TA #81: ✍️ The Creative Process; Writing Advice from Warren; Reader Challenge Results!

Hey, you. You're doing great. Read this on the web.

Welcome to the 81st issue of Total Annarchy, a fortnightly newsletter by me, Ann Handley, with a focus on writing, marketing, life. Thank you for being here. Special high-fives to those of you from Agorapulse, ContentCal, Digital Summit. I appreciate you.

Boston, Sunday, February 28, 2021

Heyo, Sassafras.

Last week, my girl Kerry Gorgone and I gave a talk at the Social Pulse Summit titled Blending the Personal and Professional on Instagram (Without Getting Into Trouble or Being a Jackhole).

Kerry is the Amy Poehler to my Tina Fey. Kerry also has a JD, so her part was mostly about how Not to Get Into Trouble.

I am not a lawyer. So my part was mostly about Avoiding Jackholish-ness. I shared about how I blend the personal and professional on the 'gram—my favorite social network.

Have you ever committed to something and then had immediate regrets? That was me with this talk. In that process, I moved through these stages:

Seven Stages of a Creative Project

1. Excitement/Enthusiasm/Happy to Be Asked

2. Brainstorm of The Fantastic Ideas ("Wouldn't it be awesome if we filmed this live! In a theater! With puppets!")

3. Realization/Regret (Ideas in #2 Ultimately Prove Ridiculous/Impossible to Execute Anyway It's Too Expensive to Rent a Theater and Don't Even Get Me Started on the Theater's COVID Protocols)

4. Why-Me Pity Party: Burdened by the Ask/Task

5. Acceptance (FINE. Adhere Derriere to Chair)

6. Give This Idea a Big Think

7. YAY! DONE! Pride at the Outcome! That was FUN! Let's do it AGAIN!

* * *

It wasn't that I didn't want to speak—I love sharing and educating and helping.

It was more that I'd never framed my Instagram presence as a "strategy," exactly. So that Big Think felt a little Bigger than it probably needed to feel.

But of course… my Instagram approach IS a strategy. I realized it like duh! at the Big Think stage.

Instagram is a great branding tool. But for me it's provided direct dollars. I don't sell anything there (more on that in a second). But I do tell the story of who I am.

In our talk at the Social Pulse Summit, I shared my fundamental belief in the Instagram opportunity, along with my advice to you if you're looking to grow your business on the platform.

>>> Watch the talk here. <<<

You'll need to register for the whole event, and then navigate to our opening keynote. Or here's the CliffsNotes version:

1. Personable, not personal. Instagram is not a visual LinkedIn. But it's not your Morning Pages journal, either, so you do need to show up with some aforethought:

👉 What's the story you're telling in support of your business that shows who you are?

👉 And (this is important): What are you like to deal with?

2. Captions give critical context. Don't tell me what's in the photo, tell me why I should care.

Writing matters here, so here are 4 questions to prompt better Instagram captions:

What's going on outside the frame? (h/t Erin King)
What's going on inside your head?
Add a second sense, besides sight: What's something smell, feel, taste, sound like?
Humor thrives in the absurd: Can you take something to an improbably ridiculous conclusion? Like I did here with my baby-dog in front of my Tiny House Office:

improbable, ridiculous conclusion for a caption

3. Write your audience into your story. Who do you sell to? Think 1-1-1: One idea to one person at one time.

👉 What will resonate the most with your ideal customer?

👉 What signals to your prospect/customer: "I get you. You belong in here"?

* * *

Here are a few things I wanted to share with you this week.

WARREN POLICY

Warren Buffett published his much-celebrated annual Letter to Shareholders yesterday.

Warren's letter gets its own hype squad. I saw it was coming just after I stepped off stage Friday (virtually), where I had just talked about email newsletter inspiration from Warren and his sister, Doris.

By the time I woke up yesterday, analysts and commentators and journalists were all over Warren's letter. Even Trucking News had something to say about it. The analysis wasn't all glowing: Some say Warren's letter didn't go far enough to acknowledge the challenges of 2020.

You and I can learn a lot from how Warren writes. Here are my 4 writing lessons from Warren's annual Letter to Shareholders.

QUICKIES

TikTok Coming in Hot with the Best Writing Advice. A TikTok challenge inspires the Best Writing Advice for you, me, and anyone... whether you're on TikTok or not.

Beyond [HELLO f-name]: 5 Tips for a More Personalized B2B Content Strategy in 2021 I like this approach to making your B2B content waaaay less creepy and buttoned up and faaaar more accessible.

35 Words You're Probably Getting Wrong. #TheMoreYouKnow!

HOT OFF THE PRESS: New CX Research [SPONSORED]

Customer engagement is next-level customer experience, according to my friends at Braze.

Braze asked 1,300 VP-plus marketers about their CX hopes, dreams, wishes. Then Braze distilled, ground, and shaped all the responses into one useful research report that backs with data what we suspected instinctively: Excellent customer engagement directly results in higher customer lifetime value and lower acquisition costs. It makes everyone more attractive, too. (Just kidding about that last one.) (Or am I?)

Among the insights:

▶️ There is a direct link between the level of customer engagement and business growth.

▶️ 88% of B2C marketers say they are confident in their customer engagement practices, yet 78% of US companies are worried that customer engagement metrics aren't totally translating into business outcomes.

▶️ Covid has accelerated digital-first plans: 60% of those surveyed plan to increase their digital customer engagement budgets; 13% will decrease them.

▶️ Consumers use more than one channel. Brands should, too. Brands that message consumers on two channels say those people are 73% more likely to purchase.

The research also shares the stories of how some companies (GrubHub, the NBA, Headspace, Payomatic) are killing it with CX.

Download the whole, glorious, 1st annual Global Customer Engagement Review to evaluate and elevate your own customer experiences. [Reg. required.]

REWRITE-CHALLENGE RESULTS!

So much marketing copy and content I read Tells Me too much, and doesn't Tell Me Without Telling Me. Last week, I challenged you to a Rewrite Party: Rewrite a piece of marketing copy to show, not tell.

Here are some fave submissions.

Dean Shaw:

Stacy Sturrock:

Runners Up:

Janet Armstrong rewrites the subject line for a bra seller.
Tod Cordill reframes direct mail.

TOOLS

Two content tools I used this week.

Someone in a Clubhouse room last week asked me about tools that detect plagiarism. Google works. But sometimes you need to call in the big guns. This is for you, Simon.

Plagium is a tool that lets you check whether and where text might appear on the Web. (It gets a shout in Part 6 of Everybody Writes.)

Copyscape plagiarism checker lets you check who might be copying you. (And you can do it without registering or setting up an account.) Enter your website's URL, and you'll see a list of websites that have filched your stuff.

DEPARTMENT OF SHENANIGANS

Four years ago, I tried to buy E.B. White's farmhouse on the coast of Maine. I wanted the barn where he wrote Charlotte's Web. But what I really wanted was his writer's boathouse, nestled among the pines at the edge of a stretch of rocky Maine shoreline lapped by painfully cold water.

If you have $17.9 million (*checks between couch cushions*), you can buy John Steinbeck's 1.8 acre waterfront retreat. It's poised as picturesquely as E.B.'s, on a grassy finger of Upper Sag Harbor Cove. All those dollars will buy you a swimming pool, pier, and two guest cottages. But really we're here for the hexagonal, 100-square-foot "writer's house" overlooking the cove. HECK! YES! [h/t Cathleen Rittereiser]

* * *

Thanks for reading this far. Thanks for your kindness and generosity.

Stay safe. Stay sane. Wear a mask.

I'll be back on March 13.

P.S. If you like this newsletter and want to support it, buy a book. Or forward this newsletter to a friend with an invitation to subscribe, right here: www.annhandley.com/newsletter.

SPECIAL THANKS to AWeber for being the provider of choice for Total Annarchy. If you are looking to up your email game, give them a shout.

Ann Handley is the author of Everybody Writes and other books.
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TA #81: ✍️ The Creative Process; Writing Advice from Warren; Reader Challenge Results!

Older messages

TA #80: 💌 TikTok with the Best Writing Advice (No Really); Cute Puppy Photos; Why I Like Clubhouse

TA #79: 🎩 Products with Personality

TA #78: 🎂 What I've Learned from 3 Years of Total Annarchy

TA #77: 🐎 Actually the Year of the Horse

TA #76: 💡Brand Storytelling Template; My 2 Proven Ways to Increase Open, Click Rates

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