The thing that is perhaps the most overlooked by companies when developing a new website or online marketing campaign is the copy that will be used in the project.

In many cases, companies leave writing to an employee who has another set of job responsibilities, but can also write a bit. Sometimes this works out fine (and has with many of our clients); Other times, the results can be disastrous. Having the wrong person write the copy for your project can hamstring you before you even start.

It’s odd that it ends up working out that way. Companies hire web and print designers, photographers, PR firms, etc. to do work in their specialty areas. Perhaps that’s because they’re seen as experts with skills that don’t readily exist in-house. Perhaps these companies don’t see writing as the same kind of skill. After all, everyone has to write most every day, right?

Well, maybe.

An example of the importance of having a professional write your website or marketing copy came to my attention this week. It involves LRMR Marketing, a marketing company closely associated with NBA star LeBron James.

LRMR, according to its website, is “[changing] the sports marketing prism through leveraging sports celebrity and corporate infusion of partnerships.”

Maybe you’re starting to see the problem. That sentence’s clarity is hazy and its grammar jagged.

And the problems mount: “In today’s global watchdog public, it’s easy to have a PR blunder.”

There are other problems with the site’s copy, of course, but my point isn’t to put LRMR down or make fun of them. The site’s text could probably be raised to an acceptable level with just a few hours of work.

My point is that having these kinds of problems undermines LRMR’s credibility, their professionalism, and, since they’re a PR/marketing agency, their ability to market.

My point, also, is not that we all need to be perfect. We don’t and we can’t be. There will always be spelling errors in websites to be caught, areas where phrases could be leaner or clearer, grammar mistakes that get missed (in fact, if you look hard enough, you’ll probably find them in our site).

The point is that you reduce that overhead, and start further ahead of the pack, when you employ a professional writer to work on text for your site or marketing pieces.

3000K has a staff writer for this purpose and works with external copywriters because we strongly believe that excellent site text is one of the details that separates a good website from a great one.

You may not be able to immediately recognize a site that’s been written by a professional, but man can you ever tell the ones that haven’t been.

Thanks to Henry Abbott at True Hoop for catching this one first.

I’m in the process of interviewing candidates these days to help us develop + grow. It’s exciting, but I think it would be easy to get caught up in the minutia of the process if I didn’t have a guiding principle to keep me on track.

I hire people who are better than me.

This advice was given to me years ago by Mike Tsotsis, an established businessman and philanthropist in Worcester who, though he probably doesn’t realize it, has set a profound example for my own business. (If you see this, thanks, Mike!)

That one principle helps ensure I focus on what’s important and hire people who are smarter, faster, more experienced, more skilled, and just plain better than I could ever hope to be. They put this to work and, as a result, we’re doing great things.

Surround yourself by better people and you’ll be amazed what happens. Here’s to that great advice and the result: the tremendous staff of 3000K.

In my earlier post, I noted that Web 2.0 applications and sites, such as MySpace, are a huge source of consumer information that companies can mine to do better-than-ever-before targeting of marketing messages, promotions, etc.

And it also seems to offer great possibilities for a new kind of spam.

Over the weekend I saw a blog post (which I was directed to by Boing Boing) about a spammer seeking to buy MySpace accounts with over 20,000 friends to be able to spam those “friends” with messages, comments, etc.

So, it seems that spam, one of the greatest scourges of Web 1.0, will be following us to the next generation. Not surprising, perhaps, but not welcome news, either.

“The one thing the Web 2.0 sites have in common is that they are furiously mining information about you and your buddies. What you like. What you like that your buddies like.”

That’s from an interesting article at Bit-Tech.net about how the rise of Web 2.0 sites such as MySpace.com and Digg could spell the end of our privacy online.

The crux of author Wil Harris’ argument is that as we put more and more of our personal information on these sites, companies will have more and more information about us and have better ways to market to us, our friends, and those who share our interests.

It’s an interesting argument and one that seems to hold some water. It’s especially interesting to those companies - including 3000K - who are venturing into Web 2.0 applications and projects.

Of course, we don’t necessarily need to put too much private information into sites like MySpace, but how many of us think about who might see it, and how it might be used, before we do? Interesting to think about how your posting decisions might change if you thought about which colleagues, companies, or competitors might see something before you hit “submit.”

And it’s worth remembering, too, that a lot of these social networking sites own your content as soon as you post it into their systems (though I’d imagine MySpace makes exceptions for things like MP3s). Another unexpected consequence of these sites that perhaps not as many people are aware of as should be.

I think one of the major differentiators between companies that do good work and companies that do great work is the ability to identify the minor details that tie a project up into a really wonderful package and not to let those details go unnoticed before launch (this extends beyond projects, too. The minor details of proposals, email communication, etc., can be the difference between a client you have for 5 years and one you have for 5 months). Sure, in most cases those details may not be noticed by clients or users, but when you’ve got time and budget to do a little extra pixel-level editing on your nav buttons, craft better error messages, or implement a more intelligent search, it’s worth it. Users often won’t be aware of what could have been, but they’ll intuit, without even knowing, they’re using a great site or application and will find fewer faults with it.

I think that at a certain level of experience or talent, all web agencies can identify these details and improve them (the execution of the improvements will be different based on experience, style, talent, etc., of course, but seeing them can be pretty standard). That’s not the hard part.

The hard part, I think, is making sure that once all those details are identified, improving them - and thus the project - is followed through on. One could say that that’s a project manager’s responsibility, but projects will be better, ideas fresher, and staff happier if everyone working at a company takes it upon themselves to look out for small areas of improvement and makes change happen.

The question is: How do you create a culture of accountability for improving the little things? How do you drive everyone at your company to be regularly looking for things to improve and then have them feel free to take the initiative and make things better?

I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Sam, our VP, brought up a great issue today. Sometimes we’re flexible about things when we should be firm. And this can be a problem - it can send the wrong message to clients, and certainly sends the wrong message to our staff.

So we’re fixing it. We’re still going to be flexible on many things, but will hold firm on things that affect the bottom line and make a difference with how we operate. When we make a decision we’re going to stick with it, not to the point of arrogance or trouble but at least to see it through and not second guess ourselves.

I’ve noticed this pattern in other small businesses. One of the hallmarks of being a small business is that you can change direction quickly. The drawback, of course, is that this can be abused and result in a business that changes direction every month, or every week. Too much change is a weakness.

But flexibility also allows small businesses to stay nimble, enter new markets, and test things out in a way that a behemoth never could. This is one of the reasons so much innovation occurs in small businesses, the structure supports constant change and adjustment.

What are you flexible about?

What do you hold firm on?

And what has that done for you?

I was asked to speak at a business group recently on my “secrets to success.” I was honored, of course, but also felt a bit awkward. After all, I don’t believe there’s any one “secret” to success, so how could I speak on the topic?

I decided to give ten pieces of advice on how to attain success in business. These are ideas anyone could take away and included networking, maintaining relationships, reading, perseverance, focusing on each task, etc. Most are general and the kind of business advice anyone with experience could offer.

But not my number one: exercise.

Seems strange at first, and some people in the audience gave me a look. This isn’t your usual MBA-in-a-book advice. What does exercise have to do with business?

Plenty, in fact. Exercise is proven to give you more energy, a better attitude and more positive outlook, make your use of time more efficient, improve your memory, help you look better, and thousands of other benefits.

I can’t think of a single thing to do that will have a greater impact on your life or your business than exercising. Even if it’s just parking at the far end of the lot and taking the stairs every day, you’ll give yourself one up on the rest of the cubicle jockeys.

That’s the best piece of advice I can give you. Make something of it. And let me know how it goes.

I belong to a variety of lists and see frequent posts about needed services or products. Due to my busy schedule and being occupied with other matters I often don’t reply immediately but an hour or two after the message was first sent. And the usual response I hear is “Thanks, but someone else already replied.”

I’m a bit mystified by this. Is it really the case that the *first* responder to a post is the most able to help you out? Would you hire the first person who answered your job opening or marry the first person you dated? I’d guess not because these are long-term relationships that have a huge impact on your life.

Funny then that people will make snap decisions about their vendors or business partners since these also have a huge impact on your life. The wrong marketing pro could tank your product launch, the wrong payroll company could put you into trouble with the IRS and the wrong caterer for your company party could give food poisoning to your best client.

So ask yourself the next time you need something and want to rapidly respond to the first offer that comes along - is it really worth months of trouble to save a few minutes of waiting?