C4 should do an interview about the gyps

C4 should do an interview about the gypsy issue not just issue a statement. It looks defensive and unhelpful.

What can we learn in terms of communications and writings skills ten years from the down fall of Enron?

It’s ten years since Enron collapsed, costing thousands of people their jobs and ruining the retirement dreams of others. More importantly, perhaps, it severely damaged the reputation of corporate America and caused millions of us to think twice about any communication we receive from large companies and organisations.

As a copywriter, the fall of this huge energy company has for me, an added interesting element – as it should for anyone seeking to improve their communications skills.

Research shows that as Enron got into greater trouble their corporate communications became more opaque, confusing and long winded. Why use one simple word when two or three complicated ones will do to cloud your true meaning and leave staff, shareholders and suppliers none the wiser?

It’s interesting to apply to Enron’s communications – or indeed information provided by any large organisation – the Flesch-Kincaid Readability Test. Essentially this formula measures the simplicity, clarity and readability of any piece of English. If you want to write good English, which is immediately understandable simply apply this test.

Or don’t bother. Instead, as you write, just ask yourself if you can find a simpler way of explaining something. Can you take out any superfluous words? Can you make sentences shorter? Think: would my mother or my next-door neighbour understand this? These questions are the secret of good writing.

As a media trainer I’m always looking to do this too. Simple language is not only easy to understand but it inspires trust and confidence. Just ask anyone who lost their money, their job or their pension in Enron.

Media audits are not a waste of money

If there is one issue that will get any newspaper hot under the collar it’s a waste of public money. As a journalist I know that every time I get a story that involves a council or a government department spending tax payers’ cash on something that seems trivial or unnecessary I’ll have a good media story that will appeal to my editors. It ticks both the “trouble” box that journalist’s love so much, and it’s also relevant to readers because the chances are that they’re paying for this largesse.

But I can’t get too indignant about the story in today’s Daily Telegraph (“Police pay £4,000 to assess press office”) that Greater Manchester Police (GMP) has spent just under £4,000 assessing the performance of its press office. The press officers were interviewed and questionnaires were sent out to target journalists, we are told.

In fact, there’s nothing bizarre or outrageous about this – it’s called a media audit.

I regularly carry out media audits for a variety of organisations and these are the kind of tactics that I use. Organisations are often rightly interested to know how to tell how well a press office is performing and a media audit is a good way to do this. I would argue that spending less than £4,000 to find out how well your media relations team is doing and whether it can be improved in any way strikes me as a good investment.

Why an interview about unemployment offers lessons for communications skills

Redundancy is in the news at the moment. It’s topical because of the state of the economy and, more specifically, because of the youth unemployment figures. It was quite understandable therefore that on the day that these statistics were released reporter would visit Lynemouth in Northumberland where the aluminium smelter is being closed with the loss of over 500 jobs.

As a journalist, I’m always looking for case studies whenever I’m writing a story and so I can understand why these journalists had visited Lynemouth. It’s all about human interest stories – if you want to know what makes a media story this is a key part. Human interest is something we look at whenever I work as a media trainer.

Naturally Rio Tinto Group, the company which owned the power station was invited to comment and very sensibly instead of opting for a no comment response, they put up their corporate communications supremo. He gave a very articulate and professional explanation for the company’s decision to close the plant.

“We’ve conducted a thorough strategic review and haven’t been able to find credible buyer for smelter,” he said.  “The plant has historically been a high cost plant.”

Yes, it’s a rational response but, after the vox pop comments from the young people who have lost their jobs and are in despair about finding something else it sounded cold, uncaring and unhuman. For anyone interested in improving their communications skills this offers a useful lesson.

Our man would have done better to acknowledge their human tragedy here and to relate to the human experience. During the media training courses I run I often have to advise people who are closing factories and making redundancies. Sounding concerned and acknowledging the human element alongside offering a rational explanation and a defence is key for anyone who wants to use good communications skills when handing a difficult interview subject.

 

 

Why an interview about unemployment has lessons for communications skills

Redundancy is in the news at the moment. It’s topical because of the state of the economy and, more specifically, because of the youth unemployment figures. It was quite understandable therefore that on the day that these statistics were released reporter would visit Lynemouth in Northumberland where the aluminium smelter is being closed with the loss of over 500 jobs.
As I journalist, I’m always looking for case studies whenever I’m writing a story and so I can understand why these journalists had visited Lynemouth. It’s all about human interest stories – if you want to know what makes a media story this is a key part. Human interest is something we look at whenever I work as a media trainer.
Naturally Rio Tinto Group, the company which owned the power station was invited to comment and very sensibly instead of opting for a no comment response, they put up their corporate communications supremo. He gave a very articulate and professional explanation for the company’s decision to close the plant.
“We’ve conducted a thorough strategic review and haven’t been able to find credible buyer for smelter,” he said. “The plant has historically been a high cost plant.”
Yes, it’s a rational response but, after the vox pop comments from the young people who have lost their jobs and are in despair about finding something else it sounded cold, uncaring and unhuman. For anyone interested in improving their communications skills this offers a useful lesson.
Our man would have done better to acknowledge their human tragedy here and to relate to the human experience. During the media training courses I run I often have to advise people who are closing factories and making redundancies. Sounding concerned and acknowledging the human element alongside offering a rational explanation and a defence is key for anyone who wants to use good communications skills when handing a difficult interview subject.

Using the power of three in a speech is a great idea – just don’t forget to remember your three points

Poor Rick Perry. One minute he’s a strong contender for the US Republican presidential nomination and the next minute…well, he’s not. According to the London Evening Standard “Presidential bid falls to pieces as Perry forgets his lines in debate.”

The background is simply that during a key debate Mr Perry was making a list of the government agencies that he would abolish. First was Commerce, second was Education and third was…er, what was it?

What can anyone interested in communications skills or anyone wondering how to do a good media interview learn from this? The first lesson is obviously to do your homework before an interview and to learn your lines. But it’s also important to be wary during media interviews of making lists. “There are three things,” or even “I’ve got five suggestions…” will have many interviewers’ hearts sinking as they anticipate a dreary monologue or watch, anxiously, at the seconds ticking away during a two minute interview.

Better just to make a few points without announcing them.

Just one other point about Perry’s fateful list. It was no coincidence that he hoped to mention three agencies.

Whether I’m working as a speechwriter and a copywriter I know that lists of three work very well.  I came, I saw, I conquered; Faith Hope and Charity; Education, Education, Education, are three obvious examples but there are many more. If you’re looking for advice about how to write a speech, including the power of three is always a good idea.

I love a catfight

Well, I love the phrase, in the context of the row between Kenneth Clarke and Theresa May, anyway. I first heard ITV News’ Political Correspondent Lucy Manning shouting it at the Home Secretary. “Great line,” I thought. As a journalist and editor I would have been very proud to have come up with that one.

I was obviously not the only one. Many of today’s papers carry the same phrase in the headlines. So, what does this mean for people interested in communications skills who want to know how to influence newspaper headlines?  In media training courses people are always interested to know who writes newspapers headlines and they frequently ask, “How can I affect what appears in a newspaper headline?”

The short answer is that they can try and come up with a clever, punchy and telling phrase such as “cat fight” in this context. To take another example, the FT recently ran a headline: “Investors take hammer to ‘Teflon’ euro”. The phrase actually came from Simon Smith, chief economist at FXPro, who told the paper: “The euro’s Teflon coating, which protected it so well over the past year, appears to be flaking off rapidly.”

It’s a great, snappy phrase and, like “cat fight,” it summed up the situation so strikingly – and visually – that it made its way into the headlines. There – now, you know.

What did you say? Improving your relations with journalists

Newspapers hate printing corrections. And who can blame them. After all, no one likes admitting that they’ve made a mistake. Contrary, I’m afraid to public opinion, we journalists do care about getting our facts right. As a journalist and editor I check and check again so that I can avoid that awful business of having to offer a correction.

But today even the venerable New York Times has been forced to admit that it made a mistake. In an article about luxury hotels, the famously serious and accurate Grey Lady states: “The Advertising column on Wednesday, about new marketing campaigns by some luxury hotel chains, quoted incorrectly from comments by David Williams, the chief marketing officer of Orient-Express, about the chain’s revenue trend for this year. He said revenue was up 14 to 15 percent from last year, not 40 to 50 percent.”

Oops! Funnily enough these figures are exactly what I use during my media training courses when giving an example of how journalists, speaking on the phone, possibly in a noisy office, can make simple but honest mistakes. I don’t know for sure but I’m pretty certain that David Williams might have said “14 to 15 percent,” but to the reporter this sounded like “40 to 50 percent.” Say it out loud to yourself if you want to hear how similar the figures sound.

So, how to avoid this? When it comes to giving figures – as well as the names of products or people, for example – it’s always a good thing to offer to send them to the journalist by email after the conversation. We can see them written down which makes things simpler and more secure – and we may well just copy and paste from the email to the word document to make things easier.

It’s no guarantee that we’ll get it right but it’ll certainly increase the chances. As I say, we do want to be accurate and, for anyone looking to improve their communications skills, this can help us to do that.

 

I’ve just been writing a speech for a chief financial officer to deliver to a conference of other CFOs on the subject of cost cutting. Stay awake, please – it gets better.

As a speechwriter and trainer I often find myself faced with the predicament of trying to write something interesting as well as informative for clients. This particular CFO was a good performer. We spent some time working on her voice, her body language and her facial expressions but essentially she came across as relaxed and confident – and just a little bit boring.

We worked to include some examples. From my experience as a speechwriter and copywriter I know how important such examples are. But even then, the content was just a bit uninspiring. Why, the audience would be wondering, is this woman speaking to us? Does she really care about what she’s saying about cost cutting? What would they remember of it?

It was towards the end of the session as we were working on the fourth or fifth draft that my client casually mentioned that she had a meeting with a charity that night.

“What charity is that?” I asked, pouring her another coffee. She was a trustee, it transpired of a charity that helps children from disadvantaged backgrounds work with mentors. “How did you get involved?” I asked, casually, but with growing interest.

As we sipped our coffee she explained that she had started talking to the founder when they were both stuck on a train, which was severely delayed coming out of Euston. So impressed was this young, high flying CFO with her fellow passenger’s work, that she had immediately volunteered to help. As a result she had become a trustee and treasurer.

She went on to tell me about some of the work that the charity does and how some of the young people it supports benefit by getting into job and training or simply by getting the considered advice that they’d been so sorely lacking in their lives. These were wonderful, human stories – and only possible because my client had managed the charity’s money so effectively.

“There’s your opening,” I said.

“What?” she asked.

“You’ve just given us how you should open your presentation.”

“But this is my hobby, really, not my work,” she protested but already, she could clearly see how the stories that she had told me would grab her audience’s attention, illustrate what she really meant – and make her presentation the most memorable of the whole event.

I really hoped that she had the guts to drop her original dull and worthy opening and take a risk with this great story. As a speechwriter and a copywriter I know that the power of story can grip an audience, get under their skin, persuade and inspire them more effectively than any number of facts and statistics.

My client texted immediately after the presentation – she had used her story to start her remarks. Not only had she received the biggest applause of the day (she was in the unenviable position of going in last on the schedule) but many members of the audience had approached her afterwards and told her how much they’d enjoyed her presentation and how they’re remember it for a long time to come. Believe, me, this is not the first time that people who have used my copywriter services have experienced this.

The power of story –it works.

Robert Webb has a problem with it – but commenting on newspaper columns is a good thing

Robert Webb, the comedian and columnist is giving up his column in the Telegraph because, he says, he can’t stand reading the online comments he receives. Poor Robert. As someone working in the media and teaching communications skills I’m tempted to post my own comment about heat and staying out of the kitchen.

On the other hand, I have to say, as a journalist, I’ve been shocked and yes, even rather offended by some of the vitriolic responses I’ve received to columns and articles I’ve written that have appeared online.

Anything I’ve written which features a contention or an argument is naturally most likely to receive an outspoken comment. What is most noticeable is how writing online, probably with no more than a username and no reference to address or any other personal details allows people to be so much more strident, or perhaps just plain offensive with their views.

However, alongside these rude, sarcastic and sometimes utterly bizarre replies, on other occasions I’ve actually received comments which have been thoughtful and intelligent. It’s quite flattering to think that someone has been so inspired or even moved by what I’ve written that they’ve wanted to take the time to comment on it.

I was very impressed recently to read the exchanges that the writer and editor Bill Emmott had with various readers of a piece he had written in The Times. His patience and politeness was impressive.

To that extent, the rise of online comments is great and anyone interested in communication skills should consider using it.

Editors and online publishers are constantly looking for intelligent comment for their sites – and it’s usually sorely lacking. So, as I explain to people on my PR training courses if you want to raise your profile and create some useful online content which might encourage people to visit your site then providing some intelligent, thoughtful and well written comment on a newspaper or magazine website is a good way in which to do it.