When to Use Acronyms on Resumes and in Business Writings

I'm often asked when it's okay to use acronyms when writing business letters, websites, in presentations, and on resumes and the like. The quick answer: almost never on the first reference.


Acronyms (a new word formed with the first letter of a group of words) are wonderful for communicating with a specific group you know is familiar with the acronym. It's when you're reaching a broader audience and you assume they know an acronym that you'll fail to connect with your audience ... or worse, lose the reader altogether because combining all those bold, capital letters that mean nothing to them have given them a seizure. I'm telling you, acronyms are bad for your health unless used with utmost caution. Ask your doctor. 


Here's the cure: unless you can procure an accurate answer from six people of different ages, genders, and regions of the United States, you must spell out your acronym on first reference. No exceptions. Directly after the first reference, put the acronym in parentheses and use it for the remainder of the document. Here's an example from a news release I wrote a couple of years ago:

Women In Technology (WIT), is pleased to announce WIT’s executive director, Heather Rocker, has been named the winner in the Inspiritor Category for Turknett Leadership Group’s Leadership Character awards. The winners were announced at the awards luncheon at the Georgia Aquarium on February 23, 2010.

Notice how it's all spelled out the first reference, then a few words later we transition to the much shorter acronym. Saves a lot of time and paper, that's for sure. 


There are certain acronyms that defy this rule. For example, if you were to write "a producer from  the Cable News Network (CNN) will be attending the seminar to answer questions" people will think you're nuts. CNN falls under the "ask six people" rule.


On professional documents like resumes and bios, spell out the acronyms for associations  ---always. I always get arguments on this rule. "But everyone knows what SHRM/CRM/PRSA is." Assume they don't, and spell out Society for Human Resource Management, Customer Relationship Management, and Public Relations Society of America the first time. You only need the acronym in parenthesis if you reference the organization more than once, and since you're all about being brief in a resume/bio/website (you are, right?), try combining tasks and roles under one reference instead.


Now I am feeling guilty about dumping all this on you right before the weekend. I really meant to do this much earlier in the week, but the spouse travelling in Europe, wrestling puppies and shuttling kids to the ER will totally throw ya off track. So if you decide to update resumes and documents and websites and whatnot because you are addicted to acronyms, please enjoy a glass of wine or something (click here for a delightful mixed drink recipe) while you do. 


Here's to a happy, productive, relaxing weekend!



PS: Are we BFFs on Facebook? Join the fun here.

Five Reasons to Avoid Music on Websites (With All Due Respect to Elvis)

For many businesses, a snazzy website is their announcement to the world they have arrived. They've got their act together: their website is well-written with on-target messaging, has beautifully designed graphics and professional photography, and is easy to navigate. You are tickled pink to arrive at a website that puts you at ease with their organization and general awesomeness. (You can find the definition here.)


Then they go and muck it up by playing music.


I know, I know ... some of you have music on your website right now and you LOVE it. I mean, it sounds spiffy, it seems technologically on-trend, and it was available, soooo..... why not?


Here are 5 reasons you should not use music on your website (I've developed strategic direction for and written scads of websites, so trust me on this one) :

1.  Do you want people shopping or looking for the button to turn off your music? Most people have the attention span of gnats while they are online. One statistic says you have less than a minute to snag a potential  online customer. My professional opinion is it's probably more like 20 seconds, and the first thing most people do if a website plays music is turn it off -- so why bother?
2. That's if they stick around. If they can't find a pause button immediately, they head over to your competition's website, where they can shop in peace and quiet.
3.  Music can create long load times for websites. Again ... gnats.
4. Preferences in music vary wildly. What one person thinks is art another thinks is a simulation of nails screeching down a chalkboard. (Not that we have chalkboards anymore. I wonder if anything makes a horrid noise against a dry-erase board?) Anywho, you run the risk of driving customers away simply because they don't like your taste in music.
5. Everything about your website should enhance your users' experience.  Music distracts and detracts. Excellent writing, on-target message, visually captivating, streamlined websites enhance your users' experience every time -- invest your marketing dollars here.

If music is an integral part of what you do, or you feel strongly about creating a little atmosphere with some tunes, try building a separate music page so visitors have a music option -- something like this. Unless you are a recording artist, save the time, money and bandwidth and let your target audience get their groove on with iTunes ... while you stick to what you do best.


General Awesomeness.

PS --- If I did approve of music on websites, I would only approve Elvis.You can take the girl out of Memphis, but you cannot take the Memphis out of the girl. 

Drum Roll Please

Spring has definitely sprung in Atlanta, as evidenced by the lovely blooming tree in my front yard.

And the fresh strawberries, which when tossed with toasted almonds, spinach and a blush vinaigrette make the perfect side for whatever you're grilling.

Plus the blue skies. Makes you want to launch a big project that's been in the making for about six months, doesn't it?

So that's what I'll do right now....please visit my new web site and let me know what you think!

www.amymacwrites.com

What do you mean this isn't covered under my warranty?

You know when you're working on a big project, something you are super-excited about, you've got major momentum, you're getting ready for the big debut, then....

the little wire that connects the adapter jack to your computer snaps in two and you can no longer charge your computer, thus must leave your computer with some rather suspect-looking computer technicians and can no longer access half the things you need because your last back up failed? You know that feeling? No?

Well, suffice it to say I am currently working on my daughter's teeny, tiny notebook computer which is causing finger cramps and potential blindness. And as soon as I get my computer back I will be getting that back up plan that sucks everything off your computer into that magical back up plan in the vast internet universe.

Until then, this is one of the few photos from that project I managed to upload pre-computer-wire-thingy-disaster.

Stay tuned....

Chill Out

It’s a hot, steamy summer night. You’re heading to dinner wearing your favorite sleeveless silk top and carrying your cutest clutch purse. You make your chic entrance into the trendy bistro, only to discover the place is the exact same temperature as an igloo in the middle of January in Alaska. What’s a girl to do?

My sister recently discovered the Chilly Jilly – a stylish, wrinkle-free wrap that folds into a tiny drawstring bag and fits right inside your purse. She wrote the folks at Chilly Jilly a note explaining what a lifesaver this product is for her, and the owner, Jill Boehler, asked to use Melinda’s testimonial on their web site homepage.

Jill’s a smart lady. Not only did she create this product that saves us from the cold-movie-theater fate of jamming our arms into the too-short Abercrombie sweatshirt of our kids’ we found stuffed in our trunk (the sweatshirt, not the kid) – but she’s using also customer’s testimonials to bolster business.

Creating ongoing communication with your customers can do lots of great things: it allows you to continue sharpening your business plan to your customers’ needs, it lets you know when you’re on the right track, it gives you the best sort of marketing there is (straight from the happy customer’s mouth) and on a bleak day, it creates a little sunshine.

“There is nothing more satisfying to me as a business owner than when a customer takes their time to say good things about my product. It can really make my day! I try to share some of the comments with other customers, but sometimes it serves as the juice to get me through a rough day!” says Jill.

From this day forward, promise me one thing: when a customer, client or friend says “good job!” put the sentiment in a little file so you can use it as a testimonial on your web site, in a brochure, as a comment post on your blog … or just to put a smile on your face.

No Comment

In my last post I wrote about being “published” in Peter Bowerman’s Well-Fed Writer book. Peter sent me a nice thank you note via email for plugging the book on my blog, and mentioned trying to post the thank you as a comment under the blog post. He gave up when he was asked to set up an account or “sign in.” Emailing ensued, and the ever-helpful Peter suggested I check the settings for commenting on my blog.


Lo and behold, the settings (which I’d never considered until the very moment Peter emailed me) are extremely stringent. To comment on this blog you essentially had to provide me with your PIN number, your bank account number and carte blanche to purchase whatever I wanted at Sephora. (Which I encourage you to do anyway if you are so inclined.)


Perhaps it wasn’t that bad, but it was pretty ridiculous - completely by accident, I assure you. So if any of you have avoided commenting because it was going to take too much time, I have unchained the shackles and hope you’ll write, suggest, question… delight me with your creative commentary.


However, I recommend you send your bank account and pin numbers directly to my email. We wouldn’t want just anyone having that information.

Follow Me

I set up a Twitter account a few months ago because I heard I really, really had to have a Twitter account. Then I forgot it was there. Alas, two friends started "following" me this week, so I've decided if people are following me I'd better start paying attention. I'd hate to lead someone down the wrong path.

If you have a Twitter account, follow me at @amymacpr. You can sign up for a Twitter account at www.twitter.com.

Internationally Yours

Good Morning! Bon Jour! Buenos Dias! Buongiorno! Guten Morgen!

As you can see, I’m having lots of fun (aka, slightly out of control) with the translation tool in Microsoft Word. But the real point if this post is an exciting new feature to the Amy Mac blog – a ClustrMap which tracks the location of logins.

I recently started noticing people are logging in from all over the world – places like the Czech Republic, Italy, Ireland, Ontario, Poland … even Germany. They are finding Amy Mac from a variety of spots, including blog catalogs and random Google searches (I believe the recent limerick post was the trick to capturing the Irish audience), and some of them are from you kind readers forwarding along my link. Thanks!

So scroll down to the lower right corner of the blog to check out the map, and consider adding a Clustr Map to your web site – it’s free, and it’s a fun way to see what markets you’re reaching around the world.

That's That

Good writing is crisp, easy-to-read, and avoids unnecessary words – and many times, the unnecessary word is “that.”

I learned this tip years ago in a writing seminar and it has served me well ever since. Whenever you write, whether it’s a news release or a letter to your local congressman, remove the word “that.” Now re-read the sentence, and see if it still makes sense. I’ll wager 75 percent of the time it does.

As naturally as I run spell check, I also run the “find” tool for the word in question, and eliminate it as much as possible. I’ve even been known to rewrite sentences so I don’t use “that.”

It’s an easy way to trim the fat from your writing. Now, if I could just figure out a trick to trim the fat from bacon …. maybe someday.

And that, folks, is a wrap.

Loving This Living: California Dreaming Edition

Amy Mac’s first LOVING THIS LIVING profile is all about the big business of fashion. I am a true believer that loving (or hating) what you are wearing can make or break your day, but let’s face it - everyone doesn’t have a knack for pulling together outfits that work.

That’s where a personal stylist like Sutton Stracke (and her fabulous blog) comes into play.
Sutton Stracke, of Laguna Beach, California, is a stylist and the founder of Bespoke Trunk, a lifestyle and fashion consulting company that caters to the individual fashion needs of women around the world. In addition to personally styling clients that live in her region, she writes a splendid blog where she gives advice to women on looking fabulous – whether you spend your days presenting in the boardroom or cleaning in the playroom.

Check out the transcript of my interview with Sutton:

Tell us what you do to Love your Living: The company I founded, Bespoke Trunk, helps style women no matter what their budget using pieces from mainstream stores, high-end designer boutiques and vintage pieces.

What is the best part about your job? The worst? What makes your job interesting and unique? I love chatting with clients about their likes and dislikes of fashion, and I love the hunt of shopping based on those likes and dislikes. The idea of helping someone look and feel better is fascinating to me. The worst part is resisting buying for yourself during the hunt!

Is there any special training required to perform your job? A good eye for putting looks together and good people-listening skills are all that it takes.

If someone was thinking of pursuing a career in your industry, what would be the first steps they'd need to take? If I could do it all again, I would probably get my BA in fashion merchandising from an established school such as the Fashion Institute of Technology in NYC. Living in New York is almost be a prerequisite for a job like this. Street style in NYC is the inspiration of many designers, and seeing those styles on a daily basis becomes your own inspiration.

Tell us something fun you’ve done recently because of your job. I loved doing the closet makeover with my sister-in-law. Though it was a long process, and perhaps painful for her, it gave such a sense of accomplishment to us both. I loved watching her face when I showed her multiple ways she could use one dress or one pair of trousers. Giving people a sense of power over their own closet is a remarkable experience.

How do you keep a good balance between your work life and your home life? I am still working on this part. Because I am new to the Orange County area and have just realized this business, I need to spend a lot more time on it than I do. But having a good nanny helps, and supportive husbands are the whole key – luckily I have both.

Any parting words of advice for our readers about balancing work and life? The one thing that has come to me this year is to do what you love. Once you have that, then the work is no longer a chore. If work isn't a chore, but something you really desire to do, then the stress of a job disappears. But when you work at home you must be disciplined to work only in the constraints of the hours that you have decided on, or otherwise it all blends together, and you do neither well.

AMY MAC LOVING THIS LIVING CONTEST: Subscribe to the Amy Mac Blog (on the right side of the blog under "Get Email Updates for Amy Mac) and you’ll be entered to receive a FREE two-outfit consultation with Sutton via e-mail! A winner will be chosen randomly from the list of Amy Mac subscribers (if you’re already a subscriber you’ll automatically be entered) on Feb. 6!

What Will You Be When You Grow Up?

Mrs. Howard, my daughter’s delightful first grade teacher, does a fantastic job of inspiring the children in her classroom. My daughter is always full of excitement when she gets home from school about a project they’ve worked on, a great book she’s been encouraged to read, or with an interesting fact she’s learned during the course of the day (like how hurricanes get their names.)



Recently the children interviewed one another, asking pressing questions like “what’s your favorite color” and “how many people in your family?” Then they wrote a report about the friend they had interviewed. Along with practicing their punctuation, capitalization and sentence structure, they learned skills they might use one day as a journalist (or FBI interrogators, but that’s a different blog entry.)

To that end, I’ll be chatting with Mrs. Howard’s students tomorrow about writing. Which got me to thinking – is there anything more exciting than being young and feeling you can be anything you want to be when you grow up? Well, almost anything. My niece wanted to be an elephant when she grew up (I think she was three when she decided on this career path), but we are only slightly disappointed that instead of morphing into a giant land mammal with enormous, flapping ears she’s studying to be an advertising executive.


I do think as early as first grade preferences, passions and possible career paths begin to make themselves evident. While I don’t particularly remember enjoying writing in school, I do have memories of being fairly confident in my spelling skills and reading abilities. I also remember Miss Billie chiding me in first grade for utilizing the ruler sticker affixed to my desk as a helpful tool with my addition, and I knew then on some level I would not be a candidate for a Ph.D. in Mathematics with a concentration on algorithms from Harvard.

In my wildest dreams, I hope I might inspire some of these kids to see writing as a fun way to express themselves, and maybe, just maybe, one day that will lead to a career in one of the many fields in communications, whether as a journalist, a broadcaster or an executive with a communications corporation.


In my more realistic expectations, I hope to be able to keep their attention for approximately three minutes, and for that I am relying heavily on a brightly colored internet display (hence the photographs of the class here), and possibly some sort of sweet snack to keep their mouths full while I talk.

What did you want to be when you grew up? Are you?

Fast Pitch

I recently pitched and landed a cover story in a local publication for a client. The cover picture is beautiful, and the article is well-written, and it will likely garner additional attention and business for this client.

So the big question: what can this client do to really maximize all the terrific publicity from this one article?

My advice to clients who have landed the publicity they’ve been seeking is to make sure their coverage gets into the hands of everyone you want to see it – not just the folks who happen to pick up the paper that week!

· Send a copy of the article, along with a cover letter, to your mailing list of your best customers, potential customers, business associations, alumnae magazines, mentors – pretty much everyone on your list (you’ll need to get reprint permission from the publication before making copies of the article. Some publications charge a nominal fee for this, and if you’ll just be mailing a few you can always purchase extra copies. )

· Post the article on your web site

· Create an e-mail signature with a link to the coverage

· Take a color copy of the article and adhere it to a fiberboard stand (you can buy these inexpensively at office supply stores) and place it wherever your customers will most likely see it, or frame it and hang it in a well-exposed spot

· Create small labels with the web site address to adhere to the back of 30 to 40 business cards

If you are wondering how I landed this article, stay tuned. I’ll post the pitch I wrote to the editor and point out a few key items, so if you are planning to pitch a story to your local paper, follow my tips and you’ll increase your chances of success!

Color Me Surprised

In my most recent post, I rambled about how technology can be tricky for those of us who do not hold advanced degrees in computer science. One situation I briefly touched on was how my entire e-mail address book was briefly lost when Comcast transitioned to a new server.

Imagine my surprise when, less than 24 hours later, an e-mail arrived in my inbox from a woman named Melissa that works for Comcast in their Customer Connect division. She was just checking to make sure there was nothing they could do to ensure my ongoing happiness.

Huh?

I told my sister last night about the e-mail and her question was “how on earth did she find your blog?” I told her I figured Comcast had folks whose job was to monitor e-mail blogs and chat rooms to find people that were unhappy with their service and endeavor to clean up any messes.
Sure enough, Melissa e-mailed me back this morning and said: “Our team aims to find customers online and in social media web spaces who may need our help. In today’s technologically driven society, many people will blog about a problem before they call in.”

The people at Comcast sure are smart. Think about it, what’s the first thing you do if you have a sore throat, want to unclog your kitchen sink, or are wondering what is the number one album on the Billboard charts? You Google it, of course. So imagine what might happen if you Googled a business and there were lots of bloggers out there complaining. You’d likely decide against that cough medicine, that brand of drain unclogger (yes, it is unlikely that is a word, but go with it) or a badly reviewed album – no matter where it is on the charts.

My kudos to Comcast for managing their online presence. If you have an online business, consider setting up a Google Alert so you’ll know if someone is posting something about you. Good or bad, it’s better to know where you stand so you can make improvements while you grow your business.

And thanks, Melissa for the tip on my e-mail signature line. I’m going to try to get that fixed up tonight, right after I throw my Blackberry out the window (just kidding, Sprint.)

The Web in Sight

E-commerce is such a wonderful thing. I fully intend to have much of my Christmas list items delivered directly to my doorstep, thereby avoiding the cranky and unskilled Atlanta drivers in their last-minute rush to find must-have items for Christmas morning.

The world-wide web provides everyone with a viable avenue to sell their goods. Written a how-to book but can’t find a publisher? Sell it on the web. Hit upon the perfect design for an apron to sell to stylish, at-home gourmets? A web site can perfectly display your wares. A photographer looking to visually capture your audience? An online portfolio can be at the world’s fingertips in a matter of a few hours.

Which is probably why I am often asked the question:

“I know I need a web site, but where do I begin?”

Business web sites range from the very basic to the wildly flashy and entertaining. You can land somewhere in the middle without paying a bundle of money.

There are three critical factors to your web site: the writing, the design and what I like to call “making it click.” There are many folks out there that think they can handle the writing and designing part themselves, and just part with the money for the web site technician.

Please do not become a member of that delusional mass of write-and-design-it-yourselfers.
Unless you are a writer, pay someone with marketing communications writing experience to write your site. Not only will they make sure the words connect with your audience and influence them to buy whatever it is you are selling, they can also ensure the copy helps build awareness with the search engines so when a potential customers “Googles” your product, your web site will appear like magic - and suddenly they are just one click away from…..

Your beautifully designed site. That’s right, I highly recommend you fork over the cash to a qualified graphic designer to layout the site. It’s the difference between looking like an operation out of someone’s garage and being a business that knows its appearance affects consumer confidence. My point is your web site takes the place of a brochure, and if you have a professionally designed web site it makes an important difference.

The last one is a little easier. Either you know how to set up a site on the web or you do not. No imagining “hey, I can figure this out.” If you know how to set up a web site, fantastic – get busy. Otherwise, find a good web site tech to set it up for you at a reasonable price.

Now that I have that off my chest, if you are a do-it-yourself kind of person, Go Daddy has a “build it in a night” web site tool that seems to be pretty user-friendly and is definitely worth checking out. If you have a web site that will need frequent updating, ask your web site tech to set up the site in Dreamweaver and purchase the Contribute companion software. Contribute is user friendly, even for the most technologically challenged, and will allow the administrator (you) to make changes to your site and publish them directly to the web.

My parting, pre-Thanksgiving word of advice is in the world of small business, it is critical to know where to invest your money. A well-written, well-designed web site is a sound investment … it’s your calling card to the world.