“Eight Days a Week,” sang The Beatles, to express the amount of affection they had for their lady love. Was this a mathematical error? No, the standard seven days simply was “not enough to show I care.”  

Today, there’s a new refrain gaining steam in the business world — but rather than adding days into the week, companies and workers are thinking about removing them. The idea of a four-day workweek is making news today. Regardless of its ultimate trajectory, one thing is for sure — the standard five days is under scrutiny.  

“Is the Four-Day Workweek Finally Within Our Grasp?” The New York Times poses this question in its “latest DealBook special report on trends that will shape the coming decades.” This article likens the concept to the approach to the overall increased flexibility many office workers have gained during the pandemic. First came working from home. Is the four-day workweek far off?  

Some companies have gone this route already. The online retailer Primary adopted this schedule to help protect its staff from COVID-induced burnout. The firm simply lopped off one day, namely Friday, from the usual workweek — no overtime or pay cut required. While employees at many companies have left in droves during this challenging time, most at this business have stayed put. What’s more, some staff members still voluntarily choose to work on Friday at times. In December 2021, six months after this experiment began, Primary locked in the four-day workweek. For how long? “Indefinitely.”  

A Historical Perspective

A radical idea came to fruition in 1938. That’s when President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed the Fair Labor Standards Act. This law laid the groundwork for the minimum wage, overtime, and — ta-da! — the five-day workweek.  

Some years later, the notion of the four-day workweek began surfacing. In 1956, Vice President Nixon gave a speech in which he posited that the four-day workweek would arise in the “not too distant future.” During the oil crisis in 1977, President Jimmy Carter said he “may urge industries to go on a four-day work week” to cut energy use. A year later, The Washington Post featured an article on “Pushing for a Shorter Work Week.” It noted that “Ever since the beginning of the 1970s, the 4-day work week has seemed to be just around the corner, but this time it looks for real.”       

So, what happened? The New York Times offers some reasons why the movement stalled. It puts them into several buckets, leading with the nation’s economic travails for the subsequent 20 years. Corporate priorities is another factors, as are “globalization and the diminishing power of labor.” That’s quite a heavy load. Ergo sticking with the status quo ruled the day.  

Moving to the present time, momentum has returned. So have grassroots activities on the legislative front. In 2021, Representative Mark Takano submitted a bill to decrease the workweek from 40 to 32 hours. It’s backed by 13 colleagues.  

Back to the Future

COVID-19 landed in a big way during the first quarter of 2020. It disrupted life and work as we know it. How could businesses manage through the pandemic? They strategized and acted. Wherever and whenever possible, they designed work-from home-provisions. As the crisis permutated and prolonged, employers focused on a wide range of additional ways to keep going in troubled times. Some eyes pored over pilots of four-day workweeks to draw upon these experiences. The nation of Iceland is a case in point. 

An early adopter, Iceland started down this path in 2015 at the behest of trade union and civil rights organizations. Two trials ultimately involved 2,500 workers; that equated to more than 1% of the workforce. But that was just the beginning. “Going public: Iceland’s journey to a shorter working week” explains the progress of the initiative in full. The intent was manifold. It aimed to help workers without sacrificing pay. At the same time, it sought to benefit businesses. 

The findings?  

  • Success! “Transformative” and “positive” describe the effects on employees and businesses. 
  • Productivity and service levels remained the same OR improved across most workplaces. 
  • Workers’ well-being increased, with many moving from stress and burnout to health and work-life balance. They specifically mentioned experiencing less stress at home and more time for family and friends, oneself, chores, and domestic activities. The advantages extended beyond just people whose workweeks shortened. 

Yet, challenges cropped up. It became more difficult to program group activities, such as education and training. Handing off information to coworkers was more complex, too. However, the major pluses won out. As such, the abbreviated schedule became permanent and expanded widely. Today, about 86% of the workforce adheres to a compressed workweek.  

The final report by the government analyzes the results. It ends with forward-looking insight. “The Icelandic trials can play a flagship role in showing how working time reduction should be considered a powerful, desirable, and viable policy across contemporary advanced economies.” And that is exactly what is happening. 

A Breakthrough Whose Time Has Come?

News of the four-day workweek started bubbling up during 2021. But from the looks of it — or rather the search of it — 2022 may be the bellwether year. In only a short time, the messaging and tone of posts strengthened. 

A sampling of headlines shows this crescendo effect.  

We start with the last quarter of 2021:  

The tempo accelerated with the dawn of 2022.  

Both Sides Now: Tradeoffs and Points of Interest

Discussion and implementation of the four-day workweek occupies the limelight. But is it a good thing? How far can it go? Let’s peek at the issues being raised.   

“If the same results can be achieved in fewer days, why keep a five-day workweek?” muses Investopedia. Its post on “The Impact of Working a 4-Day Week” notes that Japan has promoted this idea as a national policy. If employees and firms derive value via “increased sales, decreased worker burnout, and lower turnover,” why not endorse it? Those are among the pluses, but there are minuses too.  

One to consider is the long-term effect. The new workweek may yield benefits early on, but they may not be enduring. What are other negatives? Companies that transition to four days of 10 hours may encounter problems; aside from potentially violating wage regulations, this timetable may push workers’ beyond their limit to maintain peak productivity. Also not all workers may favor this change; it may add stress and limit camaraderie and other desirable on-the-job social aspects.    

Indeed gets right to the point in “Four-Day Work Week Pros and Cons.” This post starts on the upside. The positives of a 4-day/10-hour schedule include: 

  • Improved work-life balance 
  • More opportunity to recharge and decompress   
  • Continuous workflow over a longer span, higher concentration, fewer distractions 
  • Higher productivity 
  • Increased team building and less time for disputes 
  • Enhanced innovation and creativity 
  • Greater employee motivation and satisfaction 
  • Less commute time 
  • Lower overhead costs    
  • Ecological advantages, e.g., lower carbon footprint 

On the flip side, disadvantages include: 

  • Decreased customer satisfaction, less opportunity for personalized attention 
  • Lower productivity over a long working timeframe, project delays 
  • Difficulty acclimating, communication gaps 
  • Childcare problems in finding arrangements that accommodate longer workdays 
  • Lack of applicability to all industries, such as health care, human services, real estate, and others where “a four-day workweek is an expensive risk to undertake” 

In light of items on both sides of the four-day workweek balance sheet, this post offers tips on how to move forward in this realm:  

  • Analyze the role of meetings and how to adjust/eliminate them for productivity. 
  • Shield employees from burnout over 10 hours, e.g., brief health breaks. 
  • Apprise customers of this change, address their concerns, and maintain in-person backup. 
  • Evaluate, evaluate, evaluate. How are employees faring with the new format? What improvements can be made? What are other companies doing that may serve as a model to deliver more benefits? 
  • Finally, monitor and measure the initiative at various points over time to determine whether it’s a success. If not, perhaps revert to the original. 
  • Ask employees which day they prefer off and design a program around the responses.

 
All Sides Now 

A change like this is sure to evoke considerations and comments. That’s what Creative Circle had in mind when it posted a poll on the four-day workweek on LinkedIn. See how those who voted and what they had to say. Hint: The numbers tilt heavily on the affirmative end.

What is your view? No matter what it is, the four-day workweek is something to be aware of and ponder.

 

About the author. 
You name it, she covers it. That’s the can-do attitude Sherry M. Adler brings to the craft of writing. A polished marketing and communications professional, she has a passion for learning and the world at large. She uses it plus the power of words to inform and energize stakeholders of all kinds. And to show how all of this can make a difference, she calls her business WriteResults NY, LLC. 

Welcome to 2022! A new year means taking some time to reflect on aspects of our lives we would like to change, improve, leave behind, or keep as is. It’s also a great opportunity to give your digital strategy the same treatment! The way people interact on various platforms has changed immensely in light of the pandemic and will continue to do so in the oft-invoked (and kind of ominous) “new normal.” That makes it all the more important to make sure that your digital strategy is up to date, in shape, and ready to meet audiences and goals in 2022.  

Year in Review 

Analyzing performance and implementing changes accordingly is the backbone of good digital strategy any time of the year. So take a look at what goals you set last year and what your analytics looked like. Are there any audience behaviors or preferences that you can capitalize on and incorporate into your strategy moving forward? What KPIs did you hit? How long did users spend on your website? What is your newsletter open rate? What didn’t work, and why?  

This can also mean revisiting mission statements, “About” sections, values, and the general “why” of your brand to really hone in on what makes you unique. It’s crucial to understand your past in order to guide your future in the direction you want. 

Understand your audience 

The most crucial part of any digital strategy — or any marketing strategy, really — is the audience. And no, your audience can’t be “everyone.” Knowing your audience means choosing them, because the more specific you are about the consumers you want to reach out to, the better you can target them.  

Take your audience data and create consumer personas. Get to know them (or, you know, a fictionalized version of them) so you can understand how to reach them. 

Understand your lane 

Brands don’t exist in a vacuum (except Hoover, maybe). Get to know your terrain and do research on your competitors — big and small. Understand where the overlap is in the Venn diagram between you and other brands like you, and definitely understand the parts that don’t overlap. What are you offering that other brands do not or cannot? Stay up to date on the trends of both your industry and your consumers.  

Set goals 

Now that you know what’s working, what’s not, who you’re trying to reach, and who you’re competing with, you can start to put together a vision for your path forward. Where do you need to grow? What new platforms do you want to incorporate? How can you better engage with your audience? 

Setting goals can be overwhelming because there are endless directions and potentials for growth. So don’t forget to keep it SMART: specific, measurable, achievable, realistic/relevant, and timely. 

Time to strategize  

Strategizing how you will meet your goals includes setting KPIs (key performance indicators) and benchmarks, breaking down which platforms you’ll be using (and how much time/money will be devoted to each one), brainstorming or at least plotting out campaigns, and budgeting.  

Strategizing does not mean going full blast with every option possible. It’s selectively deploying campaigns on specific platforms at specific times to best meet your audience where they’re at. If you have way more followers on Instagram than on Twitter, exert your effort and budget accordingly.  

Break it down 

As with any project, breaking things up into small attainable benchmarks is key. The GSOT approach — Goals, Strategy, Objective, Tactic — is a great approach to creating small, easy steps in service of your overarching vision. In the same way that strategy helps you understand how to attain your goal, objectives are the even more tangible and specific aspects of a strategy, whether it’s a certain growth percentage or a specific number of followers desired by the end of the year. From there, you can devise your tactics, which are the actual tasks that help you reach your goal.  

Content strategy 

Now we get to the fun part: content! Once again, research is the most valuable part of the process. Check out what kind of visuals are en vogue, watch what’s going viral, and learn how people respond to competitors’ content.  

Create a striking and unique brand voice (both visual and text-based) that can guide your content. If your brand was a person, what would they be like? What is this persona’s relationship to your consumer? Their favorite funny teacher? Their cool aunt?  

As you’re creating content, the content calendar Is your best friend. A microcosm of the broader digital strategy timeline, the content calendar helps keep posts intentional, allows for planning for holiday content, and of course keeps the team on the same page.  

Enact!  

So you’ve got your tactics, objectives, and content strategy ready to go according to your timeline. It’s time to jump in and enact the plan. Schedule the posts. Send the email blasts. Host the Zoom panels. Deploy the sponsored ads.  

Digital strategy will vary depending on your industry and brand, but the basics are the same across the board. Know your goals. Know your audience. Look at the data. Adjust accordingly. And, of course, make sure that you’re in open communication with your team. Here’s to an effective strategy in 2022!  

 About the author. 
Sam Mani writes about work, creativity, wellness, and equity — when she’s not cooking, binging television, or annoying her cat. 

2021 saw huge and exciting developments, from the vaccine rollout to the biggest year yet for renewable energy to the most diverse Oscars batch ever. But as 2022 begins, it’s hard not to wonder where to go from here. We may not know what the future will hold, but we certainly can look to the past for some answers.

Here are some of the biggest moments and trends from 2021, and what they’ll mean for the year to come.

Blockchain

This year, cryptocurrencies and blockchain at large went mainstream, and will no doubt continue to create headlines next year. From Elon Musk’s notorious appearance on SNL resulting in Dogecoin plummeting to, well, Elon Musk being Time’s Person of the Year, cryptocurrencies are more alluring than ever before.

In September, El Salvador became the first country to accept Bitcoin as legal tender, with other countries, particularly in the developing world, set to follow suit next year. But, blockchain tech creates immense carbon dioxide emissions, so 2022 will hopefully see more progress for creating renewable and environmentally sustainable methods.

NFTs, or nonfungible tokens, are works of digital art that, through blockchain tech, are verifiably owned. They may prove to be more than the expensive gimmick some have chalked it up to be! With more musicians and gamers seeing the value of NFTs as well as institutional auction houses like Christie’s getting into the game, NFTs could be here to say.

Hybrid working (and vacationing)

With the Great Resignation in full swing, employers are understanding that after a year of working at home, maybe desk workers aren’t jumping at the chance to return to the office. 2022 will most likely see more flexibility from employers when it comes to working from home, especially in light of continuing Covid variants. This will compel tech companies to help make the hybrid model work more seamlessly, allowing the work to meet the employee where they’re at.

On the other hand, being able to work from anywhere means being able to work from any vacation spot. This is known as “flexcation,” and while it can be really nice to be able to manage if your vacation days couldn’t line up with your kids’ school holidays, blurring the boundaries between work and vacation can get out of hand. Be careful!

Sustainability

From fashion brands embracing regenerative agriculture and even resale to the increased popularity of plant-based diets, sustainability continued growing in popularity in 2021 — nearly two years after the global youth climate protests that forced countries around the world to reckon with the realities of climate change.

2022 will see consumers making more eco-friendly choices, but it will also see larger-scale impacts like companies opting for carbon offsetting and renewable energy becoming more affordable in general (even as materials for things like solar panels become more expensive due to the supply chain disruptions, but more on that later).

The SuPpLy ChAin!

This year’s headlines have been dominated by the specter of the supply chain. That is, the vast and complex networks of manufacturing and shipping that get the goods you want to you. These disruptions and “shortages,” which came from shifting consumer behavior throughout the pandemic, are not going to disappear in 2022.

Things may be unpredictable and take longer to arrive, but some experts think things will get better later on in 2022. In the meantime, the severity of the disruptions have meant that manufacturing, production, and shipping industries, as well as governments, are scrambling to create better, more efficient, supply chain systems.

Mental Wellness

The last nearly two years have been grueling, and the impact will be unpacked for years to come. Living through so much turmoil has led to an increased interest in mental wellness that will continue into 2022. From digital mental wellness resources to employers understanding the importance of emotional wellbeing, mental health is finally being seen as the vital part of overall health that it is.

Even though it will be easier to access mental health resources, it’s still work to create a regimen that works for you, so be sure to take the time to take care of yourself.

What does productivity mean?

If 2020 was the year of the forced stop, 2021 was certainly the year of the forced return. Our relationships with work suffered, as seen in the Great Resignation, but also in other ways. 2022 will most likely see us really reflecting on what our work means and what productivity really means. Is productivity simply output, or is it input as well? What kind of work do we really want to be doing anyway?

I don’t know about you, but I’m ready to leave 2021 behind and jump into 2022. We may not be able to prepare for everything, but we can certainly take what we’ve learned with us.

About the author. 
Sam Mani writes about work, creativity, wellness, and equity — when she’s not cooking, binging television, or annoying her cat. 

Merriam-Webster lives! This ultimate source for all things words has been around since 1828. Toward the beginning of every year, after an exhaustive vetting process, the lexicographers add words and definitions that made the cut. What’s the main factor behind the decision? They sum it up in one word (of course): “usage.” This means: “the editors study the language as it’s used. They carefully monitor which words people use most often and how they use them.”  

In January 2021, the team introduced 520 words. A number of them trace their roots to the COVID-19 pandemic. These include: 

  • Pod (noun): Mainly during the lockdown phases of the pandemic, some people formed their own pod. The word signifies a small group of family, friends, neighbors or others. The members bond together and agree to limit exposure to people outside of the pod to lower the risk of contracting and spreading the disease. Those in the pod might share responsibility for things like childcare, education, and meal prep, as well as dining and socializing together. 
  • Wet market (noun): To understand this term, start by picturing a farmers’ market. Then expand that vision. These commercial centers sell fresh produce and other perishable goods. The list of items also tends to include live animals, which may be slaughtered right on the spot. Some experts speculate that unsafe conditions at wet markets may be the source of the coronavirus epidemic.  

Here are some others from the class of January 2021: 

  • Decarceration (noun): Think of this word at face value as the opposite of incarceration. It concerns the release of those who are in prison. But the term has broader implications too. In this context, decarceration is a practice or movement. The objective is to decrease the number of people sent to prison in the first place as well as develop channels to release those who are in custody.  
  • Hygge (noun and adjective): From the Danish language, hygge is pronounced “hue-gah” or “hoo-guh.” In its noun form, it denotes a quality of coziness, which makes a person feel content and comfortable. As an adjective, it means cozy or comfortable. The word shot to prominence during the pandemic, as people sought to offset stress with pleasantries. What is an example of hygge in a sentence? “Grace, simplicity, and gratitude are the principles hygge practitioners adhere to for an abiding sense of well-being.”  
  • Sapiosexual (adjective and noun): When it comes to romance, is high intelligence the number one factor that attracts you to someone? If so, you are sapiosexual. 

 

The Next Batch of New Words in Town

The list did not stop with publication of the large infusion of new words in January. Merriam-Webster kept at it and added another set in October 2021. The pick of the litter includes: 

  • Blank check company (noun): Do you tune in to CNBC on weekdays? If so, you hear about this and that SPAC, short for special purpose acquisition company. It’s another term for blank check company. They refer to a “corporate shell set up by investors for the sole purpose of raising money through an initial public offering (IPO) to acquire another business yet to be determined.” The largest blank check companies at the time of this writing include: Vertiv Holdings, Jaws Spitfire Acquisition Corp. and Tuscan Holdings Corp. 
  • Dad bod (noun): Like it or not, this term denotes the physique of a stereotypical father. It’s a body type that is not particularly muscular or toned and a little pudgy in the mid-section. But fret not — it’s a hot new look today. A commentator on the Merriam-Webster site notes: “Even Hollywood latched onto the more attainable physique with actors sporting bodies that were not chiseled, not incredibly lean, and a little soft in the middle.” Welcome to the era of the dad bod.  
  • Deplatform (verb): Another new word that starts with “de,” it has to do with removing someone from something. In this case, if signifies banishing a registered user from a communication medium (platform). Social media and blogging sites are the main channels. This action occurs because the person/group has violated the terms of service.  
  • Digital nomad (noun): A perfect blend of “digital” and “nomad,” this term describes a person who works totally over the Internet (“digital”) while traveling (“nomad”). But there’s more to the second half. Such a person has no permanent fixed home address (the essence of a “nomad”). Investopedia adds some color to the term. “A digital nomad may work out of cafes, beaches or hotel rooms, and as they are not tied down to any one location.”     
  • Fourth trimester (noun): This new catchphrase adds another three months to the standard nine-month gestation process. The fourth trimester is a challenging phase; it’s rife with adjustments for all involved. The mother recovers from giving birth and transitions into caring for her newborn during this postpartum period. The infant acclimates to life outside the womb. The fourth trimester is a trying time, when “women and their families experience substantial physiological, social, and emotional changes.”  
  • Vaccine passport (noun): This new entry brings to mind an ad slogan from American Express, created many years back and recently revised. “Don’t leave home without it.” That’s the importance of a vaccine passport, hoisted into the spotlight by COVID-19. This physical or digital document shows proof of vaccination against one or several infectious diseases. New York was the first state to issue a vaccine passport—the Excelsior Pass. And you need to flash it or other proof to eat indoors at restaurants in NYC and enter health clubs and indoor entertainment venues.   
  • Whataboutism (noun): This word comes from the fractious political scene today. It is a rhetorical device; it’s used by activists, advocates, commentators, elected officials, pundits, and spin doctors. This ploy is a way of responding to an accusation of wrongdoing by claiming an offense committed by another is similar or worse. Think of it as a derivative of one-upping. It deflects, side steps, and counteracts the root issue by drawing attention to another thing. Whataboutism aims to muddle, befuddle and, above all, obfuscate.  

In and Out

With all of these new words coming into vogue, a question may occur. Does Merriam Webster ever remove words? Yes, but not nearly as many as it adds. Reader’s Digest explains. “Some words recently hit the chopping block in the Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary—meaning they’re no longer included in the print edition.” The examples provided include the following: frutescent, hodad, snollygoster, sternforemost and Vitamin G.  

 

About the author. 
You name it, she covers it. That’s the can-do attitude Sherry M. Adler brings to the craft of writing. A polished marketing and communications professional, she has a passion for learning and the world at large. She uses it plus the power of words to inform and energize stakeholders of all kinds. And to show how all of this can make a difference, she calls her business WriteResults NY, LLC. 

To hire a full-time copywriter or not to hire? That is the question. To dispense with your external ad agency to bring on dedicated in-house copywriting talent or not? That’s another one. No matter which end you’re coming from — lack of copywriting resources or issues with outside support — here’s a short guide. These top nine markers shine the light on the decision to make.

Consider hiring a full-time copywriter if:

You spend too much time briefing and revising your agency’s work.

If you find yourself frequently discussing and modifying the work you receive from the group you use, it’s time to press the pause button. Rounds and rounds of dialogues, debates, and do-overs are dealbreakers. They violate the main motivations for having an agency in the first place. And they likely mean the agency doesn’t “get” it. Your wants and needs are not being met.

The outside team you use is not capturing your brand voice.

This may be among the issues contributing to your countless requests to go back to the drawing board. You’re looking for a consistent voice, tone, and style that reflect the distinctive essence of your brand. You seek that sparkle, something that captures the crux of why customers should choose your products and services. It should set the imaginations of potential targets afire and, soon after, get them to open their pocketbooks. This is critical. There’s a certain personality that should underscore all that’s put out about your brand in the universe.

Your competition is flourishing, and your business is not.

What your organization offers is special. If that is not resonating with stakeholders through your ad copy, a dreaded situation occurs. You fail to arouse awareness and lose share to others in the same segment. The market data says it all. If the numbers show your competition is surging while you are losing ground, you must examine your creative approach. Is your outside agency failing to nail it? Do you need to install a committed internal creative focal point?

You are failing to attract the right customer.

Do you hear that? It’s the sound of the cash register ringing up a customer’s first-time purchase of your product or service. Keep listening. Uh oh, there’s silence — no further ka-ching, ka-ching. In sales, repetition is the pot of gold that builds the future. If those follow-ups do not happen, something is amiss. Your ad agency copy may be addressing the wrong kind of customer. For the desired long haul buying cycle to kick in, your messaging must resonate with the right buyers to pinpoint and stoke their wants and needs. An expert who knows the product and your organization thoroughly may be the way to go.

The copy you’re receiving is feeling stale.

Is your agency delivering the same old, same old? What happened to that initial spark? Poof, it’s sputtered. Then again, was it strong enough in the first place? All told, the copywriting content presented to you and maybe even the enthusiasm surrounding is played out. It requires a reset, a strong shot of innovation. You need a fresh pipeline of ideas and executions. Sometimes, the well runs dry. It’s time for a tune-up, which likely comes with finding a new source of inspiration — another agency or a full-time internal resource that works solely in the copywriting domain for you.

You are not receiving the attention you require.

External ad agencies, to survive and thrive, need a book of business. What’s the likelihood you are the only page? With numerous clients to cultivate and cater to, an agency has to divide its time and efforts. Despite the best of intentions, conflicts may arise in the amount of care and responsiveness they can devote. If you represent a major account, perhaps you get a larger share. If not, you may have to wait. The same thing may occur if you use shared resources internally for copywriting. In both cases, there is only so much that can go around at once.

You have several major campaigns on the horizon.

You are on the cusp of an exciting time. Your organization is set to launch a new line of products or services in the coming months. Supporting this requires intense focus, vested interest, and peak performance. If you’re lucky enough to have some time before you get started, you need to put A-1 copywriting resource(s) in place, stat. The talent for this assignment has an active role in the all-out development process. That means participation in strategy meetings, access to essential players/teams, and interaction with subject matter experts. This resource maintains a critical role in the project and the workflow and close collaboration with you.

You want to embrace content marketing but don’t have the wherewithal.

It’s time to roll out a full-fledged strategy to enhance your brand and marketing clout. You not only want to create but also share content across channels. It’s no longer efficient and effective to put out individual snippets. The way forward is to mobilize and coordinate. Combine the best of your thought leadership, blogs, social media posts, videos, and internal/external content into an overall approach. This initiative has many moving pieces and contributors. The copywriter must work across the organization to bring this activity to life from the inside out and follow up with measuring and optimizing it.

Your copywriting is done by those with other full-time responsibilities or a freelancer.

The split resources model works at many times and in many situations. But not always! Your copywriting needs have expanded. For a while, the existing in-house hybrid team with a multiplicity of roles fulfilled your needs. But things have changed. This arrangement lacks the concentrated focus needed to meet your robust agenda. These require fast access, action, expertise, and turnaround. Clearly, it’s a job for full-time copywriting talent. Alternatively, you may have engaged freelancers. That too may have worked for some time. But it evolved into a revolving door of workers or part-timers. A top performer who can stay the course, live and breathe your brand, and grow with the business fits best.

Benefits of a Full-Time Copywriter

  • Dedicated time and attention from the person you choose and personally vet for the role
  • Deep understanding and interest of your organization and brand
  • They’ll have immediate access to and interaction with a range of resources and stakeholders, including you. This talent is on the spot to participate in meetings and informal brainstorming sessions. He/she learns about new offerings in real time as well as changes in strategy/tactics.

How to Find the Best Fit

If you are in a niche business or specialized segment, seek someone with direct background in that field. Why? This person comes equipped with industry knowledge and experience right from the starting gate; a bonus is that this copywriter is familiar with the competition.

It’s likely that the employee in this position will have to wear several hats. For this reason, consider someone with a broad mix of skills. Straight ad copy? Yes, that’s imperative. But it’s just the foundation — add to it. Does this person have expertise in blogging, thought leadership, social media, website content, videos, results measurement, and optimization? Build a checklist based on your requirements.

One Model of Many

In the realm of copywriting arrangements for businesses, it doesn’t have to be a case of one way or the other. Needs evolve over time and how you obtain copywriting talent may change too. Alternatively, you may require an approach that combines the best of both worlds. For example, some organizations with the means employ a dedicated internal resource as a base of operations. They also contract with an external ag agency for specific tasks or campaigns.

We’re Here to Help

Need copywriting resources of any kind? Our active database is bursting with top performers in all fields and locations across the country. Contact us at Creative Circle. We make hiring exceptional talent simple!

About the author.

You name it, she covers it. That’s the can-do attitude Sherry M. Adler brings to the craft of writing. A polished marketing and communications professional, she has a passion for learning and the world at large. She uses it plus the power of words to inform and energize stakeholders of all kinds. And to show how all of this can make a difference, she calls her business WriteResults NY, LLC.

We’ve all been there before. We’ve sat in a meeting or been cc’ed on an email thread where someone threw out some jargon we’d never heard before, but by the grace of context clues or impostor syndrome, nodded our way through it.

Office work is full of ever-changing lingo, an entire language within a language. But what is supposed to be logistical shorthand often becomes something else entirely. Workers can use it to make something seem more important or serious than it is, passive aggressively ask for something, passive aggressively ignore something, or even just generally convey a level of competency the speaker may or may not have. You may even find yourself employing such vocabulary without truly understanding the meaning, living in fear of the day that someone finally asks you what you meant when you said “prototype.”

Well, fear not. To help you navigate the unwieldy world of white-collar words, here is your guide to some of the most common office jargon.

Circle back

  • What it means: Let’s start with an easy one. To circle back is to follow up.
  • Example: “Let’s circle back on this idea next week!”
  • What it really means: This can go one of two ways:

When the speaker employs it referring to the future (“Let’s circle back on this”), it really means they have no intention of dealing with the topic at hand and wish instead to gently kick it down the road, often in hopes that everyone forgets about it.

On the other hand, when the speaker/emailer uses it in the present referring to the past (“Hey, just circling back on this!”), they are extremely stressed and reminding the recipient of a task or project that is wildly overdue.

Bubble up

  • What it means: Related to “circle back” in that it pulls from round imagery, to “bubble up” is to revisit an email conversation with the intention that the conversation’s recency keeps it at the top of your inbox.
  • Example: “Just bubbling this thread to the top of your inbox”
  • What it really means: More effervescent than its two-dimensional cousin “circle back,” “bubble up” is a gentler reminder to revisit an email thread, with the understanding that said thread may have gotten lost under a trove of other emails, as-of-yet unsubscribed sale announcements, media newsletters, petition requests, and other messages from retailers the recipient maybe bought something from once six years ago.

Ideate

  • What it means: To ideate is to come up with an idea but like in a deep, innovative, visionary way.
  • Example: We’ll take some time to ideate a solution for the distribution platform.
  • What it really means: Brainstorm. Yes, ideation and brainstorming are two different things, but the vast majority of the time in office workplaces, when people say “ideate,” they really mean “brainstorm.”

Leverage

  • What it means: To employ advantages (often social media followings these days) to convert a certain behavior and reach a specified goal.
  • Example: We’re leveraging our social media audience to bump up sales.
  • What it really means: To use. Or to let Instagram “do its thing.” (“Leverage” is also misused very often.)

In these trying/unprecedented times

  • What it means: This phrase is meant to acknowledge the extremely difficult emotional and physical toll the pandemic and current events are continuing to take on us.
  • Example: “We’re working harder than ever before to make our employees feel safe and supported in these trying times.”
  • What it really means: Often used to convey compassion for how difficult it is to live through political instability and a global health crisis — right before asking employees to do their job like it’s a normal day.

Agile

  • What it means: In project management theory, there are two main approaches. Waterfall is a structured, linear model in which one phase must be finalized before the next phase begins, while agile prioritizes a more flexible approach centering collaboration, adapting, and incremental progress.
  • Example: “Let’s stay agile on this project, team!”
  • What it really means: “Agility” is often a warning that you will need to adapt to an increasingly demanding workplace with unrealistic expectations and unmanageable workloads in these trying times.

Offline

  • What it means: To flag a topic that is irrelevant in the current conversation to revisit in a separate conversation.
  • Example: “Let’s take this conversation offline” or even “Let’s offline this conversation.”
  • What it really means: There are so many ways meetings can get out of hand, and so often, it comes down to one person just going off on a tangent. Taking something offline is a diplomatic way to get the conversation back on track without hurting anyone’s feelings. And just like “circle back,” it often does not matter if the conversation actually gets revisited.

Ping

  • What it means: To directly message an individual.
  • Example: “I’ll ping you about the fonts we’re thinking about.”
  • What it really means: Similar to “offline,” “pinging” is a promise to get in touch with an individual that often goes unfulfilled.

Hop on a call

  • What it means: To meet virtually.
  • Example: “Let’s hop on a call and knock this deck out.”
  • What it really means: This could be an email, but I really enjoy the sound of my own voice.

NFT

What it means: Please don’t get me started.

About the author. 
Sam Mani writes about work, creativity, wellness, and equity — when she’s not cooking, binging television, or annoying her cat. 

There’s one marketing trend that’s not going away any time soon: influencer marketing. Instagram is chock-full of popular accounts promoting products, announcing brand partnerships, or dropping promo codes and doing what they do best: influencing!

No matter what scale your marketing campaign is, from launching your first product as a small business to announcing the latest drop by a huge, established company, incorporating influencers is an increasingly crucial part of the process.

What’s the deal with influencers?

As you probably know, influencers are people/accounts that have a significant social media following and can therefore sway their followers to make certain purchases. They’ve developed a strong relationship with their followers and earned their trust, and they may be an authority on a certain topic. Influencers have a unique way of promoting certain products, like a beauty influencer promoting a certain brow pencil, while also feeling like they’re a friend giving a recommendation.

Know your goals

What is it that you’d like to accomplish? Are you trying to sell a product? Are you trying to better your position in the market? Are you trying to increase your own social media following, build more trust among your existing audience, or reach a new audience?

Research shows that while influencers are great at promoting certain products — 14% of 18-to-24-year-olds and 11% of millennials had bought something based on influencer recommendations — they are also effective at increasing brand awareness in general.

Research your audience

Like any other type of marketing campaign, launching an influencer campaign requires you to do some research beforehand. You must be able to understand your audience as consumers and people. What are their interests? Their needs? What kind of media are they consuming? Who are they following? The more you know your audience, the better you’ll understand how exactly to reach them.

This research also goes for the influencers you’d like to work with. Understand the influencer’s approach and their audience. Think about reach: a nano-influencer has 1K–10K followers, a micro-influencer has 10K–50K followers, a mid-tier influencer has 50–500K, a macro-influencer has 500K–1 million, and a mega-influencer has over a million followers.

It goes without saying that budget plays a huge role in the kind of campaign you want to run. It costs a pretty penny to have an influencer with millions of followers push your product to their audience. It may be weird to think of someone with a few thousand followers as an influencer, but a smaller following can often mean a closer relationship with their audience and potentially better audience loyalty.

Finding the right influencer is not just about numbers. Does your product actually vibe with their brand? Does the partnership make sense? Does the influencer have experience with brand partnerships and/or a media kit? Do they have the right mix of sponsored posts and the usual content they’re known for or are they plying their audience with “#ad” posts too much?

Reaching out

Once you’ve finally identified brand partners that can bridge the gap between their audience and yours that fit within your budget, it’s time to reach out. Reaching out can look a few different ways depending on what your company and the influencer you’d like to work with look like. Like any other form of talent, influencers are often repped by agencies, so you may have to liase with them. Other times, you can reach out to influencers personally.

Working together

The best influencer marketing campaigns are true partnerships, in which the brand and the influencer work together, understand each other’s approaches and needs, and create authentic pieces of content. Telling your influencer exactly what to do defeats the purpose of the campaign, but you can still trust the influencer’s creativity and lay out clear expectations and make sure they understand non-negotiables. Of course, these points as well as a comprehensive list of deliverables, metrics of success, post length/frequency, payment details, and other legal obligations will all be outlined in the contract you will definitely sign with your influencer!

After the campaign is over, it’s important to follow up with the influencer and see how it went for both parties. Once again, do your research, gather your data from the campaign, and take a look at what worked and what didn’t work.

Influencer campaigns are all about collaboration and communication. With the right audience, the right brand partner, clear expectations and open communication, influencers can take your brand’s game to the next level.

About the author. 
Sam Mani writes about work, creativity, wellness, and equity — when she’s not cooking, binging television, or annoying her cat.