How to Get the Best Body Ever?

Tired of overweight, cellulitis, and fat? Don’t give up! Sarah lost 40 pounds and got in shape.

Everything is possible if you adopt a healthy lifestyle and diet. You can slim down and look your best, combining a low-calorie and well-nutritious eating style with some physical exercises. Ups will help you weather the storms of downs during the continuous fitness journey. Even if it takes you some time to notice a difference and reach your goal, discipline is necessary to get the best results over the long run.

The above is about turning your physical body into the best body ever; but what if you can turn your text body into the best body ever? How can you build your own blog, write the most compelling content, and target your identified audience? The toning of the blog body follows exactly the same rules of the toning of the physical body. Our highly recommended text body coach will be Mrs. Bernadette Jiwa.

Bernadette Jiwa helps “every entrepreneur, business owner and global brand to better understand how to create deeper connections with their customers”. She also assists “big and small companies to design, build, and grow brands while developing a business strategy and brand story that’s aligned with their unique identity, vision and values”. In her strategy, she focuses on the story, and this is what her blog’s name “The Story of Telling” reflects. I recommend you to follow her “healthy” blog.

6 tips that keep Bernadette’s text body in shape:

• She does not count calories! 

In her blog, Bernadette doesn’t stretch sentences to give strong impact. She doesn’t count the “calories” of her text. She just writes as much as she wants, so that her text flows as natural as a calm spring. For her, the number of words is not a matter of quantity, but quality. As you can notice, the majority of her texts are less than 250 words; however, they are authentic, clear, simple, and concise. She doesn’t write to fill lines, she writes to fill hearts.

• She establishes a baseline 

In her marketing and business posts, she tends more likely to parachute in. She keeps the story rolling, while giving some context before moving completely to the key step: revealing the main topic of her writing. The baseline she establishes is quite creative, just as in her text called “One or All”. She moves from the story of the flower shop to the different choices a marketer can have. At the end, she gets back to her headline with the question “What would you write on you blackboard?” engaging the reader, using the 1^st and 2^nd personal pronouns, and presenting her brands and unique innovation strategies with stories.

• She juices up the diet 

The style she’s adopting is accompanied with high-quality relevant images that best describe the idea she’s narrating. As having pasta or ice cream in a diet, visual content in her blog is temptingly compelling: on a white background, brownish colored text is written in a very clear font character. Also, all the articles are filed under categories: if you would like to read about brand story, brand strategy or marketing, you can get there with a single click. She also includes lists that grab the attention; “A List of Alternatives to Winning” is a concrete example for that.

• She works her internal feelings and thoughts 

The more you know your audience, the more natural the real-life stories come to your head. Bernadette gets inspired by her environment, where she lives or where she grew up, in order to create a small heart-to-heart and human connection with the reader, just as she did for example in her article “In Praise of Curiosity”. She would rather focus on the end user and the human aspect than on her own wants and needs. Experiences, emotions, and humanity are key elements in her writing approach.

• She targets her major muscles 

The Australian writer listens to the needs of her target audience so that they can benefit from what is being written, adding value to the field she is promoting. After much efforts put into workout, her text body rewarded her with great results because, effectively, it is being shared and liked. She is targeting her major muscles, her identified audience.

• She selects the right tunes 

Yes. She hits her audience with unique and catchy tunes that can perfectly tone with the body, headlines like “Important”, “Knowing what you Don’t Know”, “Perfect Ten”, “A Thousand Times”, among others, that are related to the topic she’s coping with.

Bernadette Jiwa throws her small darts onto the Inner Bullseye of the body, counting her winning points as she goes, because she thinks of her audience when writing the article: What is important to them?; who are they?; what are their dreams and fears?; what are the problems they may be facing?, and meets their expectations.

What I really loved about Bernadette is that she stands in the shoes of her audience, she writes as if she was telling the story of the reader to the reader, as if she was narrating a resonating human story that is drawn from the well of the reader.

Follow coach Jiwa and get your best text body ever!

Finding my community

By Christine Akl.

As I was scrolling through the list of bloggers that I had to pick from for my content creation CBUS111 class assignment, one in particular caught my eye: Jeff Goins.

I have always been a right brain type of person and what struck me the most in Jeff’s description of topics is the word creativity. As I started to read his blog, something he said when describing himself made my choice crystal clear: “Here is where we wage war on the blank page, where we band together to discover our purpose and our art, where we find our true voices. If you have a passion for creativity and changing the world, this is the place for you.”

Jeff Goins is the author of four books including the national best seller, The Art of Work. On his blog, he shares his reflections on writing and life. He talks about creative professionals and how to pursue a passion without burning yourself out.
These topics struck a chord with me because I started my career as a designer and I do consider myself both an artist and a creative professional first. I’m going to be honest here, I had never really had any interest in blogging before this class, but I was slowly but surely getting excited for this assignment – I had found someone who I related to, his articles were clear and to the point as well as inspiring.

As I was looking through his articles two in particular stood out: “The World Needs More Artists” and “You must Ship”.
The first article talks about why we need art and how crucial it is in our lives. It talks about the importance of quality in a world full of mediocre and how the world in longing for a change and for great art. The second article discussed people seeking perfection that is unobtainable, those that get held back “shipping” their products or developing their ideas… because they are unsure of their work and themselves. I think that everyone can relate to that feeling of uncertainty.

I found myself hanging on to every word. I could relate to so much of what was being said. And that is what blogging is all about, finding your community of people who are interested in the same content as you!
So what are you waiting for? Go and check out Jeff Goins’ blog and you will not be disappointed. One thing is certain; He now has one new subscriber .

Ⓒ Photo Credit Adsoftheworld.com
Ⓒ Photo Credit Goinswriter.com
Ⓒ Photo Credit knowledge.insead.edu

Your Media Release: All the facts or just the general picture?

by Victor Guerra

You have heard the advice to think first on your audience, and then prepare the content accordingly.

After all, there are introverts who need time to process the information you provide, while the extroverts would love to contact you and ask a lot of questions even before they finish reading your material. There is also people who want to see the details while some others just want to see the big picture and would love to see the conclusions up front.

I can clearly remember my former boss that would need to hear my suggestion first and then support it with just the key arguments (Nothing more, nothing less). While most of my teachers at university would demand to understand first the background, then my reasoning process, and then after that, to state my personal point of view.

Unless you are writing to your boss, your teacher, or your spouse, the most common problem you will face will be that your audience is a complex mix of different types of personalities.

In the past, when planning a Media Release, you would consider the average type of personality your primary audience was, in order to choose your writing style.[1]

But now, thanks to digitalization of media, the answer to my question is quite simple: You must include both, the general picture and all the details as well.

HOW IS THAT POSSIBLE?

• Digital media is hierarchical. It allows you to provide a table of content and to your reader to expand a topic, if he or she needs more details.
• Digital media is multimedia. You can include photographs, infographics, audios, videos that will provide more detail but at the same make your Media Release more appealing to different audiences.
• Digital media is interactive. You can transform your communication into a conversation, including the main Q&A’s; a list of interview topics; links to other important resources, and even you can offer a live broadcast.[2]
• Digital media is timeless. You can update your Media Release with interviews and reviews from what the media and consumers are saying. And it allows you to distribute more than one press release, if you have something newsworthy to share.
• Digital media is social. You can include full product reviews, author’s bio, samples, incentives, ads, endorsements, and, of course, links to your social media pages.

In summary, more resources can be used (as long as you have access to them). And if you are going to sit in the same room my former boss and some of my old teachers, believe me, you will still need a very good strategy to make sense of all of the possibilities.

[1] http://www.wikihow.com/Write-an-Associated-Press-Style-Press-Release

[2] Example: http://www.andyandrews.com/ms/the-final-summit/

Everyone’s Doing it. You know, social media marketing!

Everyone’s Doing It – Social Media Marketing

by Lilly Vogelesang

“Everyone’s doing it.”

How many times have you heard someone say that when talking about social media marketing?

In between attending trade shows, talking with customers, working with designers, web analysts, and reporting to management – how does the modern marketer have time to breathe, much less to pick up new skills?

I had that same thought myself. I honestly wondered, just because everyone is doing it, does that mean we should too?  Not wanting to get left behind in the pack, I stocked up on coffee, set my alarm to go off an extra half hour early, and started to teach myself.

Twitter?  Got it.  Facebook?  Yeah, okay, I use that for personal stuff – I can do that too.  YouTube?  Sure.  LinkedIn?  Ummm… yeah, okay, I can learn that one.  Google+?  Does anyone even use that?  Why bother?  Tumblr?  Are you serious?  Well, okay for my business, maybe we need it…

I realized soon that I felt like I was drowning.

In fact, I was probably drowning before I’d even gotten started.  Then, I did a deep dive without any air.

Bad idea.

I decided I needed to take a class, for a couple of reasons.

1.  Accountability.  If I’m required to do homework, that means I’m actively learning from one week to another.
2.  Group Discussions.  The best thing about learning in a class is being able to see things from other people’s point of view.

In a classroom, when you’re sitting there with other marketing gurus, there’s a little bit of magic that happens.  Someone might say something, and it sparks inspiration.  It’s like all the wires in my brain light up at once, synapses firing, and ideas spawn new ideas until I have to try to contain my excitement.

For example, when Jessie Sternthal came in to our class to talk about writing, she said, “Write like nobody’s watching.  Write like you’re dancing in the kitchen.  Write like you’re singing in the car at a red light.”  Not only did it make sense, but it resonated with me.

Jessie also spoke about giving your brand a voice, a personality.  Harriet Cummings, a copy editor, wrote this amazing article to help develop voice.

I had been so blinded by sifting through amazing resources on writing for SEO that I forgot that at the end of the day, it’s about speaking to your audience, adding value, and having a meaningful conversation with them.

I got my life vest, thanks to McGill.

Forming Meaningful Connections through Writing

by Lilly Birdsong

As human beings, we are always looking for a connection.  That feeling of belonging, that feeling of knowing that there are other people out there that understand your point of view, that are interested in the same things you are.

The most powerful factor in social media is the ability to forge a connection with someone that you’ve never even met.  Whether it’s that group of people online who all like the same books that you do, or even that brand that keeps releasing these revolutionary new products that you love, being able to connect with other people remotely has changed the way we interact.  It allows us to have meaningful conversations in an online space.

When writing content for readers online, it’s important to think the most about this type of connection.  Why are you writing something in the first place? Well, it’s always because you want someone to read it.  So: Who are you trying to reach?  Who are you trying to touch?  To have an impact on?

Thinking about who you’re writing to will not only have an impact on the way that you write, it will enable you to write about things which add value to your reader’s day.

Which brings us to the second most important question: Why?  Why should anyone bother reading what it is you write?  Is there something that you can teach your reader, or entertain them with?  If your goal is simply to sell something to someone, then writing that you want to sell is not going to engage anyone.  However if you are explaining how a person can improve their process, then you place the product on the side, this is a much more meaningful interaction.

For example, if someone is searching “How to:”, if your blog answers that question, then they will find value in reading what you’re writing about.

Now the question becomes: can you engage with your audience, now that you have their attention?  One of the benefits of writing online is being able to receive comments, have a dialogue and discussion about the topic that you’re writing.  This can be a great way to assess whether your story has achieved its goal in adding value.

Ultimately, in this new social space, we must not only get used to but embrace the opportunity to have a dialogue with our audience.  When successful, we can truly form a connection with our readers in a much more meaningful way than ever before.