Shape of Things

Before Twitter, there were even shorter blasts of pithy language, where plangent puns, juxtaposition, jaunty wordplay and irony stretched their splendid feathers daily.

They were called headlines.  Sadly, they are becoming a lost art amid bland, search-engine-optimized titles affixed like a shabby gimme-cap above press releases and case studies.

Fortunately, we still have some examples of the art used to entice, delight and amuse.

Heads of the class

Give thanks that the New York Post continues to wave the flag.  The Post, of course, penned perhaps the greatest tabloid headline: “Headless Body Found in Topless Bar.” In the past couple of years, Post headlines have branded the womanizing Alex Rodriguez as “Stray Rod” and blared this message after a humiliating Yankee loss on a Mexican holiday: “Stinko de Mayo.”

In a more serious vein, the Wall Street Journal holds sway daily with an array of headlines that draw a curious reader into the story like a barker in front of a circus tent.  Wow, I never knew I’d be interested in yak farming!  WSJ can put on the jester’s cap at times, too, as when it topped its story about petty jealousy among male British writers toward Martin Amis with this tickler: “British Writers Suffering from Amis Envy.”

Why heads matter

OK, so fun is fun, but what do great headlines have to do with the humble press release, case story or blog posting?

Just as in a newspaper, technical publication or web site, the headline makes the difference in who reads a piece and who doesn’t. Take a look at Business Wire or PR Newswire.  Is there a headline in any of those press releases that makes you want to read it?

Now, I know what you’re saying: “We can’t do what news outlets do.  We have requirements, such as getting the company’s name and/or keywords in the headline.”  Yes, these are real challenges, but they shouldn’t make you settle for the mundane. You don’t have to be Oscar Wilde: If you can’t make the headline entertaining, or the subject matter won’t support it, strive for clean, clear and concise.

Here are some examples from my vaults.

This one pulled out a user quote to add life to a new product announcement:

Red Gate’s new ANTS Memory Profiler 5:
“freaking sweet” to find memory leaks in minutes

Here’s another for a press release on software used to make 56-foot-tall models of soccer players:

Geomagic makes soccer players
larger than life in Zurich train station

If you can’t fit the differentiating information into a two-deck headline, opt for the big kicker head followed by a detailed headline:

The City Tap opens in Pittsboro

Amp builder, ex-bookseller and sculptor combine comfort
of neighborhood bar with eclectic mix of art, sound, food & drink

It’s your business

None of the above headlines is a classic, but they are different enough from the bland labels that sit atop most stories – just enough to attract an editor or to pull in readers that might otherwise pass over this material.  And, ultimately, that’s what we’re supposed to be doing – getting people to pay attention. It’s not a sideline or an ancillary goal; it’s a requirement.  Every time out, we need to remember that the story starts from the top.

When it comes to PR, most companies fall into one of two categories: protect or serve.

The protect companies tend to regard most media as adversaries, or at least as a necessary annoyance. These companies have a lot of secrets, sometimes real, sometimes imagined. Access to top company officers is about as likely as sitting down for a chat with Kim Jong-il.

The serve companies welcome almost any and all comers. They want to tell their stories. Their default attitude toward media is trust, unless they have good reason to be suspicious. Their leaders are open and accessible.

I’ve worked almost exclusively with serve companies, and readily admit not understanding the reasoning behind some of the protect companies. If they have the proper training, why wouldn’t you want your top people in front of the media? Aren’t they the most passionate at telling the company’s story, the ones who live it every day?

In technical companies, why not train your top engineers to deal with the media and use them as your spokespersons? If your customers are engineers, won’t they respond better to someone with a similar background than to a marketing weenie?

I know that there are repercussions when an executive says the wrong thing. But, unless it’s really heinous (and you’re in a bad situation if you work with people who’ll say heinous things), most gaffes can be corrected, and an honest apology goes a long way.

Don’t know about you, but I trust the company that speaks to me more than the one that doesn’t.

Marketing and PR people say a lot of stuff that they don’t really believe. Or, that they’ve convinced themselves is true. And when it gets into the public’s hands, it invariably rings false.

How often do you see a press release or marketing piece that describes a technology product as “robust,” “intuitive,” “flexible,” or “setting a new paradigm?” Or a corporate announcement larded with exec-speak that obscures any meaning and annoys the average person?

Here’s a little exercise the next time you’re working on a press release, marketing brochure or corporate speech: Make believe you’re talking to your most cynical friend. The friend who brings you thudding to earth when you get too grandiose or preachy. The friend who has no compunction about telling you that you’re full of it.  Now write something that this friend can swallow and digest — possibly even enjoy.

You have little to lose but your pretension.

In software development, it’s called “feature creep.” Here’s how it’s defined in Wikipedia:

Feature creep is the proliferation of features in a product such as computer software. Extra features go beyond the basic function of the product and can result in baroque over-complication rather than simple, elegant design.

Increasingly, the equivalent of feature creep is invading our written communication. It comes in the form of annoying traits that have embedded themselves like killer algae in our text. Here are my 10 creepy things in no particular order. I’d love to hear yours.

1. Those annoying quotation marks everywhere. Thanks to Lynne Truss for telling the world about this in Eats, Shoots & Leaves, and to Seth Godin for reminding us recently.

2. Improper use of apostrophes (thanks again, Seth).

3. Turning nouns into awful verbs. Don’t incent me, please.

4. Avoiding the active voice.

5. Misleading headlines and hard-to-identify jump heads.

6. Typos – they’re everywhere despite (or probably because of) spellcheckers.

7. The 50+ word sentence and 20-line paragraph.

8. Indirect sentences stacked up like planes at LaGuardia.

9. Excessive adverbs and exclamation points.

10. Jargon-filled corporate speak that only insiders understand.

When organizations let these things happen – in brochures, on web sites, in press releases, blogposts and tweets – one can only surmise that they don’t care whether people think they are stupid, careless and insensitive. You are what you communicate.

It’s late Friday afternoon and you’re thinking about the weekend.  The phone rings and it’s a reporter from the local newspaper with an unexpected question about your company’s financial status.

No matter how well-prepared you think you are, there’s always the chance of this kind of phone call. Here are a few guidelines to help you through a media call, whether it’s positive or negative.

• You don’t have to answer the question on the spot. If you aren’t prepared, tell the reporter you’ll call him or her back. That way you have time to formulate a complete answer.
• Don’t leave the reporter hanging; if you cannot help right away, provide updates and let him or her know you are working on answers.
• If you feel that you are not qualified to answer the question, find the person in your company who is and coach him or her on a good answer as quickly as possible. Be sure to sit in on the interview so that you can handle any follow-up questions.
• If you will be the one answering the question, be sure you have met with the experts at your company and formulate three or four talking points before calling the reporter back. One question always leads to another, so be sure to stick to these points.
• If the question is one that you cannot answer, never say “no comment.” This sounds as if you are trying to hide something. Reporters tend to respond better if you simply say, “I can’t answer that question at this time, but I will be sure to contact you if or when I am able.”

Most of all, be helpful. Don’t succumb to pressure or sow the seeds of an adversarial relationship.

How close are you to your clients?  Do you know their preferences, their hot buttons, their areas of interest, what kind of information they need to do their jobs better?

For many, PR means stamping out press releases.  But at a higher level it should stand for personal relationships with your clients – not only the clients paying you, but also members of the media and social media, who also should be treated like clients. Here are some things that separate a true PR professional from a release slinger.

• A true PR pro knows the client well enough to soothe the friction that can often occur in stressful business environments.
• A true PR pro keeps the client’s best interests at heart and knows when to shoulder responsibility.
• A true PR pro forgives, but also expresses concerns.
• A true PR pro is always honest.
• A true PR pro is a partner, helping the client out in times of need.
• A true PR pro knows enough about the client’s business to offer analysis, consulting and constructive criticism.
• A true PR pro will hold the line on a client’s possible excesses.
• A true PR pro will direct the client to information he or she might be interested in, just like one would do for a friend.
• A true PR pro sees his or her clients as people, not faceless companies.

With all the buzz about social media, it’s sometimes forgotten that the traditional story placement in a trade, business or local publication is an incredibly valuable asset. Here are tips on getting stories in print or pixels.

You’ve written the press release, taking pains to quantify the benefits of the product or service in easily understood terms.  You’ve documented the significance of your announcement with quotes from analysts, customers or other third-party sources.  The story is free of puffery and bombast.  In short, you have news.

Or, perhaps you’ve written a great application story, one that concentrates on a unique process or technology being applied in innovative ways.  You have a valuable asset, but now you need to leverage it.

You have a good targeted press list, and perhaps you’ve added some vertical-market publications or technology editors from general-interest outlets that might be interested in the story.  You’ve sent it out to your mail list and perhaps to a wire service.  Now, you need to secure coverage.  Here are key things to keep in mind: 

• Prioritize follow-up according to those publications that are most important to your client. Using Bacon’s or other media-listing services, determine whether it is best to follow up by phone, e-mail or fax.
• Determine how to position the story, review questions and answers, and make certain that you understand the key elements of the story and/or announcement. Be prepared to answer questions and speak naturally about the product and/or story.
• Coordinate timing of follow-up to coincide as much as possible with the publication’s deadline date and when it is best to submit stories, and the best time of day, week or month to contact the editor/writer.
• Make sure you are reaching the proper editor/writer and targeting your presentation to the proper section of the publication.
• Plot out your presentation so you are emphasizing newsworthy aspects as concisely as possible. Write out a script or keep notes handy if necessary, but try to sound natural. Make sure your follow-up provides information of value: an offer of images, a fresh perspective, an opinion not offered in the original story, an update on the original information.
• Be pleasantly persistent if your news item or story is rejected without any reason given. Ask the editor or writer: “Can you tell me why this isn’t considered a significant story?” Present your case based on knowledge of the publication’s past coverage, and why the story is important to the publication’s readers and the industry. Be polite, but firm. If the answer is still no, try to end the conversation on a positive note: “I’m sorry you don’t see the story the same way we do, but I appreciate the time you’ve taken to explain your decision. It should help us to prepare future stories that are more relevant to you.”
• Establish a personal rapport with your press contacts as much as possible. Compliment them on a story that you think was well done. Follow their work, and not just when it involves a client. Thank them for getting a client’s story right or positioning it prominently, saying something like “I thought your treatment of the story reflected its importance to the industry,” or “I thought you honed in on the most important aspects of [our client’s] new product.” If your press contact shares personal information, take note of it and ask about it in the future. Provide your contacts with editorial leads, especially if they are not related to a client. Let them know you are paying attention to what they are doing. Be more than another voice on the phone asking for something.
• Be an advocate for your clients. Be enthusiastic. Let editors know you are disappointed if coverage doesn’t appear. Let editors/writers know how important their publication is to your client and state the client’s case forcefully when necessary.
• If a story idea is turned down, appeal to a higher authority if it can be done tactfully and without undercutting a regular contact. This action should be taken especially if your contact says something like, “My editor doesn’t think this is an appropriate story.” Your reply should be: “I’d like the opportunity to present it to him/her personally. If it is still rejected, at least I’ll know exactly why and it could help me in the future.”
• If your story doesn’t get the coverage you expect the first time around, try repositioning it a couple of months later. Do a shorter version. Emphasize another aspect of the story. See if you can get an update that might make it more newsworthy.
• After a placement is confirmed verbally or by e-mail, check the issue of the publication in which it is scheduled to appear. Call immediately if the coverage does not appear. Don’t place blame, but stress the importance of the coverage to the client, reiterate why the story is important, and push for coverage in the next issue. Inform the client of your actions and the results immediately.
• Conduct a web search after the release goes out and report initial results to the client. Also conduct a search before preparing a clipping report.

Getting good media placements for your clients is the result of having a good story to tell, developing long-term relationships and mutual respect between you and your media contacts, offering deep knowledge of your clients and their technologies, and being gently persistent.

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.