All posts by Sebastian

A headline alone can’t hack it

Talking to your customers, Talking to your employees

I was reading a national newspaper the other day – it’s an occupational hazard – when I was struck by the paper’s complete absence of sub-headers (it was the Guardian if you must know). There’s the headline in all its attention grabbing glory, but what happened to all its little brothers and sisters scattered strategically throughout the piece to help the reader navigate the article and keep them interested?

A barren landscape (there’s a sub for you)
There was a big investigative story that looked interesting, but confronted by the acres of news print, I couldn’t quite face the read. It all looked a little daunting.

One click and you’ve lost it (make them engaging…)
Writing for the web for instance demands that you write less; break it up into manageable chunks; have clear signposting in place; and basically do all you can to keep a tenacious hold of the reader’s digitally shortened attention span. One click and you’ve lost it.

Now I know writing in newsprint gives you a bit more of that reader’s attention span, but just how much? Would you have an article without pictures?  I would say that good sub-headers are just as important.

Free money (…but keep them relevant)
So when you’re next writing a piece whether it’s online or print, an internal newsletter or an article for external publication, think what you can do to the layout to make it as engaging and as easy to read as possible.

It doesn’t matter how well crafted your words are if no one bothers to read them.

Foul! Setting restrictive rules for the media plays a dangerous game

Communicating in a crisis, Working with the media

Whether you love the beautiful game, or think the goal posts in your local park are there simply for the convenience of dog walkers and their piddling pooches, football often provides a useful source of case studies for good and bad media management.

Here, in my view, is a particularly bad case of media management:

It’s my ball and I won’t play
The Carlos Tevez affair – and for those who don’t follow the game, ‘famous footballer refuses to take off tracksuit and play football’ sums it up quite neatly – threw up an interesting press conference where Manchester City’s Head of Communications apparently announced that any questions surrounding Tevez would immediately end the press conference.

What do Man City think will happen if they refuse to take questions about Tevez at a press conference? That journalists will simply shrug their shoulders and write about Mancini’s (the manager) terrific hair; or whether they’ll line up a 4:3:3 formation at the next home game.

Of course they won’t. And this piece in the Guardian sums up a journalist’s attitude very well to this piece of heavy handed media dealing http://bit.ly/rbXrpf

Don’t duck the issue
As ever, don’t duck the issue. If there are legal reasons why a particular matter can’t be discussed, employment contracts for instance, then say so when asked the question. But to simply refuse to ask questions about the hottest issue of the day seems to me to belong to an era of media management that should have long since disappeared.

Is the press release, like the parrot, really dead?

Social media, Working with the media

“It is an ex-release: it has ceased to be” – apologies to all Pythonists for that sacrilege, but I’ve been wondering whether the press release, rather than the parrot, has had its day. Have a Google and you’ll see that the debate rages unabated amongst the communications fraternity.

It’s life Jim, but…
Certainly the distribution method of press releases has changed out of all recognition, and the channels open to corporates to share news have expanded hugely,  but I don’t think that social media has quite removed the need for the venerable old bringer of news quite yet.

Relevant and readable
Media outlets, whether newspapers, trade magazines or blogs, still take information directly from company press releases – sometimes as a direct copy and paste, and I think that most journalists will still prefer to have a well written and well targeted release.

And therein remains the secret: making sure a release really does have news in it; is not full of corporate flimflam; is well crafted and straight to the point; and, above all, is relevant to a title’s readership is still the key.

As for the parrot, it has, I’m afraid, ‘ceased to be’.

It’s a web, not a cobweb

Talking to your customers, Working with the media

I’ve developed an annoying habit. It’s probably one that is unique to people working in corporate communications and might well be motivated by a touch of Schadenfreude, or at least, relief that it’s not me facing the flak on this occasion.

Sailing serenely on
I’ll come clean: when a crisis kicks off at a big company and their name is splashed all over the news, I’ll head straight to their website to see how they’re handling it. And what do I find there? Most of the time nothing it seems. The home page of the site sails serenely on through the digital ebb and flow of cyber space with little acknowledgement of the growing storm in the real world.

Does the company not care? Does it think people will not find out?

Get it up
Ironically websites might seem a bit old hat in the online world, but they are still one of the primary and most effective means of communication.  So if trouble strikes, get something up on the site quickly:

  • acknowledge the problem
  • tell people what you’re doing about it
  • and have regular updates.

Communication is too fragmented these days by the numerous methods of social media to hope that you can keep a lid on an issue. So make sure you can update your site quickly and use it as the frontline in your crisis communications – people will be watching.

Social media: think before you ‘do’

Social media, Talking to your customers, Talking to your employees

If there was a prize for the creation of new or at least reinvented verbs, then step forward social media. Blog it, tweet it, poke me, message me; there is, indeed, an awful lot of ‘doing’ going on. Which is nice for those who like to see a bit of action but those shiny new tools in the box shouldn’t allow you to be detracted from the thinking behind your communications.

Beware the irrestible lure
The pressure to utilise social media can be irresistible but don’t forget to ask the most obvious questions first; who are you trying to communicate with and what are you trying to say? The audience and the message are still the stars of the show. Only when you’ve got that cracked should you be thinking about how best to deliver your communications and, whisper it, social media tools might not always be the best way of getting the message through.