Ever been to a party and been trapped by a non-stop talker? Those standing monologues (especially the ones by complete and total strangers) are annoying at best and a buzzkill at worst.

Droning on and on without engaging in any kind give-and-take dialogue is absolutely awful for the person on the receiving end.

That’s what I like so much about Twitter. The microblogging site lets you “talk” but forces you to do so in short snippets of 140 characters or less.

I recently conducted an informal survey of people who follow me and found that most think using Twitter has helping them communicate more concisely (and hence effectively).

Now, mind you, long prose certainly has it’s place. But in business writing I see so much extraneous copy that it drowns the core message. Get to the core message quickly. Put it first. Your reader will thank you and be more likely to take the appropriate action.

If you’re not on Twitter, sign up for a free account. Follow a few people (me included) and start paring down your dialogue. I promise you’ll be the life of the next party you go to.

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The answer is simple. Irrelevancy.

Self-serving blog posts (and other types of internally focused interactive content for that matter) do nothing to engage and inspire.

Now I’m not saying that corporate bloggers can’t talk about themselves at all; I’m simply saying that when they do talk about themselves or their products, they must do it in a way that’s real, transparent and relevant to their readers. Only then can they build relationship and boost credibility.

Read this AdWeek article for a recap of a Forrester Research study that found less than 20 percent of consumers trust corporate blogs, then share your thoughts here.

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Blogging is the new black. Everyone is wearing it. But are they wearing it well?

For the when, where, why and how of leveraging blogging for your business, I highly recommend enlisting in the help of blogging maven and colleague Dawn Friedman of Open Book Strategies.

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Mistakes happen. Even to the pros.

My new email service provider, AWeber, (yes, this is a shameless plug) blogged about this biggie blunder by Seth Godin.

But besides calling Mr. Godin out on his blunder, they also provide a handy-dandy checklist of eight “to-dos” to ensure email quality control.

That’s just one of the many things I like about AWeber — helpful hints via blog posts, emails and webinars.

If you’re a small business in need of some help managing your online opt-in email newsletters, follow-up automation, and email deliverability, get a 30-day free trial through my AWeber affiliate page. (Told you it was a shameless plug.)

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