As you’ll have seen if you’ve been near a TV, radio, Twitter or Facebook, sweary activist rock group Rage Against The Machine have pipped the X Factor’s Joe McElderry to this year’s Christmas number one.

Like many people, I’m pretty pleased about this. And I’m also a bit suprised, because had you asked me a week ago, I’d have said the Facebook campaign to get the song to the top of the charts had about as much chance of success as the Monster Raving Loonies have of winning the next general election.

Why the scepticism? Well, joining a group on Facebook only takes a couple of seconds but it’s getting people to do more that has always seemed like the tricky bit. There are thousands of well-meaning Facebook groups and online petitions that have plenty of supporters but achieved nothing else of note.

So why did this campaign succeed – and make such a big impact – where others have failed?

• It tapped into something people feel strongly about: frustration at the X Factor’s dominance of the Christmas number one slot.
• It went huge on Facebook and Twitter. The sheer amount of support indicated that maybe it could actually happen.
• Mainstream media picked it up in a big way. That lent credibility to the grass roots campaign and fostered a real belief it could work.
• It wasn’t asking for a huge commitment. Sure, downloading the track cost a few pence, but it was easy and cheap to make a difference.

I think a lot of it came down to credibility. It wasn’t until Thursday, when Rage performed live on 5 Live’s breakfast show (swear words and all), that I seriously thought there was a possibility we’d see them at number one. And it was only at that point that I was willing to purchase the single myself. (more…)

I have this idea that the quality of an ebook can be judged by the hyperbole used to market it. The more excessively shouty and lurid the sales blurb, the less valuable the advice itself is likely to be.

You’ve probably seen the worst offenders. Over-excitable, garish web pages employ capital letters, bright colours and phrases like “THE BOOK THE PROFESSIONALS DON’T WANT YOU TO HAVE!!!!!!”  Making unfeasible promises about unimaginable wealth, they only say one thing to me: run away.

Once you’ve seen a few of these it’s easy to tar every ebook with the same brush. Easy, yes. Unfair? Definitely.

One ebook worth reading

I say this because over at Bad Language, old pal Matthew Stibbe has released a comprehensive ebook to help make you a better business writer.

There’s no guarantee of lifelong wealth and a conspicuous lack of garish promotional graphics on Matthew’s site, yet this excellent guide offers some of the best business writing advice I’ve seen.

Grounded firmly in the real world, the book is packed with practical information to help you write better. It explains how the principles of good journalism are just as important to business writing. It’s all about telling an interesting story and geting under the skin of your audience.

Structured as a 30-day course, (but almost as useful read as and when you get the chance), Matthew’s book is free, well-written, and useful regardless of whether you write a bit, write a lot, or just work with writers.

Rather than listen to me bang on about it here, just go and take a look.

I’ve been thinking about website usability lately, and this recent blog post over on Signal vs Noise really struck a chord with me. It’s the first time I’ve seen the idea of usability expressed so succinctly:

“It’s about putting yourself in the other person’s shoes. It’s about looking into the future, foreseeing any potential obstacles, and removing them. And that’s a great way to get people on your side.”

I think when you get down to it, if you’re building a new website, application or physical product, those are the important things. Whatever you’re creating, it needs to be simple to use. Like my iPhone, it should just work.

That applies to copywriting too, of course. It’s why you should should always consider every sentence – every word, in fact – really carefully. First of all, is it necessary at all? Second, assuming it is, have you expressed whatever you’re trying to express clearly and succinctly as possible?

While I’m on the subject, I think Dare Obsanjo makes a good point about introducing new features to your product, service of website:

“If a user can’t find the feature, it might as well not exist”

I agree completely. You can cram your website full of information. You can make your product full of cutting edge features. But if poor usability means people can’t find that information or use those features, then really … what’s the point?