Lessons for Communicators from Nelson Mandela

Nelson Mandela, who died on Thursday, is being remembered  for a life tirelessly dedicated to

freedom and justice. As the leader of a movement that brought down apartheid in South Africa, Mandela has inspired millions around the world with his actions and his words. We’re sharing some of his notable quotes here that we thought would resonate with PR communicators.
“It is never my custom to use words lightly. If twenty-seven years in prison have done anything to us, it was to use the silence of solitude to make us understand how precious words are and how real speech is in its impact on the way people live and die.”
"If you want to make peace with your enemy, you have to work with your enemy. Then he becomes your partner."
“Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.”
"Everyone can rise above their circumstances and achieve success if they are dedicated to and passionate about what they do."
“If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart.”
“It always seems impossible until it is done.”
"I like friends who have independent minds because they tend to make you see problems from all angles."
“When people are determined they can overcome anything.”

Social Media Expert Job Among 9 Others That May Not Exist 10 Years From Now: Study

Today, social media websites, such as Twitter (NYSE:TWTR), Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) and Instagram play a significant role in marketing a company’s products and services, leading many companies to hire specialists to manage marketing outreach on such websites.

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All of that's going to change, a new study says, and positions exclusively devoted to feeding the social media beasts will be a thing of the past. According to a study by Workopolis, while a social media expert could be a major contributor in generating revenues for a company these days, the position will be extinct within the next 10 years.
“Soon a generation of young professionals who’ve grown up with Twitter and Facebook as part of their daily lives will be entering the job market,” the study said. “With this glut of savvy young online communicators looking for work, social media skills will just become expected communication competencies, like reading and writing, rather than unique areas of expertise.”
The study suggested that today’s generation is so engrossed in social media that employers will not consider proficiency in the field as a stand-out qualification. 

Content Is King, But Distribution Is Queen And She Wears The Pants

The title of this article is a direct quote from Jonathan Perelman of BuzzFeed and was featured in Ryan Skinner’s article, “Great Content Is Not Enough,” on the Forrester blog. The article features takeaways from Ryan’s most recent Forrester report called “Put Distribution at the Heart of Content Marketing.” The report is a great read for today’s marketing and public relations professionals and explains why only 36 percent of marketers who use content feel they use it effectively.
The False Debate
This year has seen many thought leaders chime in on the quantity versus quality content argument. Marketers are trying to find the right balance. The more time they spend on quality, the less time they have for production. Seems like a fair concern, right?
Here’s the problem: 64 percent of content marketers feel they don’t use content effectively. That represents a whole lot of campaigns. It’s likely that some of them are focusing on quality while others are primarily focused on quantity. Neither approach guarantees results. However, the end goal is the same: publishing great content that gets shared on social media and ranks high in the search engines.
The amount of content being published online is growing exponentially and content marketers are partially to blame. In June of 2000, there were fewer than eight million websites. Today that number is greater than 750 million, according to Netcraft.com, and shows no signs of slowing down. This means that it will be harder and harder for marketers to cut through the noise in order to get their content read. Great content goes unread everyday on the Internet.
Google is helping to fuel this debate, too. With its Panda, Penguin and Hummingbird algorithm updates and the “Freshness” indexing update to Caffeine, Google is essentially telling marketers to publish as much content as possible and to make sure it’s extremely helpful to the people that read it if they want to do well on the search engine.
Unfortunately, the debate itself blinds content marketers to why their campaigns are performing poorly. Some may add another layer of editing and/or ideation in an attempt to boost the quality of their campaigns. Others may decide to ramp up production to get the results they’re lacking. Neither of the two tackles the real problem—lack of a distribution strategy.
The Right Debate
Rather than trying to produce more or better content, marketers should focus on their distribution plans. It should be part of their overall strategy. However, it’s likely just an afterthought for most of the 64 percent of marketers who feel they’re not using their content effectively. So rather than debating quality versus quantity, marketers should be debating on how much to spend on promotion.
Here are a few remarkable findings featured in Ryan Skinner’s article:

• Brands can actually step down content production and step up distribution to get better results.
• An ecosystem of vendors have cropped up to help marketers drive distribution of branded content.
• The most effective promotions often come from doubling-down on past successes.
• Better distribution improves content’s quality, as the feedback cycle accelerates.

By focusing on distribution using paid and earned channels, content marketers can hasten their traffic, conversions, subscribership and regular readership.
Paid Content Distribution
There are many services available to help marketers with their content distribution endeavors. Companies like Outbrain, Adblade, aNEWSme and OneSpot are all paid services that distribute content in a native or advertorial manner. These services can place a company’s content in front of millions of eyeballs.
Earned Content Distribution
Content marketers can take a page from traditional public relations by reaching out to the media in order to earn coverage which will assist with distribution. This article itself is earned media for Forrester’s blog post and report.
By proactively reaching out and pitching influencers, editors and journalists, marketers can get their content organically featured in some of the most populous corners of the Internet. This one example shows how earned media coverage from one popular online media outlet drove over 1,200 business leads in just a few weeks. The Inbound Marketer’s Guide to Earned Media takes a deep dive into how to use the media to help with content promotion.
If 2013 is the year of content marketing, let’s hope that 2014 will be the year of content promotion. Too many marketers are forgetting about promotion; instead, they believe the answers to their content marketing woes are to produce more and better content. As mentioned above, everyday great content goes unread. Without a promotion strategy like the ones previously described, the vast majority of content being created and published by the brands across this country will continue to go unread.

Read more at http://www.business2community.com/content-marketing/content-king-distribution-queen-wears-pants-0658507#Uzm1V538PO1P2K1C.99

4 Reasons Why Communicators Need to Make the Leap to Visual Storytelling

In case you were putting off building your skills as a visual communicator, consider this: Content

featuring compelling images averages 94% more total views than those without, according to a 2013 study from agency MDG Advertising.
To get the views and social shares, though, your content has to be on the right side of the content continuum, closer to user goals and further away from your own business objectives, according to Becca Colbaugh, senior director, digital content, for agency Saxum. But thinking about the quality and usefulness of visual content is just the second step in the process. The first is selling yourself and your senior leaders on the power of visuals.
Colbaugh, who'll be leading PR News' Visual Storytelling Workshop in New York on Nov. 5, offers several reasons why communicators ought to translate their messaging to visual forms, and what those forms ought to take:

• With recent studies showing that consumers are exposed to an overwhelming 5,000 brand messages a day, visual content is an absolute PR/marketing must.
• The days of traditional advertising and messaging are long gone — it's now all about holistic storytelling. This is how brands will connect with audiences most effectively, as consumers continue to demand authentic and quality visual content.
• Technology has radically shaped the way we communicate. Beyond being constantly connected, high-resolution screens create a need for high-fidelity visual content, which must be accounted for by communications teams and agencies.
• Distribution strategy is just important as high-fidelity visual content—micro-targeting techniques are critical to ensuring your visual content gets in front of the right audiences.
• Visual content includes everything from graphic design, illustrations, GIFs, motion graphics, interactive data visualizations, snackable graphics, live event installations and more. The possibilities are endless.

How To Pitch To The Press: The 8 No-Fail Strategies

In my day job I’m an entrepreneur, as the founder of a leading PR strategy agency, Snapp Conner PR. But I’m also a frequent speaker on communications and business topics, and as a Forbes contributor, a writer and journalist as well.
Last week I moderated a panel for the Money2020 trade show in Las Vegas. Here’s where things turned interesting. In the final month before the show, somehow my name made its way onto the list of press attendees



What an eye opener.
I received hundreds of emails. Scores of calls came to our agency. Some even found their way to my cell. Public relations people throughout the U.S. were all being paid by their employers and clients to tout their news to the press and to score commitments for appointments during the show.
First it was funny. Then it was sad. Lengthy pitches. Friendly pitches. Form pitches. Some of the same individuals pitched me again and again. All of this in spite of the fact I was in and out of Las Vegas in a matter of hours and the subjects I cover as a Forbes contributor have no applicability to the things the majority of these poor souls were promoting.
If I were to estimate the salaries and billable hours of the fervent pitches to me alone the cost would amount to tens of thousands of dollars. Multiplied by the hundreds of other reporters who attended this show, the sum exhibitors paid to ply the press likely amounted to a million dollars or more, largely wasted.
Do you know how many pitches I responded to? One. It was one of the shortest pitches of the hundreds I received, but it got straight to the point. The PR person addressed me by name (and even spelled it correctly!)  Far more importantly, she had tied the idea she was presenting into not one but two of the articles I’d recently written to suggest how the spokesperson and topic would tie into a great future story for me that would build in a meaningful way upon the things I’d already done.
She quickly highlighted the high points of the company’s recent achievements and news. And she suggested a reasonable and convenient way we could follow up together. No pushiness. No form letter. No guile. But it was clear she had done her homework to provide a useful idea that was intended entirely for me.
I wrote back that she had won the jackpot. Out of sheer respect for the time she had taken (probably 20-30 minutes or less) to create a pitch I could actually use, I would find a way to do the interview and create a story. (She responded back that she was so excited she was strongly considering tattooing my message onto her wrist, a la Angelina Jolie.)
What makes the difference between an effective pitch to the press and the hundreds and thousands that find their way into the trash? I am especially interested in this topic since my team is a PR agency ourselves. I also note the words of entrepreneurs like Contributor Jason Nazar, who noted in one of his recent columns that he had originally outsourced his company’s work in social media and PR, with bad outcome, and as a result had taken it back on by himself. And as far as I can tell, he’s met with outstanding success.
Can you pitch the press successfully? Does it always require an agent or an agency? What are the secrets successful entrepreneurs (and successful PR people) know? Pitching the press may be easier than you think. Here are a few golden rules:

1. Choose a target. And make sure the target will actually fit. For example, thousands of companies through the years have attempted to pitch Walt Mossberg on writing about products such as network traffic management tools. Yet he specializes in covering products consumers would use. A good fit? Not at all.
2. Read the writer’s prior articles. Thoroughly. Read them with an eye for their interests, their themes, and the way your idea would help extend their subject matter further. (Not “I see you wrote about XX, so how about you write about it again?”) When you make your pitch, let the writer know how and where your idea might fit. Think through the idea through the reporter’s eyes—how will this piece be of interest and need to the reader? How will it meet the criteria the publication and the writer’s section and assignments must meet?
3. Pitch a story—don’t pitch your company. Believe it or not, your company and product, by themselves, are not an interesting topic. But as part of a broader story or an example of a pervasive need or a message—now they can shine. Think of what that story might be and imagine what it might look like in the hands of the reporter you’ve chosen. From that point of view, prepare your pitch. Make your pitch by email first. Let it gel for at least an afternoon, or preferably for a day. If the idea is a good one, the reporter may respond right away. If you don’t hear back, perhaps the next step is a call. When you call, refer to the earlier message. Regardless of whether the reporter has seen it or not, re-forward as a courtesy as you are talking to allow the individual to scan the high points of the message and preliminarily respond.
4. Be respectful of the reporter’s right to make the decision. As tempting as it is to ply the reporter with a strong armed pitch, you will be more successful by respecting the reporter’s right to say yes or no, while providing them with as many meaningful reasons as possible to have the desire to say yes. Is the story an exclusive? An idea or a slant that hasn’t been offered to anybody else? Will it be of broad need and interest to the reporter’s readers or viewers, and does it give them strong news or an angle on the information that hasn’t been presented before? All of these ideas will help.
5. When you speak to the reporter, get straight to the point. The whole idea of buttering a reporter up to the topic you called for is a bad one. Clearly you phoned because you wanted something. With the first words out of your mouth, let them know what it is, and what your reasons are for thinking it’s a good idea. If it’s yes, follow through quickly with the next steps. If not, why not? For another person or with another approach could it be a better idea? With the business of the call handled, you can then visit with the reporter for a bit and catch up if they have the time and the willingness. And at that point, they’ll know the personal interest is sincere.
6. Be honest and transparent about your desire for the interview or the meeting. For example, I was extremely annoyed to get an urgent message from a vendor needing my next available time to discuss their public relations only to find out their one and only reason for the appointment was to give me a demonstration of a product they were hoping I would cover for Forbes. And it was a product that didn’t fit my area of coverage, at that. The executives wasted an hour and a half of their time and mine. Not only will they not see coverage, but the company they represent will  now find it highly difficult to get a return appointment with me when they genuinely do want to meet to discuss their PR.
7. If you can’t reach the reporter, avoid the temptation to call repeatedly. Listen to the reporter’s voice mail—it will often provide you with clues. For example, the reporter may be on vacation this week—out sick—moved to another beat (or even another publication) or may be so adamantly opposed to voice messages that you should be aware the message will likely never be heard (or may even offend them). If you do leave a message, one message in a day is ample. If the reporter has left a cell number on the message, refrain from using it unless the matter is genuinely urgent. They’ll appreciate the courtesy you use in reaching out in the ways they most like to be contacted.
8. Consider the strengths of Twitter. Twitter can often be a clue as to where the reporter is and what they are doing on that day. For example, if they Tweet they just arrived at the Oracle ORCL +0.82% World trade show, it’s no wonder they didn’t answer the office phone. Now you know. Time your next call for after the event. Also, many reporters will respond to direct messages through Twitter faster than any other mechanism. Use that advantage, when you can take it, with skill.

There is more to effective PR by far than the initial pitch, of course. But for now, bear in mind that in the hundreds of pitches I received from professional PR folks in the space of just a couple of weeks, only one of those pitches met these eight criteria well. When you see me write about mobile payment methods for entrepreneurs within the next several weeks, you will know the reason I chose the topic and story.
So the next time you feel the urge to send a mass PR pitch or to hire an agency to do so, save your money and save your breath. If you follow these principles effectively you may even be able to accomplish some or all of your great public relations yourself. Then, when you have that great pitch and idea prepared, feel free to send me a message or give me a call. I’ll be waiting.

Why Agencies and Brands Need to Embrace True Storytelling

To build on the opportunities that today’s hyperconnected and social consumer as well as new distribution platforms offer, agencies and brands need to move away from thinking about branded content and embrace true storytelling.

The difference? Stories rely on the intended audience to develop their own imagery and detail to complete and, most importantly, to co-create, whereas content does not. Content is primarily created in the internal mind of the content originator, with no heed to the mind or to the context of the audience.

The truly great storytellers have long embraced the fact that the most powerful stories happen in the mind of the audience, making each and every story unique and personal for the individual. They also understand that stories are important because they are inherent to the human experience. Stories are how we pass on our accumulated wisdom, beliefs and values. They are the process through which we describe and explain the world around us, and our role and purpose in it. Audiences have always known this and asked for stories—they’ve never asked for content.

As the German literary scholar Wolfgang Iser noted: “No tale can ever be told in its entirety.” His reader-response theory “recognizes the reader as an active agent who imparts ‘real existence’ to the work and completes its meaning through interpretation.”

It is this acceptance of the concept that we cannot—nor should we try to—tell any story in its entirety, and the subsequent embrace of the mind of the audience in co-creating our story that is the vital step we need to make if we are to truly resonate emotionally with our audience.

But why does it really matter?

There is little hesitation in knowing we operate in a cultural and technological world where consumers know everything about a brand, from who owns it to where and how products are manufactured and sold. As a result of this, companies are now evaluated by much more than their products. We are in a world where a brand’s values and the emotions they evoke are narrative material.

This presents marketers with an amazing opportunity, as the most powerful way to persuade someone of your idea is by uniting the idea with an emotion. It’s indisputable that the best way to do that is by telling a compelling story.

But we need to recognize that it demands insight and skill to present an idea that packs enough emotional power.

A couple of examples—one old and one new—of great storytelling. The legendary Steve Frankfurt, who is credited with creating the tagline “In space no one can hear you scream” for the 1979 movie Alien, clearly understood the role of co-creation in telling stories. This line created a world for the imagination to populate. It allowed the audience to put themselves in the story and co-create its own sense of claustrophobia, fear and isolation. It was simple and comprehensible yet gave clear direction and meaning. It perfectly captured the idea of the brand (or in this case, movie), teasing us as to what the film would deliver and at the same time aligning perfectly with the experience of it. It was a story in its own right.

More recently was Intel’s The Beauty Inside, a “social movie” that centered on a guy named Alex who wakes up every day with a new face and body. While there were many reasons to applaud this work, it was the central notion itself that drove its success. As director Drake Doremus says, “The story was exciting to me. The idea of waking up in somebody else’s skin every day but being the same person on the inside … was some territory I was interested in exploring.” This is equally true of the audience.

When we start to program a brand, we need to understand its full narrative and which parts of the story we need to create, which to co-create with the audience and which to leave to allow the audience to impart and complete their own meaning.

Despite the great work mentioned here, I don’t believe this subtle yet vital shift is one that the majority of people in our business clearly understand. How we embrace this difference between content and stories and then bring true storytellers into our world will be the key to the future success of our industry.

Content is dead. Long live storytelling.

PR Insider: 7 SEO Basics Every PR Pro Should Know

Content marketing is now a $44 billion industry. And with businesses planning to increase their budgets toward search engine optimization (SEO) by up to 44% this year, PR professionals must be savvy in digital communications tactics in order to remain in the game.
 At a minimum, every PR pro should know the following seven SEO basics:
1) Build strong links. When another website links to your own site, Google awards you with “SEO points” for being a place that someone else found interesting, helpful or relevant. The more popular the site that links to you, the better.
So how can you aim to get more link-backs? Look at what you’re probably already doing a lot of: Pitching the media and blogging. News outlets naturally draw high traffic online. If you secure an opportunity for a client in, say, The New York Times, make sure that client’s name is hyperlinked in the story. Help your client launch and maintain a keyword-rich blog, and pitch them as guest contributors for high-traffic sites.
2) Understand meta text. The titles, descriptions and keywords written into each page of a client’s website hugely impact that site’s organic SEO strength. Titles are by far the most important piece of meta text, followed by descriptions. Search engine results often display only the first 150 characters of description text, so help your clients draft succinct, keyword-rich information to describe themselves within the space that Google allows.
3) Avoid common mistakes when measuring search rank. PR is all about measuring the before-and-after of a campaign. As an SEO consultant, record where your clients rank in their respective industries before you start a project, and continue to monitor how they climb in search results for those same keywords as your recommendations are implemented.
One of the most common mistakes people make can be avoided with a few clicks. When searching terms to determine where your client ranks, make sure you’re logged out of your Google account. If you use Gmail for work and must be logged in, search under Google’s “Hide private results” option, which has the graphic of a globe (see below). By default, your setting is on “Private results” (the graphic of a person), which takes into account your personal search history. Assuming you visit your clients’ websites quite often, “Private results” will cloud those sites’ true rankings, giving you biased data.

Google’s “Hide/Show Private Results” button

4) Know what works—and what doesn’t—on social media. Social signals are increasingly important to ranking. But don’t expect social media to work miracles on its own; creating a Facebook page or Twitter handle won’t really affect SEO unless quality content is being shared on those platforms. Likes, retweets, shares, comments and +1s all send Google cues that your content is relevant, and thus should be ranked higher.
5) Use photos to tell your story. Web users love images. It’s no surprise that visual tools like Pinterest, Instagram, Vine and Tumblr have taken off in recent years. In fact, Pinterest now drives more traffic than Google+, YouTube and LinkedIn combined, and last year the site beat out Twitter in referral traffic.
In addition to scanning the text written into websites and press releases, search engines also index images. Make sure the alt tags used to title your clients’ image files (usually .jpg or .png) include the same keywords—both brand name and industry term—that you’d write into a press release or blog entry.
6) Keep the Google bots happy. It’s tempting to include every keyword you (or your client) would ever want to rank for, but Google will punish you for it. “Keyword stuffing”—the overuse or repetition of keywords and phrases—can cause Google to flag your site as spam, resulting in a lower search ranking that’s harder to escape.
To avoid being the PR pro who placed your client on Google’s blacklist, do what you do best: Write like a human, not an SEO machine. Don’t force keywords if they don’t fit naturally in the text. And present information online the way search engines like to read it—broken down by topic into multiple pages. Google bots are professional organizers, so a site formatted like a well-kept filing cabinet is one they’ll award with stronger SEO
7) Let search engines spill their secrets. There are two ways to easily find the top-searched keywords in your client’s industry: Google’s Keyword Planner and Google’s guessing feature, which you’ll see every time you type terms into the search bar. Use these tools to create a “keyword bible” that you reference while copywriting, making sure to incorporate popular terms in PR and social media materials. Using the guessing feature, find the questions your client’s prospects are asking online and look for media opportunities to answer those questions.

New-school ways to grab attention with your press releases

There’s been a lot of recent attention paid to press releases and the links within them, which are the subject of new guidance from search giant Google. Fact is, most PR pros will see little if any impact on the results their news releases garner.

The content and structure of press releases have a far greater influence on the visibility of the message, and as competition for attention increases, the formula for a successful press release is changing.

Here are some ways to freshen the news releases your organization publishes, and get more results for your campaigns:

Make social interaction a priority.

• Serve your audience first. Frame the brand message in the context the audience craves.

• Content must do more than inform. It has to be interesting and useful to your audience members if they’re going to share and amplify your message.

Rethink links. Use them strategically to provide more information for journalists and potential customers.

• Link the names of people quoted in the press release to their bios or related blog posts they’ve authored.

• Embed a call to action for potential customers toward the top of the press release. Real-world example: PR Newswire client Jive Software reported a 200 percent increase in website traffic to a specific page when they moved a call to action for readers toward the top of the press release, embedding it right after the lead paragraph.

• Encourage on-the-spot social sharing. Highlight the key message or best piece of advice in your press release, and then embed a Click-to-Tweet link within.

Format the press release to maximize sharing.

• Write a tweetable headline of 100 characters or fewer. (Use a deck head to add detail.)

• Employ bullet points to highlight key points and draw readers’ eyes deeper into the copy.

Develop a visual communications habit.

• Including visuals can increase visibility. (Social networks and search engines both give visual content preference.)

• Visuals extend the reach of your messages into channels like Pinterest, which requires a visual element and other visual-centric social networks.

Incorporate storytelling into press releases to make the messages more memorable and interesting.

• Include a quote from someone other than an executive. Quote a happy customer, a customer service person noting how a new product has reduced support calls, or a member of the team that designed the product.

• Break the formula for the press release, and dive into the value propositions, case studies, and benefits that your audience really wants to know about.

More press release tips and case studies are available in a new e-book from PR Newswire, titled New School Press Release Tactics. It’s available for free download here.

 

How to avoid beginning sentences with 'and' or 'but'

There's a writing trend that drives me crazy.


AND I'm not going to tell you what it is.

BUT I'm betting you can guess.

AND I won't have to go on much longer with this maddening affectation reminiscent of a kindergarten show-and-tell presentation.

AND I'm running out of ways to perpetuate this motif anyway.

BUT I won't let that stop me.

As I've previously written, there's a huge distinction between adopting a conversational tone and engaging in sloppy writing. The idea of "writing like you talk" was originally intended to wean corporate communicators (and others) off stilted, pedantic prose and jargon-laden gobbledygook.

Alas, we have ended up with a pandemic of people writing like a 5-year-old talks:

We went to a dairy farm. Aaaaaaand we saw cows. Aaaaaaand they milked one of the cows. Aaaaaaaand we saw an old-fashioned butter churn. Aaaaaaaand…

The occasional sentence-starting conjunction is fine. I don't believe in absolutes; I do believe in moderation, and in "breaking rules" for a reason. But it must be done judiciously, for optimum effect.

If a writer dips into the conjunction well too often, it simply becomes a tic.

With that in mind, let's look at five alternatives to beginning sentences—and, heaven forbid, paragraphs—with "and" or "but":

Compound sentence

Fearing the dreaded run-on sentence—especially in the online, short-attention-span sphere—writers frequently opt for a period where a comma will do nicely.

Instead of: No job is perfect. But too often, young PR professionals complain without offering solutions.
Try: No job is perfect, but young PR professionals too often complain without offering solutions.

Granted, this almost requires one to move the modifying phrase, but that's a plus: It's now closer to the verb it modifies.

Semicolon

This handy little punctuation mark works best with two concise, related thoughts.

Instead of: I have eclectic taste in food. And escargots are my favorite breakfast.
Try: I have eclectic taste in food; escargots are my favorite breakfast.

Dependent clauses and segue phrases

If you have a transitional phrase in place, there's no need for a transitional conjunction.

Instead of: And despite her professional demeanor, Nancy does have more tchotchkes in her cubicle than anyone else in the company.
Try: Despite her professional demeanor, Nancy does have more tchotchkes in her cubicle than anyone else in the company.

Taking it a step further, you could condense the phrase into a word or two.

Instead of: And despite her professional demeanor, Nancy does have more tchotchkes in her cubicle than anyone else in the company.
Try: Professionalism aside, Nancy does have more tchotchkes in her cubicle than anyone else in the company.

True, but she'll never match Craig's collection of troll dolls.

[RELATED: Ragan's new distance-learning site houses the most comprehensive video training library for corporate communicators.]

Simply eliminating the conjunction

The usual purpose of using "and" and "but" between clauses is to bolster or negate (respectively) the previous contention. If that support or contradiction is strong enough, there's no need for a conjunction.

Instead of: Cooking shows are popular at our house. And we set the DVR to catch every episode of "Chopped."
Try: Cooking shows are popular at our house. We set the DVR to catch every episode of "Chopped."

To show contrast:

Instead of: Cooking shows are popular at our house. But we make sure to watch the evening news.
Try: Cooking shows are popular at our house. We make sure to watch the evening news, though.

The final "though" helps punctuate the contrasting pair of statements.

Substitute words

Finally, words like also, however, moreover, and the like are effective but can seem a little stuffy, so use them sparingly.

Instead of: Great-aunt Vera enjoys macramé. And one time her neighbor said macramé was stupid, so she decked him.
Try: Great-aunt Vera enjoys macramé. Moreover, one time her neighbor said macramé was stupid, so she decked him.

One last thing, please: If you do use "and" or "but" to start a sentence, omit the comma immediately after the conjunction in question. That goes for "or," too.

Wrong: And, I mean it.
Right: And I mean it.

Rob Reinalda is executive editor at Ragan Communications.

Infographic: Evolution of the PR industry

What about PR has changed since you started your career? From news clips to news links and newspapers to online readers, this graphic highlights the industry's major transformations


Ask any Baby Boomer and he or she will be quick to tell you just how much the PR industry has changed in recent years.

PR pros used to strive to land segments on the evening news, and now they work to get their brands to trend on Twitter. They've swapped news clips for news links and focus groups for Facebook fans.

There's no denying times have changed, and most of that change stems from evolving technology. An infographic from Inkhouse.com highlights the many ways the industry has grown.

For example, PR pros don't just pitch reporters. They've added bloggers to their media lists, as well. And rather than put together press kits to tell a brand's story, PR pros now turn to content marketing.

[RELATED: Hear how top companies adapted to the digital PR industry changes at this August event.]

But no matter how much technology alters the way we communicate, the principles of PR will always stay the same. Relationships, credibility, preparedness and other industry tenets will never change.

Check out the full graphic to see how the industry has evolved:

(View a larger image.)

How PR and SEO can work hand in hand

For many years, the worlds of public relations and search engine optimization (SEO) have existed on different “islands,” providing mutually exclusive benefits.

Through Google’s Penguin and Panda algorithmic updates—two changes that have boosted the importance of editorial quality and referral sites, and have nixed the spammier forms of SEO—public relations and SEO have emerged as similar practices.

Today PR and SEO have nearly identical goals: to obtain earned media. Both PR and SEO need a backbone of relevant, informative, and newsworthy content.

SEO is evolving into a PR and content-oriented practice. Those islands are converging with shared tasks, vision, and goals. Whether you are a PR pro looking to augment your digital practice or an SEO expert looking for time-tested relationship-building and media relations skills, here are ways you can integrate the two practices to create a maximum boost for your business:

Domain juice

Guest posts or blogs are a key component of most enterprise’s public relations plans, as they do a lot to establish expertise. When you write a bylined guest article for an online publication, be sure to work with an SEO expert to make sure the links and anchor text included in the article work to your business’s advantage.

An example: At iAcquire (the digital marketing agency where I work), I recently joined forces with the director of business solutions, who is responsible for the strategy behind our clients’ SEO and reputation management. The original copy in my byline article included branded keywords and linked to our home page.

After a keyword analysis, my colleague was able to tell me that there was far greater value in linking to a sub-page within our site on our offerings using the keyword “X”. The more relevant the link, the better, so leverage internal relationships with an SEO team to boost your overall efficacy.

Influencer outreach

SEO and PR should partner in influencer outreach efforts to boost a brand’s online reputation.

Recent Google updates lend a stronger share of the pie to social signals, so establishing relationships with key influencers on those social networks has both SEO and PR value. Work together to define, evaluate, and reach out to social influencers. Realize that this partnership can secure future media relationships and boost social signals for your business.

Shared media lists

PR pros have media lists. SEO experts have lists of external website and blog targets. SEO professionals might take a more complex look at an external site’s page rank, unique visitors, or Alexa rank, while a PR pro’s list is more likely to have information on the outlet’s editorial angle, beat, and individual reporters. Combine your lists and work together on an outreach strategy. SEO pros can learn a lot about the basics of relationship building; PR professionals can learn about site analytics.

Press release 2.0

Press releases are ancient. Optimized press releases aren’t.

Simply put, releases that are optimized to include multimedia assets and link to social channels are very effective. Use SEO tactics to find popular keywords, inject them into your press release, and then see the search engine traffic flood your brand’s website. Work with a digital marketing team to create unique assets such as video interviews to give the content of your release that extra boost of interactivity.

Content

Whether you are in SEO or PR, the underlying necessity to create high-quality content remains the same. Create a shared editorial guideline document that has some of these basic pillars:

1. Gives a unique angle to a told story;
2. Shares new information;
3. Has a backbone of a strong intro, body, and conclusion;
4. Is not thin content (i.e., doesn’t simply identify a problem without really giving any solutions);
5. Is newsworthy: creates a stir, is tied to a current event, and doesn’t cover stale news;
6. Is backed up by research;
7. Offers a solution;
8. Has a clear audience in mind;
9. Demonstrates why the topic is important and whom it affects;
10. Passes the “So what?” test.

Also, strong on-page content, that is, the actual text on the static pages of your website, such as an “about” page, is important for all departments within a business. Around 15 percent of the Google algorithm focuses on on-page content: its relevance, usefulness, social sharability, and metadata. Therefore, it should be a joint concern for SEO and PR. Webpage copy needs to be search-engine friendly, informative, and unique to rank highly and gain attention.

Combining editorial calendars

Stay consistent. Create a combined editorial calendar for internal content, social updates, and external targets. Disjointed messaging can create confusion in the way consumers view your brand.

Link reclamation

As a PR professional, you likely have a long list of media placements you’ve obtained. When was the last time you shared that list with your SEO team? You may be wondering why you would hash up placements from the past, but it actually can serve as a pretty effective form of link building for SEO pros.

Give the list of old placements to your SEO team and have them contact the outlets, especially if they didn’t link back to your site. This can diversify and grow the overall number of links you have pointing back to your organization’s domain.

[RELATED: Register for our PR Measurement Summit by Aug. 1 to get the early bird discount.]

PR stunts and events

Over-the-top media stunts, events, launches, and meet-ups can attract great coverage and more links for your business. SEO and PR pros can work together to spread the word about events through social influencer outreach, submitting events to community local listings, and generating hype prior to the event. Invite journalists, webmasters, bloggers, and brand advocates to the event, and they will cover the event.

From Emily Post, 7 rules for avoiding PR faux pas

The matriarch of manners, Emily Post, was amazingly prescient when offering her views almost a century ago in her book, “Etiquette.”

This quote of hers, for instance, is perfectly relevant today: "Nothing is less important than which fork you use. Etiquette is the science of living. It embraces everything. It is ethics. It is honor.”

Many PR crises are created, or made worse, when someone in the public eye disregards basic rules of etiquette. If you think that sounds quaint, look at these examples. Then pass this post along to the executives or clients who handle press calls, address media conferences, or speak in front of cameras. (Oh, and warn them to expect that the camera will be rolling and their microphone will be live—always!)

1. Show responsibility. Here's a classic way to tell when someone is breaking this rule: Just listen for sentences missing specific doers, names, or the active voice. “Mistakes were made.” “Laws were broken.” Well, by whom?

This rule can also get cast aside when apologies veer off track.

Take, for instance, Paula Deen’s interview with Matt Lauer on “Today” on June 26. It followed widespread outrage about insensitive statements she’d made while being deposed in a lawsuit against her. This link has the video and a transcript:

Lauer: “You were asked whether using the N-word in telling a joke was hurtful. And you said, quote:

‘I don’t know. Most jokes are about Jewish people, rednecks, black folks. I didn’t make up the jokes. They usually target, though, a group. I can’t, myself, determine what offends another person.’

Lauer: “Do you have any doubt in your mind that African-Americans are offended by the N-word?”

Deen: “I don’t know, Matt. I have asked myself that so many times. Because it’s very distressing for me to go into my kitchen and I hear what these young people are callin’ each other. It’s very, very distressing. It’s very distressing for me, because I think that for this problem to be worked on, that these young people are gonna have to take control and start showin’ respect for each other and not throwin’ that word at each other. That—it is—it makes my skin crawl.”

Deen evades answering Lauer’s question about whether she knows if that slur offends African-Americans. Instead, she portrays herself as a victim. “That word,” she says, causes her distress. It makes her skin crawl.

Well, in her restaurants, she’s the boss. She sets the tone of the culture within her kitchens. As the boss, she’s also responsible for dealing with inappropriate behavior if she becomes aware of it.

Blaming others as part of an apology is never going to sound responsible, because it’s not.

2. Use tact. This slip-up happens sometimes when an apology that starts off great spills into areas it really shouldn’t.

A perfect example arrived in my mail yesterday. One of our monthly bank statements somehow got mangled in a U.S. Postal Service machine. I was pleasantly surprised when I saw it had been resealed in a larger envelope that had an apology on the back for ruining our mail. I wasn’t expecting that level of service, so I was impressed—until I kept reading.

The tone of the note changed. It told me what I needed to do to help the Postal Service do its job. It scolded me to make sure to place in “the mail stream” materials that aren’t damaged or addressed incorrectly.

Wait a minute! Neither I, nor my bank, had a role in the Postal Service’s nearly shredding this letter. Why ruin a positive customer service move by following the apology with a finger wag and a mini-lecture?

3. Express empathy. No, it’s not about you. Especially so when you’re trying to make amends or show sensitivity.

The worst violation, in my memory, of this rule was committed by Tony Hayward, former CEO of the global oil giant BP. He was speaking to the press weeks after the Deeperwater Horizon oil rig exploded and sank, killing 11 people, and then almost 5 million gallons of oil gushed into the Gulf of Mexico over the course of 87 days.

Crisis communicators everywhere have likely memorized these infamous 17 words of Hayward’s—which, incredibly, he uttered just after apologizing:

“There’s no one who wants this thing over more than I do. I’d like my life back.”

4. Be gracious. Instead of a showing a misstep, this example is an absolute master class in graciousness.

Andy Murray fought valiantly last year to try to become the first British male champion at Wimbledon since Fred Perry in 1936.

Murray advanced to the championship match, but he lost to Roger Federer.

If you missed it a year ago, you’ve got to watch these remarks he made right after that match. Keep in mind that he was just 25 years old at the time. He may not have won the match, but he did win fans.

And in case you also missed the news this past weekend, Murray was back at the Wimbledon final in 2013, this time winning more than just fans in his straight-sets victory over top-ranked Novak Djokovic for the championship.

5. Show sincerity. Any mea culpa that includes, “I’m sorry if you were offended,” is a big neon sign of insincerity—and everybody, except the person uttering that phrase, knows it.

6. Don’t be late. Many PR blunders would be prevented or contained if a straightforward correction, explanation, or apology just came sooner. Kickstarter recently handled an instance of this exceptionally well. It’s a case in which, when executed with the right tone, a swift and direct statement apologizing for a mistake can actually lead to more credibility and more fans.

7. Be honest. Stretching the meaning of words to justify something isn’t clever or creative. It’s lying. This clip of former President Bill Clinton insisting what he did (or, as he says here, didn’t do) with Monica Lewinsky is really worth hours of training in crisis communication for leaders.

The fallout when the truth comes out, later—and it always does—is many times more radioactive.

These seven rules are broad, but keeping them in mind should help PR pros—as well as the clients and leaders they coach—in countless situations. The consequences of not following them can be huge.

[RELATED: Ragan's new distance-learning site houses the most comprehensive video training library for corporate communicators.]

After all, the way the person in charge initially handles an issue or event largely determines whether it becomes a public relations nightmare or just scrolls down the news feed without attracting scary headlines.

Becky Gaylord worked as a reporter for more than 15 years in Washington, D.C., Cleveland, and Sydney, Australia, before she launched the consulting practice, Gaylord LLC. You can read Becky’s blog Framing What Works.

Social Media is Hard: The 2013 Landscape of Social Networks in One Infographic

After almost two-and-half years, it is with great pleasure that I officially unveil the fourth edition of The Conversation Prism. Viewed and downloaded millions of times over, The Conversation Prism in its various stages has captures snapshot of important moments in the history and evolution of Social Media.
For those unfamiliar with The Conversation Prism, it is an evolving infographic that captures the state of social media, organized by how important social networks are used by professional and everyday consumers. It was created to serve as a visual tool for brands to consider unforeseen opportunities through a holistic lens. Over the years, it has served as a business tool as well as art decorating the walls and screens of offices, conference halls, and also homes.
With research beginning in 2007, the original Conversation Prism debuted in 2008 as a visual map of the social media landscape. Years and four iterations later, it remains an ongoing study in digital ethnography that tracks dominant and promising social networks and organizes them by how they're used in everyday life.
It is provided as a free download in many sizes and shapes here.
Why is The Conversation Prism More Than a Pretty Infographic?
The Conversation Prism is important because it is the ONLY research-driven map that explores the evolution of the social web dating back to the rise of social media.
It is a combination of research and digital enthography. It groups networks by how people use them. It includes both leading and promising networks. It's not intended to show every network, but instead how the shape of the social web is changing and who the front runners are pushing social media in new directions.
The Conversation Prism was designed to help strategists see the bigger picture in the evolution of social media beyond the most popular and trendy sites. It is intended to help in a number of ways…
1. As a form of validation to show executives that social media is not a fad and that it's bigger than Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, and Pinterest.
2. To motivate teams to find new ways to think about social media and explore new ways to improve experiences and relationships.
3. Provide a top-level view to help strategists study the landscape as they plan their next social media strategy.
History: When were the previous versions released?










1.0 = August 2008 (pictured above)
2.0 = March 2009
3.0 = October 2010
4.0 = July 2013
What's new with Version 4.0?
Version 4.0 is the latest update in the two-and-half years since 3.0 (pictured to the left) was introduced in 2010. It also features an entirely new design.
Version 4.0 brings about some of the most significant changes since the beginning. In this round, we moved away from the flower-like motif to simplify and focus the landscape.
With all of the changes in social media, it would have been easier to expand the lens. Instead, we narrowed the view to focus on those that are on a path to mainstream understanding or acceptance.
The result was the removal of 122 services while only adding 111. This introduces an opportunity for a series of industry or vertical-specific Prisms to be introduced.
Overview of Categories Added:
1. Social Marketplace
2. Enterprise Social Networks (shortened to "Enterprise" for formatting, companies included here were previously grouped under "Nicheworking", which we redefined.)
3. Influence
4. Quantified Self
5. Service Networking
Categories Removed
1. Virtual Worlds
2. Blogs/Conversations
3. sCRM
4. Attention/Communication Dashboards
5. DIY + Custom Social Networks
6. Collaboration
Why is it Called a Conversation “Prism?”
I get this question all the time. And in light of activity related to the NSA, Prism takes on an entirely new meaning. Additionally, the Conversation Prism is often referred to as a color wheel, but to do so, takes away from it’s the beauty of its design and purpose.
Using a "prism" metaphor was intended figuratively and literally...
Using the traditional definition, a prism separates white light into a spectrum of colors. The "white light" in this case, is the focused stream of conversations that are often grouped, but not separated by voice, context, source, or outcome. We take this beam of dialog and blast it into a spectrum of discernible light, let’s call it enlightenment, to see, hear, learn and adapt. We quite literally bring conversations to light. Used figuratively, it references the clarification or distortion afforded by a particular viewpoint...for example, "We view conversations across the networks through the prism of our social dashboard."
Each shade of color represents an entirely unique reflection of light, meaning separating context and intention by network.
Original designs refracted the light of conversations vertically, like so many traditional prism images you see. But, as the social web grew, we shaped the refracted light into a circle to help everyday people understand that the days of one audience, one voice, one story were over. We now had to envision, organize, and understand that conversations take place in communities that we don't yet realize...obviously far beyond Facebook and Twitter.
The Age of Context: Context is King!
The social landscape is evolving with increasing acceleration. As you can see throughout every iteration of the Prism, the number of networks that vanish and emerge is staggering. But more importantly, the nature and focus of how networks are used is also dramatic in its changes. In some cases we see the move to smaller or more concentrated networks and at the same time the visual "social" web is becoming more pervasive. We are moving into an era of context where what we share, how we interact and how we form relationships is moving away from a general social graph to a distributed yet organized network defined by shared interests.
The Conversation Prism is available as a poster for $20 or as a free digital download in a variety of resolutions and sizes. 4.0 is available exclusively at www.conversationprism.com

Infographic: What & when to post on Facebook to boost engagement

Every brand loves a Facebook like. Here is the content you need to post to get more of them.

While there's more to Facebook marketing than likes, a brand can never have too many fans.
And the more engagement those fans give you, the better.
An infographic from KissMetrics serves up some statistics about the best ways and times to increase engagement on your brand's Facebook page. Surprisingly, less is more.
If you post to your page once or twice a day, you'll get 40 percent more engagement than if you post three or more times a day.
And if you post one to four times a week, you'll get 71 percent more engagement than if you post five or more times per week.
What content should you post?

• Photos. They get 104 percent more comments and 84 percent more click-throughs than text and link posts.
• Questions. Question posts get 100 percent more comments than non-question posts.
• Short updates. Posts with 80 characters or fewer get 66 percent more engagement than longer posts.

[RELATED: Master the can't-ignore social media tools after Mark Ragan's one day social media boot camp.]

See the full graphic for more insights:
(View a larger image.)

What 9 Internet trends mean for PR

 

Mary Meeker’s latest Internet Trends report has tons of interesting nuggets on global Internet use. There are now 2.4 billion Web users worldwide, and that number is growing fast. The report includes 117 pages of data and insights, but what does it mean for the PR industry? Here are nine takeaways and their implications for PR professionals:

1. TV and Internet top media consumption: 42 percent of America’s media diet is dedicated to television; another 26 percent goes to the Internet. Only 6 percent of that time is spent with print, indicative of the trouble the newspaper industry is having.

2. People like photos: The number of photos uploaded to the Internet per day has exploded since 2005—to more than 500 million per day. As brands share content on social networks, the need for visuals is obvious.

3. Smartphone users look at their devices—a lot: Consumers are reaching for their mobile devices 150 times a day. Make websites, content, and whatever you’re using to communicate with to consumers mobile-friendly.

4. Users flock to video: People are embracing online video like never before. Per minute, 100 hours of footage is uploaded to YouTube. That’s a 100 percent increase from six years ago. Is your brand there?

5. Vine: Here’s another nod to the boom in online video, only these are a bit more condensed. The six-second video app Vine has grown significantly since January, from two percent of iPhone users to nearly eight percent. How can brands leverage the app for storytelling? Last week, a local TV station in Richmond, Va., linked to a Vine app in an online story related to a high school prank.

6. Facebook is huge, but declining: Facebook is in the top three of the world’s most-visited websites, behind Google and Microsoft. It’s also the only social network to suffer a decline in users in the past couple of years. Decline or not, the sheer number of site visitors proves Facebook’s worth as a promotional tool for brands.

7. Transparency gets more transparent: Think about these stats—there are 1.1 billion global active Facebook users, 68 percent of whom are on mobile and have, on average, more than 200 friends. Every person has the ability to be a reporter. Companies must be truthful and transparent, or they risk that their mistakes will spread across social media.

8. Internet access habits will change quickly: Within two years, more people will access the Internet from cars, televisions, and appliances other than PCs. Also, wearable technology is coming. This will be another opportunity for brands to creatively develop ways for consumers to access on the go (and possibly, through their eyeglasses).

9. Scan me up, Scotty: Think the QR code is dead? Think again. QR code adoption in China has jumped from 2 million to 9 million in the last year. The QR code will continue to be an extension of campaigns—and a way for consumers to stay informed, increase convenience, and even pay for goods.

I’ve spent the last couple of days flipping through Mary’s slides. They’re almost like going through an antique store; you find something new every time you visit:



Of all the insights, there is one common theme: the need for PR pros to continue to make engaging, relevant content no matter what the platform.

What trends are you most excited about?

11 words to delete from press releases

Don’t worry; we have a host of alternatives for you

The advice to avoid jargon in writing is age-old and common. It's also smart.

We send press releases, blog posts, and other content aimed at particular audiences, because we want people to read and grasp the information and act on it in some way. That can’t happen if they have to struggle, even a little bit, to understand the message.

Knowing we’re supposed to banish jargon is the easy part. Doing it, though, can be excruciatingly hard—especially when a deadline looms.

So, here are 11 of the worst culprits from corporate communication. In my view, these words and phrases should never appear in a press release, email, or other tool used to convey information.

Here, too, are suggestions for replacements for each one. The substitutes are not exact synonyms in many cases, but they are simple and clear words that could work in place of the jargon, depending on the context. Next time you get stuck and can’t find a way around “mission-critical," just take out this list and try to swap that phrase with something clearer.

1. utilize ➙ use, show, fill, take, apply, push, work

2. end-user ➙ client, customer, audience, shopper, buyer

3. synergy ➙ team, powerful, effective, stronger, more, together

4. mission-critical ➙ main, big, major, central, chief, crucial

5. win/win ➙ good, smart, strong, clear, sound, skillful

6. value-added ➙ worthwhile, effective, better, helpful, ahead

7. ideate ➙ create, think, craft, whir, plan, test, solve

8. operationalize ➙ make, do, put, carry, finish, use, see, work

9. scalable ➙ grow, expand, wide, more, big, spread, include

10. deliverables ➙ results, value, outcome, change, effect

11. outside the box ➙ different, bold, striking, unique, brave, exciting

Let me know whether these work for you. Also, if jargon isn’t tripping you up as much as writer’s block is, here’s another post to help you break free and get unstuck.

[RELATED: Become a more efficient writer and editor after one day of training.]

Becky Gaylord worked as a reporter for more than 15 years in Washington, D.C., Cleveland, and Sydney, Australia, before she launched the consulting practice, Gaylord LLC. You can read Becky’s blog Framing What Works, where a version of this story first appeared. This article first ran on Ragan.com in June 2012. 

6 ways PR is like grilling out

What can PR pros learn from the spring grilling season, which is finally upon us? As it turns out, applying grilling tips to marketing produces some tasty results.

1. Select a cooking method.

What’s better, gas or charcoal? The answer likely depends on who you’re asking and their preferences in regards to flavor, convenience and cost. An initial step in forming a communications strategy is to identify audiences and consider their values and priorities, as well as how they prefer to consume information.

2. Don’t forget to preheat.

Heating up the grill 15-25 minutes before starting to cook kills bacteria and ensures properly-cooked food. Similarly, planning ahead and allowing enough time for target audiences to get fired up and excited is often essential to PR success. A preheated grill sears food immediately and improves flavors through caramelization. Likewise, if you hit people with a carefully-crafted campaign that took some preparation, they’ll love it first bite and won’t forget it.

3. Marinate.

The best ideas often rise to the surface after hours of brainstorming. Allow time for ideas to soak and develop the best flavor, just as meat and veggies taste best when left to marinate for a while before being tossed on the grill.

4. Measure the temperature.

Timing is critical when it comes to everything from marketing to the perfect burger. Take your audiences’ temperature before launching a new initiative to get a feeling for what their tastes are, how they may react, and how best to serve them. Don’t take that meat off the grill, or launch, until the thermometer indicates it’s go time.

5. Be safe.

Even pro grill-masters still have to pay attention to basic food safety rules, such as using separate cutting boards to avoid cross-contamination and refrigerating uncooked meat while it marinates. PR pros, too, must remember the basics, such as careful editing and proofreading, double-checking work before sending to a client, and ensuring updates are being sent from the correct social media account. It just takes one little slip-up to get burned.

6. Clean up immediately.

As soon as you’re finished grilling, but before the grill cools down, take a wire brush and scrub away any debris. It will come off much more easily when the grill is hot. Evaluate the results of a marketing effort as soon as it wraps and before momentum dies down. Identify any issues or problems that may need to be brushed away for next time, so you can start with a clean grate.

Happy grilling!

8 Things Productive People Do During the Workday

Forget about your job title or profession – everyone is looking for ways to be more productive at work. It’s time to set down your gallon-sized container of coffee, toss out your three-page to-do list, and put an end to those ridiculously long emails you’ve been sending.
Experiencing a highly productive workday can feel euphoric. But contrary to popular belief, simply checking tasks off your to-do list isn’t really an indication of productivity. Truly productive people aren’t focused on doing more things; this is actually the opposite of productivity. If you really want to be productive, you’ve got to make a point to do fewer things.
Recently I spoke with project management and productivity genius Tony Wong to find out the secret to a more productive workday. He provided me with some excellent insight into what he and other like-minded productive individuals do during their work week.
Harness your productivity by taking note of these eight things:
1. Create a smaller to-do list. Getting things accomplished during your workday shouldn’t be about doing as much as possible in the sanctioned eight hours. It may be hard to swallow, but there’s nothing productive about piling together a slew of tasks in the form of a checklist. Take a less-is-more approach to your to-do list by only focusing on accomplishing things that matter.
2. Take breaks. You know that ache that fills your brain when you’ve been powering through tasks for several hours? This is due to your brain using up glucose. Too many people mistake this for a good feeling, rather than a signal to take a break. Go take a walk, grab something to eat, workout, or meditate – give your brain some resting time. Achieve more productivity during your workday by making a point to regularly clear your head. You’ll come back recharged and ready to achieve greater efficiency.
3. Follow the 80/20 rule. Did you know that only 20 percent of what you do each day produces 80 percent of your results? Eliminate the things that don’t matter during your workday: they have a minimal effect on your overall productivity. For example, on a project, systematically remove tasks until you end up with the 20 percent that gets the 80 percent of results.
4. Start your day by focusing on yourself. If you begin your morning by checking your email, it allows others to dictate what you accomplish. Set yourself in the right direction by ignoring your emails and taking the morning to focus on yourself, eat a good breakfast, meditate, or read the news.
5. Take on harder tasks earlier in the day. Knock out your most challenging work when your brain is most fresh. Save your busy work – if you have any – for when your afternoon slump rolls in.
6. Pick up the phone. The digital world has created poor communication habits. Email is a productivity killer and usually a distraction from tasks that actually matter. For example, people often copy multiple people on emails to get it off their plate – don't be a victim of this action. This distracts everyone else by creating noise against the tasks they’re trying to accomplish and is a sign of laziness. If you receive an email where many people are CC'd, do everyone a favor by BCCing them on your reply. If your email chain goes beyond two replies, it’s time to pick up the phone. Increase your productivity by scheduling a call.
7. Create a system. If you know certain things are ruining your daily productivity, create a system for managing them. Do you check your emails throughout the day? Plan a morning, afternoon, and evening time slot for managing your email. Otherwise, you’ll get distracted from accomplishing more important goals throughout the day.
8. Don’t confuse productivity with laziness. While no one likes admitting it, sheer laziness is the No. 1 contributor to lost productivity. In fact, a number of time-saving methods – take meetings and emails for example – are actually just ways to get out of doing real work. Place your focus on doing the things that matter most as efficiently and effectively as possible.
Remember, less is more when it comes to being productive during the workday.
What’s your secret to productive workdays?

7 errors even good writers miss

When your job entails putting words together at a breakneck pace, the odds are good that your devious fingers will try to put one over on your brilliant mind. Caveat scriptor!





Listen, even good writers make mistakes, from obvious repeats to subtle misspellings. It means we're human.
If you're like most writers, you're probably making common blunders on a regular basis. Don't lose heart. Awareness is half the battle: By becoming alert to typical mistakes, you become less likely to make them.

Before you publish your next blog post or submit another magazine article, do yourself a favor and check it against this list. Below are seven mistakes that even good writers miss:

1. Accidental repeats. You know that feeling of telling a friend a story and then realizing you've already shared it? It happens in writing, too. When you're not paying close attention, you might repeat a phrase, a story, or a point without realizing it. One good way to catch these accidental repeats is by reading your content aloud; often your ears catch mistakes that your eyes don't.

2. Empty adverbs. Let's be honest. When you add "really" to a verb, what are you adding? Is calling something "very" cold better than calling it frosty, frigid, or icy? The truth is, many common adverbs are empty: They add little or nothing to the meaning of a sentence and only clutter your copy. Cut them out.

3. Dangling modifiers. Dangling modifiers are a classic symptom of writing exactly as we speak. Although casual, conversational language may contain dangling modifiers, written language should not; they muddy your message. A modifying phrase should immediately precede the thing it modifies. So, instead of writing, "Setting an editorial calendar, the blog mapped months of topics," write, "Setting an editorial calendar, the writer mapped months of topics on her blog." The blog is not setting the calendar; the writer is setting the calendar.

4. Which vs. that. The words "which" and "that" are not interchangeable. Both begin clauses, but "which" clauses are unnecessary to the meaning of a sentence (and thus set off by commas) and "that" clauses are essential.

5. Overly complex words. Using overly complex words in place of simple ones is a perfect way to alienate your readers. Better to be clear and get your message across than to be fancy and lose your audience. When reading over your content, ask yourself whether the meaning is obvious. If not, rewrite.

6. Common misspellings. Most writers understand the difference between "your" and "you're," but it's all too easy to accidentally type one when you mean the other, especially if your spell-check program doesn't pick up the error. Be on guard for common misspellings such as these:

• They're/Their/There
• Lose/Loose
• It's/Its
• Effect/Affect
• Weather/Whether
• Then/Than

7. Your personal "tells." A writing "tell" is like a poker "tell": It's something you regularly do—without meaning to—that gives you away. In poker, it might be the way you tap your fingers when you have a good hand; in writing, it might be the way you always use words like "just" or something else. Once you identify some of your overused words or other crutches, you need to ruthlessly cut them out. Using them once in a while is fine, but using them all the time dulls your writing.
Shanna Mallon is a writer for Straight North, a Chicago Web design firm providing specialized SEO, Web development, and other online marketing services such as website content writing services. Follow Straight North on Twitter and Facebook.

10 signs you’re an old-school PR pro

You remember clip books that were actual books, and fax machines that were absolutely revolutionary



Can you imagine pitching media without email or distributing a press release without online forms? Think about how long that would take.

It’s been less than 20 years since people started adopting Web-based email as one of their main forms of communication, and using the Internet as the tool to do everything from read a trade publication to download a virtual press kit.

Some of the tools and activities of veteran public relations professionals would seem foreign to those entering the workforce today. For those of you who’ve been in PR for a while, you know you’re old when you remember:

1. Stuffing envelopes. And snail mailing press releases.

2. Blasting client news via fax. It seemed like a revelation.

3. Editing press releases—with red pens and proofreader’s marks.

4. Mailing press kit folders instead of virtual ones—not to mention attaching executive photos, business cards, etc.

5. Conducting press tours—in person.

6. Clipping client media coverage. This meant physically cutting newspaper and magazine articles and pasting them onto a piece of paper for clip books, which you bound into physical books and sent in the mail to clients.

7. Your clients went to COMDEX instead of CES.

8. Flipping through Bacon’s Directories. That was how you found media contact information.

9. Checking into the office meant calling from a landline, maybe even a pay phone. It didn’t mean accessing email or voice messages on your smartphone, tablet, or laptop.

10. Scheduling meetings on a Palm Pilot.

What other “old school” tools and activities do you remember?

Michelle Sieling is an account manager at Vantage Communications

Tracking What Matters: A New Mindset For Evaluating PR

Numbers don’t tell the full story, it turns out. After considering circulation and impressions of media coverage and debating various reporting methodologies, public relations industry leaders believe that relying exclusively on quantitative measures to evaluate results is insufficient. As a result, it’s critical to layer on a qualitative element to measure communications effectiveness. With that in mind, here are five tips for reporting meaningful travel PR results.

1. Check out best practices. The PR standards group’s Barcelona Declaration of Measurement Principles spell out these dos and don’ts:

1. Goal setting and measurement are fundamental aspects of any public relations program.
2. Measuring PR effect on outcomes, such as shifts in awareness, is preferred to measuring outputs.
3. The effect on business results can and should be measured where possible.
4. Media measurement requires quantity and quality.
5. Advertising equivalencies (AVEs) are not the value of public relations.
6. Social media can and should be measured.
7. Transparency and replicability are paramount to sound measurement.

2. Just say no to AVEs and multipliers. Advertising equivalency was struck down as a way to measure media relations results because almost all advertising media buys are negotiated, with national rates, local rates, nonprofit rates, and discounts all different based on frequency. Plus, using ad costs is not a fair or valid comparison to evaluating a great editorial. Some clipping services and broadcast monitoring services use a multiplier to account for the increased credibility of editorial compared to advertising, but the standards bodies have also rejected that notion. 

3. Evaluate quality of media and blog coverage. To do this, first establish objectives, such as generating a story on a specific topic in a specific media outlet, or conveying a certain message in a targeted number of stories. Then, rate that earned media on qualitative examples, including:

• Key message penetration
• Positioning/placement/prominence
• Tone
• Story type
• Shared/sole mention 
• Media tier
• Photos/visuals
• Website link or contact info
• Spokesperson quoted
• Quality of comments

Doing so provides a method for reporting coverage that really matters − driving visits and business − and it helps focus and prioritize media and blogger relations efforts.

4. Monitor amplification of editorial coverage. In addition to tracking circulation of blog and media coverage, also report the additional reach gained when reporters and bloggers post links to that coverage on social media sites. Track the number of retweets and other metrics that show the additional exposure generated on social channels. Note comments from blogs and Facebook, too, for great testimonials. Check web analytics to identify referral traffic the coverage may have generated. 

5. Chart overall social media performance indicators. Although different in focus from media and blogger relations, tracking social media progress is also important. Start with a baseline analysis of your social communities and note what type of content generates the strongest response. Set goals for increasing engagement based on what you learned. 

Establishing PR objectives and measuring against them can be very rewarding. Evaluating progress quarterly and applying key learnings will help you improve your communications program. So give it a try, test it out and tweak as needed. Track what matters and report with confidence, knowing your PR efforts will be better for it.

Read more: http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/198683/tracking-what-matters-a-new-mindset-for-evaluatin.html#ixzz2RpixBUmR

The most enjoyable way to improve your writing skills

A communications professor has an easy breezy secret for writers—too bad some of her students don’t want to follow her advice



“If you don’t have time to read, you don’t have the time (or the tools) to write. Simple as that.” – Stephen King
My best student writers are avid readers.

I first made the connection when a student said she read Jane Austen with her mom at age 5. That student was a strong writer. Subliminally, I had probably known this reading/writing connection for a while, but that student, that class, and that biographical detail brought me to an “ah-ha” moment.

Figuring out the formula for being a good writer—and how to teach the formula to the next generation—has become my passion.

To make this connection, I created a “Favorite Authors” presentation so students could share their favorite works with one another, thereby reinforcing the value of reading. More than a few brag that they “don’t read many books.”

I’ve heard reports on everyone from J.K. Rowling to F. Scott Fitzgerald to Dr. Seuss. But over the years I’ve noticed two things: The broad-ranging readers are also the strongest writers, and most students hate this exercise. What does pleasure reading have to do with writing a news release? They ask.

Recently, a student commented on his experience with my class, asking for “less busy work,” specifically Favorite Authors. I bristled at the feedback.

No surprise, that student struggled with good, clear, clean prose.

I wondered, though—did he have a point? Determined to convince the majority of my students that reading makes them better writers in any media, I looked to some experts:

Improve your writing skills, painlessly. In his new book, “How to Not Write Bad,” journalism professor Ben Yagoda supports the premise that reading matters. After 20 years of grading papers, Yagoda observes that “almost without exception, good writers read widely and frequently.” He further assures his audience that reading is the “best and most painless way to absorb the rules of the language.”

Take advantage of your ability to read. Choreographer, author, and MacArthur genius Twyla Tharp quotes Mark Twain: “The man who does not read has no advantage over the man who cannot read.” In her book “The Creative Habit,” Tharp explores how she uses reading to inform her creative process, for growth and for inspiration. Most important, she reports reading “archeologically”—going from the present sources to earlier and earlier literature as she delves into a new topic.

Land a job. Recently, I asked some former students about how they viewed the connection between reading and good writing. Here’s what one had to say: “I enjoyed that exercise [Favorite Authors]. I feel that it’s a good way for students to learn what their peers are reading and interested in, and it’s a way for students to learn about other authors that maybe they’d never heard of but might enjoy reading. … P.S. I got the internship.”

See? Good readers are good writers. Good writers get hired for internships. I’m convinced. Now, how do I convince my students?

Jill Stewart is a lecturer in the College of Communication at DePaul University in Chicago. She is convinced her reputation as a good-enough writer boosted her PR career. This story first appeared on her blog culpwrit.