Archive for the 'Writing' Category
By Paul Furiga
As we share StoryCrafting, our model of storytelling in public relations, with clients, colleagues and the marketplace, we’re getting great response. We’re also getting two questions that are very important:
- How do you define good PR storytelling?
- Can you provide examples of good PR storytelling?
The answers are yes and yes.
Beginning this month, we will add three regular features here on the WordWrite StoryCrafting blog that will explore our key tenets of excellent storytelling in public relations: having an authentic story, employing fluent storytellers to share the authentic story, and the important process of “reading the audience” to make sure the story and storyteller resonates with the audience and engages them proactively.
Each month, we’ll be highlighting these principles of StoryCrafting by celebrating the authentic stories, fluent storytellers and great examples of audience engagement that define excellent public relations storytelling.
One week, we’ll select the Authentic Story of the Month and explain why that particular public relations story is the best example of our principle.
During a second week, we’ll select the Fluent Storyteller of the Month and explain what that person or organization did to demonstrate their storytelling fluency.
In a third blog each month, we’ll share the best example of reading an audience to assure that the authentic story and the fluent storyteller sharing the story are painting a picture, setting a tone and creating an experience that really resonates with the audience.
Initially, we’ll be selecting the stories, storytellers and audience examples to illustrate the thinking that led us to spend more than two years developing StoryCrafting. We want your feedback and thoughts, so our comments will be wide open for your contributions to the discussion.
After we have the new blog categories launched, we hope to expand the discussion so that you can make your own recommendations for authentic stories, fluent storytellers and audience engagement. Perhaps we’ll even turn it into a regular poll so we can all vote on the best examples.
Speaking of polls, one common thread of comments we get as we share StoryCrafting centers on poor examples of stories, storytellers and audience engagement. After all, we live in a real and sometimes surprising world, and whether it’s Tiger Woods or BP or Goldman Sachs, or any other example that comes to mind, it seems there are plenty of examples of poor storytelling in public relations.
We’ll have some fun with that, I’m sure. But first, let’s define the guidelines for storytelling success. We look forward to sharing our thoughts with you — and we look forward to your participation!
_____
Paul Furiga is president and CEO of WordWrite Communications.
August 12 2010 | Communications and Media and Public Relations and Storytelling and Writing and social media | No Comments »
By John Durante
In trying to tell influential stories, I am constantly aware of the age-old concept of “the marketplace of ideas.” Rooted in economic theory and famous Supreme Court decisions, public relations and marketing communications pros instinctively understand that idea “expression” jostles among multiple, competing ideas for audience attention.
Through free market forces “good” ideas are supposed to get disproportionate attention—“bad” ones supposedly don’t. But the mundane content of so much social media has me wondering if this digital content/technology form offers content that rises to the standard of “idea” and (at least as of yet) makes any contribution to its namesake marketplace. It’s up to those of using social media to make it a marketplace of ideas. Here are three ways that you can use social media to add to the marketplace of ideas:
1. ) Small packages must carry big ideas: Remember that while a Tweet is only 140 characters, an idea is usually bigger than that. So be willing to see the big picture and big idea context that includes (but is not limited) to a specific tweet. True social media idea creation will almost always require multiple messages, across multiple platforms. But we can never lose sight of the “big idea” behind all the blogs, posts, tweets, etc. Otherwise, we add nothing to the idea marketplace.
2.) Put ideas first, the medium second: Perhaps the most important technological contribution to creating an idea marketplace came from Gutenberg and his printing press more than six centuries ago. Countless others including Jefferson, Greeley, Brady, Sarnoff, Paley, Murrow, Pyle, FDR, Farnsworth and Gates have all made significant contributions either by understanding how to harness a communications tool in way that enhanced and broadened idea exchange or by advancing technology to do the same. More importantly, all of these contributors did this in a way in which their output were themselves complete ideas that contributed to the idea marketplace. We have yet to see anyone step out to harness social media to make it an idea marketplace. Could it be you who does?
3.) Do more than just “express yourself:” Never have so many been able to express so much so easily to so many others. But if all of that “expression” is to have a point besides self adulation and mutual entertainment, what care must we take to ensure that mere communication “expressions” constitute at least some semblance of a coherent thought or idea? If not, aren’t we just “cluttering” our own brain’s bandwidth? Without striving for a higher standard, what contribution do our social media musings make to the marketplace of ideas? And if the answer is none, then why are we spending so much time, professionally and personally, on social media? To put it another way, what’s your point? Have one.
Just as seeds are insufficient in themselves to create crops (they must be nurtured with sun, soil and water) the all too common communicative scatting of the social media world must have context and thought to make a point. And my point here is this: It is high time we explore and use social media with far greater consideration for the ideas we aim to communicate than the speed or the scope that we can achieve while blasting them into the ether.
_____
John Durante is senior marketing associate for WordWrite Communications.
May 18 2010 | Business to Business and Communications and Media and Public Relations and Storytelling and Writing and social media | No Comments »
By Jason Snyder
Because of our firm’s focus on health care communications, I’ve had the pleasure of meeting and working with some great health care leaders. I recently had the opportunity to sit down with the CEO of an independent community health system. That in and of itself can sometimes be an accomplishment, given how busy health system CEOs are in this current health care environment. But my friend was gracious enough to take the time to talk with me about how he believes systems like his can thrive in a time when many community hospitals are susceptible to closing or joining a larger system in an attempt to keep their doors open.
According to American Hospital Association statistics, in 2005, 55 percent of hospitals were part of health systems, up from 46 percent just five years earlier. These numbers illustrate the fact that in some markets, independent community hospitals are straining to remain strategically and financially competitive and may be considering partnering with another entity. Further, according to AHA data, the United States has 893 fewer hospitals today than it had in 1990 as a result of mergers, acquisitions and closures.
So what is the solution for independent community hospitals? It may well be creating a new model of integration in which community hospitals in the same region build collaborative relationships with each other yet remain independent and, in fact, still compete with each other. Under this model, they can ally themselves against behemoths like the Ascension Health, Tenet Healthcare Corporation and Sutter Health systems of the world. What my friend described is a merger of equals that still allows for opportunities for each individual system.
Whether it be bringing all of a single health system’s physicians into the fold as employees to gain economies of scale and share technology, leveraging differentiators such as a residency program within a community hospital as a feeder system for other hospitals in the newly integrated model, or a creative combination of strategies, many possibilities exist for growth and security.
The way medicine was delivered 20 years ago is not the same today and clearly won’t be 20 years from now. As health care delivery evolves, especially for community hospitals, so too must the mindset of the consumer and other hospital stakeholders. Influencing that change of mind and behavior and helping them understand why the changes were made and how they’ll benefit them will be critical to ensure a successful new model. Effectively communicating with stakeholders also will ensure that market share grows and patients won’t migrate to larger systems.
Just as the biggest systems have millions of dollars to regularly make new capital purchases to keep up with ever-changing technology, they also have millions in their marketing arsenal to make beautiful commercials and ads that keep their brand front and center. Community hospitals don’t have those resources, and today, as communications undergoes a tectonic shift, it’s not necessary to have such a war chest for communicating. There is still a place for community hospital advertising, but to communicate substantively, to really help consumers understand and ultimately engage them as champions of the change and the new brand, the right combination of traditional and social media is critical.
Social media – blogging, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube – along with search engine-optimized web sites, press releases and byline articles, levels the playing field with the largest of systems. Community health systems can have robust, results-driven social media strategies. Coupled with traditional public relations activities, including media relations and speaking engagements, social media can be a game-changer.
I’m not qualified to say whether the new integrated community hospital model will work. But knowing the CEO behind the vision, I’d bet on it. I can say with absolute certainty that a communications strategy today – whether it’s addressing change in health care or quelling a crisis – must engage audiences in two-way communications, not speak at them, and that strategy must include traditional and social media.
Health care experts, communications experts, others – what do you think?
_____
Jason Snyder is vice president of WordWrite Communications.
March 25 2010 | Business Growth and Business to Business and Communications and Healthcare and Media and Public Relations and Storytelling and Writing and social media | No Comments »
By Jason Snyder
Even the purple worn by First Lady Michelle Obama, Vice President Joe Biden and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was part of President Obama’s State of the Union communications strategy, according to ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos. President Obama wasn’t speaking to the blue Democrats or red GOP. He had to mix the colors and speak to a broad, blended swath.
President Obama’s first State of the Union address, given Wednesday, Jan. 27, like all major speeches, was a case study in the art of communications, though this one took place on the grandest of stages.
Politics aside, I think Obama’s communications staff did a fine job, especially given that one year ago, their man could seemingly walk on water. On the cover of the latest issue of the New Yorker, he is seen sinking into that very water.
Politics aside, business executives and organization leaders can learn much from last night’s speech as they work to engage and motivate their constituents, whether it is from behind the podium or with the pen. Whether you need to build, maintain or, as in Obama’s case, repair your image and public perception, how clearly and effectively you communicate with your stakeholders will go far in determining whether you can achieve your goals.
Three tenants of strong communications rise to the top in my review of the State of the Union speech – the president’s consistency of message, use of authentic stories to put a face on an issue, and proper positioning.
Despite what happened last week in Massachusetts when Republican Scott Brown won the Senate seat Ted Kennedy held for 37 years (and which Obama did not mention), his message on health care was consistent with the night he took office: health care for all Americans. In the world of business, visionary leaders will encounter roadblocks as they lead their organizations toward achievement of their strategic goals. The successful leader understands that the key messages remain the same regardless of the time it takes to clear them, and whatever the pundits (or your opponents) may say about whether you will fall flat on your face. Abandoning your key messages to snipe at your critics is a sure sign of desperation — and defeat.
For the vast majority of the president’s constituents, the economy and jobs are foremost on their minds. How does a president, whether of a country or a business, empathize with his or her stakeholders, especially when many are largely walled off from the day-to-day concerns shared by many of them? By demonstrating an understanding of their plight and by spending time with and listening to them. Obama cited numerous examples of the letters he has read, including the one from a child who asked why his family had to move out of their home, and the towns he has visited as unemployment has rocketed to 10 percent. He put a face on the shared human experience, including unemployment, to prove his understanding of and commitment to fixing it.
In my many years as a communications professional and as somebody’s employee (i.e., a stakeholder), I’ve seen some very authentic CEOs who were able to truly understand their stakeholders and thereby effectively engage them and motivate them. I’ve also seen some merely pay lip service, and it’s ultimately cost them. In my current work with my clients, we are dealing with significant business issues that can affect legislation and millions of people. In my experience, our clients have had the most success communicating the importance of their mission, many times through the media, when they’ve been able to deliver authentic stories that put a face on these issues.
Finally, I’ll use the example of the federal bailout of America’s largest banks and the stimulus bill to illustrate my point about positioning. With its stimulus bill, the Obama administration added $1 trillion to our deficit, and many saw and still see it as the wrong thing to do. First conceding the additional debt, Obama then quickly and positively positioned the bill, citing the two million jobs it created, the 1.5 million it is set to create this year and announcing that nearly all of the bailout money has been paid back, $30 billion of which will go toward improving the small business lending environment. He also clearly stated that inaction was not an option.
There is always more than one way to look at something, and therefore more than one way to position it. Savvy business leaders who are broad thinkers know this and use this knowledge to their advantage in communicating with their constituents.
Are the president’s policies right or wrong? Can they be achieved or not? I’ll let the pundits argue about that. My point is that the 2010 State of the Union address was an excellent exercise in collectively analyzing the communications strategies and tactics that business leaders should be using in their stakeholder communications every chance they get.
Did Mr. Obama’s communications strategy to settle a nervous America work? Did he convince Americans that the state of the union is strong? Did he succeed in regrouping a wobbled Democratic party? If you were one of his speechwriters or communications strategists, what you would have done? I mentioned consistency of message, authentic storytelling and proper positioning. What am I missing?
_____
Jason Snyder is vice president of WordWrite Communications.
January 28 2010 | Business Growth and Business to Business and Communications and Healthcare and Media and Public Relations and Storytelling and Writing and social media | 1 Comment »
By Paul Furiga
The continuing explosion of content creation tools in cyberspace has me feeling both nostalgic and prophetic these days. It’s an odd combination, I grant you, but hear me out. I suspect many of you are seeing the same thing and are having the same experiences.
Way back in the bad old days of the 1980s, when hair was big and glam metal was bigger, aspiring young communicators and marketers began learning a new discipline: Integrated Marketing Communications, or IMC. While practitioners have tried to sex up the definition of IMC in recent years to include social media, cell phones, the Internet, etc., the fact remains that when it was conceived, IMC contemplated one-way communication, primarily through advertising or direct mail, supported by a limited interpretation of public relations and a smattering of point of purchase or other marketing disciplines that barely resemble their descendants (such as guerrilla marketing or street marketing).
When IMC was conceived, MTV was in its infancy, CNN was still a toddler and Fox News hadn’t even been sketched out by Roger Ailes and Rupert Murdoch. The three over-the-air networks still ruled the marketing roost and the idea that an audience would talk back to someone practicing IMC with a response other than “Yes, yes, I will buy your product!” was a concept beyond imagining. Ah, the good old days. (Most of my nostalgia is directed at bands such as Queen or Poison, and not at one-way marketing).
As we prepare to enter the second decade of the 21st century, it’s time to retire Integrated Marketing Communications along with the bad hair and hair bands. Social media tools have changed the game. It’s all about the conversation now.
It’s time for a new paradigm, one I call Integrated Digital Communications. Like its predecessor, IDC contemplates the seamless use of a variety of tools to achieve communication or marketing objectives. The difference is that it’s a different world that demands different tools. For example, no one calls it “direct mail” any more, and fewer and fewer marketers use it. We have hundreds of cable channels with smaller audiences and thousands of cell phones with small screens and iPods and PDAs and netbooks and web cams and on and on.
In the place of printed phone books, direct mail postcards, or a limited selection of one-way, bombastic network ad vehicles, this exploding universe of social media tools, when used best, really do support each other. They are best when they are integrated — Twitter twinned with Facebook or LinkedIn driving traffic to a company’s HR page or, YouTube video to a contest, or in my business, the plethora of SEO-optimized press release wires driving traffic to a company web site, a YouTube video, or any one of these vehicles and vice versa.
The common denominator for all of these social media tools is that they crave content by the bucket load, and not just any content — the kind that drives the conversation. This is what PR, and PR practitioners, have been doing for decades.
In this new universe, PR is the only discipline properly equipped to create, deliver and manage content in the new social media universe.
They call it public relations because it’s about relationships. Forget spin and all that other crap wannabe practitioners and charlatans peddle at the bottom of the PR food chain. True public relations begins with conversations, which can lead to deeper dialogue, which can lead to long-term relationships.
It doesn’t matter if it’s Facebook or LinkedIn or Twitter or YouTube or whatever other social media tool you might name, it’s about creating community, and that’s built through relationships. This is what public relations does better than any other communication or marketing discipline.
So what’s the next step for public relations and integrated digital communications? The content gap, if anything, is only yawning wider. At WordWrite, we find more and more often that clients “get” the social media concept as an engine in their public relations efforts and they are asking us to help.
How will this shift toward communities of conversation affect the overall communication or marketing world? The battle is on. Ad shops are buying social media shops. “Interactive” shops are becoming social media shops. Direct mail has become direct marketing, and guess what, direct marketing is a form of social media!
None of these disciplines, whatever they may call themselves, understand conversations. They are pipe people, technologists rather than communicators, or they are communicators in love with one-way bombast.
So as the fight to rename or reclaim traditional marketing territory moves into cyberspace, the demand for content grows. And as the demand for content that feeds conversation grows, so does the need for public relations and public relations practitioners who understand Integrated Digital Communications. Welcome to the brave new world. May the best conversationalists win!
_____
Paul Furiga is president and CEO of WordWrite Communications.
November 24 2009 | Communications and Media and Public Relations and Storytelling and Writing and social media | 2 Comments »
Next »