Plain language is writing from your audience’s point of view. When you create content (print or online) in plain language, your audience can quickly and easily:

• Find what they need
• Understand what they find the first time they read it
• Do the right thing based on their understanding

Plain language depends on the audience. What is plain language to one audience may not be plain language to another audience. For example, an astrophysicist will easily understand astrophysics written in plain language; however, a person without an astrophysics background may not.

What plain language is not

Plain language is not a religion. Some people  get too fanatical and believe that all technical terms and long words should be eliminated. Doing this blindly can introduce errors and change the meaning of your content, which can ultimately defeat the purpose of plain language.

Plain language is not only short words and short sentences. While these two guidelines play a very important role in plain language, you also organize the content logically for your audience. You ensure that the presentation of your content works well for your audience.

Plain language is not dumbing down the text. The goal of plain language is not to insult people’s intelligence. Rather, the goal is to express ideas clearly and accurately for your audience.

Why do we need plain language

Life is getting busier and more frantic everyday. Your audience doesn’t want to waste time “decoding” the meaning of difficult, wordy content. Plain language saves time and frustration because your audience can understand your content more quickly.

Plain language saves money on training and support because your audience won’t ask as many questions or make as many mistakes. They can follow your procedures more easily, complete forms more accurately and comply more accurately with your policies and regulations.

Plain language is good customer service. It keeps customers coming back not only your content but also back to your company.

Plain language can even save lives. How many times have you heard about medical mistakes because someone misread or misunderstood something?

While plain language can be a lot of work in the beginning, it pays huge benefits in the end.

How do we write in plain language

This is the million dollar question. Here are some guidelines to get you started:

#1: Know your audience.

#2: Write in the active voice, whenever possible. The active voice explains “who is doing what”.

#3: Keep your sentences short and simple.

#4: Address the audience as “you” to keep them engaged.

#5: Make the content visually appealing.

#6: Organize the content logically for your audience.

#7: Omit needless words or repetition.

#8: Use graphics, tables and charts to explain complex information.

#9: Do not force your reader to decode the meaning. For example, avoid ambiguous wording such as “and/or”, multiple negatives and unnecessary qualifiers.

#10: Test your content with your audience.

I plan to expand on these in future posts. Got any ideas on plain language? Let me know in your comments.

• Who is your customer?
• What makes them tick?
• When is the best time to reach them?
• Where do they “hang out”?
• Why would they buy your product?

By understanding your customer, you can target your communication and marketing much more effectively.

Social media is becoming the new platform where business can become visible to their customers. You no longer need to spend vast amounts of money on fancy advertising and slick brochures. You can communicate to your customers through your blog, podcast, online news sites, and even by posting on other businesses’ blogs.

I believe that social media will revolutionize how you market your business. Why?

• It is much easier to produce content using social media tools such as blogs, podcasts, webinars etc. than traditional tools since there is practically no learning curve.
• Social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn allow you to network with your current and prospective clients. These tools are very useful to me as a business owner. You’d be surprised how many people I connected with on LinkedIn. I use to have only 15 connections but now I have almost 100! Some people believe that social networking sites are impersonal, but I don’t agree. I network just as effectively with people on LinkedIn as in person.
• You can educate your current and prospective clients about your products by hosting webinars, podcasts, and telephone seminars. Some business owners even post presentations on YouTube to reach many prospective clients who may have never heard of them.

I am sure there are many more ways that social media will revolutionize how you market your business. What is your experience? How has social media revolutionized your marketing? Let me know in the comments.

Know your customer. Who are your target customers? Where do they “hang out”? Which social networks do they visit? What are their problems or challenges? What do you want your customers to do? Buy a product? Learn something? Perform a certain action? Ask yourself these types of questions to know your customer well.

Listen up! Before your company can have effective conversations in social media, you need to know what customers are saying. It’s easy to set up tools to monitor conversations, but the tricky part is choosing keywords that yield the best results. One social media monitoring tool is Social Media Firehose, which allows you to track brand or product mentions on social media sites such as Facebook, myspace, flickr, twitter, friendfeed, digg, etc.

Don’t mix business and pleasure. Present yourself professionally. Include a professional looking photograph and explain what you offer. Remember the basics: no typos, no foul or offensive language, and no hype. In all social contexts, there is a time and place for everything. What you say on your personal profile may not be appropriate for your business profile. I have separate profiles. Facebook is my “playground” where I socialize with friends. LinkedIn is my “office” where I network with clients and conduct business. Clients are not interested in your personal life. They have a business need or problem, and peruse your profile to decide whether you can meet their need or solve their problem.

Participate. Don’t just “sit” there. You wouldn’t sit around and expect to meet people at an in-person networking event. You would approach a person or group, and participate in the conversation at the right moment. It works the same way in social media. Participate by asking questions, posting an article or blog, sharing information, or answering a question. Clients will see you as an expert, and soon come “knocking on your door”.

Watch other people. If you’re not sure how to present yourself, look at other profiles. When you see a
profile you like, emulate them; but don’t copy them word for word. Ask your colleagues for advice and feedback.

Reach out and “touch”. Reconnect with colleagues or classmates and tell them you’re expanding your client base. Don’t be afraid to connect with people you don’t know. Do your due diligence by carefully checking their profile for professionalism. If you like what you see, connect with them! It’s a small world, and you may be only one degree of connection away from meeting the next client.

Tell nothing but the truth. Don’t lie or exaggerate your expertise. You’ll soon be caught and quickly gain a bad reputation. One click on the mouse and bad news goes viral almost instantaneously. So, be careful. Don’t leave out important information. Tell the complete story so clients can understand clearly what you offer.

Don’t share too much personal information. Think of your business profile like a brochure. You can include a picture of yourself and a business description. Provide the same information as you would on a brochure. Don’t divulge personal information such as your home address, nationality, date of birth, etc. You won’t include that in a brochure, so why include that on your business profile?

Jazz up your profile. Give presentations, write blogs, and launch webinars, videos or podcasts. Share interesting and useful information. The best type is “how to” information that explains how to do something or solve a problem. Clients are hungry for information and like quick solutions. Present your business as a solution provider, rather than just a business looking for clients.

These are some lessons I learned in my social media travels.

How have you used social media for your business? Share your thoughts in the comments.