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Why You Need ‘Everybody Writes’
I’ve been having lunch with Ann Handley several times a week for the last two months. Well, it feels like I’ve been having lunch with her. I’ve been reading her new-ish book Everybody Writes during my lunch hours. But now, I’m done with her. It was a sad day when I finished the last page of her book.
It’s been a long time since I’ve been excited about a writing book. I can’t get enough of Zinsser’s On Writing Well and I adore eats, shoots and leaves, but everybody needs Ann’s book. It focuses on writing for marketing and business, yet acknowledges the importance of the writing process. It is aptly subtitled “Your Go-To Guide to Creating Ridiculously Good Content.”
If you are doing any kind of business writing – traditional, digital, social, whatever form, this books takes you through the “must-knows” for audience, publication and outlet. It takes you through common projects that public relations practitioners and marketers are writing TODAY. She talks you through each one — like landing pages, infographics, blog posts. Plus Ann addresses content length, tone and style for many social networks. Everybody Writes also focuses on the writing rules which will make your work stronger.
I’d like to buy it for everyone I know, but since that’s unrealistic, instead I will share my favorite things from the book. Then you can buy it too and improve your writing.
My 8 Favorite Things from Everybody Writes:
- Why you should LOVE your first draft – page 41
- Rewriting web copy with better customer focus – page 49
- Looking critically at your opening paragraph – page 56
- Writing ledes and kickers – page 61.
- The hassles of writing by committee – page 76
- Using readability scores to improve your writing – page 82
- The art of the interview (because you forgot!) – page 152
- Breaking grammar rules (because someone will take a red pen using what they learned in 7th grade grammar) — page 107
Her book is proof that our language is fluid, that the writing environment has evolved since 7th grade grammar or high school journalism class. It’s time to refresh the knowledge and skills necessary to be a competent writer today. If it’s been awhile since you’ve read or polished your writing, now is the time to take Ann Handley to lunch, or at least her book. Put it on your summer reading list.
How To Handle Negative and Irrelevant Comments on Facebook
Should you ever hide Facebook posts?
When you are managing Facebook pages, it is likely you will have to answer this question. In the process of managing Facebook pages for numerous organizations, this is a common occurrence. Some comments should be ignored. Some comments deserve a response. Others should be hidden or deleted. What should you do? Here are four comment types from my channel management experience and potential actions you can take to handle on your company pages.
Comment Type Number 1: Negative
This type of comment is critical or negative but is relevant to the reputation of the organization. It may involve an unhappy customer or a comment about a policy or process of the company. For this type of comment, it’s important to do three things, verify, escalate, resolve.
First, verify that the comment comes from a real person or real organization by clicking through to the commenters’ Facebook profile. If it appears real, the next step would be to escalate to your client or internal management team to develop an answer. Finally, create and post the response.
Comment Type Number 2: Irrelevant
This type of comment is also critical of the organization but is different in that it is irrelevant to the post. This requires a more subtle answer. If you respond too quickly or with a formal statement, you might uncover a bully or troll waiting to engage. Monitoring additional comments for a few hours is the first line of defense. If you have loyal and engaged fans on that page, they might chime in and redirect the conversation.
If that doesn’t happen, hide the comment — only the commenter and their friends see it. We once hid a comment from somebody’s mom who made a favorable comment about her daughter’s photo appearing there and then kept asking where all the “other people” were coming from. She was clearly new to Facebook, so we hid it to keep the embarrassment to a minimum.
To consider deleting the post or comment takes a little more time and thought. If it’s a “drive-by” commenter that may or may not return, we sometimes wait 48-72 hours and if no further action comes from this type of commenter, we then consider deleting it.
Comment Type Number 3: Unreasonable
This type of comment is often rude and inflamed. It might go right up to the brink of Comment Type Number 4 below. In this scenario, we spend extra time monitoring the post and other comments on it to see the progression of the conversation. There are three different actions you can take: hide the comment, delete the post and ban the user. The strategy leading up to the actions on this type of comment are similar to that for irrelevant comments.
Comment Type Number 4: Violates Policy
Whether it’s a violation of Facebook’s terms of service or a violation of YOUR social media policy, this type of comment includes name-calling or swearing. It can also be a post in which another person or page tries to sell something on your page. This is unacceptable for many company pages and should be deleted. If the post or comment has gotten widespread views before it’s been deleted, it might merit an explanation about why it was removed. This will enhance the company’s engagement and integrity with fans, but if it’s disgusting or pornographic, no explanation should be necessary and deleting and banning the user makes the channel managers’ job easier as these types of posters tend to be repeat offenders.
Smart channel managers know that managing your Facebook community includes making judgement calls on how to respond to comments by a wide variety of fans. Next time you get a comment that is critical, irrelevant, unreasonable or is a clear violation of policy, try these ideas. Let us know how it worked by leaving a comment.
Why You Should Wait to Post To Your Social Media Channels
We get really excited when we have timely content for our social media channels. So excited that we often shoot ourselves in the foot by trying to get it all out there at once. As communicators, we are as trained to follow the news cycle as Pavlov’s dogs were trained to respond to the sound of the bell. The problem is-there’s more than one bell. The news cycle is less defined than it was ten years ago and is no longer confined to set appointment times.
We used to try to capitalize on the morning paper, the evening news, the late news and then the monthly magazine. Now we have 24 hours and we should take advantage of that extended time to spread out our social media messaging in our channels.
So why are we trying to time the press release, the in-person event and the social media posts all at the same time? Out of sheer habit?
With a little planning, your social media channels can have more frequent messages to cover that 24-hour cycle, only in smaller chunks. This way they can carry your news in different ways over a prolonged period of time.
What are the advantages of this approach? You have multiple opportunities to engage with your community and the repetition of the messages – or at least the repetition of the theme of the messages – will likely translate into higher engagement. You might also realize better retention by your fans and followers and your message has higher potential rise above the clutter in those channels.
There is a downside to this and it’s focused on the social media channel manager. This forces social media managers to plan content frequency and channel choice, so if you’re not a good planner, it won’t work for you.
Let’s say you have an event coming up. Here’s how you might extend the life of your content by waiting to post elements of the event.
| Date | Channel |
What To Post |
|
Day Before Event |
FB or TW |
We’re getting ready for X. Will we see you there? |
|
Day of Event |
FB TW or IG |
Photo of getting ready for the event; expression of excitement for festivities. |
|
During Event |
FB TW or IG |
Event coverage; frequency depends on size of event and fan base. |
|
Later that Day OR Next Day |
FB TW |
More scenes from event and/or photo collection |
|
Next 2-3 days |
FB TW |
Share media coverage of event; share what fans are saying/showing about event. Share what partners did during event |
|
One Week Later |
FB TW |
Share video produced from event? Positive community action that happened due to your event. |
Another advantage to this approach is that you will fight the time decay on your channels and most likely reach a larger cross section of your fans and followers. If your stories are spaced right and have a conversational tone, then the repetition will not be recognized as such and it will appear that you are telling the diverse elements of a bigger story.
This approach could become increasingly valuable for company page managers as Facebook continues to tweak its newsfeed toward personal pages and away from company updates. Twitter already favors repeating message themes.
So next time you have big news to share in your social channels, why not spread it out and see how it enhances engagement with your audience?
How to Find Content for Social Media
Finding content is a struggle for many of my clients. Even with a well-developed brand and strong marketing campaigns, many organizations have a tough time filling the spaces of their social media networks with content. Content is right under our noses if we know how to look for it.
“I just don’t know what to say,” is a phrase I hear repeatedly. That’s a sign that you’re overthinking the concept of content. It’s not like writing a brochure or a press release, although both are great sources of content for social networks. If it’s important enough to include in your organization’s brochure, you can bet some — or all of it — should find its way into your digital profiles too.
If the brochure provides the big picture, or the macro view of your company, then content is the micro view, or the small, up-close nuggets that bring the big picture to life.
There’s nothing more traditional and all-encompassing than the annual report. A good annual report gives a complete picture of a year in the life of an organization. It might be mailed, or shared online or both. It’s the macro view. And it’s the perfect place to start mining for those content nuggets for social media, or the micro view.
Here’s a brief example using elements from the annual report from ChildSafe, a Child Advocacy nonprofit in San Antonio, Texas. What could you pull from this annual report? Here’s a list:
- Statistics about children assisted by the organization
- Information about this community issue
- Event photos
- Volunteer recognition
- Call for new volunteers
- Donor recognition
- Call for new donors
- Ways for donors to give
- Highlight programs funded by donors
- Information about education and training
- Efforts of community partners
- Key staff and their roles
- Board Members and their roles
- Fundraising opportunities
Content is right under our noses if we know how to look for it. Just like the expression “can’t see the forest for the trees.” Lots of individual trees make up the forest, just like lots of pieces of content make up the story of an organization.
Book Review: Writing on the Wall
Social media changed everything for communicators, right? If you believe that the last 10 plus years have been the most radical in terms of changes in mass media, then you need to read Tom Standage’s book, “Writing on the Wall: Social Media The First 2000 years.”
It will completely change your perspective.
Standage examines social media “systems” used over the past 2000 years (not a typo!) that resemble the person-to-person habits of sharing that we’ve credited to blogs, Facebook and Twitter. These systems were every bit as disruptive as today’s media environment, some so controversial that people began talking in code to avoid detection.
In his introduction, Standage sets the stage this way:
All this will come as a surprise to modern Internet users who may assume that today’s social-media environment is unprecedented. But many of the ways in which we share, consume, and manipulate information, even in the Internet era, build upon habits and conventions that date back centuries. Today’s social-media users are the unwitting heirs of a rich tradition with surprisingly deep historical roots…it reveals that social media does not merely connect us to each other today — it also links us to the past.
In fact, Standage’s book only gives the mass media as we know it today, (the foundation of which I teach to my community college students) only three brief chapters, explaining that the one-directional forms of mass media that we now call legacy media, are a mere 200-year-old blip on the timeline of social sharing.
What I love about his book is how he brings alive historical forms of social media with amazing primary resources — letters, manuscripts and anecdotes – all of which are savory and relevant.
One of my favorite examples from Writing on the Wall is from England’s Tudor era. Lady Margaret wrote original poems using anagrams and a private code to her “intended” Lord Thomas while both were jailed in the 1500s. The exchanges were written in a book and circulated among a private group for nearly 5 years. It survives today and is called the Devonshire Manuscript. Standage describes the comments in the margins, the wordplay and how the writers reworked popular poems of the day to pass messages of love and affection, using the book as a secluded social space similar to those used today by groups in social networking sites.
Each chapter covers an era of political and social change and how social sharing played a role. From the Roman Empire with its tradition of publicly-shared letters to how social networks played a role in the American Revolution, this book redefines “new” media.
Photo Credit: Photo by Nan Palmero, used with Creative Commons License. See more of his photos on Flickr.
Is Improv the Latest PR Trend?
Communications professionals are geared to be planners. We do research, create plans, make road maps, all in the name of being thorough. Certainly our timelines are more condensed than they’ve ever been before. But what if we should be doing the opposite of planning? The nature of today’s communication environment makes planning more difficult, maybe even obsolete.
In a recent interview for The Strategist, editor John Elsasser interviewed Fred Cook of Golin, the recipient of PRSA’s Gold Anvil last fall. He believes that improvisation is the key to success. His comments about improvisation made me pause.
“Because things are happening so fast in all parts of our lives, we don’t have time to research and do focus groups and message testing on every single thing that a company says or does. You have to be much more improvisational in how you operate. You have to play it by ear, and be willing to say and do things when you don’t have all of the information at your fingertips.”
This is a huge challenge for uber-planners. What if you get it wrong? How fast can you recover? Or can you even recover? And while communications professionals have always espoused the need to be responsive – especially with the pace at which messages move through social channels — Cook’s thoughts are scary for the communications planner.
“It’s a much more instinctual kind of communication, and you have to be able to move quickly in order to be relevant to the conversation. The research that we’ve done shows that a company has about four hours to participate in a conversation and still be relevant.”
Later in the interview, he likens this preparation to that of stand-up comedians as opposed to the uber-preparation of movie actors.
It turns out that improvisation is being used in some business schools and companies. In 2010, CNN focused on how improvisation was being used in several business schools.
Slate Magazine subsequently covered how corporations were beginning to use improv groups and comedy troupes to improve internal dynamics, customer engagement and even energize new business pitches.
“At first glance, zany improv and the straight-laced corporate world might seem to be unlikely bedfellows. But the cross-pollination between comedy and business has led both to fruitful managerial skills development for executives and to fruitful employment for funny folks. Comedians have not only led training workshops, but have begun to infiltrate marketing departments and advertising agencies,”according to Seth Stevenson in the article.
As communicators, we want to stay on top of the story and we want to stay relevant. And we might actually be more prepared for this constant state of readiness than other professions because we’ve always been “think on your feet” kind of people. For others, though, using improvisation in a business setting will be a challenge. Think you’re ready for this trend? Wait, let me go get my joke book and costume box.
Add Crisis of Reputation to Your Crisis Planning Kit
Most companies planning for their crisis communications focus on physical types of crises like natural disasters and crime. Increasingly, however, it’s just as likely that an organization will face a crisis of reputation and the crisis will happen on social networks. This is a shocker to many traditional companies. You can just imagine the CEO saying: “Why should we put time and resources toward something that does not represent loss of life and limb?”
In short, if you don’t, you’ll be toast.
Online conflicts can be brutal as anyone who has weathered one will tell you, but you CAN survive one. The key is to be aware of what’s going on in the virtual world and to prepare for the next conflict.
“Your online privacy—the combination of what you and other share about you online and what you manage to keep off the Web – and reputation are inextricably intertwined,” says Andrea Weckerle, author of Civility in the Digital Age.
An online conflict can be completely manufactured. It can spring from erroneous information, a misunderstanding, or the widespread opinion of a key influencer. This is completely counterintuitive to how most companies prepare for real crisis communications. It is just as likely to spring from a genuine customer service issue or human resource matter which is advanced by a loud and influential person in your networks.
A traditional crisis usually has a beginning, middle and end, allowing the team to return to a normal state of affairs. This is not always true for an online conflict, which keeps coming back because of the social network convention of sharing and passing along links (false though they may be!) as well as the likely results from search engine queries.
There are things you can do to prepare for this type of crisis, but it does take a time commitment. First step: find out your current online reputation. Do this when things are normal, not when something’s brewing. One thing you can do is Google your company name once a week and see what you find. Then Google your company name with “stinks” or another bad word and now see what happens. Once you do that, it opens up additional opportunities to search networks like LinkedIn, Glass Door, Yelp and Trip Advisor to see results there, too. Second step: start fixing anything you find which is inaccurate or incomplete.
This only scratches the surface of monitoring your online reputation. Among the many gems in Weckerle’s book is a complete chapter on monitoring your online reputation with detailed instructions on how to do it. This book is a blueprint for managing all types of online disputes, based on Weckerle’s experience as an attorney and as the founder of CiviliNation, an organization dedicated to making the internet a more civil place. It is full of relevant case studies and numerous strategies for resolving every type of online conflict imaginable.
Even if your company is not in an all-out crisis of reputation online, learning to navigate negative reviews is part of managing civility online. The Journal of Consumer Research reported that negative reviews which were polite actually helped to sell the merchandise which was reviewed.
Our research raises the intriguing possibility that brands might benefit when polite customers write reviews of their products — even when those reviews include negative opinions.
The authors — researchers Ryan Hamilton, Kathleen D. Vohs, and Ann L. McGill — found that cultivating civility might make consumers feel better about a product.
So, why should you put time and resources toward something that does not represent loss of life and limb? Your reputation depends on it.
Survive Your Holiday Trip with These Tips
Thanksgiving was a warm-up to the big Christmas trip for many travelers. With the peak travel period just weeks away, it’s time to look for some serious coping skills for the trip.
Traveling this time of year is stressful. More than 46 million Americans traveled for the Thanksgiving holiday this year according to AAA. Based on statistics from last year’s Christmas season, double that amount will be “en route” for December and January. With fuel prices way down, it just might be a record year for travel. There are bound to be weather issues, crowds and unexpected surprises during the journey, but it don’t let that ruin the trip. Here’s real advice from some seasoned travelers, including me.
Tips for the Plane Ride
Take zippered plastic bags–fill them with a change of clothes for you or your kids and later, they can transition to laundry bags or to contain wet things or trash.
Carry on your essentials—your toothbrush, one or two days’ worth of medications and a change of clothes will hold you over if your checked baggage is lost.
Travel Wipes – Lots of them. For you, for your kids, for dubious-looking surfaces along the way.
Tips for the Car Trip
Window clings are great for the car (or plane) window and kids can color the surface safely.
Stickers to Count down the Time—this is brilliant! My friend Christie puts stickers on the visor, one for every 30 minutes their family will travel, then removes them as the time passes. Great visual for kids to manage the “are we there yet?” syndrome.
Always have an Activity Bag. I have seen numerous parents traveling by car and plane who may have remembered diapers and the pacifier but expect their kids to sit quietly for hours! The Huyse family has a “go bag” with activities, books and toys that the kids have never seen before. The Pfitzenmaier family wraps them in foil, so the unwrapping becomes part of the fun. These don’t have to be expensive, just new to “them.” This is true for adults too. Don’t forget books, crossword and Sudoku books to keep your brain engaged.
Tips for the REALLY LONG Plane Ride
My family has a ton of personal experience with this phenomenon. With half of our family in Australia, we’ve made the trip from the US to Australia (and the reverse) more than a dozen times. It usually involves 3 or more airplanes and 14-24 hours of travel (the beaches are WORTH it!). This involves a different set of coping skills entirely.
Quick Change Artist — My husband takes a full change of clothes plus a wash cloth, towel and soap in his carry-on. At the halfway point of the longest flight, he takes a “bush shower” (washed up in the sink). The timing of this activity is essential. If you wait until the flight attendants are serving breakfast, it’s too late because the line for the restrooms is LONG.
Books for Gifts – On one trip, I got a bunch of paperbacks from a used bookstore, read them on the plane, and then left them with people who hosted us during our trip. That was before e-readers, of course.
More Carry-on Essentials – For longer flights, you need more stuff. Ear plugs, eye mask, neck pillow, especially if you are traveling coach.
Take off your shoes – On really long flights at higher altitudes, your body actually swells. Taking off shoes and wearing slipper socks is far more comfortable.
Strike a pose – Check out the stretching exercises in the flight magazine and make sure you get up and move throughout the flight.
Packing and Organizing Before You Leave
There are plenty of resources for better packing and organizing, including a lot of video demonstrations which you can see at this link. But some of the best advice is always from friends. Here’s what mine had to say:
Learn to Chant – Lisa Lauf says every time you get to a checkpoint, a plane, etc., say to yourself “phone, computer, wallet, passport” so you don’t forget something (there’s probably a story there).
Clothes Make the Trip – Beth Graham packs “from the floor up”—shoes, socks, pants, underwear, shirt, etc. Also rolling is the universal anti-wrinkle treatment for clothes. Wear your bulkiest shoes so you can get more into your suitcase.
Travel Documents – lots of people recommend travel wallets which can be very useful. For a family, a snap shut plastic file folder will work too. Print out your maps and other confirmation numbers in case your cell service or wifi is spotty.
It’s about those Bags – Make sure they have wheels and if you can bring two, do it in case you take a side trip!
Don’t Forget – an extension cord, umbrella, scarf, coat. Oh and where you parked at the airport – write that down or take a picture with your phone so you can find your car when you return.
Pack Your Smile – If you do a little bit of planning, you’ll be able to relax and enjoy the experience. Merry Christmas and happy travels this season.
Many thanks to friends and colleagues who contributed ideas for this story, including: Kami Watson Huyse, Jennifer Duplantis, Julie Pippert, Alysia Cook, Katie Hornstrom, Debi Aronson Pfitzenmaier, Jennifer Hatton, Christie Goodman, Patty Constantin, Lisa Lauf Rooper, Jennifer Navarrete, Sheila Payson, Kristie Guthrie, Beth Graham, Taylor Williams and Melody Campbell Goeken.
Photo of Christmas and the Alamo by Nan Palmero. See more of his work on Flickr.
Packing Your Suitcase – Video Advice
Here are 5 Resources for packing for your next trip. Check them out!
This video from Real Simple is focused on packing womens’ clothes.
This packing video from Holiday Inn Express is perfect for business travelers — with a really unusual way of folding shirts with collars.
This is not really a video, but it’s a compilation of photos with 20 tips for packing your suitcase. If you take lots of beauty products and jewelry, there are some great ideas here too.
Of course, there’s a video of Martha Stewart and Matt Lauer in a packing throwdown of sorts.
Leave it to our friends at Travel and Leisure for a great video demo on packing a woman’s suit in a carry-on. You have to see the video to figure out the tip.
Stitch Together Information for Your Visitors
I pride myself on being a pretty good planner, especially when it comes to trips. I also think I’m pretty good at online research, but a recent getaway with my family in Tennessee showed me (and now my clients!) just how important the little details are to travelers who are putting their faith into what is online about your destination. Here’s what I found.
We were planning a four day weekend in Tennessee in early October. This was the second year in a row we had planned to explore the area’s beautiful parks and lakes. We were hoping to do some hiking, kayaking and maybe rent a fishing boat for one day.
Things I booked very early– airfare, the cabin at the state park, rental car. Nothing unusual there. After that was finalized about 8 weeks out, I turned my attention to the activities.
Here was my search process to find rental canoes or kayaks.
- Go back to the state park website. It mentions a marina but no further information except it is run separately. NO hyperlink.
- I do a web search for “canoeing near ABC state park” and “rent canoes near ABC state park” and “rent canoes in Tennessee” and get results on the third try, but none were anywhere near where we were staying.
- By now I am toggling between an online map of the area, my results, and several other websites, but nothing is taking me to where I want to go.
- I reach a dead end.
Next I try to find out about renting a fishing boat for a day during our stay. Here’s what I did:
- I go to the state park website and look for the information about the marina. One or two sentences about where it’s located within the state park, but no detailed information.
- I do a web search for “marina located at ABC state park” and an entire website for this marina and its rentals is there.
- The website says they don’t rent fishing boats. But if I want a houseboat to rent, they got ’em!
- I reach a dead end.
I decide, due to other pressing deadlines, that we would wing it, that I would make phone calls when we got to Tennessee because we were going to spend a day in Nashville first and deal with it later.
Once we are in Nashville, I am planning to purchase food for the weekend. since we are in a rental unit, I am stocking in groceries, but it’s my vacation, so I don’t want to cook the whole time. So I Google “restaurant at ABC state park” and an entirely different website comes up. With a catering form, messages about booking early on the weekends, etc. I think “perfect” we will have dinner here one night during our stay.
We head out the next day. As we are driving in – you already know how this ends — we drive right past a ginormous canoe-shaped sign in front of a ginormous business advertising canoe rentals and guided trips. And, look! – there’s a vinyl banner hanging off the welcome sign of the park saying “ABC restaurant is closed for the season. See you next year.”
I could not believe it! The Internet failed me.
Thank goodness for the free magazine published by the local tourist association which I found in the rack at the local gas station on my way to the ladies room. It had better maps of the waterways than I had seen anywhere and put items of interest into categories which finally gave context to the possibilities around us.
Don’t get me wrong. Our October getaway was wonderful. There was fishing, hiking, beautiful leaves and a surprise trip to a beautiful Appalachian Craft Center run by Tennessee Tech University. It could have been even better, if all the little pieces of information were stitched together.
Here’s what could have improved our experience:
- Liberal hyperlinks to nearby businesses on the state parks website instead of vague references in copy.
- An active website which is updated to immediately mark changes in hours/season. A big “Closed for the Season” banner along the front of the restaurant website should have been added on the last day of operation.
- Destination context. Have you ever noticed how the little town that is listed as the address of a state park is never anywhere on any map or navigation? How about telling me what county you’re in or that everyone refers to this area as the Upper this or the Lower that.
- Better SEO keywords/ tags/categories to give context to the person searching on the Internet. If the canoe outfitter had done that, I would have found it and rented a canoe, too!
It doesn’t really matter the size or seasonality of your destination, stitching together information will help future travelers find you and spend more money while they are visiting, too.
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