Category Archives: Hall of Fame

From Lighthearted to Laugh-Out-Loud: Are Social Media Changing the Tone of Business Writing?

Have you noticed more companies lowering their guard when it comes to communicating in a lighthearted style? We have only anecdotal observations on this, but as social media change the nature of the relationships between companies and their stakeholders, we’ve noticed an uptick in the number of companies working humor into their routine communication efforts. […]

Hall of Fame: Toyota Uses a Negative-News Situation for Positive Communication (with PowerPoint Slide for Classroom Use)

Situations that involve negative news are sometimes opportunities in disguise. After Toyota had issued several vehicle recalls and been subjected to quite a bit of media scrutiny regarding product quality, the company’s chief quality officer took the opportunity to discuss the meaning of a product recall and explain how Toyota was responding to the situation.We've […]

Hall of Fame: TD Ameritrade Aligns Form with Function (with PowerPoint Slides for Classroom Use)

One of the most powerful advantages of electronic media is the ability to structure the design and delivery of a message in a way that supports the optimal flow of the various information points within the message—matching form with function, in other words.The brokerage firm TD Ameritrade did this beautifully on a webpage that directs […]

Hall of Fame: Fear No Project’s Minimalist Design Keeps Focus on Content (with PowerPoint Slide for Classroom Use)

The project management blog Fear No Project provides a good example of how less can be more when a writer wants to keep the focus on textual content. As this annotated PowerPoint slide shows, the design is about as minimal as one can possibly get, but it supports blogger Bruce McGraw's goal of sharing in-depth […]

Hall of Shame–and Fame: Chargify Infuriates Its Customer Base, Then Shares the Lessons Learned

Want to make an unpleasant situation even worse? Spring the news on people with no warning. Chargify, which provides securing billing solutions for small to midsized e-commerce companies, charges its clients flat monthly fees based on the number of customers they have. This tiered pricing plan keeps costs low for e-commerce startups that still have […]

Hall of Fame: Red Bull’s Audience-Centered Approach to Social Media (with PowerPoint Slide for Classroom Use)

The energy drink company Red Bull has one of the largest fan bases on Facebook, giving it the opportunity to connect with millions of enthusiastic customers. This annotated PowerPoint slide illustrates the company's audience-centered approach to social media—sharing information and stimulating conversations among fans—rather than the traditional mode of delivering promotional messages to passive receivers.

Hall of Fame: Ignite Media Demonstrates Strong Paragraphs and Effective Transitions

This blog post from Ignite Media demonstrates several strong writing techniques, including unified, coherent paragraphs and effective transitions. Update 30 December 2013: The post on the Ignite Media blog (from February 2010) has been moved to the site's archives and reformatted; we've updated the link above in case you still want to use it for […]

Hall of Fame: FreshBooks Demonstrates Audience Focus in Multiple Ways

This blog post from the developers of the FreshBooks online business accounting system demonstrates audience focus in multiple ways, starting with the effort behind the message. Every business worries about how quickly customers will pay their bills, so FreshBooks analyzed the customer data it had on hand to see which payment terms and invoice messages […]