I’ve considered writing about this subject for some time. What pushed me over the edge was seeing Powerpoint presentations in which small blocks of copy whose left-and-right justified margins made them nearly indecipherable.

I know, it’s so tempting to click that  button. It makes everything neat and square. It feels like you’ve actually DONE something to your copy, instead of taking the path of least resistance and letting that raggedly old right margin hang out there all untidy.

Graphic designers may use fully justified copy for aesthetic reasons. (They’re professional drivers on a closed course. Don’t try this at home.)  As you’ll read here, justification can work in documents with lines of copy longer than 40 characters, but this site and others advise you not to justify copy on the Web. I’ll go a step further and encourage you not to do it anywhere.

In left-justified copy, the ragged right edge gives the reader subtle clues about what’s ahead. It reduces hyphenation. Like Raylen Givens, the lead character in the TV series, it has a certain spontaneity that is altogether likable.

“What would you do with an employee in your sales, public relations, marketing or advertising department who, on a daily basis, damages your company’s image by misrepresenting its goals and mission through misguided communication?” asks Mike Brian, partner at Salt Lake City-based Penna Power Brian Haynes.  Brian’s white paper suggests that you create a job description for your website and conduct a regular performance evaluation.

This just in via LinkedIn and the Ragan’s PR Daily blog:  The AP Stylebook says that writers should not double space after a period. Good thing I was sitting down, because I felt a ripple in the time-space continuum when I read that.

When you have a redirect virus, every time you click on a search engine result you’ll get sent to another, irrelevant page.  I had one on my previous computer and it was a miserable experience.  Because I use the Chrome browser, I was able to work around the virus by choosing “open link in a new tab” instead of just clicking on it.  In Internet Explorer, though, even “open in a new tab” took me instead to a redirected page.  These viruses are hideously difficult to get rid of.  One of my favorite Web information sources, Komando.com, has posted this extensive article on how to get rid of a redirect virus.  (This despite how I deplore Komando’s practice of spreading long articles over multiple pages to generate links and ad views.)

According to this article in Mashable, StumbleUpon has 12 million users compared to Facebook’s 750 million, but it generates 50.27% of all referral traffic from the top 10 social sites.  (I found this link in the useful enewsletter published by Lori Williams at Your Legal Resource.  Thanks, Lori!)

 I recently judged marketing materials – print and digital — in a Michigan Economic Developers Association competition.  They encouraged the panel of judges to provide constructive comments.  Following are my most frequent suggestions for print publications:

•  Spend money on a good graphic designer
• Focus; be strategic.  A document that strives to be all things to all people is frequently nothing to anyone.
• Have a professional edit your copy.  (There are rules about capitalization.  Obey them.)
• Use testimonials
• Use a couple of strong photos instead of a lot of little ones and use pictures of people.
• Show your character.  Don’t be afraid to be colorful or quirky.

Two economic development websites caught my eye.  The top-level navigation on the Detroit Economic Growth Corporation’s site is designed to speak to their likeliest or most desirable customers.  On each of those main pages, the right-hand navigation is customized to that subject.

I know that the Eastpointe DDA didn’t go through an extensive or expensive branding process, yet its website looks like what Eastpointe IS.  The site is rich in social media, even Foursquare and Gowalla, and makes clever use of free web technologies, like a customized Google map.

For our client The First Tee of Southeast Michigan, we combined traditional media relations with a social media strategy. The First Tee teaches children nine core values, within the framework of the game of golf We asked TV, radio and print media personalities to come to one of the The First Tee’s classes and talk about how one or more of the nine core values shaped their lives. While we’d have been happy if they mentioned the program, we knew we could generate social media mentions, as parents snapped photos and shared them. Fox Sports’ Trevor Thomspon spoke to a class, as did Lisa Grou, who wrote about the program on her blog, as seen here:

Clipped from: oaklandcountymoms.com (share this clip)

Managing your presence on the Internet is like playing in the NFL:  You have to have a good offense AND a good defense.  Reputation.com offers 10 dos and don’ts for managing your reputation online.  Their guidelines are consistent with this April 27 item here on my site.

Put three or more smartphone users together and within minutes they’re comparing apps.  That observation inspired me to lead an App Swap session at the recent Orgpro conference.  Here’s a list of some of the apps I use.  Comment on this post to suggest your own!

• When I turn off the ringer on my phone, I often forget to turn it back on again.  Shush will turn it on after a specified period of time
• What happens if your phone is lost or stolen?  With Wave secure you can shut it off, wipe out all the data or, if it has GPS, locate it.  Lookout performs similarly.
• I’m not quite ready to store my music on the Cloud, or to use up broadband listening.  I store my music on my desktop and sync it with my smartphone using Doubletwist.
• Listen to 50,000 radio stations free with Tune in radio
• The standard Android calendar doesn’t have a traditional calendar view.  That’s why I use Jorte instead.
• Amazon Kindle – Not quite sure how this happened but, in all my school years, I never read any Russian literature.  I’m rectifying that by reading Anna Karenina.  Using the Amazon Kindle app.  It is surprisingly easy to use.  (And who knew that Anna Karenina is just a big old soap opera?)
• There are several apps that turn your camera’s flash LED into a flashlight
• Golfers:  While it doesn’t beat a full-featured golf GPS device, the free Skydroid app gives accurate distances to the front, center and back of the green