PR Wars

If you could tell the world one thing about your company, what would it be? Whether you are making a new business pitch, delivering your elevator speech, holding a press conference or chatting with a neighbor, there are global truths for effective communication. Here are a few ideas to make your messages more easily consumed, so you can start changing perceptions and shaping beliefs.

Brevity - The most common pitfall in communication is trying to say too much. The message gets lost. Americans are bombarded with messages. People are armed with television remote controls and are willing to use them. In fact, the average television news sound bite is only seven to 10 seconds long. The average quote in the newspaper is less than 20 words. If you try to say too much, you are actually saying nothing at all.

Simple Sentences - Write your messages like you talk. Use simple sentences. Subject, Verb, Predicate. It is how we verbally communicate. In college, we learn to write term papers in a superfluous scholarly language. Stop it. We want to communicate in a simple language, so that people can digest our messages. The public is not going to invest a high degree of cerebral capital into what you have to say. Let’s make it easy on them to hear our messages.

2nd Person - “Tonight at 11, we’ll show you how to keep more money in your wallet.” Speaking and writing in 2nd person grabs you. It perks you up. It demands your attention. It wouldn’t have the same effect if you heard, “Tonight at 11, we’ll show the public how to keep more money in their wallets.” It almost seems like the latter example is talking to someone else. Poor communicators have a bad habit of talking and writing in third person. You want to communicate directly to your audience.

Branded - Many spokespeople brand well at the beginning of an interview. They use the name of their company or organization in their first answer. But then, it is so easy to fall into a bad habit of using pronouns. “Our mission is this…” or “We are proud of that…” The problem is that you can’t be sure which sound bite a reporter will use. The reporter might not use the branded sound bite from the beginning of the interview, instead choosing one of the later sound bites. Ouch, a missed opportunity. Effective communicators are comfortable branding their organizations and getting the maximum value out of their sound bites. Listen to NASCAR drivers brand their sound bites. They have mastered the idea.

Consistent - Keep your messages consistent across all of your communication tools. Use your key messages in press interviews, on your Web site, in your brochures, on your blog, in your newsletters, in your email blasts, etc. You get the idea. Your key messages should be pervasive throughout your organization. Don’t change your key messages with every press release. You want to hit audiences over the head again and again with your key messages. I am not being literal, of course.

Blunt - I am a big believer in blunt communication. Never assume that anyone will understand an implied call to action. If you want a sale, ask me to buy it. If you want me to call my legislator, tell me. It is important to include a call to action in your messages and don’t be shy. Empower your audience and put your messages to work for you.

As I ducked under the crime scene tape, the flashing lights from the police cars nearly blinded me. I entered the nursing home just two hours after a gunman murdered eight innocent people inside (WRAL: Eight Dead in Carthage Nursing Home Shooting). Walking softly through the building, I overheard an employee whispering the Lord’s Prayer. The staff was still on duty and taking care of patients amidst the carnage of the crime scene. Inside the office, the nursing home CEO had his head in his hands. He looked up at me and said “I am so glad you are here.”

My career has led me to a unique specialty of crisis communication that I call Disaster PR. In recent years, I have responded to manufacturing plant explosions, employee deaths, terrorist threats and flu outbreaks. Sometimes bad things happen to good people. You will not know how you will respond in a disaster until “The TODAY Show,” “Good Morning America,” The New York Times, “Larry King Live” and “Oprah” are calling your cell phone.

My most significant advice to leadership in a disaster is a reminder to “do the right thing.”  Let it guide your judgment. Lawsuits will likely come. News media will pose biased questions with the clarity of hindsight. But, do the right thing. Your leadership will be judged on the actions you take after you became aware of the problem. Make personal phone calls of condolence to the victims’ families.  Offer travel expenses for family members to attend funerals. Bring crisis counselors into  the workplace.  You can follow a checklist, but ultimately do the right thing.

The very nature of a disaster is that it is an unplanned event. So how do you plan for the “unplannable?”  At French/West/Vaughan, we offer crisis communication planning as a service for our clients. The plan will designate corporate emergency response teams.  We will work with management to brainstorm possible crisis scenarios and identify target audiences such as key stakeholders, internal employees, customers and the public. FWV will draft key messages and identify the tools necessary to deliver those messages (sample press releases, statements to the media, Web site updates and Q&A/fact sheets). Ultimately, the plan will give you a direction to turn when you have no idea how to make your next step.

At the nursing home, the families arrived to pick up the belongings of their lost loved ones. The CEO was relieved that he had personally called each one. It was the most difficult thing he ever had to do. But, it was the right thing to do.

If I get argumentative at home, my wife tells me: “you can be happy or you can be right… pick one.”  As I guide clients through crisis communication events, her reminder rings in my ear. 

In many cases, clients who are attacked (by the press, blogger, customer, etc.) have a natural instinct to become defensive and desire to strike back. Yet, a core crisis communication principle is you can’t win an argument. If you lose an argument, you lose. If you win an argument, you still lose because you have created hurtful feelings with your audience.

The subject is the focus of chapter six in Dale Carnegie’s “How to Win Friends and Influence People.”It’s probably my fourth time reading through the classic. First published in 1937, it is the grandfather of all people skills books. In fact, I think it should be required reading for any public relations professional.

The book uses an example of a salesman selling a Chevy truck. If the customer says that Ford makes a great truck, don’t argue with him. You can say, “You are right. Ford does make a great truck.” It reduces the customer’s resistance. Now, you are free to tell him all of the things that make Chevy a great truck.  

If customers feel like they are not being heard, they will speak louder.  In fact, the crisis can spiral out of context. You have to change the positioning. Be sure that the customer knows that you heard their complaint.  Validate the customer’s concerns and respond from common ground with your audience. Take the high road and position your response with communication that everyone will agree with.  Avoiding arguments will go a long way in keeping your brand out of hot water.

I recently listened to Peter Shankman, of HARO fame, make a presentation. He discussed the diminishing attention span of America.

I am a typical Gen-Xer. My generation was knocked for having short attention spans at about two minutes and 30 seconds. It is the approximate length of a music video on MTV, back when they used to play music videos. Today, we have the Twitter generation with an attention span of 140 characters. It takes about two and a half seconds to read a tweet.

For a client, it means consumer communication has to be focused. We know that even the news media communicates in seven-10 second soundbites. Can you answer the following questions about your company in a soundbite:

• Who are you?
• What do you do?
• Why is that important?

These questions are not as easy as they seem. In my media training sessions, CEOs tend to have the most difficulty giving brief answers about their companies because they know so much and they want to communicate too much. “When we try to say too much, we say nothing at all,”  which is my next tweet in 50 characters. 

I was shopping in Petsmart, when a terrarium on the shelf caught my attention. You may be familiar with the  ”As Seen on TV” marketing on products such as the Snuggie.

This Zoo Med terrarium has an “As Seen on YouTube” label on the package.  Does a YouTube channel give this product additional credibility? 

As I pondered this question, I realized the familiar YouTube logo did make me consider the product more attractive. It almost made me perceive the branding as high tech, even though it was just rectangular plexiglass.

Maybe they are on to something? By the way, here is a look at their YouTube video: