Insights for Leaders Navigating
Visibility, Credibility, and Growth.

From media strategy to reputation management, we explore the trends shaping public perception and share the approaches that drive measurable results for growing brands.

Problematic Punctuation

Punctuation has a definite and important place in writing. When used improperly it can change the meaning of a sentence and drive your readers crazy. As communication professionals, we need to pay particular attention to punctuation as we strive to deliver clear and concise messages.

See the image on the left. It seems this person finds floor maintenance exhilarating! However, it’s easy to see that this is an obvious misuse — and overuse — of the exclamation point. Punctuation problems aren’t always this over the top, but happen frequently. So what are some quick ways to ensure you’re using punctuation properly?

Ragan.com offers some good direction in an article, “5 frequently misused punctuation marks.” The author, Rob Reinalda, discusses when and when not to use the question mark, the ellipsis, the apostrophe, the comma and the exclamation point. You need a subscription to access the article so I have summarized Reinalda’s guidance and provided complementary examples.

Consider this:

The exclamation point. Reserve exclamation points for writing dialogue or conveying extreme excitement. It’s best to leave it out of business writing, Reinalda advises, “Or people might think you run a bit, well, hyperbolic.”
The question mark. The question mark should be used to ask a question, but people often misuse the question mark when a period is the appropriate choice. For example, “Guess what I had for dinner?” Reinalda explains that “guess” is used as an imperative, not an interrogative. You are instructing someone to guess therefore the correct use is, “Guess what I had for dinner.” Another common mistake is, “I wonder what Mom is making for dinner?” This is a declarative statement and again should be replaced with a period.
The ellipsis. This is another punctuation mark that is misused … frequently. The ellipsis is used to indicate a pause, gap or missing words in quoted text. However, it should replace extra information without changing the meaning. For example:

“I would like, once I finish shopping and cleaning the kitchen, of course, to cook dinner for family and friends tonight.”

This could be shortened to the following using the ellipsis:

“I would like … to cook dinner for family and friends tonight.”

However, it is not appropriate to shorten the sentence using an ellipsis that alters the meaning. An ellipsis can also indicate a pause, but a common mistake is…….too many dots.

The apostrophe. The most common mistake using an apostrophe is to create plurals. Use an apostrophe to form possessives, such as “grandma’s famous muffins.” You also use an apostrophe in a contraction.
The comma. Commas have a lot of uses, and because of that are commonly misused. Here is an example that shows a blend of misplacement and omission:

“My mother has recipes for delicious meals, and perhaps more important, healthy recipes, that are quick.”

Only one of these commas is used correctly. This is how it should be rewritten:

“My mother has recipes for delicious meals and, perhaps more important, healthy recipes that are quick.”

Often times commas, apostrophes and exclamation points are used randomly in writing. These are just a few tips to help you avoid the punctuation crap shoot and the mishaps that can lead to a confused or frustrated reader. There are other sites out there that offer helpful guidance and illustrate the power of punctuation like Daily Writing Tips, which shows readers “How to Punctuate References to Dates and Times,” “7 Types of Hyphenation That May Seem Wrong But Aren’t,” and even how “Punctuation Saves Lives!”

The bottom line, you want to convey a clear message to your audience, punctuation should help, not hinder.

What other common mistakes do you see? And trust us, they’re everywhere.

The Power of Being Wrong & Making Mistakes

On my way to lunch in early December, I happened to catch Kathryn Schulz on KUOW’s The Conversation talking about her new book, Being Wrong: Adventures in the Margin and Error, and the value of being wrong and making mistakes. It caught my ear because in public relations, we strive to be mistake-free. In addition to being compelling, our PR materials need to be grammatically correct, free of typos and factually accurate. Deadlines cannot be missed. Information needs to be shared in an appropriate and timely manner. Our counsel to clients must be spot on and our execution in any situation or campaign flawless. Frankly, it is a lot of pressure. It’s no wonder that many folks see public relations work as intensely stressful. Just check out David Schepp’s article “10 Most Stressful Jobs of 2011,” where PR Officer is listed at number two.

So with great interest I tuned into senior host Ross Reynolds’ interview with Schulz on The Conversation. It did not disappoint. It was helpful for me as a leader as I constantly obsess about delivering quality work, crisis management and even storytelling. Here are some of the points she made which resonated with me:

We are attached to being right and our sense of accuracy. However, oftentimes we learn the most from making mistakes. Mistakes force us to grow, they drive innovation and many times they inspire us.
The structure of the human mind is designed so we can make swift and probabilistic judgments about the world. Probabilistic thinking means you’re probably right or possibly wrong. This brings new insight into St. Augustine’s words, “To err is human.”
If you don’t want your people making mistakes, you need to design systems that prevent them from making them, or at least reduce the probability of them happening, because human error is inevitable. You need to consider why mistakes are made. Just getting rid of the person who made the mistake will rarely eliminate the cause or issue. (Consider the processes developed by the medical profession and airline industries.)
Being wrong can be a powerful narrative and story-telling device. Schulz interviewed Ira Glass from This American Life for her blog on Slate.com and learned that almost all of the segments have the following structure: “I thought something was going to happen. And then it did not happen. I had a revelatory moment. My whole sense of my reality collapsed and I had to shift my thinking.” These situations of being wrong are transformative moments and make for terrific stories.
Science and its related domains (such as technology industries) understand that mistakes help us with breakthroughs. Experiments that go wrong often help scientists develop a deeper understanding of a subject.

The primary goal of Schulz’s book is to help people become better at being wrong and learn to behave with more grace, humility, empathy and curiosity in the face of wrongness, errors and mistakes.

I am truly looking forward to reading her book. If you have a story to share about a mistake you made, or thoughts about this book, I’d appreciate hearing from you.

Jennifer

Google Earns a +1 for Google+ Brand Pages

How long would it take for your organization to obtain 40 million customers for a new product? For Google+, it took less than six months. And while comparatively adoption of the Google+ brand pages for organizations is relatively slow, the potential for such a page to significantly impact your organization is considerably high. We’ve included some examples of how businesses are using it below.

If you’re like many people out there, you’re wondering how or why to use this new social networking tool. We have four insights that may help you make a sound business decision about adopting a Google+ brand page.

1. Your followers pick you. Customers have to seek you out and add you before you can add them to your “circles” on Google+. As a result, the people following your brand on Google+ are the right people – they want to engage with you.

2. It provides for targeted communication efforts. You can group your followers in “circles,” and can target your content to specific groups. If you have one message for employees, your customers don’t have to see it. If you have a product that crosses specific industries, you can tailor a message for customers in one segment, and have a completely different message for another group of customers. You can post written content, link to a video, share photos or “hang out” (see next tip).

3. Hangouts provide for personalized communication. A “Hangout” is a group video chat feature included in Google+ that allows you to interact with your followers in a personalized video conference chat. You can hold business meetings, demo a product via the Share a Screen feature or brainstorm a new idea with the SketchUp feature. While only 10 people can actively participate in a hangout, there is no limit to the number of viewers.

Macy’s, for example, did a Hangout where it brought in fashion bloggers to give fashion advice to its followers on Google+.

Photographer Jim Davis recently used a Hangout to discuss specific techniques with other photographers. In this example, notice how he shares the screen.

In another example, a guitar studio used a Hangout to provide a group guitar lesson.

4. It perpetuates your brand. Do you want to be #1? Then you need to embrace the +1.Google’s +1 button is Google’s way of tracking who is endorsing and/or interacting with your brand on the web. For example, Mashable posts news content online. Readers may like a story and choose to click the +1 button to give it a positive review (similar to a “like” button on Facebook), and choose whether or not to post the recommendation from their own Google+ individual pages.

While Google is still smoothing out all the wrinkles in this new social network, soon you will be able to analyze data related to the +1 clicks to see what is interesting to your followers. It is recommended that you incorporate the +1 button onto blog sites and editorials posted from your organization’s website.

Google offers easy-to-use code and various G+ buttons so that you can link your organization’s site to Google+. To find your specific code and buttons, go to the “Get Started” option under your brand’s name and avatar on your Google+ home page, then click “Connect your website.”

In addition, by linking to your Google₊page from your organization’s website or other social media channels, your page becomes eligible for Google+ Direct Connect, a resource for users to find and follow brands on Google+ via Google Search. Just as search engine optimization weighs pages to determine placement in the results of a Google search, Google+ Direct Connect uses an algorithm to weigh Google+ pages and return results that are appropriate to the user.

Based on these insights, we think Google+ is worth your organization’s time. However, there are three additional things to consider when you move forward.

Choose your “owner” carefully. At this point in time, only one individual can “own” the Google+ brand page. It is linked to a single individual’s Google+ profile. Google notes that multi-administrator support is coming before the beginning of 2012. Until then, identify a person who you feel will be with the organization for the long haul to create and manage the page as there is currently no way to transfer ownership, which is tied to an email address, to another person.
Post with care. Because the organization brand page is linked to an individual’s Google+ page, there is the opportunity for the user to post personal content to the company’s page. When posting, take time to check which page you’re posting from. (We have tips for Tweeting on behalf of an organization that are also applicable to managing a company’s Google+ page.)
Design capabilities are limited. To those who thrive on the creative adaptability of some social media channels, Google+ pages have limited design capabilities, much like Facebook. Designers can change the company logo and the header art, which is displayed in five small boxes at the top of the profile. While this may seem stifling, some organizations have creatively used the five boxes to create a visually stimulating space.

Overall, by targeting people who want to hear from you, allowing more ways to conduct business remotely and enhancing search engine optimization, Google+ brand pages have a lot of promise. Even if you are not ready to take the time to build the brand page, claiming your space now is a great idea. In fact, we give it a proverbial +1.

Share with us: Have you created a Google+ brand page for your organization? What are your experiences?

Joni Kirk

Key Elements of a Crisis Communication Plan

At the end of every year, media outlets and blogs around the world curate powerful image galleries or compose stories that cause us to pause and reflect back on the year’s top events and headlines. From turmoil in the global economy and tragic natural disasters that hit Japan and Missouri, to global uprisings like the “Arab Spring” and the Occupy Movement, 2011 has been another monumental year.

Recently, Ragan.com featured an article on the “Top 7 PR Disasters of 2011,” recalling the unfortunate missteps and actions of individuals and large corporations that have left reputations tarnished, and propelled PR teams into crisis management in an effort to repair the damage.

While no one ever knows when a crisis is going to happen, this should not delay the development of a crisis communication plan. When a crisis does occur, time is of the essence. It is the actions a company or an individual take within the first 24 hours that sets the tone for how the media and general public will react. By developing your plan now you will be able to react faster and make more effective decisions if and when you are in the midst of a crisis.

What information should you include? Below are some of the key elements, no matter the crisis.

Identify Your Crisis Communication Team. First and foremost, it is important to identify the key individuals within your organization who will be part of this core team. These individuals will most likely include your CEO, senior executives across your public relations, legal and human resources departments, and other functionaries depending upon the crisis.

As you form the team, define what each of their roles and responsibilities will be during a crisis, and conduct formal training to practice the decision-making process. We also highly recommend conducting formal media training to ensure your spokespersons are well prepared to speak publically during the crisis.

Develop the Response Action Plan. When a potential crisis situation arises, it is important to gather all of the facts as quickly as possible – who, what, when, where, why and how – and confirm the information with reliable sources. Consider developing a checklist of the essential questions you will need to ask to ensure you capture all of the information during a crisis. Next, determine how the core crisis team will be notified at the onset of a potential crisis, and come together quickly to assess the nature and scope of the issue.

During this stage the team must determine the impact the crisis has on the company and the perceptions it may create among your key influencers. Once identified, the crisis team should develop an action plan that will include the objectives and goals to achieve, what materials to develop, how to notify all of the key stakeholders, and the plan for providing ongoing staff support and communication.

Developing Your Key Messages. During this stage the key facts you have gathered and confirmed will be critical. When developing your messaging, it is important that you share only indisputable facts and how your company is dealing with the issue. With proper media training, your spokesperson(s) should have the ability to effectively communicate these key messages, show and speak about them with concern, and respond to the toughest questions. An ill-worded response or speculation only creates more questions.

Since time is critical in a crisis, you should develop prepared statements and press materials in advance where you can quickly insert the key facts you have gathered, and share immediately when knowledge about the crisis becomes widely known. As the crisis evolves, you will need to change your messaging to continually keep your key audiences informed at all times.

Leveraging Various Communication Channels. Depending on the crisis and your organization, you will need to determine what communication channels to utilize in order to accurately and swiftly communicate with your key influencers.

For your employees, you will most likely issue an urgent email to the entire company and if possible conduct an all-hands meeting for your spokesperson(s) to share the facts of the situation and how the company is managing it. When working with the media, you may consider issuing a press release or statement, conducting a news conference, facilitating interviews for media to speak with your key spokesperson(s), or any combination of these options. Another way to communicate to both your internal and external audiences is by creating a dedicated webpage on your company’s website to share the key facts and provide updates during and after the crisis.

If your company has a presence on social media, do not ignore this channel. It is important to immediately engage with your communities whether they are on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube or any other social media platform. By sharing the same messaging and key facts with them, your fans and friends can help to amplify your messaging during a crisis. Be sure to monitor conversations closely to identify and dispel any rumors or misinformation as quickly as possible.

These are just a few of the key elements to consider as you begin to develop your crisis communication plan. If you need additional information, there are a number of resources and books on this topic. The Institute for Public Relations provides some strong suggestions and guidance on how to develop a plan and manage a crisis.

If you already have a plan developed, what elements or processes did you consider to be the most important to include and implement?

For more information on crisis communication, please see other posts we have written on this topic:

What Not To Do in Crisis Communication (Aug. 1, 2011)
Crisis Communication Planning and the Impact of Social Media (May, 28, 2011)
Crisis Communication Lessons Learned from Floyd Landis (Feb. 28, 2011)

Molly McWhinnie

Profanity: Are You Pandering to Provocation?

Profanity is always a touchy subject. We’ve all seen examples of explicit and inappropriate remarks in society, but when is it actually considered suitable for writing? I recently read an article on Daily Writing Tips about using profanity in different types of writing, and took the question to my friend and literary agent, Kevan Lyon. Kevan is a founding partner of Marsal Lyon Literary Agency and has more than 20 years of experience in the publishing industry.

After reviewing the article on Daily Writing Tips, What the Hell do you do about Profanity?, as well as discussing the topic with Kevan, I gathered a few main insights, which include:

First and foremost, be mindful of the audience. Everyone reacts to profanity in different ways and you must consider how your writing will affect or impact your readers. Profanity, in many ways, has become commonplace in our society within everyday conversation, movies and blogs to name a few places where it appears, so most people will likely be prepared to handle some degree of vulgarity. There will, however, always be traditionalists and critics who scowl at any situation of profanity. In addition, some individuals will avoid sharing content (in hardcopy or on social networks) if it contains profanity. Therefore, be sure to determine who your readers are before you begin writing.

Find examples of profanity in different types of writing and analyze which seem successful and unsuccessful. I have come across a number of blogs, tweets and books that use profanity effectively and often hilariously. Many recent non-fictional publications have come out over the past few years such as Sh*t My Dad Says (developed from a series of tweets), Go the F*&# to Sleep and A**hole’s Guide to Handling Chicks. Such books have received praise as well as criticism, so become well versed with different uses of profanity and the reactions that might arise.

Tailor your language depending on the type of writing or genre. For example, profanity might be necessary in fictional writing if you are trying to realistically portray the true voice of a character. As Kevan states, “The key is making it sound ‘real.’ If it sounds forced or contrived, then it just doesn’t work and will stop the reader.” Again, keep your audience in mind as fiction targets different age groups, genders, and the like. In non-fiction, Kevan states that profanity, if used sparingly, can actually be effective at emphasizing a point. She remarks that the key in non-fiction, similar to fiction, is making the narrative voice feel real versus feeling like profanity is being used for its own sake. In terms of journalism and online publications, mainstream companies are unlikely to publish profanity with the fear of losing subscribers and advertisers. The Greenville News recently had a print crisis when the f-word was inadvertently inserted into one of its newspaper articles. This blip shows how strong sentiments tied to profanity can be if it seems out of place. For blogs and other personal online publications, the use of profanity is mainly personal attitude and choice. Keep in mind the previous statements about audience and topic in order to ensure the effective use of profanity. For an example of online writing that uses profanity sparingly and successfully, read a few posts by one of my favorite bloggers, The Man Repeller.

Lastly, know when to draw the line. Recognize when a certain word takes the use of profanity too far in writing and becomes excessive. There are different degrees of profanity and be aware of which terms fit appropriately into your writing depending on genre, topic, character and audience. A statement from the article What the Hell do you do About Profanity? provides a closing thought on which to reflect:

Why choose profanity over no profanity? Using profane and obscene words certainly communicates passion, but are you taking the low road, the easy way out, by dropping f-bombs instead of raising eloquent arguments? Are you debasing language, and culture, by pandering to provocation?

How do you normally react to profanity in writing? Have you ever come across successful or unsuccessful uses of profanity?

Katherine Turney

8 Tips for Managing a LinkedIn Group

Image Credit: Mashable

LinkedIn has quickly become a hotbed for professional networking. With more than 100 million users, the site continues to add value to business professionals by offering a variety of ways to increase engagement and boost brand presence. For example, we recently wrote about its new features that allow users to follow companies and give companies the ability to create status updates. With a continuously growing number of businesses looking to increase their LinkedIn presence and engage in conversations with their target audiences, many are leveraging LinkedIn Groups, which enables users to create and manage groups focused on a vast range of business-related topics.

LinkedIn Groups offer businesses valuable networking opportunities by providing a channel to lead and engage in discussions with members of the LinkedIn network. You can leverage a group to build thought leadership, share expertise, market your brand and solicit feedback. If you’re considering starting a LinkedIn group or want to increase the effectiveness of your current group, a recent Mashable article titled, “8 Tips for Managing a LinkedIn Group” shares insight that can help, including:

• Use a personal touch. Like many social networks, LinkedIn allows you to stay connected to your group members in ways that feel personal. The template features allow you to provide automatic responses to new members and to those requesting to join your group. This helps you welcome members into your community.

• Lay some ground rules. It’s important to establish and clearly display posting guidelines so new members can get acquainted with your group. Ensuring that everyone is aware of the ground rules will help you handle difficult situations.

• Praise the good, deal with the bad. Promote member participation by praising and highlighting valuable contributions to the group. This encourages others to share their content and engage. If you encounter negative behavior from a member, issue a private warning. It’s also good practice to give members a warning or two before banning them from the group.

• Help your members promote themselves. One of the biggest complaints about LinkedIn Groups is the number of people who join simply to promote themselves or their business. They usually aren’t interested in engaging with others and can have a negative impact on your community. You can manage this by designating a subgroup, strictly for members to promote their service offerings.

• Add some news feeds. To keep a steady stream of content available for members to discuss, use the “Manage news feeds” feature to add the RSS feeds for relevant blogs. The posts will become automatically available to the members of your group for reading and discussion.

• Facilitate connections outside of LinkedIn. Don’t forget the human connection. It’s natural for members to want to make non-LinkedIn connections after being active in your group for awhile. You can offer a range of options to help your members engage elsewhere on the Internet or offline, such as during relevant industry events.

• Take a poll. Use LinkedIn’s polls application to get feedback from your members on group features and functionality. Create a free poll and then highlight it in your group, either by linking to it on the discussion boards or by submitting the poll’s URL to your News section.

• Promote your group. Some of the strategies you can use to promote your group include low-hanging fruit like inviting others in your network to join, encouraging members to invite their colleagues, and by highlighting your group to other, non-competing groups.

Do you leverage LinkedIn Groups to start conversations around your business and industry? What are your best practices? We want to hear from you!

Insights for Leaders Navigating Visibility, Credibility, and Growth.