Maximus Jobs is a small company in Ohio that matches up employers and job-seekers. I did a bit of work for them some time ago, and worked with someone else to submit a proposal to handle their online advertising.

I seldom talk about specific clients in this blog, but I can’t help myself this time because it’s such a pitch-perfect example of something I’ve been talking about forever–that even though everyone thinks they can write because, well, everyone does write to some degree or another, that does not at all mean that everyone can be a professional copywriter.

It’s pretty much the same point that I ranted about back in February with regard to Constant Contact and email marketing.

Anyway, so Maximus wanted to handle their own advertising, which included ads on Facebook. They felt it wasn’t worth hiring a professional to write online ads and manage their online communications for them.

So the other day, I see the post you see above on the Maximus Facebook page. Bravo, Sue Loparo.

Look, if you’re going to handle your own advertising, at the very least make sure all the words are spelled correctly, okay?

Sue’s post speaks to a far greater issue: How many other people saw the Maximus ad and said, “these guys do not have their act together, why would I even consider getting involved with them?” How much damage was done to their company as the result of a shabby Facebook ad?

I’m sure somewhere in the Maximus office, someone is asking, “Why aren’t our Facebook ads doing better than they are?” It’s probably the same person who wrote the ad.

Which is precisely why it’s sometimes best to leave online marketing and communications to the online marketing and communications professionals.

Just sayin’.

Last week I pointed you to a veritable cornucopia of social media predictions for 2012. Let’s see what the crystal ball has in store for marketing in general:

iMedia Connection has 7 digital marketing predictions for 2012. “Adapt or die” is part of the first one, so I’m not sure whether these qualify as predictions or alarmist notifications that the sky is falling.

eM+C has a half-dozen predictions for email marketing in the year ahead. That more email will be sent, and that subscribers will demand more respect for their privacy, seem like no-brainers, iffin’ you ask me.

Abnormal Marketing (love the name) delivers something of a roundup of predictions from other blogs, and — heeeeyyyyyyy, wait a minute.

Emily Riley’s blog on Forrester has a bunch of predictions and declares 2012 the year of the social-mobile customer, which I suppose means that 2012 will be much like 2011.

Agent Media has a dozen thoughts about the coming year, noting that “customers and employees will become an extended part of companies’ marketing teams,” which I suppose means that 2012 will be much like 2010 … and 2009 … and 2008 …

Dreamgrow has 21 social media marketing trends for 2012. I don’t know how I missed this one in last week’s roundup, but when you throw that much spaghetti against the wall, I suppose some of it’s bound to stick.

Well, those ought to keep you busy for a while. If you happen to have an extra dose of holiday energy, why not take a closer look at all those predictions for 2011 and see who got it right and who didn’t … or who just threw out a bunch of buzzwords that resulted in a bunch of non-prediction predictions.

I don’t know that they’re necessarily “fascinating,” as HubSpot characterizes them, but the company has assembled seven data-packed Black Friday infographics on their blog. The one factoid missing from all of these: How many arrests and injuries are to be expected as Black Friday manics do things like use pepper spray against other shoppers in an effort to save a few bucks.

Okay, well, not November … September, actually, is when I begin see holiday items in the stores. Christmas creep is profoundly infuriating. But today, three days before Black Friday, I received two emails with the following subject lines:

Subject: Black Friday starts today! Reveal your exclusive Mystery eCoupon savings now!

Subject: Black Friday Starts Now – Shop Unique Gifts for Everyone

Bite me, marketers.

That Black Friday is a cancer on the American soul is bad enough, but you’re going to try and extend Black Friday into the rest of the week? Really?

Bite me twice.

Takeaway for marketers: Ask yourselves: Are you providing something of real value to customers, or are you just pissing them/us off?

There’s a new search results option in Google, though you probably don’t know about it. It’s called Verbatim, and as Search Engine Watch explains, it’s “a tool that explicitly searches for exactly and only your search term. This verbatim search removes personalized, corrected, suggested, related, and non-inclusive results.”

eWeek reported about this, too, as did Wired News and Web Pro News and a ton of others. What’s most interesting about Verbatim, I think, is that if the broad mass of Google users really caught on to it and understood how it worked and affected searches, it could have some pretty significant effects on pay-per-click programs.

As a comment on the Search Engine Watch article notes: “This tool will help advertisers that don’t use specialists techniques on PPC to reduce wasted advertising spend. Websites will rank more effectively through their SEO strategies as well because the specific keywords have been targeted.”

As with so many things in the wonderful world of web marketing, one tiny change can lead to far larger implications. Stay tuned.