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F***ing hell. Is it ok to swear now?

22nd

Oct

by Sarah Turner

In honour of English Language Day last week I tweeted an old blog post about Anglo Saxon words. On Twitter @CiaranNorris replied “because Anglo Saxon words are ****ing great.” (Ciaran’s asterisks.)

Indeed.

It’s not cool to swear though, right? Or is it? Once frowned upon as showing lack of intelligence it now seems perfectly acceptable to cuss.

Stephen Fry, the cunning linguist says of swearing “the sort of twee person who thinks swearing is in any way a sign of a lack of education or of a lack of verbal interest is a f***ing lunatic.”

In an article in Stylist magazine last week they wrote that swearing had been scientifically proven to “ease pain, increase productivity and bond us at work”. F***ing hell. That’s impressive.

I remember the Sex Pistols back in the 70s (look it up kids) going on an expletive rampage when interviewed on TV. There was shock and outrage and parents ran to cover their children’s ears.

And yet turn on your TV these days and you’ll hear the likes of Gordon Ramsay turning the air blue whilst making an awfully nice lobster salad. Gordy’s show is even called The F Word.

So yelling a cuss word because you’ve got a parking ticket, broken your leg, or because you’re under stress at work all seem acceptable.

But how about writing swearwords? Is it OK to write f*ck, sh*t or b*llocks in your article, blog or tweet?

We try and get around it, of course, by substituting an asterisk for one or some of the letters as if this will protect the innocent or at least blame the reader for having a dirty mind. “Oh you saw sh*t and read it as shit did you? That’s your fault then. What I meant was shut.”

And then we end up with the sort of nonsense you get in the Sunday papers where you’re left wondering what the swearwords actually are. “Racquel, the 22 year old escort accused the premiership footballer of having a small p**** being s***** and a b***** a******. “

The Guardian regularly uses sh*t (sans asterisk) and even had f*ck on the front page recently. (Just for the record they’re using b*stard less whilst w*anker has remained stable.)

Cursebird monitors swearing on Twitter in a real time feed. And there’s loads of it. At the time of writing f*ck and sh*t are leading the way closely followed by b*tch and p*ss. Nice.

The talented @naomidunford over at Ittybiz doesn’t give a sh*t about swearwords and is famous for effing and blinding her way through her blog posts. It hasn’t bothered her readers and she’s got a huge following.

But I’m not so sure it’s for everybody. I once wrote that you shouldn’t say anything on Twitter that you wouldn’t say to your mum. And I think that includes swearwords. Yeah, the asterisk thing is a bit of a cop out I know. But it does acknowledge that you’ve given some thought to other people’s feelings.

What do you think? Should we refrain from cussing online? Or is it all a load of Anglo Saxon b*llocks?

Let us know in the comments.

Tags: swearing, swearwords
Posted in Copywriting, Social media, Word stuff | 26 Comments »

How to avoid screwing up in 140 characters

1st

Jul

by Sarah Turner

This article was written for Social Media Lens, a collection of articles and anecdotes written by brands, businesses and influencers, and produced by digital agency immediate future.

Social Media Lens was launched at the Marketing Week Live Show this week. Download your free copy here.

We all know about the benefits of using social media.

Take Twitter for instance. Get it right and you can build your brand, improve your reputation, drive traffic, get new customers and grow your business.

But get it wrong and you can easily make yourself look like a…twit.

So what does it take to be successful on Twitter?

Have high standards
Make sure that every tweet is useful, interesting or at least mildly amusing. In fact, you should see everything you write as an opportunity to inform, engage and influence.

So prepare a list of topics that relate to your business or industry and only tweet or retweet about these core subjects. And be strict about this. Don’t wander off and start tweeting about the weather. People are busy. They haven’t got time for drivel. So don’t tweet about what you had for breakfast; the contestants on America’s Got Talent; or how cute and funny your cat is. Never, ever tweet about your cat.

Be nice
Seriously. Be nice. And open, honest, and friendly. Let’s throw generous into the mix as well.

When you retweet other people’s stuff, include a few of your own words at the beginning of the tweet: A must read, Good stuff, Funny, Disagree, Well written, Great post. You’ll find that people will retweet your stuff in return. Remember to thank them.

Answer questions. Be helpful. Do this and people will follow you, trust you and recommend you.

Oh and don’t hide behind a company logo or an abstract image. People want to see who they’re talking to. Use a real picture of yourself. Preferably one that doesn’t make you look like a second hand car salesman or a bunny boiler.

Don’t be a smartarse
Or a clever-clogs or a show-off. No-one likes a show-off. People don’t care about what clients you have or what projects you’re working on or how busy you are. Really, they don’t. Waffle on about great you are and it’s the quickest to get unfollowed.

And don’t cuss. In fact, don’t say anything you’d be embarrassed to say in front of your mother. Unless, of course, your mother is a 15 stone trucker with a fondness for Hell’s Angels tattoos.

Remember anyone, anywhere can read your public tweets at anytime. Once they’re out there, they’re out there for ever. So criticising a client is not smart. Neither is moaning about your boss or complaining about a co-worker. Only tweet something you’d be happy to say to someone’s face.

Social media isn’t rocket surgery. But it is social. Which means you’re going to have to interact with real people. So think about what you want to share, be nice about it and don’t be a smarty-pants.

Tags: twitter
Posted in Business writing, How to, Social media | 5 Comments »

Hey, how ya doin’? Why I’m calling everyone I follow on Twitter

9th

Jun

by Sarah Turner

I joined Twitter over a year ago for completely the wrong reasons: I opened a Twitter account because everyone else had one and it seemed like a laugh.

Although I didn’t give too much thought as to why I was using Twitter and what I wanted to get out of it, I did think about what I was going to tweet.

I decided that all public tweets had to be related to what I’m involved in: Advertising, Marketing, Social Media, Design, Copywriting, SEO, Word Stuff, Grammar and Punctuation. Any post or article I found online that was interesting, useful or amusing I would share. Any tweet that was interesting, useful or amusing I would retweet. And I would always be friendly, sometimes funny, and occasionally insightful.

Oh yeah. And I wouldn’t tweet about what I ate for breakfast (who cares), what I was working on (who cares), or whether or not I was tired (who cares).

I started off by following just a few people. Mainly the big names whose blogs I read anyway. But pretty quickly I got a few followers. And I followed some of them back. And it sort of grew and grew. In the last year my Twitter friends have kept me up-to-date, informed, entertained and amused. Twitter has got me new clients, an interview for a book and various guest posts. It has enabled me to email some of the top industry bods with a question because, hey, we already have a relationship via Twitter. (And every single one of them has come back to me.)

And I’ve really enjoyed the amazing support, advice and luuuurve of my fellow copywriters. (Which if you’re a freelancer working on your ownsome is invaluable.)

But as time went on and ‘the people I know on Twitter’ became ‘friends I have on Twitter’ I felt the need to know more about the people behind the avatar.

So a few weeks ago I announced my quest: to call everyone I follow on Twitter and have a chat.

I’m starting off with all the UK copywriters and writers because I figure they’re going to be pretty cool. Then the overseas copywriters (via Skype, I guess.) Then the SEOers. Then the designers.

Luckily I don’t follow Paris Hilton or Ashton Kutcher. But I do follow No. 10, Arsenal Football Club and The Guardian, who I’m thinking may be fairly tricky to get hold of. And some of those A-list bloggers are going to be hard to pin down, if for no other reason than they’re always flitting all over the world attending conferences.

But so far so good. All the copywriters I’ve spoken to in the last few weeks have been fabulous, and happy to share a top tip or some words of wisdom. I’ll gather these together for a future blog post.

How long will it take? No idea. I only follow about 250 people, so under a year if I call one person a day (which I probably won’t). But I think it will be kind of fun.

So if your ‘phone rings in the next 5 minutes – it could well be me.

Posted in Social media | 8 Comments »