To make a message viral, some companies use pass-it-on tools like online forwarding options and even reward people financially for spreading the message. For instance, one company gave people money when they bought items through advertising banners on the web. Sometimes companies encourage consumers to pass back information to them not only about themselves but also  their friends and colleagues. For instance, one contest, which offered a free trip to the winner and three friends, asked the contestants to provide details about their friends when entering.

Writer Malcolm Gladwell (The Tipping Point) claims that people who are very good at influencing others are the ones who begin most word-of- mouth epidemics. If you are interested in starting a word-of-mouth epidemic, Gladwell writes, you must focus solely on ‘influencers’.

In Unleashing the Ideavirus, Seth Godin argues that traditional advertising is becoming obsolete. It will soon be replaced by marketing strategies that rely on consumers spreading recommendations by word of mouth. Godin also predicted that consumers would rely more and more on a global community of  influencers to tell them what to buy.

Godin feels that the most likely ideas that will go viral are those directly related to communication. ‘The best sort of communication is an actual communication tool,’ he says in his book. But inventing words, new musical concepts or other ways people communicate goes a long way as well. The most important thing is to convince someone influential to use the new tool. Word-of-mouth contacts across the Internet are expected to do the rest.

First, reduce the effort your readers need to understand you.
1. Shorten sentences. A sentence is just one idea. No more. No less.
2. Remove meaningless and unnecessary phrases in sentences such as redundancies and oxymorons. Oxymorons consist of two words, one of which contradicts the other. Examples of oxymorons are ‘open secret,’ ‘deafening silence,’ ‘alone together,’ etc.
3. Deflate fat words. Remove prefixes and suffixes grafted onto shorter roots, and watch your words sparkle.
4. Reduce negatives. Every negative inserts a layer of opaqueness and makes it more difficult for readers to understand your writing. Multiple negatives increase the difficulties exponentially.

Second, improve energy levels. Verbs do the hard work in writing. Keep those verbs moving!
5. Eliminate the equations. Almost every use of the verb “to be” (e.g., “am,” “are,” “was,” “were,” “be,” “been,” “being”) lowers the energy level of the sentence a bit. Equating verbs (e.g., “is”) reduce the energy level to zero. Find the real action in the sentence and turn that word into a verb.
6. Activate the passives. Passive verbs create passive readers. But all passive verbs began life as active verbs. Increase the energy and vitality of your writing by converting them back to active verbs.
Example of a passive verb or voice: You are loved by me.
Express the same sentence, using the active voice and it becomes: I love you.
The second sentence is much more energetic than the first.

Finally, help your readers along with their thinking. Provide clear directions to point readers along their way.
7. Lead with strength. Find the sentence, paragraph or illustration that will best grab and hold your reader’s attention. And move it to the beginning.
8. Tune up topic sentences. Start a new paragraph every time you shift to a new point of view and use the topic sentence to keep the thread of meaning flowing.

If you run out of time or energy, do only those steps that will most improve your writing. It doesn’t matter if you don’t have time to do them all. Carrying out any of the steps above will significantly improve your writing.

Print out the text. You’ll never catch as many slips on screen as you will on paper. Do a final check for obvious errors in grammar, spelling, and punctuation.

2. The first ten words of your press release should grab your readers’ attention. The rest of the press release will provide the details.

3. Write for the media. Try to develop a story as you would like to have it told. Journalists often publish press releases as they are. Sometimes they will develop feature articles.

4.  Stick to the facts. Don’t embellish or exaggerate.

5. Try to make your press release timely. Tie your news to current events or social issues, if possible.

6. Use active verbs wherever possible. They bring your writing to life. And try to avoid the excessive use of adjectives.

7. End with a short paragraph (company boilerplate) that describes your company, products, service and a short company history. If you are filing a joint press release, include a boilerplate for both companies.

8. Provide as much contact information as possible: name, phone number and email address.

1. Write Perfect Subject Lines
The subject line can irresistibly pull readers into opening your message and reading every single word of it.

To compose the perfect email subject:

• Convey the core of your message in the subject line.
• Email subjects need to be concise. Skip articles, adjectives and adverbs.

2. Take Another Look Before You Send a Message
You can avoid misinterpretations by:
Allowing every message at least some minutes to rest after you have written it and before you press the “Send” button.

Reread and reconsider the whole message when you return to it, preferably from the recipient’s perspective.

You’ll be surprised at how many ambiguities you’ll clear up even in short and simple emails by doing this.

3. Keep Emails Short
Do not intimidate recipients with too much text.

Long emails can look intimidating and a long sequence of long paragraphs can make the recipient read less than if the message had been only about three sentences long – - three witty, concise and precise sentences.

If you do have much to write:

• Break your message into bullet points.
• Begin each point with a concise summary or the action you want taken.
• Make sure important information is not hidden in the meat of your messages or your bullet points.

4. Writing in All Caps is Like Shouting
When you write in all capital letters, this looks (and maybe sounds) to recipients as if you were shouting at them. Besides, all caps are difficult to read.

Use lower case only. Lower case is more widely accepted than all caps.

5. Avoid Embarrassing Emails
Have you ever accidentally hit the “Send” button before your message was ready? Well, I certainly have, much to my embarrassment.

Avoid embarrassing emails by sending them to yourself first. Also, make sure the message does no harm even if you accidentally hit that button accidentally.

You can also avoid embarrassment by doing the following:

• Leave the address field empty;
• Address the message to yourself while you are still composing it;
• Only enter the final recipient when you are ready to send the email.

These core rules of email etiquette help us communicate better via email.

1. Start with a pencil and paper. Brainstorm all your accomplishments and awards at past jobs. Also consider anything worthwhile you may have done in your local community.

Write a list of all the software you know how to use and another list of any skills you’re good at.

Then, make a list of everyone you think would be happy to recommend you and find their contact info. Call them before you even add them to your resume to be sure it’s okay for you to use their names as references.

2. Use no more than two fonts in your resume. I recommend Arial, Verdana or Times New Roman. A good resume uses a variety of simple functions, different-sized fonts, capped letters, bold and italic fonts. But make sure you’re consistent. For instance, if you capitalize and bold the titles of the companies you’ve worked for, make sure you do it for all of them.

3. Highlight your accomplishments. It’s fine to discuss your duties, but you should bullet some accomplishments, too. What did you do for the company? What was the result of what you did? For example, “Created packaging initiatives and increased quarterly sales by 25%.”

Make sure you also state how you can contribute to the hiring organization.

4. Don’t use the first-person tone in your resume. And always use verbs. Even inventing a new filing system could impress your reader if you write, “Implemented filing system to improve productivity.”

If you answered phones, you can say “Responded to inquiries” instead. Think of other words that will energize your resume: collaborate, facilitate, orchestrate, spearhead, generate and revamp. Use these verbs in the present tense only if you’re talking about your current job. The rest should be in the past tense.

5. Revise anything you write, especially a resume. Proofread. When you’re done with the whole thing, print it out and let it sit for a day. Come back and read it. Better yet, ask a friend to glance through it. Check for spelling and grammatical errors that can completely blow your credibility. But also select a good length and look for your resume.

In resume writing, there are no clear rules. I’m sure you have read articles that say your resume should only be one page long or that it should be in chronological format. Otherwise, it won’t be read. But each job seeker has a different set of circumstances. You need to evaluate your situation and come to a conclusion that fits into your reality.

According to Cornell University Career Services, only 20% of jobs are advertised. So answering want ads or posting your resume on the Internet is only one way of looking for work. You must be an active job seeker and use other avenues to find employment.

Wishing you every success in your job search!

That’s a big mistake!

The well-written cover, not the resume that can single-handedly land you more job interviews. Using proven marketing strategies rarely found in a typical cover letter, you can use the cover letter to really market yourself to an employer.

You can only do so much with the traditional resume. However, the carefully crafted cover letter is more important to your getting a job than any other written document including the resume.

A highly effective job search cover letter consists of seven crucial fundamentals.

1.  Address your cover letter to a real person! Do your best to find out TO WHOM you should address your cover letter. “Dear Manager” or “To Whom it May Concern” is both lifeless and causes your letter to float around the office instead of finding the desk of the hiring agent. You must add a personal salutation to your correspondence to increase your chances of its being seen by the right person.

2.  Correct Address. Ensure that the address is 100% accurate and complete. Double-check everything even if you pulled the address from the phone book, a classified ad or the company website. Phone the company and verify the mailing address with the receptionist.

3.  Begin with an attention-grabbing sentence that makes your reader really sit up and take notice. Just think – - the human resources person may have grown weary from sifting through the resumes of hundreds of people who have applied for the same position as you have. But your engaging first sentence will just make his day! And almost guarantee that your cover letter and resume get a much closer look.

4.  Formatting. Your cover letter should be simple and easy to read. Remember, you are applying for a job. So, keep your cover letter professional looking by using a plain font on crisp, white paper.

5. Remember ”Less is more! The best cover letters have plenty of white space. A clear, focused, short and sweet letter gets you the interview every time.

6. Focus on what you can do for the employer. How can you benefit the company specifically? Do a little research and relate this value-added benefit simply and clearly in your letter.

7.  Choose words that show enthusiasm and passion for the position you’re seeking. Then carry this passion into the interview with you.

8.  Request one action you want the employer to take: “I would really like the opportunity for a personal interview this week.” (You never know until you ASK)!

9. End your cover letter with enthusiastic and compelling sentences, such as, “I look forward to being interviewed at your earliest convenience. Thank you so much for this opportunity. Sincerely, John Jobseeker.” (Notice how John assumes he’ll land the interview? This approach is clever, smart, and it works like a charm).

10. Tailor your cover letter to every job that you apply for. It’s not the number of cover letters (and resumes) that you send out. What matters is the quality of your cover letters (and resumes).

Think of your cover letter as a sales letter. And its goal? To land you job interviews. That’s the bottom line. By using the proven marketing strategies outlined above, you will land a great number of quality job interviews and leave your competition trailing in the dust.

You must get your foot in the company door first to have any chance at all. With the right cover letter, you can explode several doors wide open immediately. More job interviews translate into a wider range of opportunities and more job offers.

Lastly, you must apply another key principle: Follow up on every job lead, contact and communication. Following up is the “golden key” to getting hired for the job of your dreams. Use follow-up cover letters, thank-you letters and follow-up phone calls. Following up actually doubles your chance for success. It is also the one missing ingredient in nearly 99% of all job seekers’ handbooks. That means good news for you.