Shape of Things

PR 101 goes like this: write the release, get the approval, send it out over Business Wire or PR Newswire, and start on the next one. It’s not communicating, it’s press release slinging.

 

This might be fine if you are Microsoft.  But, if you are the rest of us, you should care who’s getting your release and what they are doing with it.  That requires having specially tailored press lists for each of your clients, and finding ways to engage key media people and market influencers.

 

Preparing press lists is not hard, but it’s time-consuming, tedious and continuous.  It’s also worth it: Addressing your press release to a specific person at a specific publication could mean the difference between editorial consideration and getting lost in the wire service avalanche.  Here are the basic steps:

 

·         Find out from your clients which publications, online magazines, bloggers and groups are most important to their business.  Add to the list by researching competitors to those publications and searching media directories using key words that are important to your client’s business.  Search your client’s competitors’ sites to see if you can find out which media outlets they might be targeting.

 

·         Identify the appropriate people to receive your news.  You typically send a product announcement or other news-related item to a new products editor, editor or managing editor.  If you’re sending a customer application story, you will usually send it to a features editor or the editor. 

 

·         Decide if the release needs to go out via both a wire service and your in-house list or just to the in-house list.  Many new product releases and minor business announcements only need to go to the trade media, saving your client a few hundred bucks.

 

·         Determine the handful of editors, writers and bloggers who are most important to your client, and make sure they receive a personalized note geared to their areas of interest. If you don’t yet know these people, get to know them by reading their work, commenting on it, and sharing information.

 

·         Follow-up with key editors, writers and bloggers by offering something extra – a one-on-one interview with the product manager, an exclusive image, a personalized demo, or a conversation with a product user. Never, never utter these words: “Did you get my press release”? Bring something to the table in every transaction or don’t come to the table.

 

·         Bring social media into the mix by posting a low-key announcements tagged to a free offer on LinkedIn groups, Twitter and other outlets.

 

·         Once you have compiled your initial press list, update, update and update some more to keep your list current and ensure that your news is going to the most appropriate person.  

 

 

Time management can be the difference between mediocre and brilliant.  The frazzled and the composed.  The confident and the insecure.  Most of all, the incredibly productive and the average.  Here are some tips to make time your friend and accomplice.

 

Schedule, schedule, schedule

Schedule everything.  Things get done when they are scheduled, sometimes only when they’re scheduled.  Start with a rough monthly schedule, then drill down to weekly and daily.  Write it all down and live by it.

 

Prioritize everything

Everything you do should be prioritized.  This creates order for your day.  Don’t make a laundry list of activities to accomplish during the day.  This causes problems with feeling you haven’t gotten enough done, putting off less savory tasks, and not taking care of the most important things.  Make a realistic daily list and assign everything you need to get done as “A” priorities.  Further prioritize your A’s in order of importance, from A1 to A8, for example.  Create numbered B priorities for things you want to get done, but that aren’t essential to complete that day.

 

Don’t react, manage

All too often, activities are dictated by reactions.  There are always going to be situations where you need to react to immediate needs.  But, don’t assume that you need to react just because you’ve received a phone call, e-mail or tweet.  Remember, you have priorities – guard these zealously.

 

Avoid email knee-jerks

Because it is an immediate form of communication, managers often feel they need to react immediately to e-mails.  Remember: e-mail is here to serve you.  Make sure you manage it, not vice-versa.  Prioritize your responses.  Don’t respond unless you really need to.  Set aside given times for responding.  Show e-mail who’s boss.

 

Take care of the big stuff

It’s natural to procrastinate with big projects.  It’s easier to take care of a bunch of small housekeeping chores than to launch a project that’s going to take 10 or 20 hours.  But, these projects must be done.  Set aside a block of time each day – 2 or 3 hours where only nuclear holocaust will disturb you.  No e-mail, twittering, phones or other interruptions.  Just you chipping away at that big challenge.

 

Heed your environment

When’s the best time for you to take care of certain tasks?  Is it better, given the workflow of the office or your home life, to set aside a block of time first thing in the morning, later in the afternoon, or during lunch-time?  When is it best to knock off the little things?  Pay attention to what patterns are telling you.

 

Pay attention to yourself

When are you most creative or efficient?  Do you hit the floor running or need to do some easy, slam-dunk tasks to get going?  Notice what things you do best at what times and manage your time accordingly.

 

Get help

Nobody wants to be a nuisance, but it’s better to ask than waste time trying to figure something out or doing circuitous googling when someone else knows.

 

Be quick, but don’t hurry

These are the words of legendary basketball coach John Wooden.  Do things efficiently, but don’t rush.  Don’t draw projects out, but be thorough.  Don’t get frantic because it leads to mistakes.  Be a killer at executing your time-management skills.

 

Seek closure

This is not psycho-babble, but a real strategy.  See the finish line and get there in the most direct way possible.  Don’t tinker as you get near the end, unless you’re onto something great.  If you need help in closing, get it.  A project is only great if it’s done on time.

 

Jealously guard your time

Make a firm resolution not to be sidetracked.  Your mantra: My time is valuable, my time is valuable, my time is valuable…

 

Listen to inspiration

Inspiration is divine, but fickle.  It’s fleeting and sometimes doesn’t return.  When it hits, forget all the rules, drop everything and go with it.

 

 

This is part 2 of a primer on editing.  Much of this comes from a Folio magazine seminar taught by Peter Jacobi more than 25 years ago.  Jacobi is now professor emeritus at the Indiana University School of Journalism.

 

What to avoid

Delaying the subject in a sentence

      Bad:        The goals and objectives of writers…

      Good:      The writer’s goals and objectives…

The passive voice

      Bad:        The purchase of hardware is a tedious chore.

      Good:      Buying hardware is tedious.

Excess adjectives

      Bad:        The Internet-enabled, scalable and robust X14AB is a good tool.

      Good:      The X14AB works on the Internet and is able to expand to fit users’ needs.

Hyperbole

      Few actions are outrageous, cities are rarely paralyzed and very few things are vital.

Clichés

Trash high-scalability, high-performance, highly interactive, state-of-the-art and other meaningless phrases.

Pretentious language

      Away with paragon, parameters, debilitate, facilitate.

Newly minted “verbs”

      In general, any word with “ize” and “ate” at the end could be dangerous.  Don’t

      synergize, hypothesize, strategize or caffinate.

Needless words

“he is a man who hunts” should be “he hunts”; “the fact that” is a term we can do without.

Exclamation points

      Except for “World at War!,” there are very few causes for this punctuation.

Using quotations for easily documented facts

      “PlutoView costs $3,000 for a license,” says Joe Magnum.

Backing into sentences

      Bad:        When it comes to electronics, he is an expert.

      Good:      He is an electronics expert.

Non-sequiturs

      His hair flowed majestically, making him a good candidate for the space program.

 

What to embrace

Direct, short sentences

Repetition, if it makes a sentence simpler

Common words used in a conversational tone

Reinforcing messages by phrasing them in different forms

Using a semicolon for forcefulness:

      Her romances are entertaining; they are full of exciting adventures.

Being specific:

      Bad:        They work on computer models containing millions of polygons.

      Good:      They work on computer models containing 10-million polygons or more.

Sentences in positive form:

      Bad:        He was not very often on time.

      Good:      He usually came late.

 

You have the power…be good with it

Editing gives you the power to shape messages in a way that will interest, inform and entertain your readers.  Power has its responsibilities, of course.  You must be a benevolent ruler, always keeping in mind the needs of your readers and being gentle with your writers.  May the editing force be with you.

 

References:

The Art of Editing, Floyd K. Baskette and Jack Z. Sissors, 1971, The Macmillan Company, pp. 418-419

The Associated Press Stylebook and Libel Manual, Addison-Wesley Publishing.

 

 

Editing is a lost art, or at least a misplaced one.  It used to be rare to see a typo or grammatical error in the New York Times; now, it’s almost a daily occurrence.

 

Although it might seem a bit anachronistic, good editing matters.  How many times have you left a website because of poorly written text or typos? Poor writing and editing often precede the sound of business walking out the door.

 

I could go on, but the importance of editing is something people get or they don’t.  For those who do, here’s a two-part primer.  It’s no Strunk and White, but it’s a start.  Much of this comes from a Folio magazine seminar taught by Peter Jacobi more than 25 years ago.  Jacobi is now professor emeritus in the Indiana University School of Journalism.

 

What is Editing?

Editing is selection – knowing what to put in, what to take out, and how to prioritize information.

 

What is an Editor?

·         A creative planner

·         A visionary

·         A procurer and selector

·         A researcher

·         A conscience

·         A utility person

·         An understudy

·         An enforcer

·         A protector

·         A big-picture person

·         An attention-to-detail person

·         A servant

·         A trench worker

·         A voice

·         A cynic

·         A learner

·         A benevolent dictator

·         An unsung hero

 

Editing: The Two-Headed Monster

Micro-editing – helping the writer by concentrating on words, meaning, style, structure

Macro-editing – serving the reading audience by setting the agenda, tone and image

 

10 Ways to Become A Great Editor

1.      Read

2.      Write

3.      Perceive

4.      Appreciate

5.      Analyze

6.      Study

7.      Practice

8.      Be curious

9.      Learn from mistakes

10.  Be helpful

 

Begin at the Beginning

Know your audience: who they are, what they do, what they know, what they want to know, how they want to find out.

 

What Every Reader Wants

·         Information – as succinctly and clearly as possible.

·         Interpretation – what does it mean and how does it relate to my world?

·         Entertainment – yes, even technically oriented material should entertain.

 

What We Don’t Want to Do…

·         Assume that the audience is captive and that the message is a must for the reader – no story has a divine right to be read.

·         Write for the masses – each story goes out to an individual; picture the lonely engineer in the windowless cubicle and bring some light into his or her day.

·         Get into a rut – give readers change before they realize they want it.

·         Bore your reader – stay unique, focus on being different, lively.

 

The 6 Cs for Success

1.      Clarity

2.      Concise

3.      Complete

4.      Constructive

5.      Credible

6.      Conversational

 

Oh, and a Couple More

Consistent

Captivating

 

Part 2:  What to avoid and what to embrace.

 

References:

The Art of Editing, Floyd K. Baskette and Jack Z. Sissors, 1971, The Macmillan Company, pp. 418-419

The Associated Press Stylebook and Libel Manual, Addison-Wesley Publishing.

 

Edit your copy as if you are a lecherous skeptic with a jaundiced view of the world.  I hope for your sake you’re not.

Good writing has rhythm and flow.  Read your’s aloud.  Does it swing like a pendulum do or like Duke would do?

Before finalizing, read over that press release, case study, memo or planning document as if you are a complete idiot in the subject matter.