How–and Why–to Use Descriptive Link Language

You’d think that people would know better by now than to use “Click here” for links. It’s not like they haven’t been told.

Tips on Handling Difficult People: Part 3

When dealing with a high-conflict situation, our own thinking might escalate into that territory as well so it is important to step back and analyze your options.

A More Perfect Union: PowerPoints and Training Materials

Good news: you do not have to be a full-time professional trainer to produce PowerPoints and training materials that coordinate well with one another. Here are a few tips that will help.

Own Your Media: 3 Reasons Everyone Needs a Blog

Blogs can instantly become the “hub” of your content strategy. Every story is easy to share and becomes a Facebook post, tweet or newsletter link that drives traffic back to your blog.

3 Steps to Agile Communications

By adapting your communication methods as you go along using an agile approach, you can make sure everyone is on the same page. Want to try agile communications at your agency or organization? Here are some steps to take.

Customers: Where Usability and Plain Language Intersect

The only way to test if content is usable or plain is to test it. It’s not the writer or editor–or the program manager–who determines whether content is plain or usable; it’s the user.

Snapchat for Government: The Basics

The White House wasn’t the first and certainly won’t be the last government agency to join Snapchat. What do agencies need to know about snapping about public service?

Bridging Cultural Divides with Multi-Lingual Websites

The global reach of the Internet makes it more imperative that communicators from every industry and organizations of all sizes create multi-lingual websites. Meeting your web audience in their language has never been more important. All aspects of translation and localization—from development and design to content creation and project management—are much more manageable these days. Translation Management Software (TMS) coupled with Content ManagementRead… Read more »

What Makes an Award-Winning Government Website

Successful government websites are consistent, accessible, and current. Surprisingly though, many sites lag far behind today’s communications standards, missing the most important goal: serve the public well.

FAQS: The Government Printing Office Style Manual

Writing clearly is hard enough without having to make gut-wrenching decisions about commas, spaces, hyphens, and quotation marks every few seconds. Thankfully, government writers have a sort of uniform code of conduct designed to make all government writing consistent. It’s called the Government Printing Office Style Manual, and it resolves many of the common, everyday… Read more »