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Idea: Avoid Acronyms in Customer Content (The AACC Rule)

This month marks the 25th anniversary of the first-known appearance of the acronym LOL for “laughing out loud.” BTW, LOL used for “lots of love” has been around even longer. Acronyms date back thousands of years BC or, if you prefer, BCE. How far back? The word “Tanakh,” the Hebrew name for the collection of writings in the Jewish canon and source of the Christian Old Testament, is an acronym formed from the first Hebrew letters of the words given to the sections of the canon: Torah, Nevi’im and Ketuvim.


[Hammock’s Current Idea Email was released today.
Subscribe now to receive your own issue, once every two weeks.]
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Idea: How Personal Passions Inspire Professional Insights

By Jamie Roberts, Editorial Director

It goes without saying that everyone at Hammock is passionate about his or her work, but it’s equally amazing to see how intense we are about various personal passions away from the office. From coaching Little League to international travel to gourmet cooking to weight-training to backpacking, to a wide variety of church, school and community volunteer duties, our office is full of interesting people who are passionate about making the most of their time off. Recently I’ve noticed how what we learn while involved in these personal pursuits can elevate our professional lives, helping us problem-solve and look at our responsibilities in a fresh way.

Cursor_and_SmallBusiness_com___Small_business_information__insight_and_resources(On Rex Hammock’s RexBlog, a look at how we have developed the site SmallBusiness.com, and how we are using its lessons for other clients.)

We just flipped the switch on SmallBusiness.com’s first major technical and design upgrade since launching its daily-content Main Page section last November. (We call the new section, the “flow” side, to balance with the “know” side of the site, the 29,000 page SmallBusiness.com WIKI.)

The design changes are various, depending on what size screen you’re viewing it. However, the technical changes are all about increasing the speed of the site. And they worked. So long, little engine that could, but we know there are plenty of bugs that will show up.

(Continue reading on RexBlog.com)


[Hammock’s Current Idea Email was released today.
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Idea: Go for a Week Without Using the Word “Engagement”

The great American linguist Homer Simpson once observed about the term schadenfreude, “Boy, those Germans have a word for everything.”

Unfortunately, those of us who speak the language of marketing often do the opposite: We come up with a word that can mean everything. Rather than help us communicate, these multi-definition, ambiguous words often result in miscommunication. One current example is “engagement.” We marketers love the word so much, we use it throughout the day.