• Be Clear – Clarity is key. As stated in Reaching Audiences by Jan Yopp, Katherine McAdams and Ryan Thornburg, listing requires writers to list the important facts and ideas for the copy, and drafting requires that the content make sense to your reader. Talk out your ideas, as it both listing and drafting help give the copy structure, style and clarity. You may also try providing real life examples to better convey your message to your reader.
• Be Concise – One of the biggest difficulties in engaging audiences is the information and media glut. People are so overwhelmed with information that their attention wanes.  It is critical to write with precision. If your reader is confused, then you’ve lost them and failed to convey your message. Simply make your point concisely and move on. Readers with taxing lifestyles and little time will appreciate it and take away more from your message.
• Be Compelling – Emotion is a connecting factor among human beings. When drafting a message, include personal anecdotes that are relatable and will make the audience have an emotional response. When you don’t have to be as concise, take your audience on a journey and tell a story so that they feel as if they can’t stop reading. If brevity is required, using strong rhetoric can also help make the copy more engaging.

It’s as simple as that. Next time you’re composing a message, be sure that you know what the point is, that you make your point succinctly and that you make the message relatable and emotionally gripping.

Scenario: You have a five page proposal to prepare for your company due at the end of next business week, and three days have already passed since you received the appointment. At this time, you worry that you will not complete the task, but still seem to convince yourself that you can put it off one more day, struggling to find the right motivation. How can you tackle your procrastination?

First, visualize the end result and get excited about it! In other words, picture the weight off your shoulders when you print the proposal. Imagine the smell of freshly printed paper and the smile on your boss’s face when you turn in the assignment. It seems menial, but it does work. If you can  visualize and anticipate the end goal, the task becomes interesting and the motivation increases.

Second, employ the Zeigarnik effect,  named after Russian Psychologist, Bluma Zeigarnik. According to an article in PSYBLOG, the Zeigarnik effect tackles procrastination by encouraging victims to just start somewhere, anywhere. In the case of the above scenario, try drafting an outline on the main points in the proposal, or try typing the first couple of sentences. Often the hardest part of a project  is taking the initial step – once that is over it is much easier to get on a roll and ride it all the way out.

Third, set daily goals. If you cannot hold yourself accountable, have a co-worker or public calendar keep you accountable. I find the latter choice more desirable since everyone else also has their own “stuff” going on. If you publicly display goals on  a calendar with a box to check next to it (), you will be more compelled to complete the task. This makes the task be visible to everyone else so that you will feel accountable for completing that day’s portion of the proposal. Furthermore, it also will give you a sense of accomplishment once you can check the box. This will definitely motivate you – I know it works for me.

Happy exterminating the pesky procrastination bug!

In the past year, an increasing number of companies have used social media as one of the ways to effectively deal with a crisis. This is because social media allows a company to communicate with its publics immediately – engaging in crisis communication the minute a crisis occurs.

As you may know, social media can be a beneficial, yet risky, platform for engaging with your audience in general – let alone a crisis situation. However, we are always concerned with maintaining a good brand and public image – therefore – the various ways to employ social media during a crisis are worth exploring.

The ups and downs:

(1) Any information that is pushed to the web stays on the web – it is permanent. A year or two after a crisis, potential customers and partners are still able to access any information/conversations about the crisis. It may appear in a search query without them even looking for it, and the more you respond to a crisis using social media, the more a crisis will become widely circulated information. However, even if you do not choose to respond to a crisis using social media, the incident will still be talked about by others via social media. It is better to respond and be a part of this conversation; otherwise, it looks like you are ignoring your publics.

(2) Social media allows you to measure the impact of a crisis in great detail. Platforms such as blogs, Twitter and industry forums provide users with analytics to track the amount of traffic around a certain conversation. It is a more indepth look into how publics are responding to and talking about your crisis. This allows companies to address a greater number of audience members than they would be able to if they were just to hold a press conference about the crisis situation.

(3) In a crisis situation, the public will most certainly look to your company for an immediate response – social media allows you to do this. However, social media is an uncontrolled environment to communicate in – you have to be ready for anything that could be thrown at you.

So, if you are thinking about using social media, keep in mind its benefits and downfalls for crisis communication. This will help you since effective crisis communication is a major component of running a smooth business operation.

Already using social media? Avoid social media traps when a crisis occurs by keeping up with your monitoring and always clearly communicating with your publics.

For example, the names of products and services offered by your company will most likely not be in the AP style guide, but you will want to make sure that it is branded the same way throughout your company, including how it is spelled and what is capitalized. For argument’s sake, let’s say your company offers Awesome Product A, but in your collateral it is referred to as AWESOME PRODUCT A, awesome product a and Awesome product A. You will want to set a style guideline so that all collateral will be uniform in the way Awesome Product A is referenced.

Another important item to include in the style guide are words or phrases that should be used to describe your products and services as well as those words or phrases that should NEVER be used to reference your product. Why might this be important to your brand? Let’s say your main competitor always uses “word B” in the description of its product – so much so that their brand has become associated with this word. You will want to avoid using this word in your branding materials, so as to differentiate yourself from your competitor. In much the same way, you will want to have your own “branded words” that you can use to describe your products or services. This way, potential prospects and customers will begin to associate those words with you.

In your company style guide, you might also want to get specific as to the format in which your collateral will be presented. For example, maybe you always organize your press releases a certain way. This makes it easier for reporters following your company to find the information they need quickly and easily. Maybe you use the same background template for all of your PowerPoint presentations. This kind of uniformity gives your brand a sense of solidity and organization.

Finally, your messaging should be consistent. Every news release, every brochure and every marketing slick should all promote a unified message. This message can, and maybe should, change over time as your company grows and expands, but it is important that all collateral deliver a core message. Otherwise you could be sending conflicting messages to your publics.

In creating your company’s style guide, you may find that there are many items that you would like to include.  Hopefully the above ideas will give you a good starting point from which you can start documenting your company’s unique style.

For a fraction of the cost of advertisements, a public relations campaign can help your company gain recognition and clout within your industry. Like any business plan, implementing a PR plan is not something that is implemented one day and shows results in a week or a month. For a PR plan to be effective it needs time, at least 6 months. So as we look into the brighter future of 2010 and 2011, it is time to start thinking about where you want your company to be positioned in the impending bull economy.

Your company will show strength and resilience by emerging from this recession as an industry leader, and PR will help you achieve that position within your industry.

1. Pitch stories in emails – 90 percent of reporters have said that they would prefer to receive pitches via email. Make sure the content is short and to the point. Use bullets to accentuate the key ideas or points in the story. Ensure that your subject line is captivating in order to grab the reporter’s attention right away.
2. Make a website posting – Use a blog post as a way to pitch your ideas on your client’s forum, if one is present. Make sure to use engaging storytelling language instead of posting a conventional press release. You never know who is reading.
3. Send a Tweet – Ideally, send your pitch in a direct message. The character limit actually works to your benefit as it makes you cut out the excess fluff and send the meat of the story or the hook.
4. Send a Facebook Message – Request to be friends with local reporters in the area and send them a brief message with your story. You’ll be surprised at how many journalists are interested in an attention-grabbing local story.
5. Pick up the phone – Sometimes it is best to just carry the conversation over the telephone. You’re able to better pitch your story and be more engaging.
6. Offer to meet a reporter for coffee if you’re in the same vicinity – You never know when a journalist is looking to get out of the newsroom. This could be a great chance to effectively sell your pitch.

Some of these alternatives may work in your best interest and elicit positive feedback from journalists. Give them a shot!

Information is priceless and many will welcome your advice – especially when it is free, so make sure you’re providing useful information within your blog that your audience will be inclined to follow.  Keeping your audience interested can be tricky, so make sure you don’t fall into a pattern of writing what’s easy.  Do some research and see what captivates and excites your audience.

Relate to your audience.  You can certainly be friendly while maintaining a level of professionalism.  And remember there’s nothing wrong with a sense of humor.  When tasteful, a little light-hearted laugh or two can draw in your audience, helping them to relate to you on a more personal level.  Simply put, people like personable people.  Say that ten times fast.

Analyze your blog’s traffic to measure the size of your audience.  Most sites provide some sort of statistics or analytics.  This can help you figure out what drives people to your site, what keeps them there and when.  Google provides free analytics, so there is really no excuse not to monitor your site traffic and be informed.

Advertisements are another thing to consider when blogging.  Although ads have their place, it is not within your blog.  This is considered poor blogging manners.  Blogs are not meant to serve as personalized ad space – so don’t spam followers with catchy information about your company/product.  They ARE meant to provide people with helpful tips and updates on your company when relevant.

Monitor your blog account closely and the e-mail with which it corresponds.  Beware of any negative comments or anything inappropriate that would need immediate attention.  Respond to questions in a timely manner and your audience will come to appreciate you even more.  If you listen to your audience’s feedback, your company can benefit and will be able to grow and improve, building a loyal audience along the way.

In addition to putting the most important information about your company or content in your blog first, you should also consider following these 15 tips for improving how your site is viewed by visitors.

How to gain more attention to your site:

• Add text. Text draws more attention than pictures.
• Remember that people read from left to right, so viewers will start looking at the webpage from the top left corner; important information should be placed here.
• Readers tend to scan the lower portion of the webpage. Place the less interesting and less important context there so it will be scanned at the bottom.
• Stick to short paragraphs or lists to keep readers interested.
• Ads should be placed in the top left corner or inside or below strong content.
• If you include pictures, use big pictures because they grab more attention than small ones.
• Headlines pull viewers in.
• Menu buttons should be placed at the top of the page because viewers pay more attention to the menus than anything else.
• White space is your friend.
• What not to do
  • Try not to use banners, most of the time they get ignored.
  • Don’t use “fancy fonts.” Edwardian script is hard to read! Stick with the normal Times New Roman.
  • People don’t care for large portions of text. Do you want sit at your computer to read a novel on a webpage?

When going to update your webpage, blog or add new content to your page, make sure to keep these tips in mind in order to gain more readership and make your webpage stand out above the rest.

1. Remove redundancy – Avoid statements such as “late Monday night.” It’s already nighttime, so the reader probably is aware that it is late. The same rule applies with the unnecessary statements, “end result” and “free gift.”
2. Reduce phrases to words – Modifying phrases, descriptive phrases and extraneous phrases can all be reduced with adverbs and adjectives.
3. Omit gratuitous intensifiers and qualifiers – Unless an adjective or adverb is explained, omit using words such as “extremely” in examples like this: “I was extremely taken aback.”
4. Expunge expletives – Do not use passive speech. “There are” and “there is” are weak ways to start sentences.
5. Negative nominalizations – This is when a single verb can be used in a sentence instead of using it as a noun. Rather than saying, “The report gave an analysis of the accident,” just say, “The report analyzed the accident.”
6. Delete superfluous phrases – Omit meaningless phrases such as “in the event of.” They’re not necessary and will make your writing more succinct.
7. Avoid clichés – Well-known phrases do nothing for your writing besides add to the word count.
8. Eschew euphemisms – Try to avoid phrases that disguise the meaning or concept of the language, unless done out of respect. For instance, “collateral damage” should be explained further but when discussing human disabilities, euphemisms are respectable.

Cutting out the unnecessary will make your copy flow more smoothly and makes it easier for your reader to comprehend and retain  the information. Give it a try!

PR Daily