On our recent Internet outings, we stumbled across an article titled “Seven tips to make your business appear bigger.” Aside from the title being obvious link bait, it does contain solid advice from Fleur Madden and most of the tips are useful for very small startups (aside from six and seven, six being sorely misguided and seven could be condensed to “just lie”). ...

A while back, over at Co.EXIST, Heath Shackleford penned an interesting article highlighting the problems that many non-profits run into by focusing on design without focusing on the strategy behind that design. Of course, this extends to everyone, not just non-profits. The market is always crowded and you want to stand out. So you get your accounts manager’s teenage cousin to design a new logo for you. ...

The recent controversy around Rob Ford has damaged Toronto’s brand — so much so, it may take years for it to recover. But among all the drugs, alcohol, inappropriate remarks and lessons (Failures in Public Relations 101), a few other brands have been distancing themselves from Toronto’s chief. The Toronto Argonauts distanced itself from Ford after he made lewd remarks while wearing the team’s jersey, running counter to the organization’s anti-bullying work in the city. ...

“Keep it tight” is solid advice for, well, life. Specifically, it’s a good credo for writers (he wrote, considering ending the post there). Verbosity is bad, especially when it comes to your brand (unless your brand is The Corpulent Society of Grandiloquent Wordsmiths). It’s human nature to want to explain absolutely everything about your wonderful, awesome so-good-wait-until-you-hear-about-all-the-good-things-we-do brand. Enthusiasm is great, but curb it before your website’s landing page looks like an encyclopedia entry or your ads look like short stories (unless that’s your goal, which McDonald’s did to great effect in 2012). ...

Spend enough time reading blogs about writing, and you’ll inevitably come across a few (dozen) articles advocating the virtues of a few “hard and fast” grammar rules (like this one, from the always-great Ragan.com). The authors usually claim that “these are mistakes nearly everyone makes,” then tout them as nearly unforgivable errors, worthy of time in Dante’s ninth circle. Sure, some errors are obvious, embarrassing, and damaging to your brand, such as using the wrong “there.” Others are less so, like using “less than” when you really mean “fewer.” There are, however, many “errors” that are actually just matters of style. ...