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.
As my colleague Lauren Beehler recently pointed out in her article, “Improve Outlines to Enhance Your Writing,” it can be beneficial to organize your thoughts when beginning a new assignment or project. Beehler explains that an outline can help “ensure your writing is organized, thorough, and achieves its purpose,” among other things.
To build upon Beehler’s recommendations, I thought I’d share my thoughts on the process for the creation of a short piece like an article or essay.
Phase 1: Develop a first draft
Once I feel good about my outline, I’m ready to begin writing, introduction through conclusion. I like writing beginning to end in sequential order, paragraph by paragraph because I want to complete the first draft before I spend time editing sentences I may later cut. After all, it’s a waste of time perfecting a sentence that you find no longer has a home in your piece.
As I’m writing, if I discover I’m missing an example, I simply leave a placeholder for it, using the notation TK[1], an editing mark that means “to come.” It’s equivalent to leaving a blank or brackets in the text. By using TK, I avoid getting sidetracked and distracted by research that would delay my completion of the first draft.
Phase 2: Take a break to identify problems
Once my draft is complete, if possible, I set it aside for a day. If I don’t have the luxury of that much time, then I try to work on something else for at least one hour before re-reading it. After even a short break, I can usually identify and address problem areas.
Common areas to fix might include adding concrete details like data, improving a transition or providing additional examples. At this point, I also make sure to address any remaining placeholders, so no TKs remain.
Phase 3: Read your work aloud and refine it
In the third phase, I read the piece aloud, often numerous times, considering the flow and the rhythm of the information, word choice, sentence structure and paragraph breaks. The readability of a piece can be greatly improved by selecting just the correct word, varying the lengths of sentences, and decidedly arranging information into paragraphs.
When considering word choice, take the time to look up definitions, consider synonyms and think about the connotations and emotional impact of words. When looking at the flow of the piece, consider the four different types of paragraphs at the writer’s disposal: the direct paragraph, the climactic paragraph, the turnabout paragraph, or the statement paragraph. For examples of each of these, along with ideas on when to employ them, I recommend reading chapter 19 of Priscilla Long’s “The Writer’s Portable Mentor: A Guide to Art, Craft, and the Writing Life.” It’s an excellent book with many hands-on exercises that you can use for your work-in-progress.
Of course, everyone’s process is different, but I hope that you can learn from my thoughts on the topic. Many years ago, I worked with a web designer who said she wanted “to get the right idea, before getting the idea right.” This same philosophy can be applied to writing. It’s best to organize your thoughts, write your piece, examine your argument, consider your structure, and then refine to make it as strong as possible.
[1] In case you’re wondering why it’s not TC, apparently editing marks are often misspelled to make them stand out and catch the attention of copy editors. Consider, for instance, graf and hed for paragraph and headline.
Elon Musk’s acquisition of Twitter has dominated headlines for the last few days. The news has led to differing perspectives and left many asking what it means for the future of the platform. While only time will tell how this ownership change will impact Twitter’s future, PR professionals should be considering impacts and changes now. Twitter plays an important role in the dissemination of news, so here’s what public relations professionals should be considering.
General Audiences Use Twitter to Consume News
According to a Pew Research Center report, about half of U.S. adults (53%) say they get their news from social media at least sometimes, with the level of news consumption varying across social media platforms. Twitter is one of the top sources, with about seven-out-of-10 U.S. Twitter users (69%) who say they get news from Twitter and many turn to Twitter for breaking news. The report also found that 70% of Twitter news consumers say they have used Twitter to follow live news events, which is up from 59% who said this in 2015.
While those against the acquisition are tweeting #GoodbyeTwitter, it’s unlikely the more than 200 million users will all disappear from the platform permanently. So, if you’re planning to release news or share company updates, you will want to continue to share them on Twitter.
Twitter is Journalists’ Preferred Platform
Not only is Twitter important for reaching your target audiences, it’s also an important source for reporters. Many reporters turn to social media platforms to learn more about organizations, their executives and connect with potential sources.
Business Wire asked journalists about their social media preferences and found that Twitter was the favorite with LinkedIn serving as a close second. Fifty-nine percent of the journalists surveyed said they visit an organization’s social media site when researching a company.
With this in mind, it’s important to consider what content would be valuable to reporters when developing posts for Twitter and other channels, including LinkedIn. Developing posts that reiterate key messages, link to executive profiles, and share visually compelling content will be informative and engaging for reporters.
Explore Other Platforms
As noted in Business Wire’s survey, reporters’ top three platforms used are Twitter (76%), LinkedIn (66%) and Facebook (53%). If you’re not already posting content across Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook, you should share relevant content across the platforms consistently.
While many reporters and individuals have indicated the change of ownership won’t impact their use of Twitter, other events are indicating that news organizations and reporters may be taking a step back to reevaluate how they use the platform. For example, just a couple of weeks before the acquisition, the New York Times stated that it would like its reporters to “Tweet less, tweet more thoughtfully, and devote more time to reporting.” If reporters reduce their time and reliance on Twitter, it’ll be important that content shared across other mediums, including company blogs and other social platforms.
Digital media and how it is used continues to evolve rapidly, so it’s critical that organizations are monitoring trends and being thoughtful about how to use these platforms to communicate with their audiences. Only time will tell if Elon Musk’s acquisition will have a major impact on the use and engagement of Twitter.
Crafting the direction and order of ideas mid-writing can be confusing and lead to missing information, random interjections, and illogical presentation. A thoughtful outline will help ensure your writing is organized, thorough, and achieves its purpose. An outline is a plan for your writing, typically consisting of the work’s intended goal and audience, an ordered list of relevant topics, and points to support these topics. Outlines define the structure of your article, essay, or other modes of communication and can remind you of the essential elements of that writing style.
Outlines can reduce revisions and make your writing process more efficient. By providing a clear path, outlines allow you to start writing any section instead of beginning with the introduction. Furthermore, outlining your topic and key points should provide accurate keywords and alt-text for SEO purposes. Outlines can also illuminate elements of your argument that need more research or tangents that don’t belong in the writing. In addition to organizing your thoughts, outlines allow you to collaborate, share plans, and gain consensus on your ideas with coworkers, clients, or supervisors before spending time crafting sentences.
Here are some best practices for developing an outline:
- Determine your writing format. Before starting your outline, make sure you’ve established the final form your writing will take. The choice of topics and order of ideas differ based on the format. A news article begins with the critical information and then fills in details, a persuasive essay adds new arguments throughout the paper, and a case study may prioritize chronological storytelling.
- Determine your topic and express it in a single sentence. Clearly define your topic before you start outlining, addressing the who/what/where/when/why/how of your article. For example, my sentence for this blog post was, “Explain what an outline is, why it’s important, and how to best outline an article to help improve your writing.” If you don’t have enough information about your subject to summarize it, do more research before you start outlining.
- Develop a list of relevant ideas. Based on this summary, start brainstorming ideas related to your sentence that directly address the goals of your work. For instance, some topics for this blog included “explanation of an outline,” “benefits of an outline,” “best practices for outlining,” and “using an outline.” You may not use all topics you identify at this stage, so think broadly.
- Narrow and group your ideas. Once you have a variety of themes that explore and support your topic, organize those ideas and eliminate tangents. Ideas could be arranged chronologically, logically, in order of or reverse order of importance, or randomly. Now is the time to determine the overall shape of ideas.
- Add supporting information and research. With a general order of concepts, add information that proves and reinforces your themes. This information can include logical statements, quotes, cited facts, and linked materials. Consider also adding transitions and other connections between topics to make drafting easier.
- Review and adjust your outline. If you notice that important themes don’t have at least two supporting points or reveal other logical gaps, do additional research, or re-arrange your outline.
Once you’ve developed your outline, you can use multiple strategies to transform it into finished written work. Drafting the body of the article first before the introduction and conclusion can lead to a more cohesive piece. You can also write your topic, themes, and supporting information in complete sentences, then simply remove bullets and other formatting for a bare-bones draft.
Most importantly, use your writing expertise to develop a piece of work that addresses your goals. If your outline doesn’t match your final product, that’s not necessarily a problem. However, the differences between your outline and finished work should be mindful choices made in the writing process, not accidents. To revise your draft, consider reverse outlining, a technique where you construct an outline based on the main topic of each paragraph. Seeing an outline of your drafted work can help you view the structure of your work and confirm that your writing meets your goals.
Outlines are a vital step in the writing process. They can improve your writing efficiency and your ability to communicate logically. Your outline’s format barely matters; it’s most important to outline in the way that helps you write. As long as you thoughtfully state your intended topic, intentionally structure the order of ideas, and include supporting information, your outline can improve your writing.
No organization ever expects to find itself amid a public relations crisis. However, the unfortunate reality is that unforeseen crises do happen, even to the best of us. And these crises can be most crippling when there’s no management plan in place.
Even worse than combatting a crisis is doing so while caught flat-footed on your response, which can result in hasty or poor decision-making and further damage to your company’s reputation. While no one wants to envision their company in crisis, the best way to deal with them is with effective planning and preparation on how to respond. Planning for the worst, while it may sound pessimistic, can help with mitigating unwanted surprises that arise.
Below are five essential components that every crisis management plan should have.
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The Core Crisis Management Team
As you develop your crisis management plan, establish who will make up your company’s core crisis management team and outline their roles and responsibilities. Your team will likely comprise a mix of executive leadership, department heads, HR managers, PR representatives and a legal or financial adviser. Establish the sources available for legal counsel and expertise.
- Your Crisis Team’s Org Chart
Your crisis management team must be familiar with your ideal response strategy. It may be helpful to develop an organization chart for your crisis management team that delineates chain of command, who owns which tasks and who reports to whom. This can enable your team to coordinate effectively and ensure your crisis management plan is executed as efficiently as possible. In assigning roles, determine who will serve as spokesperson for media and external messaging, and who will communicate with clients and customers. If government officials or other regulatory agencies must also be contacted, determine who will own this correspondence.
- Internal Comms Strategies
Keeping employees apprised is key. With your internal communications strategy, outline the methods and processes in which your crisis management team will distribute critical information to employees across the company following a crisis. Plan how to communicate sensitive news to employees and determine the appropriate cadence for providing companywide updates. To help convey your desired messaging, develop a key messaging framework that specifies the critical details your company wishes to communicate as well as an FAQ for common questions you expect to field about the crisis.
- External Comms Strategies
In the event of a crisis, a sound external communications strategy can go a long way toward ensuring damage control. Develop a plan for engaging with the public, external stakeholders and media. Draft a statement to share with media and keep it available for all company spokespeople. If all relevant information isn’t immediately available, plan to add these details once they are. In your external comms strategy, provide detailed instructions for which media outlets your company plans to notify. Finally, establish your broader communication objectives and ensure your external communication strategies align with your desired outcomes.
- Your Response Action Plan
Create a detailed plan for how your organization will respond in the event of a crisis or various crisis situations. In some instances, this may require working backward from the aftereffects of the crisis and the impacts to your business. Identify the potential risks that your company faces and determine the necessary actions your company must take to remediate these threats. Determine contingencies that can help your organization respond to the crisis effectively. Remember to continually review, test and update your response plan to keep it relevant as your company evolves. This plan shouldn’t be crafted with a single crisis mind. Instead, it should use an “all-hazard approach” and serve as a template for any and all potential crises that may arise.
Remember: In times of trouble, don’t panic. Having a solid crisis management plan will help you stay the course, maintain poise and navigate any rough patches that life throws your way. You’ll have a step-by-step guide outlining what actions you’ll need to take to keep any crisis from spiraling out of control and leading to subsequent problems. Even in the event of unforeseen circumstances, you’ll remain in control.
For more on this topic, check out our past CPR blog posts on crisis management.
A little over a year ago, we published a post sharing four tips to optimize blogging for SEO. With 2022 well underway, we want to revisit those tips and determine if and how SEO content development strategies have evolved in just one year.
As a quick refresher, blogging is an important tactic to improve SEO because it can help increase the visibility of a company in organic searches, establish credibility and boost website authority. According to Semrush, “Blog SEO is the process of using technical and on-page SEO techniques to increase your blog’s visibility in organic search.”
Semrush explains two primary goals when developing blog content for SEO: 1) “Make sure search engines can find and understand your blog posts so that they can deliver them to relevant searchers,” and 2) “Make sure you’re writing relevant blog content that aligns with your audience’s needs and interests.” These two goals can help companies ensure that the blog content will attract readers and improve SEO efforts.
In our blog post we shared last year, we highlighted four tips:
- Set editorial guidelines.
- Don’t forget the keywords and phrases.
- Include links to external and internal pages.
- Review traffic and engagement with blog posts.
While aspects of these tips have evolved over the past year, these four best practices will still result in blog content that achieves the two goals noted above. For example, identifying the right keywords and phrases, and using those key phrases throughout a blog post, will help search engines and searchers find your content. When selecting keywords, it is critical to use words and phrases that are relevant and specific to the topic at hand.
Additionally, reviewing traffic and engagement with blog posts will help you create blogs that meet the audience’s needs. If traffic consistently starts to dip, it may be a sign that content is no longer relevant or serving your readers.
So, how have the four tips evolved in the past year? At a macro level, not a ton, as those tips are more guiding factors and general umbrella tips that encompass multiple and more specific SEO blogging tactics such as knowing your audience, having a consistent tone, leveraging topic clusters when researching keywords, etc. Therefore, it is important to revisit those supporting blog tactics to make sure they continue to map back to the two overarching blog SEO goals noted above. You might find that it’s time to change your blog post length or update headers to make sure they are still catchy to your existing or intended audiences.
Another helpful approach to ensure SEO strategies are up to date is to look at reports and data from SEO leaders, especially because SEO as a whole continues to evolve.
Across Communiqué PR, we use different tools to support strategies and track results. We’ve linked them a few times in this post, but we’ve had the opportunity to leverage Semrush to brainstorm and define keywords. Semrush is a great tool and published a report that shares the latest data on content marketing trends from 1,500 marketers and other digital sources. Below are a few key findings and tips from The State of Content Marketing 2022 Global Report that can help inform blog SEO strategies.
- Use a consistent tone of voice. Some 78% of high-scoring texts have a consistent tone of voice. Having a unique persona and capturing it in writing will help your readers feel connected.
- “How To” and “Guides” articles are still popular. Nearly three times more traffic comes from “Guide” articles.
- Write clearly and concisely. This could include short authoritative sentences that help your audiences read through the content with ease.
- Remove excessive references to COVID. Of course, there might be some instances where addressing the pandemic is necessary, but readers have pandemic fatigue, and content that continues to address COVID might turn readers away.
- Evolve your visuals. Short-form videos are popular and engaging. If relevant, consider embedding gifs and other company videos in related blog posts.
These are just a few takeaways from the 115-page report. It is a comprehensive guide that shares overarching SEO trends and then specific and actionable best practices to help improve efforts.
At Communiqué PR, we’ve had the opportunity to work closely with our clients to support SEO content development blogging. Check out more SEO-related blog posts from our blog here.
Communication is critical in times of uncertainty. The current geopolitical conflict in Ukraine and the economic climate are increasing uncertainty for employees, customers and partners. CEOs and business leaders need to communicate responsively and thoughtfully.
The CEO of Forrester recently advised CEOs to ask their direct reports three key questions specific to the Ukraine war:
- “Are we ready for the inevitable cyberattacks, and have we patched all vulnerabilities?”
- “How are our supply chains threatened, and what are you doing about it?”
- “Is our advertising supporting Russian disinformation, and should we announce to the world that we stand with Ukraine?”
All three questions should also include a communication component and, as such, should involve the company’s PR team. Do we have a current cyber crisis communication plan? Do we have a plan in place to articulate to customers, partners and employees what we are doing to mitigate any supply chain impacts? And, what is the plan to communicate our stance to employees, partners and customers?
As the Conference Board detailed in an article on the importance of communicating with employees during times of crisis, “World events, pandemics, national politics, natural disasters and social change movements thrust companies and their leaders into the spotlight with employees, stakeholders and the public clamoring for a corporate statement if not also action. The corporate stance, once articulated, can shape consumer sentiment and move markets; it can also reinforce or shatter espoused corporate values.”
Crisis planning and preparedness enable company leaders to respond promptly. Part of an effective plan is integrating key stakeholders internally – including the PR team. For specific guidance on crisis planning, consider the following articles:
- Components of a Successful Crisis Plan
- Tips to Consider When Developing a Cyber Crisis Communications Plan
- Lessons From the Royal Family: The Importance of Informed PR Counsel in Times of Crisis
Do you have a crisis plan and response team in place?