In the past few months, I’ve had more than one client insist that I remove all contractions from the Web copy I’ve written for them.

I use contractions because I had read somewhere (long ago) that contractions make copy — especially Web copy — easier to read. Contractions make copy flow better, and they make copy sound natural.

After going through yet another project and removing contractions, I did a bit of research to determine why some clients were so adverse to them.

According to Jennifer Alvey at the Word Solutions blog, Baby Boomers and Gen Xers were trained to use contractions only in “casual” writing.

This makes sense to me. I’ve had more than one client over the years come back to me with, “My daughter in college proofread your copy and made the following changes . . . .”

The changes always entail rendering my zippy marketing copy into stuffy, dull, awkward prose that adheres to the rules of standard college English. UGH.

According Roy Jacobsen, in his article, “Contractions and How Not to Abuse Them,” eliminating contractions is a huge mistake for this very reason.

Jacobsen, quoting William Zinsser, author of Writing Well, gives a number of guidelines on when to use contractions. Bottom line: consider your audience, your tone and what you’re writing.

For us marketing types, using contractions is A-ok — especially because we’re usually compelling people to take some sort of action. As Zinsser points out, because we tend to skim content (especially online), we often miss the second word when a contraction is spelled out — i.e. we read “would not” as “would.”

Hence, contractions improve reader comprehension, which in turn increases conversions.

Well-written, grammatically correct copy never goes out of style. Formal academic English, however, has no place in marketing copy.

Do you agree or disagree? And, do you push back when clients ask that you remove contractions?

Edited to add that Copyblogger also has a great article relating to this topic: 7 Bad Writing Habits You Learned in School.

The founders of HubSpot, Inc., Brian Halligan and Dharmesh Shah, last week announced the publication of their new book, Inbound Marketing: Getting Found Using Google, Social Media and Blogs (Wiley).

Full disclosure: I edited this book, so this post isn’t a book review nor was I paid (or even asked) to write it.

. . .

The one reason I really like Inbound Marketing is because Brian and Dharmesh talk about viewing one’s Website as a city or hub. You can have a Website that’s a small town, like Bath, New Hampshire (pop: 893), which has one road in and out — like this:

Or, you can have a Website that’s New York City where all roads, trains, buses, and planes lead to it — like this:

Because a small town Website has only one road to it, it has little in the way of visitors.

A large city Website has hundreds of ways to visit due to links from blogs, industry portals, other Websites, social media, and search engines — hence it gets loads of traffic all day every day.

If you want your Website to be an asset, you must view it as a thriving metropolis, and as Brian stated at HubSpot’s book launch party on Friday, October 16, you have to use all of the tools currently available to encourage people to visit it.

The more roads or paths you create, the more traffic you drive to your site, and the more leads / conversions / sales you get.

That in a nutshell is the basis of inbound marketing (a term coined by Brian and Dharmesh).

Brian and Dharmesh wrote Inbound Marketing because they wanted to share what they’ve learned as the founders of HubSpot and why marketing is changing. In it you’ll find their explanation for why inbound marketing works, and why it’s really important that you “get” the concept of inbound, as well as hundreds of practical tips for creating your own inbound marketing hub.

Although I consider myself a fairly sophisticated Web marketer, I learned quite a bit while editing Inbound Marketing. The book is an easy and interesting read, it’s geared toward small business owners, and it’s full of “real world” case studies on companies, from Zappos.com to Whole Foods Market, using inbound marketing tactics to reach customers and prospects.

So be sure to pick up your copy of Inbound Marketing — and be sure to download HubSpot’s new e-book: Hiring in the DARC Ages: Are the Right People on Your Marketing Team?

The e-book is a chapter from the Inbound Marketing book and it’s really fabulous as Brian and Dharmesh explain how to hire people who understand social media and inbound marketing — and how to apply it. After reading it, I realized I bring far more value to my clients than I knew.

Brian and Dharmesh, thank you again for the opportunity to work with you, and congratulations on your book and business success.

You hear the bell tolling every day regarding the death of print . . .

People no longer read print newspapers or books — with both industries in serious decline.

Companies have ditched their printed marcom materials and have moved online to e-newsletters, blogs, and PDF documents.

Our mail boxes are empty as direct marketers pull back on printing catalogs and mailers due to the high production and mailing costs.

The print industry is reeling as printing companies shutter their businesses, newspapers file for bankruptcy, and the post office continues to raise postage costs to offset its revenue loss.

Yes, the print industry is dying . . . or is it?

I’ve been thinking about this question for a few weeks now, especially since I’m giving a presentation on social media at Margie Dana’s 4th Annual Print Buyers Conference.

Like most everyone else, I’ve calmly accepted the fact that yes, print communication as we know it *has* changed. And like many people, I do get much of my information online.

However, once I started really thinking about it, I realized the print industry isn’t dying . . . it’s really undergoing a huge (and yes, painful) shift.

And most important, many of us still need and purchase print services, it’s just that we have so many options today than we did before.

Take me and my business, for example. In the last three months alone I’ve needed the following items printed:

1. Mailers — I send out articles and such to my in-house list as a way of keeping in touch and need to have these mailers designed, printed, and mailed.

2. Postcards — One of my clients is holding an event and thus needed postcards designed and printed.

3. Letterhead — I moved my office and needed new business cards and letterhead printed.

4. Marketing collateral — One of my clients developed an e-book and wanted hard copies printed in order to hand them out at a tradeshow.

On top of that, I continue to purchase books, newspapers, magazines, and other printed material. I continue to receive catalogs and mailers in my own mailbox from vendors and those companies trying to attract my business.

And, everywhere I go, from the doctor’s office to the car dealership where I have my car serviced, I see and read printed material.

(Not to mention that my son has figured out that while I won’t buy him video games, I’ll easily drop $20 or $30 on books and magazines for him — something he takes advantage of on a regular basis.)

Yes, the print industry is changing . . . but it’s far from dead.

And that’s why it’s really important that if you deal in any way with print and/or order print services for your business (large or small), that you attend Margie Dana’s Print Buyers Conference November 3 – 5, 2009 in Westford, MA.

It’s at this conference that you’ll learn the new trends happening in the print industry and how to use them in your business . . . green printing (which is HUGE), the online content explosion and the opportunities available in print, the changing dynamics of ad agencies — and a whole lot more.

Margie (@margiedana) has pulled out all the stops for this conference. She’s brought in some really smart speakers and has developed sessions that focus on the change print is currently reeling from and how to deal with it (versus sitting around complaining about it).

Even better, she’s priced this conference to make it easy to attend — no matter what your budget.

So take a minute and mosey on over to her Print Buyers Conference Website, poke around, and if you like what you see, REGISTER TO ATTEND.

I think you’ll be glad you did.

Adding a forum to your Website is one way to build community within your industry. (For a good example of an industry forum, see Jill Whalen’s High Rankings Forum.)

As the forum owner, you learn what others in your industry are talking about and their day-to-day issues. You keep abreast of news and most importantly, you can answer people’s questions and thus show your expertise.

However, managing a forum can take a great deal of time, plus you have to consider the expense of getting one up and running. (Do-it-yourself forum packages exist, but if you’re not tech-savvy, you’ll most likely need help implementing one.) And, in the beginning, you’ll spend lots of time marketing your forum in order to get traffic to it.

It’s due to these “start-up” costs that I love LinkedIn’s Groups feature. A LinkedIn Group is basically a forum and best of all, anyone can start a Group in literally minutes and at little to no cost.

(You might have to pay a designer to develop your Group logo, or if you’re like HubSpot, who owns the popular Inbound Marketers Group, you might consider “advanced” Group marketing tactics such as developing an entire Website for your Group.)

As with a forum, managing a LinkedIn Group does take some time and know-how. I started the B2B Social Media Group in January 2009 and in the ensuing months have learned a few things. Here then my tips for would-be Group owners:

1. Set ground rules early on — Unfortunately, LinkedIn Groups have become rife with spam. If you want your Group to flourish, take a hard line on spam postings and don’t be afraid to use the “delete” function.

One rule I’ve set, which I did struggle with, is not letting people post links or news releases to events in the “Discussion” area of my Group. One, too many people were posting events that had no bearing on B2B social media, and two, I had started the Group because I and others wanted to learn more about social media. If the Discussion area was filled with news releases about upcoming webinars (typically promoted by marketing vendors), then were was the discussion?

Hence, I now delete all events if they’re posted in the Discussion area.

2. Don’t be an absentee owner — Judging from the comments on my own Group and visiting other Groups, many Group owners don’t monitor their Group on a regular basis. As a Group owner, it is your responsibility to start new discussions, add to existing discussions, and delete spam comments / posts as necessary.

Being an involved owner does take some time, so you’ll want to consider this aspect before starting a Group. You can promote Group members to “manager” status which allows them to delete spam posts/comments and post “featured” discussions as well as approve new members.

3. Get to know Group members — The whole reason to start a Group is to network, so it really pays to get to know your regular posters. Some nice things you can do is to thank people publicly for posting questions, send them messages through LinkedIn, follow them on Twitter, etc. You can then add them to your network as you get to know them better.

4. Keep self-promotion to a minimum — It’s my belief (and you may disagree) that as a Group owner you should keep your own self-promotion to a minimum. This means you don’t post press releases about your company’s new products or services or use your answers as thinly-disguised promo opportunities. If people want to get to know you or your company better, they can read your profile and contact you directly or visit your Website / blog.

5. Keep abreast of industry news — As the Group owner, it’s your responsibility to keep discussions moving and to post new discussion topics. This means that you’ll need to read industry publications and blogs and follow trends.

It also helps to encourage people to post their questions — no matter how “basic” they seem. Based on my anecdotal evidence, some people do join Groups because they want to learn something new.

Being the owner of a LinkedIn Group has been a real learning experience — and a fun one, too. Because I’ve derived so much value from it — and see its potential — it’s why I now recommend LinkedIn Groups to my clients — either as an industry resource or as a means to build community.

What are your thoughts about Groups? Have you started a Group and what has been your experience? Do you have additional tips to share?