6 essentials for delivering a superb virtual presentation

Face-to-face meetings have become a luxury.

Thanks to the pressures of time, budget, distance and over-scheduling, the “location” field in many meeting invitations is populated not with a conference room number, but with web/phone connection instructions.

The convenience that technology affords comes at a cost:

• Eye contact is impossible, though maybe you can fake it by looking squarely into a camera.
• Viewers might glimpse your visuals on a conference room wall, a desktop screen or a tiny device—or they may not see your fancy slides at all.
• Mostly, you depend on your voice to catch and keep attention.

If you want to convey presence and professionalism, here are six ways to win the room in an online meeting:

1. Focus your message and your attention.

Plan out your key points. Calculate the minutes you can afford on each topic, and stick to that schedule. If the conversation veers off track, steer it back.

[RELATED: Get the skills you need to become a trusted advisor to leaders.]

Never, ever multitask—especially when you’re the host or presenter.

2. Show what needs to be seen—no more, no less.

If you’re sharing slides, try to share just that app, rather than your whole desktop. (We’re fascinated by chat, email and calendar alerts popping on screen, but wouldn’t you prefer that we see your message instead?)

Keep your slides clean and simple. Cover one idea per page, or use animations to reveal information as you speak to each point. This helps people tune in to what you’re saying, instead of reading ahead. To catch eyes that may have wandered, appeal to ears by calling attention to key visuals. Stop short of describing every detail, so your audience stays curious enough to view what you’re sharing.

“Notice where this trend line goes. Is that the direction you expected?”

3. Command attention with your voice and your body.

Use the full range of your voice to keep the audio interesting. Shouting is a no-no, but your inside voice doesn’t have to be monotone. Get a little louder—or even softer—when you want to stress a point. Leave moments of silence to let an idea sink in; there’s power in a pause.

“When we spoke with customers about this issue, they had one major concern … [pause to generate interest].”

Beyond your voice, use your body to express yourself. If you have a stand-up desk, now is the time to use it. On your feet, you’ll sound (and feel) more energetic, and you’ll be more likely to stay plugged in to the conversation. Do stay in one place, though; if you pace or wander, listeners might fixate on your footsteps or exertion.

Even if your camera is off, use facial expressions to emphasize what you say. Smile when you introduce yourself. Wrinkle your forehead when you ask a question. Lean in and raise your eyebrows while you listen to an alternative idea. Talk with your hands.

4. Engage your audience with something to do.

In smaller meetings in which conversation is possible, call on people by name and ask for an opinion or response. In mass meetings where participants’ mics are muted, use interactive tools built into your meeting software, such as polling questions, multiple-choice quizzes and chat windows.

Even before all that, how about boldly asking for a distraction-free meeting?

“We’re all busy, but this discussion is worth at least XX minutes of our undivided attention. Right now, I’m going to pause for one minute, so we can all close apps, silence devices and shut doors. Is everyone with me?”

This may not halt all multitasking, but it could prompt an honest response from someone who admits that they can’t ignore other work for the next XX minutes. If that person is essential to the discussion, reschedule your meeting. If not, suggest that they sign off to focus on the other matter, and ask a volunteer to take notes to share.

5. Master the technology, so you look and sound like a pro.

If you’re using a camera, test it in advance. Not just to know how it works, but to study how others will see you. Find an uncluttered backdrop, check the lighting, and angle your camera so it’s capturing you head-on. We want to see your head and shoulders, not the top of your head and a generous view of ceiling.

When you get a new laptop, headset or even a new internet connection, test it by calling someone who will give an honest assessment of your sound—no settling for echoes or static or background noise. Do whatever you can to ensure your voice comes through loud and clear and uninterrupted by connection issues, barking dogs, traffic noises or nearby conversations.

6. Practice, practice, practice.

Memorize your key points in order. Review your visuals, and know what you will say about each one. Rehearse by standing up, smiling and speaking your opening, closing and call to action. If your message matters, do at least one dry run. If it doesn’t, why bother with any of it?

A version of this post first appeared on the Spencer Grace blog. You'll find the author as Beth Nyland on LinkedIn.

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Health news site targets community, but draws employees

When Baptist Health’s health news site reported on the risks of an e-cigarette that looks like a flash drive, parent-employees at the Jacksonville, Florida hospital network were concerned.

Four of them asked if their school publications could reprint the article warning about the device, which reportedly accounts for half of all e-cig sales in the United States.

That’s a win for Juice, the hospital’s recently launched brand journalism site.

“Employees are finding our information so interesting that they want to share it,” says Vikki A. Mioduszewski, editor of Juice.

Brand journalism is often billed as a way for organizations to reach the community and news outlets through newspaper-style content. That’s a major goal of Juice, but the site is also illustrating a little-mentioned bonus: communicating and engaging with employees.

Juice is one of a growing number of storytelling platforms launched by hospital groups eager to promote good health and tell their own stories in an era of dwindling news coverage. The five-hospital and physician office network in Jacksonville is using journalism tactics to build its brand, offer health tips and promote patient successes.

“Sometimes within a minute of it being posted, the phone will ring from a TV reporter,” says Cindy Hamilton, director of corporate communications. “‘I just saw the story you posted, and we’d like to do that.’”

Ragan Consulting Group advised the Baptist Health marketing and communications team on creating the brand journalism site and weekly newsfeed.

“I’m really proud of Juice and how the communicators at Baptist upped their game,” says RCG founder Jim Ylisela, who worked with the team for two years. “They reinvented themselves as a newsroom. They upgraded their storytelling skills, in writing, infographics and video. They became their own publishers.

“It’s an absolute pleasure to watch it happen, though I kind of miss going to Jacksonville, especially in January.”

Storytelling thrives at hospitals

As organizations full of experts and inspiring stories, hospitals are a place where brand journalism tends to thrive.Cleveland Clinic, Advocate Health Care, Cape Cod Healthcare and others are establishing themselves as go-to sources of medical information. This brand-building not only serves a public good, it also makes it more likely that potential patients will think of the organization when the need arises.

The platform especially helps Baptist Health connect with a younger generation that gets its information largely online, Mioduszewski says. This includes young mothers seeking pregnancy and pediatric services of the sort offered by the network’s Wolfson Children’s Hospital. By offering health news, Juice connects patients with the hospital network between visits.

One advantage of a website like Juice is that it allows the organization to make greater use of its content. Rather than writing up a press release that might never get picked up, organizations can produce stories that reach audiences internally and externally.

“When you only work with media, and you tell your story just to them, you get one hit and then it’s over,” says Mioduszewski. “And you’ve got this great content that you can’t use in other places.”

As financial troubles shrink the size of newspaper staffs, the remaining reporters are often grateful for the resource Juice provides.

“They rely on us as a resource and a source of truth,” Mioduszewski says. “It’s actually helped them do their jobs more effectively, because we’re giving everything they need to them on a silver platter.”

[FREE DOWNLOAD: How to manage online feedback and brand reputation]

Newsjacking—and delivering life-saving information

The story on e-cigarettes is one of many examples in Juice of brand journalism, or pegging stories to a news event in order to offer a hospital’s own information and expertise. After a school shooting in Texas left 10 dead and 10 more injured, Juice published a story citing an emergency medicine physician on steps one can take to keep an injured person alive while awaiting medical help.

Among other points, it advised, “Apply direct pressure. While someone else calls 911, you should apply firm pressure to the bleeding site with your hands, cupping them around the affected extremity like a clamshell.”

The story mentioned a U.S. Homeland Security program called “Stop the Bleed.” An employee contacted Mioduszewski asking for training, which Baptist Health plans to offer in the future.

“That’s a non-clinical person who reached out to me,” Mioduszewski says. “So they might not know that you can still save a life even if you’re not a physician or a nurse.”

Following the recent deaths of designer Kate Spade and chef and travel host Anthony Bourdain, Juice posted a story that used celebrity suicides to shine light on mental illness.

“Familiarize yourself with 5 signs of suicide risk and local resources before you need them,” the headline urged.

(The signs are: Chronic pain; a prior suicide attempt; depression, other mental disorders or a substance abuse disorder; family violence, including physical or sexual abuse; or having guns or other firearms in the home.)

The story quotes the system director for Inpatient Behavioral Health at Baptist Health, and highlights the health care network’s free “Mental Health First Aid” courses at several locations.

Baptist Health plans to launch a marketing effort to reach the community, a primary audience along with journalists, Mioduszewski says. Meanwhile, employees have helped spread the word beyond the walls of the hospital. (Communications opted in all 11,000 employees, and Juice has an additional 1,400 external subscribers.)

Juice’s five writers, as well as its graphic designers, have other duties in addition to the website, but the site has unearthed potential writers as well. Mioduszewski reached out to a psychologist as a source and received a well-written reply.

“He wrote back brand journalism style,” she says. “He tied his subhead to his main topic. ... It was delightful.”

Which means Juice plans to recruit him as a guest contributor in the future—another way of expanding content and showcasing experts.

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The 5 most popular stories on PR Daily this week

Instagram adds soundtrack option to ‘Stories’

A new Instagram feature might be music to certain marketers’ ears.

On Thursday, the social media app announced a new feature that enables users to add soundtracks to Instagram Stories.

In a blog post, Instagram wrote:

When you tap to add a sticker to a photo or video in Stories, you’ll now see a music icon. Tap on it to open a library of thousands of songs — you can search for a specific song, browse by mood, genre or what’s popular and tap the play button to hear a preview. When you’ve selected your song, you can fast-forward and rewind through the track to choose the exact part that fits your story.

You can also choose a song before capturing a video. When you open the camera, swipe to the new “Music” option under the record button. Search for a song, select the exact part you want, and record a video as the song plays in the background.

 

Bustle reported:

When your followers watch your Story, they'll hear the song you picked play automatically. If they want more info on it, there will be a tappable sticker they can click. This is a really fun way to add some more interesting elements to your Story, and it's also a cool way to listen to new songs. You might find your new favorite jam thanks to someone you follow adding it to their Story!

The feature might be a fun addition for the average Instagram user, but for marketers, it represents yet another way to capture and keep consumers’ attention. For those representing musicians or record labels, the feature might further boost brands and artists.

TechCrunch reported:

Listenable music stickers would make Instagram Stories much more interesting to watch. Amateur video footage suddenly looks like DIY MTV when you add the right score. The feature could also steal thunder from teen lip syncing app sensation Musically, and stumbling rival Snapchat that planned but scrapped a big foray into music. And alongside Instagram Stories’ new platform for sharing posts directly fromthird-party apps, including Spotify and SoundCloud, these stickers could make Instagram a powerful driver of music discovery.

The announcement of music stickers was only one interesting piece of information the mobile platform shared. Instagram also revealed that its Stories feature has twice as many daily users as Snapchat’s similar offering.

CNBC reported:

The Stories feature, which allows users to share ephemeral photos with their followers, is up to 400 million daily users, Instagram said on Thursday. Snapchat pioneered the photo stories model and reported 191 million daily active users for the first quarter of 2018, according to Snap's most recent quarterly report.

[RELATED: Learn social media secrets from TED, Microsoft, Starbucks and more at Amazon HQ.]

The influx of users to Instagram Stories has highlighted a major opportunity for marketers. Whether or not you use the new feature to add music to your content, there are ways to make your videos and visuals appealing to viewers.

In its Business Blog, Instagram wrote:

The audience we surveyed perceived similarities and differences beyond these. Across all four countries, people strongly see both Instagram Stories and Instagram Feed as visually beautiful places to revel in creativity. But people also tend to associate each with different use cases. For instance, they're more likely to say they visit stories to see live, unfiltered content—think behind-the-scenes clips from Fashion Month or Boomerangs of athletes getting ready for a big game. On the other hand, they're more likely to say they go to feed for a broader range of reasons, the most common of which are to find information and discover products and brands.

Based on these findings, a marketer might use feed to introduce people to or share updates on a brand or product, and stories to engage them more deeply through real-time, authentic content.

Instagram suggests that marketers focus on telling their organizations’ stories while keeping consumers’ expectations in mind. By fulfilling these expectations and catering to consumers’ desires, you can highlight your brand and continue to capture attention through the platform.

“We found that strategies such as including branding early, moving quickly from scene to scene and including product demos made stories ads more effective,” Instagram wrote.

What do you think of the feature, PR Daily readers?

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Geek Estate Mastermind Newsletter #35 – Car Buying, and the VIP Buyer/Seller Real Estate Experience

The topic of Geek Estate Mastermind Newsletter #35 was Car Buying, and the VIP Buyer/Seller Real Estate Experience. For the first time since 2012, I’m a car owner again. I shared some observations from the car buying process, and added a real estate lens to the topic. At the end of the day, I believe the future of the real estate industry will revolve around delivering an unparalleled VIP experience. That’s the best, and only, differentiator there is against consumers choosing a friend or family member.

A few of the curated articles referenced:

Leica Geosystems and Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation Team Up to Transform Taliesin West into an Immersive Online 3D Experience in Business Wire. Taliesin West is one of the most famous historic properties in the United States. HGTV has seemingly proved there is unlimited demand for seeing cool houses. I believe there’s an immense opportunity to drive consumer engagement with historical and unique architecture.

Travel brands need to rethink “local” if they want to engage customers in Tnooz. “Local” is, of course, a topic the real estate industry thinks about constantly. How do you showcase neighborhood schools, businesses, and amenities in an authentic way? It’s worth reading how the travel industry thinks about the topic of local, if for no other reason than it’ll make you realize local is a constantly moving target.

Here’s What The New Piccadilly Line Trains Will Look Like in Londonist. I’m always interested to learn more about the modernization of transit systems, and the £1.5bn contract will serve as an example other cities will surely follow.

As a reminder, the purpose of the Geek Estate Mastermind is two fold:

1. Curate the world’s most innovative and diverse community of real estate creatives, doers, and pioneers.
2. Make our members wildly successful in their careers building real estate companies.

If you want to read the entire newsletter, and future weekly editions, please apply for a Mastermind membership below.

Apply for Membership

The post Geek Estate Mastermind Newsletter #35 – Car Buying, and the VIP Buyer/Seller Real Estate Experience appeared first on GeekEstate Blog.

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3 ways PR pros can grab coverage for B2B clients

Not all of your stories are newsworthy.

If you’re not on the cutting edge of artificial intelligence-controlled robotics or have the fastest supercomputer in the world, it’s probably hard to get journalists and media outlets charged up to talk about your B2B brand. Brands that struggle with this typically believe every editor is interested in their niche position in the B2B world and talk (or type) ad nauseam about what it is they do.

Nobody cares.

Even if it’s a trade publication and the writer covers your vertical, they still don’t care.

What journalists and editors do care about is writing quality stories their readers will enjoy and doing their job well. Your PR success depends on your ability to help them achieve that goal.

Here are three counterintuitive steps to secure more coverage while wasting less time:

1. The best stories aren’t about your brand.

Most media outlets don’t like to dedicate an entire piece to one vendor.

They’re job is to tell stories that will be as interesting as possible to the greatest number of readers. Unless your brand is already a household name, this means that the most impactful story pitch will tell your customer’s story. The outlet’s readers can relate to your customer because they are just like them.

[RELATED: Distracted audiences? Mind-numbing topics? Cut through the clutter with creative corporate writing.]

A story about how your customer did something awesome (and how you played a role in it) stands a better chance at being picked up than raving about how innovative your product/service is or its features and benefits.

2. Don’t talk about your product/service.

If you’re proud or excited about what your company does, go tell your mother. If a journalist was already interested in your brand, they’d already have reached out to you instead of being on the receiving end of your pitch.

Instead, develop a pitch to address what your customers—and the outlet’s readers—want to know. Speak in terms of their pain points. The odds are that that your company isn’t nearly as cool as the ecosystem in which you operate.

Bring in as many different perspectives and folds to the story as you can so that the reporter or writer can envision an engaging story with a story arc that shares real-world challenges and not just free publicity for your brand.

3. Be the oil can, not a squeaky wheel.

Any PR pro will tell you that if you ask 10 different journalists how they like to be pitched, you’ll get 10 different answers. However, one thing is for sure: PR pros’ jobs are to make the journalist’s job easier.

This means helping the journalist write about something they’re interested in covering rather than trying to convince them that they should write about something interesting to your brand. When you approach pitching the media from a service mindset and ask yourself, “how can what I or my client know help them reach their goals,” you’ll become a resource to reporters.

You’ll have to start by reaching out to the writer and in two sentences summarizing their recent coverage and writing style (to validate you know who they are and what they do) and then offer up a top-level executive in your company who has a reputation and can help the writer make sense of topics they’re interested in. After they use your spokesperson for the first time, then you can start pitching them your own story ideas.

Chancellor Shay is the director of B2B and infrastructure development for (W)right On Communications. A version of this story originally appeared on the (W)right On Communications blog.

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Capital Gazette honors fallen employees with heartfelt tribute

The Capital Gazette’s response to the unthinkable loss of five of its journalists to gun violence was to do their jobs—and do them well.

The incident began when the suspect, later identified as Jarrod Ramos, entered the office building that housed the newspaper and other businesses.

CBS reported:

William Krampf, acting chief of police for Anne Arundel County, said it was a planned attack and that Ramos used smoke grenades when he entered the building. Two law enforcement sources tell CBS News that Ramos used a shotgun.

The attack on journalists has sparked an outcry from the news-gathering community, reigniting the simmering national debate on gun control.

However, the newspaper managed to tell its story first, and honor its fallen colleagues.

In the heat of the moment, many on Twitter jumped into the conversation with few facts.

The Washington Post reported:

On Twitter and other social media, shreds of good news—reporters and editors at the Capital pronouncing themselves safe—were quickly overwhelmed by accusations and assumptions, mostly unfounded, about who was responsible and how the shootings fit into the story of a divided and angry nation.

With five of his colleagues dead and two others wounded, Jimmy DeButts, an editor at the Capital, felt compelled to offer a defense of the work his colleagues do. He begged people on Twitter to “stop asking for information/interviews. I’m in no position to speak, just know @capgaznews reporters & editors give all they have every day. There are no 40 hour weeks, no big paydays—just a passion for telling stories from our community.”

[FREE GUIDE: How reporters use social media in their jobs]

Journalists immediately began reporting the tragedy as it unfolded around them, demonstrating Twitter’s power to tell stories in real time.

Gunman shot through the glass door to the office and opened fire on multiple employees. Can't say much more and don't want to declare anyone dead, but it's bad.

— Phil Davis (@PhilDavis_CG) June 28, 2018

Others at the paper were defiant. Chase Cook tweeted that there would be a “damn newspaper” the next day, and the official Twitter handle for the paper agreed:

Yes, we’re putting out a damn paper tomorrow. https://t.co/ScNvIK1A4R

— Capital Gazette (@capgaznews) June 29, 2018

The newspaper also used its Twitter feed for updates and to share stories about the shooting victims:

Police: Family and friends seeking information about the Capital Gazette shooting can call 410-768-5522.

— Capital Gazette (@capgaznews) June 28, 2018

Today, the Capital Gazette lost five members of our family. Stories on all five bright, wonderful lives will be included in the following tweets.

— Capital Gazette (@capgaznews) June 29, 2018

The paper was true to its word and produced the paper just hours after the shooting.

pic.twitter.com/dEiIgEd15K

— Capital Gazette (@capgaznews) June 29, 2018

The work was seen as heroic by many on social media:

The Capital Gazette, with the help of the Baltimore Sun, published a special edition about the massacre in their own newsroom yesterday. A detailed and incredibly moving article. This is journalism. https://t.co/Dc74keGuIB

— Jada Yuan (@jadabird) June 29, 2018

Amazing. On a day of horror, death and murder the newsroom at the Capital Gazette still published a paper. What an astounding achievement and a real tribute to their fallen colleagues. #CapitalGazetteShooting #jobdone #journalismmatters https://t.co/L4cSr4YHTV

— Ed Jackson (@edjacko) June 29, 2018

The paper was spare in its words to describe the depth of its loss. On its opinion page it left acres of white space, creating a striking visual that spoke louder than words:

Tomorrow this Capital page will return to its steady purpose of offering readers informed opinion about the world around them. But today, we are speechless. pic.twitter.com/5HzKN2IW7Q

— Capital Gazette (@capgaznews) June 29, 2018

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Why Social Analysis Is Essential to PR

If you are not analyzing social data, you are missing an opportunity to generate insights faster and at a lesser cost than through alternatives such as surveys, focus groups and case studies. The ability to quickly access this type of data enables you to evolve campaigns to drive further engagement with target audiences proactively.

About 58 percent of brands don’t know what people do after they consume their content and two-thirds don’t have insights into audience behavior. When bearing in mind that social is only continuing to grow, there is a clear need for a social media monitoring tool to help navigate this complex landscape.

So, what do you need to do to make sure your comms teams are utilizing social in the right ways? Understanding what actions, attitudes and perceptions exist and how they shift concerning particular campaigns or initiatives help inform strategic planning. Furthermore, this type of insight starts to answer some larger marketing and PR questions.

What Content Drives Engagement, Interaction And Behaviors?

To fully take advantage of social insights to inform ongoing campaigns you need to be able to benchmark the kind of content that is driving audience engagement and interaction. Doing so requires the ability to listen across social channels to understand what conversations around your brand, products, or messages are driving engagement. It also requires the ability to quantify and analyze these metrics, which will enable comms teams to show value behind specific campaigns.

The ability to listen and analyze engagement metrics across social channels like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube, alongside the rest of the earned media landscape is essential in providing a holistic view of campaign performance. For analysis purposes, automating reporting to categorize mentions, engagements and top authors by company, product, messages and any other preferred category help to save time and gain targeted insights. Lastly, tools that can help to tie social engagement metrics back to online articles begin to showcase how traditional content resonates through social channels.

What is The Overall Audience Perception of a Campaign or Product Launch?

Beyond simple engagement metrics, social perception is a huge point of analysis that can’t be overlooked by PR and comms professionals. Understanding social context and being able to dissect things like negative mentions around your new product release or announcement can offer insight into what resonates with your audience and why.

For example, Cision offers advanced machine learning through its auto sentiment capabilities that systematically measure the emotional tone of content to understand the public’s reaction to announcements that can have a measurable financial impact on business and brand reputation. With the ability to accurately identify nouns and capture emotional context on multiple subjects, comms teams can automate the process of determining the emotional reaction of a PR or communications campaign.

Who Are The Right Social Influencers to Engage With?

In the world of the communications, social analysis needs to be considered not just from a monitoring and listening perspective, but from an outreach perspective as well. Social influencers are playing an increasing role in how brand and audience perception are shaped. Being able to leverage these influencers in their niche spaces enables your teams to tap into loyal audiences that are more likely to purchase, or at least consider your brand or product over others.

Vendors in the social space need to consistently bring innovations to the way the industry looks at an integrated communications cloud for the modern PR professional. Monitoring and analyzing social conversations are no doubt critical but being able to identify and engage with social influencers quickly is necessary for completing the communications workflow. Tools like Cision’s Social Influencer Discovery enable comms teams to identify potential influencers for your brand by analyzing metrics around follower count, subject influencer rankings, and insights into communication style and target mediums to help complete the communications cycle in the social landscape.

About Lee Ribeiro

Lee Ribeiro is a Product Marketing Manager at Cision, where he manages content and communication channels between product and sales teams regarding product updates, new features, and positioning towards B2B and B2C audiences.

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3 attendees share why you shouldn’t miss our summit at Microsoft HQ

A lot has changed in the communications world over the past decade.

The demands on industry professionals are constantly growing—but the communicators who have joined us at our annual Employee Communications, PR and Social Media Summit aren’t breaking a sweat.

They’ve gotten the updated strategies they need to keep up with new trends and excel in their careers. Here’s what three of them had to say about their experience:

1. “I walked out of the summit feeling re-energized and recommitted to making a difference and taking a leadership role to drive the EE comm function forward.”—Becky Cania, Paychex
2. “It made me want to bomb my intranet, company website, and company social media channels. So, thank you because I have lots of work to do!”—Heather Yount, PLC Construction
3. “It all came together—the speakers, the setting, the attendees. This is an amazing experience.” —Tina Davis, formerly of Comcast

Experience the same success as these savvy communicators. Join us for the 10^th installment of this beloved conference on Oct. 3–5 in Redmond, Washington.

You’ll hear from experts at Microsoft, Whirlpool, Google, LinkedIn, PVH Corp. (parent company of Calvin Klein, Tommy Hilfiger and Heritage Brands) and more.

Discover how to amplify your key messages, engage employees, protect your organizations reputation and show the ROI of your work.

Don’t delay—register by July 6 to save $300.

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Earn recognition for your nonprofit PR expertise

 

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5 writing tips to help readers hoist aboard your meaning

Whether it's in an email, a report or a book chapter, do you sometimes struggle to make your writing easier to follow?

What are the ways to create a smooth flow that guides your readers?

[FREE GUIDE: 10 ways to improve your writing today]

Here are a few tips to improve your writing:

• Use subheads. These concise intros help readers skim your content and quickly discern what's to follow. Also, subheads indicate a change of subject and allow readers to find it quickly. Your guide: new subject, new subhead.
• Convey one idea per paragraph. Overloading a paragraph with multiple concepts creates difficulty for readers trying to follow your meaning. In an email about a talk, for example, you'd use three separate paragraphs: one explaining the subject of the talk, one explaining who the presenter is, and the third showing the date, time, and place of the event. You can also add subheads to distinguish each paragraph.
• Use bullets points and numbered lists. When you list similar things (such as names, steps, benefits, requirements), you help readers recognize similar content quickly. With lists, you can leave out transitional words that paragraphs demand. It helps the understanding when you use the same part of speech (e.g., a verb or a noun) at the beginning of each point. Note: In a list, when the order of the points matters, use numbers; otherwise, use bullets.
• Vary sentence length. Although concise sentences are easy to read, a string of short sentences can feel disjointed. Add interest by varying the length of your sentences. My rule of thumb is keeping sentences shorter than 21 words, so readers can easily follow the meaning.
• Vary sentence structure. Building your sentences in the order of subject-verb-object is simple and clear, but if all your sentences are constructed that way, it can become monotonous. Along with varying sentence length, break the mold of standard sentence structure.

Practice these simple ways to make your writing easy to follow, and you'll enjoy better responses from your readers.

Barbara McNichol is an editor based on Arizona. A version of this post first appeared on the Ruthless Editor blog.

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3 ways to measure your local PR efforts

This article originally appeared on PR Daily in June of 2017.

Companies have a strong handle on the role of local SEO today, but what about engaging with your community offline?

What does local PR look like in the real world, and how do you execute it effectively? For brick-and-mortar businesses, mastering community PR is essential for growth.

That requires direct measurement: determining who makes up that community, what approaches work, and who is missing out on your messaging.

With these three metrics, you’ll see exactly where the gaps in your PR approaches are:

1. Examine the reach of your Facebook posts.

Facebook is the leading point of engagement for many organizations. If you’re using Facebook, are you letting their metrics be your guide? Anyone who runs a Facebook page has access to a variety of measurement tools, including post reach and number of people engaged. Use these numbers to expand your audience and boost page impact.

For example, if you’re using Facebook live to increase audience engagement, keep a close eye not only on the number of viewers while you’re live, but also how many watch later. This can help you determine the ideal time of day to go live with future videos.

2. Know your neighborhood’s demographics.

You won’t have much success targeting your local PR if you don’t have a sense of who lives and works in your area. Consider using software that measures local traffic. These data can help you determine who passes through your neighborhood daily, assess who visits your business, and which groups of people are not stopping in.

With this information in hand, you can develop press kit tools that focus on groups you aren’t reaching. Your press kit is your first line of interaction with reporters and other key publicity sources, so make sure it’s inclusive of the community you hope to attract.

[RELATED: Learn social media secrets from TED, Microsoft, Starbucks and more at Amazon HQ.]

One great way to play up demographics-based marketing is by pitching news articles centering on employees who fall into that group. Local new outlets love employee-centered articles, particularly inspirational pieces. For your business, though, such articles play up your existing relationship with a desired demographic, and that can pay off if it draws the group into your place of business.

3. Scale your output.

Local PR is vital to your success, but you don’t want to flood news outlets beyond your ability to generate current information or interesting content. For example, do interviews with local journalists to learn the how the process works, but don’t necessarily try to run an op-ed or article every week.

It can be harder to measure your impact if you’re pushing too much content, because the effects tend to overlap. If your PR efforts aren’t measurable, they’re a waste of your time, because individual efforts don’t inform your long-term strategy.

PR is a numbers game, so don’t downplay the stats. You have to know your community inside and out, pay attention to when sales spike, identify when foot traffic peaks, and stay apprised of all the other quirks of being present rather than virtual.

Local PR is driven by relationships. The more you connect with the people around you, the more successful your business will be.

Jenna Cyprus is a freelance writer and business consultant. She has lectured for several universities and has worked with more than 100 businesses in the last 15 years.

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5 signs of a lazy writer

Writing isn’t always easy.

Whether it’s marketing, academic, or technical text, or you’re simply trying to think of what to scribble on a co-worker’s birthday card, writing can be bewildering, tedious work. It’s fair to say that some days we put more effort into our work than other days.

However, communicators don’t want their skills or standards to slip because they’re having an off day. So, even when you feel unmotivated, avoid these five practices.

1. You don’t consider your audience.

In corporate communications, “writing for your audience” often takes a back seat to the demands of executives or colleagues. Your boss might want to include 500 words of background information in a blog post, but that doesn’t mean readers want to read it.

Remember, your audience is not your boss, but rather the “end user” of what you’ve written. Think about that audience before you start writing. Let go of what you want to say and focus on what your audience wants to know.

2. You skip the “why.”

Whether you’re telling customers about a price increase, employees about changes in company policy or encouraging people to stop texting while driving, leading with the “why” helps everyone understand the purpose of your message up front.

[RELATED: Write clear, bold prose that captivates audiences and promotes business goals]

For example, the sentence “Due to recent security concerns, all employees must now wear their name badges while in the building” is more clear and effective than simply stating “All employees must now wear their name badges in the building.”

3. You bury the lede.

Burying the lede is the failure to mention the most urgent or interesting elements of a story in the first few paragraphs. It means your copy fails to highlight the most important or actionable items at the beginning of the message.

Readers have little time to digest your message. Too much information can cause readers to tune out. Yet, many clients and executives insist on putting background or irrelevant information front and center.

Background information and statistics can be included in the message, but link to that information or list it under the headings “Background” or “Quick Facts” in later paragraphs.

4. You lean on “crutch” phrases.

“Crutch” phrases are often used when a writer is not sure how to start a sentence or how to connect two sentences.

For example:

“As many of you are already aware, happy hour starts at 2:30.”

The phrase “as many of you are already aware” doesn’t add anything to the sentence. It can be removed, allowing you to jump straight into the sentence. “Happy hour starts at 2:30.”

Unnecessary phrases add to the noise readers are trying to filter out.

5. You regurgitate the words everyone uses.

Some words are used so frequently, they become invisible. Think about the word “disaster.”

It’s been tossed around so haphazardly that no one pays attention to it. If everything is described as a disaster, then nothing is a disaster.

English is a versatile language, and we have a wealth of synonyms available. Use a thesaurus or keyword search tools to find alternative terms. Avoid terms such as amazing, epic, cool, exciting, unique, and significant. However, always look up new words before using them or risk missing the mark.

What other lazy writing habits have you seen, PR Daily readers?

A medical writer in Austin, Texas, Laura Hale Brockway is a regular contributor to PR Daily . Read more of her posts on writing and editing at impertinentremarks.com.

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How GIFs can revitalize your brand image

GIFs are gaining momentum in social media marketing.

GIF images, the acronym for “Graphic Interchange Format,” have been around for decades but have taken off in the last five years among younger generations communicating online. In fact, 69 percent of consumers recently reported that they frequently use GIFs in personal communications.

Millennials and the younger, increasingly coveted Generation Z enjoy deploying GIFs—memes or short clips from popular TV shows or movies—to convey emotions and reactions.

The growth of GIFs

The widespread use of GIFs via text messages and other communication apps like Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp has been made simple by GIF platforms such as Tenor and Giphy, which can be integrated directly into the keyboard on a user’s preferred messaging service.

GIFs have migrated from private communications to social media posts. For instance, users can now add GIF “stickers,” to photos they upload to Snapchat and Instagram stories.

[RELATED: Learn social media secrets from TED, Microsoft, Starbucks and more at Amazon HQ.]

As consumer use of GIFs skyrockets, many brand managers incorporate them into tweets, comments and branded communications. Many are exploring ways to create branded GIF stickers that users can add to photos and posts.

For example, Anheuser-Busch launched a series of stickers—available to consumers via search—for Instagram and Snapchat tied to their popular “Dilly Dilly” campaign for Bud Light.

Adding value with GIFs as rewards

Offering branded stickers drives consumer awareness organically. Brand managers can add value to campaigns that target younger generations of social media users by offering exclusive GIF sticker rewards in referral marketing campaigns.

Such campaigns encourage users to share a piece of branded content—either as is or with a personal message added—to a particular number of followers and friends in exchange for a reward. In this case, the reward would be a GIF sticker available only to users who unlock it.

Many referral marketing platforms support a variety of social media networks and communication touchpoints, including text and email. Letting consumers choose where to share the message allows for better targeting and greater trust in the source. Campaign analytics give brand managers a way to track engagement.

GIFs are of minimal cost to the brand, meaning greater ROI. Participants are in control of providing their personal information, easing privacy concerns. Brand managers can retain customer information for future campaigns.

Once consumers have earned the unique GIF sticker, they will probably continue to use it in personal and social media messages, boosting brand visibility for weeks to come, at no additional cost.

Herman DeBoard is the CMO of social referral marketing platform Grabbr. You can find him on Twitter, @HermanDeBoard.

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Calling all higher education communicators

It’s lonely at the top in every field, but if you’re a communications leader in higher education, the buck always stops with you.

Now is your chance to share, network and commiserate with your peers—and learn from them, too.

We’re looking for wise, experienced, inquisitive leaders for our Communications Leadership Roundtable for Higher Education Communicators in Pittsburgh on Aug. 16-17, hosted by the Swanson School of Engineering at the University of Pittsburgh.

The roundtable brings together 20 to 25 internal comms pros in a discussion focusing on your concerns and your solutions. It’s your chance to hear and be heard, to share your knowledge in a casual, confidential setting.

We call it a combination of benchmarking, idea-sharing, networking—and group therapy.

Because attendees’ experiences drive the conversation, to ensure a high-level discussion we ask candidates to fill out a simple application.

We’re reviewing applications now. Apply now!

The registration fee includes two nights’ lodging; a welcome reception on the first night; breakfast, lunch and snacks during the forum; and dinner on the second night.

You’re responsible only for airfare and the registration fee.

Submit your application now!

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3 TED talks to help you focus and fulfill your marketing objectives

TED talks are an invaluable resource for marketers.

They can help you turn leads into sales or devise a campaign to target your most sought-after customer base.

Conventional marketing efforts of the past now serve as quaint reminders of when customers could be wooed easily. These days, consumers are savvier and more informed than ever, and they are acutely aware of the man behind the curtain.

[RELATED: Distracted audiences? Mind-numbing topics? Cut through the clutter with creative corporate writing.]

The following TED talks illustrate just how cerebral the marketing world has become:

1. Steven Johnson: “Where Good Ideas Come From”

Author Steven Johnson has spent his career probing the confluence of technology, science and user experience, and their combined effect on the way we live and think. His TED talk focuses on idea creation, a concept on the mind of most marketers.

Johnson ponders where great ideas come from and dismisses common tropes about eureka moments in the process. Truly brilliant ideas are not born of a single instance, but instead come from multiple channels (what he terms the “liquid network”). He uses examples as diverse as Darwin’s development of the theory of evolution to how modern GPS was created (by way of the Sputnik satellite and a few curious lab workers).

2. Sheena Iyengar: “How to Make Choosing Easier”

Do more choices result in more sales? Not so much, says Sheena Iyengar, a respected author and professor at Columbia Business School. Iyengar has concluded that more choices hinder decision-making, and she uses the example of a gourmet grocery store offering an abundance of jams.

Iyengar found that although consumers were glad to sample jams when offered 24 choices, they were less likely to buy any. However, when only six samples were presented, customers were 30 percent more likely to buy a jar. Iyengar posits that an abundance of choice fatigues consumers, which can disrupt decision-making.

3. Rory Sutherland: “Life Lessons From an Ad Man”

Rory Sutherland began his illustrious advertising career as a copywriter in 1988. During the ensuing years, he has gained key insights into the world of marketing, including the importance of perception. Creating perceived value for a product is a crucial marketing tactic, as it speaks to something deep within consumers that transcends need.

At the heart of marketing is persuasion; how do you convince a customer that your product is the right one for them? You heighten the perceived value, Sutherland says. He tells how Frederick the Great influenced Germans to make potatoes a staple of their diet by declaring them the royal vegetable and forbidding common people to eat them. Soon after, the German people were eating potatoes in droves, because they now had a greater perceived value.

A version of this post first appeared on the Metis Communications blog.

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Meet the Real Estate Tech Founder: Tyler Forte from Felix Homes

In our latest real estate tech entrepreneur interview, we’re speaking with Tyler Forte from Felix Homes.

Without further ado…

What do you do?

I’m the CEO and Co-Founder of Felix Homes. We’re based in New York City and will be launching in Nashville, Tennessee within the next two weeks!

At Felix we don’t want to be your agent, we want to be your home selling partner. Felix is the only platform that combines key benefits of the direct buyer model with advantages that stem from working with a traditional real estate agent. We give owners the certainty of a guaranteed sale, an upfront cash payment to help with expenses and an incentive structure that gets them the highest price.

I was motivated to start Felix Homes after experiencing how broken the current selling process is and hearing other ‘horror stories’ from friends and family. I started Felix to help reduce the stress of selling a home by creating the most consumer friendly model.

My day-to-day role includes managing the launch of our Nashville operations, as well as working with my team to ensure we’re effectively getting our value proposition in front of consumers so that we can help as many home sellers as possible.

What problem does your product/service solve?

Our basic premise is that home sellers are not compensated for the uncertainty that stems from selling their home. Prior to Felix, owners had two options, working with a traditional agent and hoping that their home will sell or working with a direct buyer and paying a commission fee that’s as high as 12%.

At Felix, we pay homeowners up to 2% of their home’s value just for listing on our platform. If Felix is unable to find a buyer within 90 days, we’ll purchase the home at an agreed upon price, so the seller can have the certainty of a guaranteed sale from day one. Instead of taking a traditional 5-6% commission, we’ll list your home at market value and if we can sell it for more, we earn the difference capped at six percent. This means that we only make money when the home seller does.

What are you most excited about right now?

We’re really excited about our launch in the Nashville market! We’ve talked to sellers, buyers, and brokers in market and all of them were enthusiastic about our product offering. In fact, based on a customer survey we conducted, over 73% of respondents would either use or recommend Felix over a traditional agent.

Additionally, it’s great to see the amount of innovation in prop-tech and the growing acceptance of new, disruptive models.

What’s next for you?

Our goal is to launch and scale in the Nashville market and then expand nationwide. We’ll be raising additional capital come Q4 with the intent of using the financing to expand our offerings to other markets.

What’s a cause you’re passionate about and why?

I’m passionate about social equality. My two co-founders are both immigrants and I believe the current environment really discounts the amazing talent and varying perspectives that made America great. I think we should be more open to people from all over the world and should work on attracting the best talent to the United States.

Thanks to Tyler for sharing his story. If you’d like to connect, find him on LinkedIn here.

We’re constantly looking for great real estate tech entrepreneurs to feature. If that’s you, please read this post — then drop me a line (drew @ geekestatelabs dot com).

The post Meet the Real Estate Tech Founder: Tyler Forte from Felix Homes appeared first on GeekEstate Blog.

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Tips for making a splash with live video

For better or worse, the live video train keeps plugging along, gaining speed and popularity as it goes.

This increasing power certainly comes with a fair share of pros and cons. Video is often considered the most difficult form of content marketing, from a creative standpoint, but the effect video has on customers and audience engagement cannot be understated.

According to research conducted by Livestream, live video consumption jumped by 80 percent from 2015 to 2016. Notably, 82 percent of customers would rather watch live video from a brand than read a blog post or view social media updates.

Additionally, engagement rates of live video significantly surpass those of traditional video. On average, the viewing time is eight times longer than on-demand content.

However, simply jumping online and filming does not guarantee amazing results. Though audiences are more inclined to check out a livestream, the quality is just as important as any other piece of content. Plus, viewers often list quality as the most important factor when watching a livestream.

[FREE DOWNLOAD: How to transform dull stories into compelling content]

If your marketing team is considering adding live video to their content strategy (which they certainly should), here are some crucial tips to keep in mind:

1. Define your on-screen personality in detail.

In today’s business landscape, brands are often defined by their personality, rather than their product.

People associate characteristics with a brand similar to the way they associate human character traits. So your on-screen personality must match up with your brand voice, as well.

Before you begin filming your live video, pick your host(s) wisely and be sure they understand the brand’s personality and core values. Don’t be afraid to go into detail or create visual representations of your brand to paint a clearer picture that they’ll quickly understand.

The ultimate goal is to create a persona with which your target audience easily connects. To do this, you need to know your customers very well. Fortunately, this task is easier than ever these days.

First, monitor relevant conversations on social media to get a feel for how your existing and potential customers interact on the web. Second, use your point-of-sale data to build customer profiles. From here, you can formulate the ideal on-screen persona to play to their interests.

2. Choose your live video guests wisely.

By collaborating with well-known names or even micro-influencers in the industry, both parties can join forces and combine audiences for higher view rates and engagement. Videos featuring influencers have seven times higher view rates than traditional advertisements on YouTube.

Here, the best approach is to consider guests in the same way you’d consider a social media influencer to represent your brand: Take a look at their past portfolio.

Do your guests run in the same circles as your business? Would their audience be interested in your content and vice versa?

What sort of niche expertise can they bring to the table? Do they have experience filming live video before? If so, what are their engagement rates?

By using this influencer marketing approach to qualify guests, you can determine whether or not they will be a proper fit for a feature on your live videos. Their personality and areas of knowledge must be relevant to your viewers, but the video should benefit your guest as well.

3. Consider the replay value.

Chances are, a large portion of your audience won’t be available for every livestream event. While you may use strategic timing to reach the largest group possible, not everyone has the freedom to hop on and watch.

Therefore, it’s important with every recording to consider the replay value down the road. Consider your audience’s motivations for watching the video as you plan your topics.

The vast majority are looking for entertainment or inspiration, but 34 percent are looking for educational content and eight percent are looking specifically for information about a brand.

Source

While ultra-relevant and time-sensitive videos are certainly valuable for gaining viewers and interest, there should always be a good bank of evergreen content in your brand library. For long-lasting results, be sure to include information that will be beneficial for audiences for years to come.

4. Interact in real time.

The clearest benefit of livestreaming is the fact that it’s—well, live. That means anything can happen; which gives brands the chance to engage with their audiences in a candid light.

According to an ON24 study, tools receiving the most interaction during a livestream event were polls, chats, and Q&A sessions with the host. Each of these features gives viewers the chance to have their voice heard and even guide the conversation—an opportunity brands should never turn down.

Source

Depending on which platform you choose to host the livestream, you’ll find many tools and features that make live interactions possible. By giving viewers an opportunity to share opinions, ask questions and participate in the event, engagement rates will skyrocket.

5. Promote your video event in advance.

As with any other type of event, the best way to ensure people know about it is advertising. Posting about it on social media is certainly a great way to let your audience know. However, thanks to the latest algorithm changes to Facebook and Instagram, there is no guarantee your posts will reach your viewers in time.

Sending promotional emails is also a great strategy, especially if your content is more business-focused and caters to a professional group.

The best days to promote your videos and increase the number of viewers are Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays. Weekends are the worst days.

Source

It’s important to give your audience advance notice before production goes live so they can fit it to their schedule. Your best bet is to notify them less than a week before and give them at the very least 24-hour notice.

Source

The greatest and scariest thing about live video is that truly anything can happen. Use this fact as a benefit by planning ahead as much as possible. Doing so ensures your message, guests and content will reach your audience in engaging and profitable ways.

Manish Dudharejia is the President and Co-Founder of E2M Solutions, Inc., a San Diego based digital agency specializing in website design and development, and eCommerce SEO. A version of this article originally appeared on the Spin Sucks blog.

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Places’ Lack of Value Proposition

Places, a new social network, got written up in Inman. Have a look at their home page:

Notice anything?

I did. There is no primary value proposition. What problem would I use this product to alleviate, and why? I’m left wondering on both questions.

Was this a premature product launch? I’d say so.

The post Places’ Lack of Value Proposition appeared first on GeekEstate Blog.

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In a streamlining effort, Google discards ‘AdWords’ brand

Google wants to simplify its advertising products.

Given its bevy of ad brands—including AdWords, AdSense and DoubleClick—navigating the company’s offerings can be confusing for online marketers.

Now the company is consolidating many of its products into three encompassing brands: Google Ads, Google Marketing Platform and Google Ad Manager.

TechCrunch reported:

Sridhar Ramaswamy, the senior vice president who leads Google’s ad efforts, explained the rebrand at a press event this morning, where he said the company has been getting “consistent feedback” over the past few years that the plethora of ad products and brands — assembled largely through acquisitions — could make it be confusing for advertisers.

“This is a primarily a name change, but it is indicative of where we have been directing the product” for the past few years, Ramaswamy said. He also said the rebrand points to “where we want the product to go.”

Ramaswamy got more specific in a blog post about the changes. He described the new Google Ads as a replacement of Google AdWords, with extra capabilities:

For small businesses specifically, we’re introducing a new campaign type in Google Ads that makes it easier than ever to get started with online advertising. It brings the machine learning technology of Google Ads to small businesses and helps them get results without any heavy lifting—so they can stay focused on running their businesses.

[RELATED: Overcome your biggest challenges in internal comms, PR and social media]

Google Ads will replace Adwords, representing “the full range of advertising capabilities” Google can offer, Ramaswamy says. Google Marketing Platfrom will highlight analytics integration by combining the DoubleClick tools with Google Analytics 360—plus adding features for marketers to measure video performance.

Finally, Google offers Google Ad Manager as a combination of tools for publishers to monetize their websites.

Pricing should remain the same, Google says.

US News and World Report reported:

Google executives said its fees are not changing, and no services are merging. The company will retain the AdSense and AdMob brands for ad sales technologies that are aimed at small websites and mobile app developers, respectively.

But its basic tool for buying ads now will be named Google Ads, with access to inventory on Google search, its YouTube video service, the Google Play app store and 3 million partner properties. The default interface for Google Ads will be simplified, executives said, with automation powering the design of ads and deciding where they should run.

High-end software for ad buyers will be called Google Marketing Platform. Google Ads Manager will be a complementary [sic] tool for large sellers.

One major change for marketers is the retirement of the DoubleClick brand. Its replacement, Google Marketing Platform, will offer the same tools, along with new options for video content.

TechCrunch reported:

Under that umbrella, Google is also announcing a new product called Display & Video 360, which combines features from DoubleClick Bid Manager, Campaign Manager, Studio and Audience Center.

Managing Director for Platforms Dan Taylor said the Google Marketing Platform is responding to a growing need for collaboration — for example, he said Adidas used the platform to bring its brand and performance marketing teams together with the measurement team.

The Marketing Platform includes a new Integrations Center where marketers can view all the … different ways they can connect their Google tools. (And while the focus here is on integration within Google’s platform, Taylor said the company remains committed to interoperability with outside ad exchanges and measurement providers.)

Google hopes to decrypt its ad business for everyone, including consumers who have found the company to be increasingly less transparent.

Ramaswamy wrote:

We know that the media and technology advertisers and publishers choose to use impacts the relationships they have with their customers. As always, our commitment is to ensure that all of our products and platforms set the industry’s highest standard in giving people transparency and choice in the ads they see. For example, we recently announced new Ads Settings and expanded Why this ad? across all of our services, and almost all websites and apps that partner with us to show ads.

The change elicited sadness from some Googlers.

Fast Company wrote:

“This is a bit of a bittersweet moment for us,” said Sridhar Ramaswamy, Google’s SVP of ads, referring to the sunsetting of DoubleClick. Still, he said most of functionality would stay the same. Google earned $40 billion from its advertising business last year, and is expected to control, with Facebook, over 58 percent of digital advertising in 2018, according to eMarketer, amid growing competition from Amazon and others.

Some view the change as positive:

No more Google #AdWords, just Google Ads as Google rebrands it's Ads Platform. Nice!

— Enoch Appiah Jr. (@iamrobotboy) June 27, 2018

Others waxed nostalgic:

A re-branding end of an era:
AdWords + Hotel&other Ads -> Google Ads
DoubleClick Advertisers + the 360 Suite -> Google Marketing Platform
DoubleClick Publishers + AdExchange -> Google Ad Manager

Feeling terribly nostalgic here.#google #adwords #ppcchat https://t.co/1crwWZJCz7

— Matteo Mariani (@mmmMatteo) June 27, 2018

What do you think of Google’s brand change, PR Daily readers?

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3 reasons why you should let us write your content

Ragan Communications and PR Daily have more than four decades of storytelling experience. We’ll help you reach your business goals with new content and distribution on our globe-spanning news sites.

Sponsored content is potent and unique. It will make you:

1. A thought leader.

Show your heels to your competition, show your audience that you’re more than a product or solution. You’re an expert. You’re an educator. You’re a sought-after source for information. Share your thought leadership with a Ragan-written downloadable practical guide, white paper or shareable article.

2. A lead generating machine.

If we build your content, they’ll read it. Communicators need content that makes their job easier. With every download, you’ll capture new qualified leads.

3. A data maven.

We know you never stop learning. Focus your research on communications needs, or learn exactly what your audience looks for with a Ragan survey. We’ll conduct pop-up or in-depth surveys, interviews and focus groups to fine-tune your content strategy to ensure engagement.

Creating powerful new content is critical to business success. We’ll help you meet your goals with our sponsored content.

Email us with questions and for a full list of available sponsored content opportunities. Click here for more information on sponsorship with Ragan.

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How to elicit and use vibrant executive quotes

Executive quotes are a main component of news releases and other PR materials.

They're also usually quite horrible.

They're typically verbose, unhelpful and downright boring. Executive quotes in PR releases rarely make an impression, because they seldom say anything worthwhile or memorable. The executives sound like robots. Journalists rarely include them in articles. They probably stop reading them after the first "We're excited about …"

Noteworthy quotes by executive or subject-matter experts add vitality to a story. They can provoke emotion, create images and provide anecdotes or unique perspectives.

"Quotes are your best opportunity to add some appeal, humor, sizzle or auspicious information to your press release without it coming off as too promotional or staged," advises Lisa Goldsberry at Axia Public Relations. "Quotes can also lend authority to a statement or opinion if they're attributed to someone specific and relevant to the story. The problem comes when you have the perfect source for the quote, but the actual words fall flat."

[RELATED: Get the skills you need to become a trusted advisor to leaders.]

The following recommendations can help PR and corporate communications pros compose quotes that editors include in articles and that people read and remember:

Ask the right questions. Before writing a quote, ask the executive or expert questions such as these: From your perspective, what is the most important thing about this announcement? What were you hoping when you recommended or approved this? How will this benefit our customers? What effect do you think this will have on the company? What will change as a result? What would you like to say about its importance? Can you share a relevant anecdote? It's best to get the executive to voice his answers, not write them. The quotes then come across with more authenticity.

Sound like a human, not a robot. Most executive quotes sound as though PR deliberately squeezed out any semblance of humanity, writes Lou Hoffman, CEO of the Hoffman Agency, in the Ishmael's Corner blog. Send quotes through a sound test: Read them aloud, and ask yourself if they sound like something a person would actually say.

Eliminate buzzwords such as "synergy" and "paradigm shift." Amy Lecza, senior content marketing lead at All Points Public Relations, warns: "All industries use buzzwords. As a result executives sometimes have a tendency to cling to a few and use them until all meaning has been wrung out. Fluff words mean nothing. They can destroy a quote." Drop buzzwords and jargon that can hide the message, and instead find the essence of what you're trying to relate.

Keep them short. Quotes that run on forever can cause readers to lose interest, forget they are still reading a quote and even forget who was speaking. Sentences should likewise be short, about 10 words each rather than 30. "If you have a lot to say in a quote," Goldsberry says, "break it up or spread it around throughout the press release."

Be creative. Strong verbs and distinctive language help make quotes memorable. As long as your spelling and punctuation are correct, don't be afraid to be different, Goldsberry says. A quote within a quote, ellipses and other grammatical and writing devices are all fair game—whatever it takes to get your quote noticed.

Add value. Good quotes add value to the story. They include statements that a nonbiased media article cannot. That could be an opinion, an interpretation or a unique perspective. Read the news release draft without the quote, and ask yourself whether the release lost any significance or whether you should rewrite a passage to restore meaning, suggests Lauren Edwards, founder and principal of WriteCulture. If you answer no, the quote lacks value.

Avoid clichés. Shun words such as delighted, pleased, excited and proud to. They lack news value and add nothing, Edwards says.

Be memorable. Good sound bites are short, colorful and easily repeated. Similar to a sound bite, a kicker is placed at the end of the article. Also memorable, the kicker can bring the story full circle. To write a sound bite or kicker, Edwards advises to do one of the following:

• Emphasize one or more of the five sentences.
• Use a metaphor, simile or analogy.
• Summarize the entire topic in 10 words or fewer.

Vibrant quotes can transform staid news releases and other PR content into memorable stories. They offer the best device to add flair to news releases and other PR content, yet most executive quotes fall flat. Quotes with an authentic voice or opinion, special insight or shock value will knock 'em dead.

A version of this post first appeared on the Glean.info blog.

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