Copywriter in Edinburgh

Press releases get social

A long-term client, JustAskBaby.com, is making full use of new technology to promote their online parenting TV website, as you'd expect from an online business. As well as a Facebook Page, they are taking advantage of a new service from the CNW Group newswire service - "Social Media Releases," described as follows:

"Think of CNW's Social Media Release as an add-on to your traditional news release - it provides the online audience with a place to go for multimedia content and conversation about your message."

I wrote a press release for JAB to distribute using this service (link), and you can see how the multimedia content and comments and tagging features make it much more interactive than the usual PR format. In addition, the release is set up to make it easy for bloggers and news sites to embed the content in their own pages.

Where's a Tardis when you need one?

In an ideal world, all my freelance clients would be within easy walking distance. In the real world, the Internet allows service providers like me to work for clients around the world. Although picking up new business is tricky without being able to meet, I've been able to keep some established clients after returning to Scotland from Canada.

One of my regular commissions is to write the monthly ad for Best Buy Canada's mobile phone division, Best Buy Mobile, as well as taking on a variety of other projects, including web promotions, customer emails, etc, when their in-house team is stretched (which is often the case). I also write web and other corporate copy, as well as monthly customer newsletters, for Serebra Campus and Serebra Connect - two business strands of another long-distance Canadian client, Serebra Learning Corporation.

As I've established good relationships with both companies' in-house marketing and creative teams over the last year or so, they continue to contract this out long-distance and, while meeting for lunch is tricky, the 8-hour time difference can actually work in their favour. My client can email me something at 4pm Pacific Time and I'll pick it up first thing in the morning here. Workload-willing, I have a whole day to work on the project, before emailing a draft back to them for first thing in the morning their time, giving the illusion that I have slaved away all night on it! How's that for service? 

It's worked perfectly on at least a couple of occasions when something urgent has cropped up at the end of the day, or they need some new headlines for a promotion for a meeting first thing in the morning.

If you would like me to slave away all night on a promotion or brochure for your company (or at least give the illusion of having done so), with or without an 8-hour time difference, please get in touch.

Client plug: New The Melting Pot site launches

In a previous post, I mentioned I was working on reworked copy for The Melting Pot's new website. The site is now live and looks great. With a very tight turnaround, the brief for the copy was to address the needs of a couple of different audiences - members and event space customers - and show how The Melting Pot can meet those needs, as well as communicating TMP's core social enterprise messages through a restructured website with clearer navigation links. I'm going to be based in The Melting Pot for a few hours a month, and can hold client meetings there if required.

New site

Previous home page (click for big version in pop-up window):

Vacancy: Welsh proofreader

The Guardian reports how Swansea council erected a bilingual sign reading "I am out of the office at the moment" instead of "No entry for heavy goods vehicles". The mix-up happened when council staff mistook the in-house translator's automated email response text for the translated phrase. What's Welsh for "Oops!"?

Serebra Connect: Outsourcing for good

I’ve been working on a project called Serebra Connect for Serebra Learning Corporation for more than a year now. It's a very worthwhile project. Here's the scoop...

Serebra's global skills program, easyLearning, brings subsidised training to developing countries. However, the thousands of people it educates are having a hard time finding jobs. For instance, Uganda has 390,000 new job seekers every year but only creates 8,120 new jobs. In order to combat this lack of work opportunities in developing nations, Serebra created Serebra Connect.

Serebra Connect lets you outsource your small tasks, such as updating your website or designing your business cards and brochures, to someone in a developing country, and helps them earn an income and improve their skills. 

Basically, it’s a platform you can use to turn your small tasks into big opportunities for people who need them, while letting you save some money in the process. The team behind the website are always making improvements and I think the social responsibility element, including the link with training provision in the developing world, makes it a very good alternative to similar platforms such as Elance.

New client notice: reddish pink

I'm very happy to be working with reddish pink, a design and Web agency in Livingston, on a project for modular building company, SiBCAS. This involves writing content for a new brochure aimed at an important market sector.

New client notice: Veratta

Proof that distance is no barrier in the age of the Internet, I have completed a short, urgent project for a new client back in Vancouver. Veratta design agency contacted me through the "Vancouver arm" of my freelance business - Tincan Communications - to work on copy for a series of brochures for their client, the Plaza 500 Hotel in Vancouver. They weren't put off by the 8-hour time distance and, although in an ideal world it would have been good to have a face-to-face meeting, the project went through without a hitch.

Just Ask Baby launches

I've been working on a project for a number of months now called JustAskBaby.com. Along with Annemarie of yoyomama.ca, I write content for the site, as well as working on site tour video and promotion scripts, PR and marketing material including the launch press release and PR stories. There was also an SEO element. Let's just say it was - and still is - a BIG project, as well as a very interesting one.

Just Ask Baby is a unique way to get to know what's going on inside your baby's head, which, speaking as a non-parent, would seem to be a very useful thing to know. Two things stand out for me about this project: the very high production values and playback quality of the videos on the site (they used Hollywood screenwriters and top production houses) and the completely unique approach to delivering parenting information. Something else I like about it is that the team have made the decision not to accept advertising or sponsorshop, allowing them to deliver their information free of influence of manufacturers, etc. In other words, they're not trying to sell nappies, but genuinely want to provide this service to parents. Instead, they are charging a small subscription fee.

The site went live yesterday at JustAskBaby.com and I'm sure it's going to be a huge success. The pint-sized star of the videos has already appeared in Time Square (click image for a big version):

Into The Melting Pot

In an earlier post, I described my new temporary office, the Elephant & Bagels cafe. Now, a cafe is all well and good, but there are a couple of drawbacks - namely no printer and no-one sitting next to you to chat about last night's TV or break a Kit-Kat with. On a Google search for shared office space in Edinburgh, I stumbled across The Melting Pot - a social enterprise in Edinburgh.

Several things drew me to this place: it's good value, well-equipped and caters to non-profits and more-than-profit companies, which is a sector I'm particularly interested in working with after my experience on projects such as Serebra Connect. It's run by some very passionate people and the businesses currently working there look very interesting indeed, with an emphasis on working to make the world just that little bit better (or ideally a lot better).

They hold a couple of free open days each month and, after initially popping in to take a look around, I'm now very pleased to be helping The Melting Pot with their new website - to be relaunched in November. Update: Site now launched.

Guide to Vancouver published

Last year I was commissioned to write the introductory section to Vancouver: The Complete Resident's Guide. The book was recently published by Explorer Publishing and is exactly what it says on the tin - a complete guide for new residents, as well as visitors, to Canada's youngest metropolis. If you want, you can get it here.