click on the name of the business you will go to their website. To the right of the name is a tally of reviews and “Place page.” That’s a link to their profile in Google Places.

The Place page is a collection of all sorts of data that Google has collected from around the web like reviews, hours of operation, and pictures. The more information Google can find on the web about a business, the more authoritative that business is, thus bringing it higher in those local search results. In local search, mentioning a business, it’s address and telephone number is like a vote of confidence in that business, just like links are for websites in normal search results.

You’re not at the mercy of what Google can find about you, though. Business owners can claim their listing and manually add content. The more content you add, the more Google likes you. So, get out there and claim your listing, and add as much to it as possible. Do a Google search for your business name and city or find yourself on Google Maps to get to your place page. Then, just click the link at the top right that says “Business owner?”

Example Google Places Page

To prove yourself, Google will call the phone number associated with your listing and have you enter a code. It only takes a few minutes. Plus, once you’ve claimed your listing you’ll be able to see statistics about how often your listing shows up for searchers and how they interact with it.

One caveat: These listings are non-transferable. So, don’t have an employee claim your listing while signed in with their personal Google or Gmail account. Generally, the easiest thing to do is create a new Google account to use for the business, and claim the listing with that account.

Tuning In

I’m sitting at my laptop. My desktop is running Seagate DiscWizard. It’s a handy utility that came with my new hard disk drive. It’s copying my old hard drive onto the new 1 terabyte drive. The old drive is a 200 gigabyte that has been making some funny noises lately. It sounds a lot like cicadas. A high pitch drone that fades in and out periodically. So, I bought a new hard drive.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen someone loose a ton of important data from a hard drive failure… it’s never pretty. That’s why I’m excited that I tuned in and heard my drive making this noise before it died. I had time to get a replacement and save all my data.

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