Content Creation & More

Startups Must 'Sell' Their Executives, Not Just Products

2012-01-03T10:56:00.000-08:00

I'll flesh this out later, but for now ...

If you're a startup, remember that your PR, marketing and sales outreach should "sell" your executives, too -- not just your products.

Influencers need to believe in the people behind the product first and foremost. Since your product has no track record yet, you need to substitute your own (or your team's) track record as it relates to your product. Scan your personal history (or your exec team's) for relevant proof points.

For example, if you wrote an application based on your 30 years of deep expertise and insight, your letters to potential buyers must include a paragraph about you, not just about the app.

Like I said, more detail on this soon ...

What to do when you have writer's block

2011-12-25T19:00:00.000-08:00

Writer's block?

Please allow me to suggest a couple of remedies. In my 10 years as a corporate writing coach, I've seen hundreds of people get unstuck using both of these approaches.

(1) List questions from the audience's perspective.

(2) List your ideas as fragments rather than full sentences.

Why list questions

Writer's block often comes from failing to adequately "pre-write" -- that is, to think critically and do research before settling in to begin composing. If you pause to imagine yourself in your audience's shoes and think from their perspective about your topic, it can be helpful to simply list questions that you think the audience might ask. This can jump-start an effective pre-writing effort that, once initiated, is likely to flow readily and will feel to you like intuition.

It could be that you have writer's block because you simply weren't ready to begin.

Why write fragments

Another common reason for writer's block is self-censoring too early in your writing process. Have you ever typed eight words across the page, then backspaced to delete three of them, typed two more, then backspaced over five, and so on? You can work for a half-hour like this and end up with a grand total of four words on the page.

We've all been there at some time or another, right?

Or worse still, you sit there just staring, unable to compose a first sentence while your mind races, unproductively creating and rejecting possibilities in rapid succession.

In these cases, try writing in fragments instead of sentences. This will release your over-active censor. Misspelled word? Fine. Wrong tone? No prob. Incomplete thought? All of these are OK while listing your ideas as fragments.

When bad is in fact good

No need to make a pretty sentence ... yet. Really, it's too early for that. You should be in "free-writing" mode, not "re-writing" mode. Free-writing means slapping it all down without finessing the details. In this phase, you have permission to write what I delicately spell in make-believe French as "crappe." Let me say it again: You have permission to write "crappe." (wink wink)

The act of listing your ideas as fragments breaks the unhelpful brainwave pattern that comes with editing/censoring/rewriting. Instead, you'll slip without noticing into a different brainwave pattern conducive to creating rather than polishing. Again, as with Remedy No. 1 above, you'll find yourself in the flow and enjoying a feeling of writing intuitively.

These tips are like diving boards. Once you rise up and break the surface with either of these deliberate acts, you will find your natural buoyancy and enjoy new momentum and freedom.

If you want examples, check out this previous related post.

What's your New Year's resolution for writing?

2011-12-19T19:39:00.000-08:00

A New Year's resolution about improving your writing ought to be pretty easy to keep, right?

Let me know if you want help thinking of something specific and do-able. Meanwhile, if you already have an idea, please share it using the hash tag #nyr4w on Twitter.

My friend and former colleague Tricia Stream, who is a grammar nerd and tech geek, has started us off. Here's the link.

Writing class for bloggers and marketers in SF Bay Area

2011-12-10T14:34:00.000-08:00

As an experiment, I'm giving a version of my most popular writing and editing workshops at a night school in the East Bay (San Francisco). Three 90-minute classes on consecutive Tuesdays. Ridiculously cheap. If you've been holding off, here's your big chance.

Register here for a class I'm giving late February through early March at a night school east of San Francisco.

Creating Compelling Content

How To Add Journalistic Verve To A Personal Blog Or Business Marketing Materials

Join former Associated Press journalist and PR writing coach Lauren Edwards for writing and editing workshops like those she created for Intel, Yahoo, and Google to promote their businesses through engaging content.

Lauren has been creating and giving workshops for the past 10 years in Silicon Valley as well as across the United States and overseas, including for groups in Russia, China, India, Australia, Korea, Taiwan, Japan, Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore.

In three 90-minute sessions, you will revise or develop content that successfully promotes your business or cause. You'll learn how to boost the relevance and appeal of existing source material and save time in the process of developing more effective new material.

Principles apply to blogs, brochures, flyers, Web copy, award submissions, case studies, PowerPoint, social media posts, and magazine and news articles.

Who should attend: Business operators, nonprofit volunteers, corporate marketers, PR pros, bloggers, website writers and editors, and free lancers
When: 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. on three consecutive Tuesdays in late February and early March -- 2/28, 3/6, 3/13
Where: Castro Valley Adult and Career Education, 4430 Alma Ave., Castro Valley, CA 94546
Map and driving directions
Castro Valley Adult and Career Education is located smack in the middle of the East Bay, less than 25 minutes drive from Berkeley, Fremont, Danville and Pleasanton.
If you're flying, use Oakland International Airport. Second best is San Jose International Airport.
What to bring: Raw source material or early drafts of communications intended to capture the attention of people you'd like to influence, for profit or for a cause
Laptop is optional. You can use pen on paper, if you prefer to travel light.
Course emphasis: How to ...
... arrest the attention of skimmers and glue their eyeballs to your words
... gain traction with your audience through greater relevance and credibility
... use structure information for higher impact (It ain't like they taught you in school.)
... quickly filter out information that will induce MEGO (My Eyes GlazeOver)

The price is ridiculously low at $39. Normally, it would cost around $3,000 for a corporate class of similar value.

Humankind can't live on profits and UVs alone

2011-11-17T21:50:00.001-08:00

Having just watched "Page One," the documentary about New York Times reporter David Carr and the loss he represents in the rise of new media, I find myself contrasting today's data-based journalism (unique visitors, engagement ratings) with what used to be called database journalism, an investigative endeavor that was trendy in the early 1990s.

If you need a reminder, "database journalism" meant using computers and spreadsheets to uncover patterns in otherwise dry, undigestible data. If you were lucky and smart, this computer-enabled combing of detail would lead to some kind of shocker that was worthy of Page One and perhaps even a Pulitzer.

Few heroes persevered against dial-up

This was pre-Google (1998) and even pre-Netscape (1994), back when we made fun of the World Wide Web (as the Web was once known) by calling it the World Wide Wait.

In fact, I remember being led by a coworker at The Associated Press in San Francisco into a darkened room where an Internet-connected computer had been set up. There was just one, and it sat mostly unused beneath a frost-colored, plastic dust-cover.

My coworker flipped on the lights, pulled off the cover, booted up the machine, dialed up the connection and attempted to show me what a Web page looked like. We waited ... a long time, and in the end found nothing of interest. We turned off the computer, replaced the cover and went back to work.

Negotiation, angst and effort

Back in that day, database journalism was the coolest thing around, and only a few geeky wizards could do it. Usually it took months or even a year to produce a single story in this manner, making it a luxury and a status symbol.

I never did it. Hardly any reporters I know did it. Database journalism was elusively cool.

The New York Times documentary "Page One" triggered this memory for me because, as I watched, I began to feel again how much effort went into a single story, even an ordinary story -- never mind a high-status, investigative, database story. How much time. How much negotiation. How much angst and rethinking.

Logical yet demoralizing distractions

Nowadays, data-based journalism -- not database journalism -- is taking an opposite toll. Instead of inspiring reporters to tenaciously chase discoveries that could save lives, change policy or reveal a weakness just in time, data-based journalism is demoralizing to journalists and props up a logical rationale for publishing stories that are mindless distractions, like, say, a video of a kitten's silly antics.

With UVs and engagement front and center, decision-making about coverage is weighted even more heavily on the audience's side, not the reporter's. There's some good in that. But unfortunately, what's also lost in that shift is the once-familiar angst, ethics and negotiation that old-school reporters used to regularly bring to the process.

Greed grows when distraction is king

Today's reporters work harder than ever, with fewer resources. It's not fun or heroic anymore. The only way to survive the work day is to cut corners.

The pressure to cut corners, combined with the pressure to increase UVs, encourages the publication of distractions from what really matters -- that is, entertainment or whatever will draw eyeballs while taking little of a reporter's time and care.

Now, overlay the decline of newspapers in the past 10 years with the rise of greed on Wall Street and mainstream families' overspending on material enjoyment (distraction and entertainment), which triggered the housing industry collapse and the recession.

Bring back balance

Hmm, anybody else seeing the connection? When we surrender our human-focused values and base our decisions on quantitative data alone (dollars and UVs), we lose.

The online explosion is mostly good, in my opinion, but we need to restore balance. Data shouldn't rule. Overemphasis on profits and UVs is leading to new kinds of losses.

Commas are not pauses

2011-11-12T09:02:00.000-08:00

This $10.95 book by René Jacques Cappon of The Associated Press is neither remedial nor scholarly. It's a slim, practical, example-filled, in-between sort of book that business professionals and other writers can quickly skim.

Second-grade teacher's good intentions gone awry

The chapter on commas alone is well worth the price of the book and then some. I'm not exaggerating when I say this chapter will change your professional life.

Here's why: Many of us learned in first or second grade that a comma is a pause. Our teacher fed us this fallacy because we were new to the written word and, while scrawling our first sentences in unsteady handwriting, we had to be reminded incessantly to apply a period, a space and then a capital letter. (I have volunteered in elementary schools for several years now, so it's fresh in my mind how much children struggle to remember those seemingly arbitrary details.)

Then, after we get the period-space-capital pattern down, our teacher throws a new form of punctuation at us, the comma. We're startled and we feel betrayed. Our teacher kindly explains, "The period is a full stop and the comma is a pause." We relax a bit and obediently try to apply the new punctuation mark.

Hence, the willy-nilly application of commas

Unfortunately, that's the last time most of us hear anything about commas. Consequently, as grownups now writing professional documents, we apply commas willy-nilly whenever the voice inside our own head hears what could be identified as a pause.

Nooooo!

Every comma has a reason for being. Commas are not subjective. They are not pauses.

What makes the elementary-school fallacy particularly destructive is the fact that we don't all hear pauses in the same places. We each have our own syntax, usually without being aware of it. The typical rookie editor tampers with other people's commas, forcing them into spots where they hear a pause and removing them from places where they don't. This is a waste of your company's time and demoralizing to the person whose work you're editing.

Top students use this book

This book, "The Associated Press Guide to Punctuation," will clarify things for you, primarily through examples. Hooray! *Finally*, your ambivalence and errors can be put to rest.

I create and give writing and critical-thinking workshops, including a few different kinds of classes related to copy editing. I use this book only with my top copy-editing students.

Disclosure/clarification: I worked for the AP in the early to mid-1990s, but I don't make any money from the sale of this book. In fact, it was published in 2003, about seven years after I left The AP (and three years after I had already become a writing coach in Silicon Valley.)

Press releases: A necessary evil & how to use them

2011-11-03T19:10:00.000-07:00

Corporate press releases -- ugh. Raise your hand if you agree.

Let's face it, most corporate press releases aren't newsworthy, compelling or relevant to readers, often because the approval process is excessive.

Unsurprisingly, surveys repeatedly have shown that top-notch news media hardly ever use press releases for sourcing stories.

That said, press releases do in fact have great value for corporations -- internally, that is. They may trigger the start of an internal process involving multiple departments, catalyzing people in a variety of functions and aligning them around common business objectives. Once the approval process for a press release is complete, there's consensus. And if there isn't consensus, there's a new awareness of divisive issues or not-well-thought-out questions that may not have come to light so quickly.

A press release is a stake in the ground. It's a public statement of what a company does, believes or intends, with the help of which partners and for whom. It's useful for archiving. You can look at press releases posted on a company's website to see where it's been.

If you work in PR, I suggest writing an email pitch tailored to a specific news reporter, emphasizing information that your own research tells you will be useful to that particular news reporter.

In the last line, include a link to the press release, inviting the reporter to have a look at it for further information. It's unlikely the press release alone will be of interest, so I recommend including it but not relying on it.

Caveat: Earnings releases and other financially relevant announcements are the exception. These have external news value because they influence the decisions of people outside the company who buy and sell stocks, as well as help the company fulfill SEC requirements for proper disclosure.

7 fave features from 7-ish months at Patch.com

2011-10-27T16:51:00.000-07:00

Here are a few articles I wrote during my seven-ish months at Patch.com.

1. Hiking Half Dome: There But for the Grace of God Go I

A 26-year-old East Bay woman became the 20th person to die on Yosemite's Half Dome, prompting calls for shutting down what some believe is an overly dangerous ascent.

This story puts you on the scene and puts the danger in perspective.

Aside: When I climbed, it was sheer rock -- no wooden boards to step on as you pulled yourself up the cables at the top.

2. Miley Hears: 'You Are Hurting Us'

This emotional litany of business pain prompted Alameda County to pay for a marketing campaign to help small shops sabotaged last winter by a poorly planned construction project.

The "Boulevard Bucks" campaign is intended to save businesses at risk of going under.

3. Facebook's 'CV Legends': Explained

“Here’s a bunch of knuckleheads who were doing this stuff way before I was,” said David Ashton, a very funny guy whose posts on Facebook get 40 to 70 comments pretty regularly. He's talking about mischief from his youth and related anecdotes he has collected from others on CV Legends, a fan page dedicated to hometown nostalgia as far back as the late 1940s.

David became the first person I recruited for a Patch-hosted blog, when Patch launched its blogging platform in early May 2011.

He crowds-sources many of his blog posts, which you may know is the trendy thing to do these days, if you can do it well -- which he does. Turns out he's a hilarious storyteller, too.

4. Moms Open Up About Feelings of Isolation

We informally polled a group of moms every week to find out what they wanted to share with other moms. This weekly series covered many topics: bullying, Facebook for under-13s, wish lists for Mother's Day, favorite books, homework, nutrition and more.

5. Whiz Kid Helps with Undercover Stings

An inside look at a sting operation and an introduction to a humanitarian teenager who can really bust a move.

6. Why the Low-Flying Helicopter? The First to Find Out Found Out on Facebook

If you post on Facebook, then you are the new breed of journalist. This story unravels a grass-roots reporting episode starring neighbors and commuters who collectively beat police and local news organizations to the deadline.

7. CV Patch Editor Stepping Down

These meandering last words capture my feelings and opinions about what makes Patch.com worth watching.

Watch me in my new multimedia website job

2011-03-11T12:01:00.001-08:00

Addendum: I worked for Patch.com (funded frugally by AOL and now being whipped into shape by the truly fabulous Ariana Huffington) from March 2011 through September 2011. I successfully created slide shows and my first iMovie videos, along with standard online journalism content. But I'm most proud of the bloggers I recruited, the columnists I managed and what I learned firsthand about comment moderation.

My fantastic colleague and friend Analisa Harangozo has taken over Castro Valley Patch and is doing a GREAT job.

***
Original Post: As you know, I got my wish -- a multimedia content creation job. About a year ago, I set a goal to become a more visual thinker and begin expressing myself beyond the printed word alone.

On Monday, I was thrown into the lake and told to swim. If you want to watch me in my new job, consider following me:
on Twitter at @CValleyPatch
on www.facebook.com/castrovalleypatch.
on the website itself at castrovalley.patch.com

This is an AOL funded startup now also getting input from Arianna Huffington, as of the recent AOL-Huffington Post merger. The content is purely local and not of interest unless you live in a patch of unincorporated ground about 40 minutes east of San Francisco. But the experiment is the thing. You will be watching the future unfold.

Think "Facebook/Twitter meets Yellow Pages/Yelp" with professional print and broadcast journalists overseeing content creation. The user interface on the editors' side of things is agile and awesome. The team is cooperative, delightful and smart.

Look for a Patch.com near you.

Um, sorry, I gotta get back to work now.

Interviews that bring copy to life

2011-02-25T10:33:00.000-08:00

What I'll be doing next week for a client in Silicon Valley:

Interactive Writing Workshop for Web Professionals

· Two days, 4.5 hours each day with a 30-minute lunch break

· Workbook and cheat sheets included

Day One: “How to Bring Your Copy to Life”

Please bring three writing samples and a pen. If you wish, you may also use your laptop. You’ll self-diagnose your writing and choose your own improvements. You’ll do hands-on exercises and get useful answers to your on-the-spot questions.

Topics include:

1. Invigorating verbs

2. Info-chunking for the Web

3. Writing for the eye, not the ear

4. Meshing with [company]’s editorial guidelines

5. Sounding like [company] while still thinking for yourself

Day Two: “How to Make the Most of an Overly Busy Interviewee’s Time”

If possible, please bring writing samples that involve at least one live interview. (It’s OK to use the same documents from the day before.) Even if your job doesn’t require you to engage audiences, you’ll learn better ways to elicit information from colleagues. You’ll hear “war stories” from a veteran journalist and science writer, with emphasis on tips and tricks.

1. Know when to “drop your script” and go rogue

2. Create your own cheat sheet for emergencies

3. See samples written with and without live interviews

4. Get physical with non-verbal cues that keep people talking

5. Listen in a way that gets people to say the most interesting things

About Lauren Edwards, Writing Coach

A former reporter for The Associated Press, Lauren Edwards has successfully coached hundreds of professional communicators and engineers at companies including Intel, Yahoo and Google since August 2000. She customizes writing and critical thinking workshops for science- and technology-based companies in emerging markets. Topics include: finding news value, adding business context, creating compelling content and repurposing content for social media. Her Tweets and weekly blog offer results‐oriented tips on writing and editing. Lauren was a staff writer for The Associated Press in San Francisco, Fresno and Tokyo and a science writer for the Oakland Tribune and other dailies in the San Francisco Bay Area. Her international experience includes Peace Corps service in the Philippines and ambassadorial scholarships to live, work and study in Japan. She graduated with honors from the University of California, Berkeley, with a bachelor’s degree in the political economy of natural resources. You can reach Lauren at …

Tip for community journalists: Look for people with problems

2011-02-07T17:12:00.000-08:00

***

The cattle truck hurtling out of control missed the pen where Rosie & Ernie keep their pet wolves.

-- SF Chron, 11/29/91

***

Here's a tip for community journalists still getting used to new beats. Rather than write about a city council meeting, for example, use the packet that council members get in advance of the meeting to look for "people with problems."

Key word: people.

For example, below is a story I wrote for the San Francisco Chronicle. To get the idea for it, I flipped through a fat stack of tedious but essential paperwork on county government operations and found a letter written by a citizen. Her name was Daisy and she was asking for a stop sign.

Ho hum, right? In fact, it's just the opposite. I called her on the phone and listened, then went to her house to listen some more.

Out rolled the real story:

Daisy Bohnak was washing dishes when a Volkswagon skidded into her yard, taking out a $1,200 gate on the way up to her kitchen window.

"Lady, it was either come in here or run into the back of a truck," the driver reportedly said.

Bedeviled by fender-benders and roll-overs that occur with regularity in their front and back yards, Bohnak and her neighbors in this rural no-man's land are victims of Central Valley growth that has passed them by -- usually at speeds exceeding 55 mph.

"I moved into the country and look what I got -- a freeway!" Bohnak shouted over the roar of a speeding cement truck. French Camp Road passes through unincorporated Manteca, Stockton and French Camp, offering five pastoral miles with few stop signs, traffic signals, speed postings or patrol cars.

Before Ted and Daisy Bohnak installed a 6-foot gate for protection, their property overlooked black angus cows at pasture. "Now I look at out-of-state 18-wheelers," Daisy Bohnak said.

French Camp Road links Interstate 5 and Highway 99, providing an important cross-connection for truckers and a back roads alternative route to the Bay Area. French Camp's population of 3,020 has barely changed over the same five-year period in which traffic has increased by about one-third, said Bob Pico, who serves as chairman of the town's advisory council.

Pico, also a firefighter whose station house overlooks French Camp Road, estimates that the number of accidents has risen from one or two per year in 1985 to 10 or 12 a year now, turning residents' yards into target ranges for wayward speedsters.

Crashes, screeches and thump-thump-thumps

Luckily, a reserve firefighter and a registered nurse live closest to the trouble spot at French Camp and Union roads. Ernest and Rosalie Thomsen hardly need their radio monitor because they are on scene to hear the crashes, screeches and thump-thump-thumps.

Even when they are not called upon to help save lives, the consequences of accidents may interrupt dinner. A clipped power pole recently forced them to finish eating in the dark.

Sometimes accidents arrive on the Thomsen's doorstep. They were relieved when a cattle truck hurtling out of control missed the pen in their backyard, where they keep two pet wolves. they were annoyed when a man driving a Mercedes-Benz from Stockton to Manteca mowed over their persimmon tree and crepe myrtle bush before bogging down in the front yard.

"You hear a siren going and nine times out of 10, they stop at Union," said Brenda Severs, who lives down the road from the Thomsens.

Neighbors demand signs

The neighbors have banded together to ask for road improvements at the dangerous intersection -- a stop sign and speed postings if not a turn lane -- but San Joaquin County planners said they do not have the money. Developers increasingly bear such costs in the Central Valley, but this farm belt midway between two burgeoning cities has no benefactors.

"French Camp is dying on the vine," Pico said. No-growth advocates have held forth since the 1940s.

Kathy McMorris, 38, who as a child visited her Aunt Rosie and Uncle Ernie's farm at the intersection of French Camp and Union roads nearly every weekend, remembers playing in the walnut orchards, especially in winter when she could sink knee-deep in mud puddles and look for small fish. Nowadays, children are kept indoors or behind gates and fences protected by hedges.

There used to be another house on the corner, but the owners decided not to rebuild after a second car plowed through their living room.

Only sounds of nature

Ted and Daisy Bohnak remember taking their now-grown daughters for buggy rides across French Camp Road. The only sounds were of wildlife, wind, the clip-clopping and snorting of horses, and perhaps the cries of a newly weaned lamb. Today, they forgo outdoor conversation. "You'd have to scream at each other," Daisy Bohnak said.

Occasionally, the residents get revenge. Barbed wire along the Thomsens' orchard scratches paint off cars that venture tool close. A young woman, who tried to pass a truck on the right side of the road but instead became pinned in the Bohnak's driveway, sat silently, pale with fear, while Daisy Bohnak read her the riot act.

The area's first subdivision -- 12 houses planned for the area just east of the Bohnaks' farm -- may push idyllic days further into the past, but Daisy Bohnak, like her neighbors, has no intention of moving.

"If we have to," she said, "we'll just plant some more bushes."

San Francisco Chronicle, 11/29/91

If you're hiring an online content editor ...

2011-01-31T09:16:00.000-08:00

For 10 years, I've been teaching technology companies and technology PR/marketing pros how to write in a compelling way that is very much "new school." I sometimes called myself the un-teacher because I un-taught people to write the way they were taught in school.

My clients included Intel, Yahoo and Google.

Then the social media boom came along and suddenly what I'd been preaching for years was trendy and considered new, or at least something that only people in their 20s could understand. Not! I've been teaching people in their 20s to create compelling content, and the proof of their success is in whether they got results with their target audiences.

Here's evidence of their success: http://bit.ly/J9oTo. A particularly skeptical audience voted the PR agency where I did the most coaching No. 1 in credibility and usefulness.

My writing, editing and teaching skills are proven. The effectiveness of my pupils is evident in their LinkedIn recommendations of me. Not only can I write and edit well myself, I can also help others improve, giving even non-professional writers in your company a greater capacity for adding publication-ready Web content to your pipeline, as well as meet the day's deadline.

I'm a former Associated Press news reporter who left journalism when journalism was still hot. I had wanted to become a ghost writer for biomedical researchers but fell into coaching at a technology PR agency called A&R Partners (since bought by Edelman).

Back in the day at The AP, we broke news with a one-line story, much like today's Tweets, except that the early alert went only to member-newspapers via an internal electronic system. As the story evolved, we added to it gradually, much they way online news is posted today, except that readers didn't see it until it appeared in print in the next day's newspaper. Same process, different medium that is now transparent from the first word.

After putting out the early alert and before doing further research, we often wrote a quick radio story and sent it out on the broadcast-only wire, where outlets like KCBS would "break the news." Not everyone knows, I guess, that the The AP's print reporters are also behind many broadcast stories read by newscasters and high-profile columnists including Charles Osgood, whose Osgood Report on KCBS gives the impression he did all the reporting himself. One time, in fact, he read one of my AP stories word for word, never mentioning my name or The AP.

So you see, guys, veteran print reporters have been polishing their "social media" skills for decades, even before social media was made possible by new distribution platforms. It's just that you couldn't watch us in action in real time, like you can now. We were shrouded by the delay inherent in the printing press. What's different? The shroud has been removed.

You ought to interview me for the job of online content editor. I'd make your life easier.

Please contact me via LinkedIn.

Why I blog and Tweet less lately

2011-01-19T12:05:00.001-08:00

Besides my current bout of bronchitis, which has made my brain fuzzy, the reason I blog and Tweet less these days is that I'm no longer a full-time writing coach.

I used to toss together whatever I'd been saying to people lately and post it. The idea was to be more time-efficient while helping a larger number of people. (I got the idea from Hubspot.)

My recent jobs have all been writing jobs, so there's no advice to share. I can't share the actual writing, either, because it's for clients rather than for the general public.

Taking a break; I'll be back

2011-01-10T23:45:00.000-08:00

Taking a social media break to paint my house and put it up for rent. Holding a garage sale where I intend to sell about 80 percent of my possessions. Ad says, "Got married, don't need two of everything." Belated, I know. The whole thing feels divinely guided, like I'm gracefully surfing a perfect-for-me wave generated by powerful forces beyond the scope of my understanding.

Addendum 1/18/11: Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans. Now I'm suffering, not surfing. I've come down with that awful illness that's been going around. Lung pain, all-over pain, sleep-deprivation, fever ...

But I found renters for my house and the weather has been mild and sunny. So at least there's that! Maybe that feeling of divine guidance will return once I'm able to breathe normally again.

My interview with Maya Angelou

2011-01-01T11:12:00.000-08:00

For New Year's Day, my interview with Maya Angelou ...

How to attract audiences to your company's content

2010-12-17T16:12:00.000-08:00

Marketers, every business is now a media company. New distribution platforms make it easy for you to speak directly to the right audiences. But is your content ready for prime time?

Content marketing, as defined by the Langley Center for New Media, is "a marketing technique of creating and distributing relevant and valuable content to attract, acquire, and engage a clearly defined and understood target audience – with the objective of driving profitable customer action."

Here are 10 of my own tips for companies that want to think and act like publishers.

Tell the story “out of order.” Start with why, not with background or with "how," especially when telling a science or technology story. Even more specifically, show "why it matters" and "why now."
Turn standard marketing collateral into a narrative. This post of mine is explicitly about PR people writing award submissions, but the advice fits other situations, too.
Think like a business news reporter. Here’s how to package your company’s story as a business news article. This post, too, was written for PR people pitching business journalists, but the advice applies to your direct communications, too.
Here’s more on thinking like a business journalist. Know the magic question.
How to write a contributed article. That’s PR-speak for an article in a magazine or trade publication that is written in part by an expert within your company, with improvements suggested by PR people who understand the news media’s needs.
Learn to ask better questions in an interview by listening for fruitful moments that will yield better than average storytelling details.
Start with low-hanging fruit. The easiest way to make a low-risk but effective change is to rethink your company’s case studies to turn them into compelling content.
Write about your audience, not just yourself.
Check out this great advice from Radian 6. It describes the different types of content your company could produce and how to integrate it into overall strategy. The emphasis is on social media, but the principles apply more broadly. I add my radical two cents at the top.
Attend a content marketing boot camp sponsored by the Langley Center for New Media. Take lessons in person from “the” expert, Joe Pulizzi of Junta 42 and his Content Marketing Institute. He’s speaking at the Langley Center's seminar-retreat on beautiful Whidbey Island near Seattle on Jan. 13 & 14. Here’s Joe’s blog.

P.S. I just discovered BlueCava's Facebook posts and really like the way they're written.

Seminar retreat for next-gen marketers

2010-12-06T07:51:00.000-08:00

Passing on a notice from a colleague who puts on great learning events for professionals:

Content Marketing Retreat:
How to Think and Act like a Publisher

Featuring Keynote Address by Joe Pulizzi,
of Junta42 and the Content Marketing Institute

January 13 & 14, 2011
Langley Center for New Media
Langley, WA, on Whidbey Island

Full Details, Here
Langley Center for New Media Alumns' 20% Discount Code: LCNMAlumn
(Discount applies only to Early Bird rates, which end on 1/6/11)

About The Retreat
In a recent blog post, Geoff Ramsey, CEO and co-founder of eMarketer, states that "content marketing is critical" in 2011.

Content marketing is critical because the rules of PR and marketing have been forever changed. Quality content and content strategy are now viewed as crucial for deploying successful communications initiatives. Branded content, storytelling, video, ebooks, white papers and content for social media are just a few of the tools and tactics available to reach audiences.

When it comes to whether or not one should integrate quality content development into communications initiatives, the answer to the question "why?" is rapidly being replaced with the question "how?".

To address the question "how" the Content Marketing Retreat dives deeply into how clients, agencies and content producers work together to achieve success by "thinking and acting like publishers."

Essential Quick Links:
Full Program Description
Presenter Profiles
Please Register Today! (link includes 20% Langley Center Alumn Discount - Discount applies only to Early Bird rates, which end on 1/6/11)

Program Costs:
Retreats at the Langley Center for New Media are designed to offer the highest value at the lowest possible registration costs.

Day 1 Presentations, Early Bird Registration (Expires 1/6/11): $200
Day 2 Breakout Sessions, Early Bird Registration (Expires 1/6/11): $100

Please Register Today! (link includes 20% Langley Center Alumn Discount - Discount applies only to Early Bird rates, which end on 1/6/11)

Group discounts are available. Call 360-221-4001 to inquire more, or if you have questions.

About the Langley Center for New Media
The Langley Center for New Media is the educational and training program of Fusionspark Media, Inc. The Center is located in Langley, WA, a scenic seaside community on Whidbey Island, 25 miles north of Seattle.

This Eagle Eye does voice analysis, too

2010-11-15T18:39:00.000-08:00

Many of you know I've been applying for editing jobs while doing contract work at Dolby Labs. Here's the sound-bite version of my resume:

What sets me apart is the Eagle Eye editing program that I created at A&R Partners, a Silicon Valley PR agency whose clients included Adobe, Citrix, HP, Solar City and many startups. I also did "voice analysis," which means figuring out a company's voice and creating a recipe for internal writers to follow. I've given many editing and writing workshops over the years at Intel, Yahoo and Google.

http://www.linkedin.com/in/laurenedwardssv

Advice for editors

2010-10-29T10:46:00.000-07:00

If you want to be a better editor of others’ work, purge yourself of rookie mistakes.

Know the difference between copy editing and editing for substance. Don’t assume you are meant to do both. Key considerations:

How many approval cycles has this been through?
What gatekeepers have already signed off on it?
How close is the deadline?

Copy close to the end of its development process needs a light hand. If you introduce questions or suggestions, you are inviting error and undoing the work of a team that was chosen for its expertise.

In this situation, you are a copy editor. So you must think of yourself as a surgeon, not a psychologist or innovator. That means removing just the tumor while leaving healthy organs intact.

Never trust. Sorry, but that’s how it is. I’m an optimist and I believe that most people are aiming for goodness. But when it comes to copy editing, never trust yourself or others. Always look it up. Look it up, look it up, look it up. Can’t say this enough.

Plan on learning grammar, punctuation and style for the rest of your life. You’re never done. There’s always more. Here are a couple of examples of what I find many people aren’t clear on:

Apostrophe S on end of proper noun ending in S? Edwards’s blog or Edwards’ blog?
Hyphens in compound modifiers but not proper nouns or “ly” adverbs. Wholly owned subisidary, Philadelphia based company, follow-up call.

For more on how to be a good copy editor, see my posts about Eagle Eye training. I give classes on editing for probability of error, not just error, and how to exercise professional restraint.

***

If you are editing for substance, you need to ask more questions:

***

What does the audience need?

Who is the audience? What do they already know (so you won’t repeat words that waste their time)? What are their PDAs (problems, decisions, actions)? Use in-house and online resources to better understand who is in your audience, list the different job titles or skill sets within that audience, and filter content that will help them solve problems, make decisions, and move them forward toward their goals as they define them. Dig for content such that you answer the “why,” not just the “how.”

How can we drive long-term business goals?

Even if you are allowed to be creative, you still need to color inside the lines. In other words, know the business parameters that will keep you from going off on a tangent that won't advance your company's business goals.

What indirect takeaways should readers be left with? Have a list of adjectives and messages for each of these: industry, company, product, competition.
What are my company's top three overarching business goals? Where does your company want to be three years from now? (Not this year, not next year, but three to five years out.) Your answer has to be more specific than "drive sales." For example, it might be "shift from primarily commercial to primarily residential," "open new markets in India," "grow expertise in mobile technologies."

What's lurking below a messy surface?

If you hit a place in the text where a teacher might mark in red pen “awkward,” don’t rewrite it. Get up and talk to the writer. Ask why it was done that way. Most of the time, the writer had a good reason for it. Draw on your own editing and writing experience to get at the root cause or accurately write around a wrinkle. Conversation is best.

What matters most? Why?

Why does this matter? So what? What’s in it for the reader? What’s counterintuitive about this content? What decision will this help the reader make? Where’s the surprise?

If you can’t find the answers to these questions, you must do research or ask the writer to do research. You aren’t ready to write, it you can’t answer the above.

What's the proper tone?

Does the tone match the platform? I give entire classes on tone. But one way (among many) to begin addressing that is to improve the quality of your verbs. If you want to emphasize policy, minimize discussion, or blend into the wallpaper for legal reasons, use a lot of Latinate words. If you want to build relationships, use Anglo-Saxon words.

Latinate: construct, educate, consequently, location, initiate, adjacent, appoint
Anglo-Saxon: build, teach, so, place, start, near, name,

More questions ...

Do we need numbers? Imagery? Both? In what proportions? What’s the right structure for the purpose?

What kind of attention scan can I expect? Is this a captive audience or a voluntary audience? Is the audience bound to comply, or do we need to persuade?

Do we need to keep it strategic and focused on business goals? Or should it be about tactics and execution? Should we compare and contrast? Do the math?

Do we need a narrative style with a character overcoming obstacles in pursuit of a goal?

Or a three-line synopsis geared toward the recipient’s immediate need for decision-making or action-taking? Would it be better to boil down three bullets on a slide?

Should we provide a lot of background rationale even for what are thought to be less desirable options? Is this document primarily archival?

Will this be for a broad or narrow audience? If both, is the material for the broad audience at the top and the narrow audience at the bottom?

What works best for the media? Should we change media?

What audio/visual material is available? Would either of these be more effective than text? What side bars could be more immediately illustrative than text? Who owns the rights to the photos/videos/audio?

Should we add complementary materials?

What related questions does the topic raise that should be addressed but shouldn’t be confused with the main point? Should those be pulled out for side bars?

When the editor is also a coach

If you are editing to develop the writer, then you have another set of questions, which I’ve dealt with a lot in other posts. Here are a couple:

Don’t re-write; ask questions.

Open letter to trainees nearing final exams

Five criteria for evaluation & progress

For All-Hallow's-Even, a sweet ghost story

2010-10-28T00:59:00.000-07:00

I wrote this within half an hour or so one evening while gathered with women friends in a writing circle. Our leader gave us a convoluted writing prompt and I somehow ended up with the words splendid, saddle and coffin. I was to use them any way I saw fit. Normally, a complete story doesn't fly out of my body in one quick flash like this. In fact, I don't even write fiction at all, ever, so this story's appearance remains a singular mystery in my life so far.

I fiddled with it a bit today. Couldn't help myself.

***

The Splendid Saddle

A ghost story by Lauren Edwards, 11/11/2004

How to get the splendid saddle into the coffin had been puzzlement at first.

Nobody questioned its importance. It was just a matter of how. David Woodman explicitly requested he be buried with the silver- and gold-inlaid prize he’d won at the 1942 rodeo in Satin Falls, Oklahoma, then a dusty, has-been of a city that would soon disappear from modern maps.

Some folks remember how Peggy Ann Rice kissed him the day he won. She just up and did it, out of nowhere, and afterward looked as surprised as anyone. She was a pretty little thing with gray-flecked, green eyes and skin the color of wheat in sunlight. David caught the pleasure in her eyes as she darted toward him, and craved it again afterward when she’d lowered her eyelids and clasped her hands lightly at her hip line. She stood there veiled in silence, radiant with an inner stillness that practically drew his heart straight out of his chest, as if it could land smack dab in the middle of hers and dissolve there like sugar in hot tea.

The crowd was buzzing with excitement of its own, and Peggy Ann’s kiss became part of that tableau, felt but a little bit forgotten. David forgot her momentarily when he was being carried on the shoulders of raucous buddies glad to see him win. No hour had been sweeter than that one, not in all the 37 years of the rest of his life.

It was matched like a bookend by the grief-soaked horror that followed. The girl Peggy Ann, this beautiful girl who’d kissed him, was trampled by a bull that got loose. It happens. It’s a thrill, usually, to watch muscle on muscle, and rope against hide, when the cowboys wrassle him back in.

David himself saw the awkward turn of Peggy Ann’s ankle above the lace trim of her white sock. He knew it was broken. He saw that her sun-kissed face was distorted by pain and that she lay unnaturally still, dainty and garish at once. Six days later, she died at St. Mary’s Hospital, in a room sweet with blossoms. Not all had been sent by David, but a lot of them were, and he felt there still weren’t enough in the room when nurses finally insisted he stop bringing them. He wept in the hallway, perplexed by the cruelty of nurses who couldn’t see how deserving Peggy Ann had been of more flowers, more sun kisses, more breezes and more life.

David caressed that prized saddle of his each time he rose in the morning and before he went to sleep at night. Whenever he moved to a new home, the saddle was transported in the front seat of his car, to make sure it wouldn't be left behind or so much as nicked.

Prayerful friends who attended his funeral knew the saddle was a beauty and assumed he’d been proud of his accomplishments. They celebrated him.

Only Brandon, the three-year-old son of the funeral home director, glimpsed the truth. He saw two human figures wink in and out of view near the coffin, which had been sawed out along one length to make room for the saddle.

The bluish-gray vision flickered unsteadily, but Brandon knew what he saw – a man lightly caressing the back of a lovely girl’s neck. Her eyelids were lowered and her hands were clasped lightly at her hip line. She was so still and light and sweet that she reminded Brandon of marshmallow topping on a chiffon pie. But his heart registered unmistakable evidence of this girl’s humanity. Brandon could feel, even more than he could see, the crinkle of pleasure in the tender flesh between her temples and sunlit eyelashes.

Peggy Ann was smiling.

For Spirit Day, "Prayers for Bobby"

2010-10-20T16:57:00.000-07:00

I wrote this article while a staff writer for The Associated Press. It moved on the wire on Aug. 30, 1996, for release by newspapers on Labor Day weekend. I'm reprinting it here in honor of Spirit Day (today), which is intended to raise awareness to prevent anti-gay abuse.

A Mother's Change of Heart About Her Gay Son's Suicide

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) – Scared and full of self-hatred, Bobby Griffith took his mother’s advice and prayed his homosexuality would be healed by God.

In his diary, the teen-ager wrote, “Am I going to Hell? That’s the gnawing question that’s always drilling little holes in the back of my mind … Lord, I want to be good … I need your seal of approval.”

On Aug. 27, 1983, at the age of 20, Bobby flipped backwards off the edge of a freeway overpass and toppled into the path of a speeding truck. His suicide became the genesis for a book about his mother’s change of heart over the roots of her son’s homosexuality.

In “Prayers for Bobby,” veteran journalist Leroy Aarons tells how Mary Griffith came to decide three years after her son’s death that God “had not healed Bobby because there was nothing wrong with him.”

Aarons, formerly a foreign correspondent and editor at The Washington Post and The Oakland Tribune, is founder and president of the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association.

He came across excerpts of Bobby’s diary in the San Francisco Examiner, which published a 16-day series on gays and lesbians in America.

“My instinct was to grab hold of the boy who was writing these words and shout, ‘No, Bobby! You’ve got it all wrong. You’re OK. It’s the others who are crazy with ignorance!’”

His book, to be published by HarperCollins of San Francisco, begins like a family portrait in which Bobby, his parents, his two sisters and his brother talk movingly about their love for each other as well about as their misunderstandings. It ends with Mrs. Griffith’s transformation into a gay rights activist and a cataloging of recent landmarks in that campaign.

Details are layered to create middle-class suburban family-life scenes that ring so true they may be haunting to readers of similar backgrounds. But Mrs. Griffith’s religious fervor juxtaposed against Bobby’s secret agony make this family’s story particularly poignant and dramatic.

At first, Bobby tells only his diary his adolescent dreams are about men. He overhears conversations at home and at church that hurt.

“They’ve said they hate gays, and even God hates gays, too,” Bobby confided to his diary. “That really scares me when they talk that way because now they are talking about me.”

Bobby ultimately is broken by a raging frustration at a God who won’t “heal” him and a mother who won’t accept him as he is, but the focus of the story is Mrs. Griffith’s shifting perspective on the psychological collapse.

“Bobby’s death was the direct result of his parents’ ignorance and fear of the word ‘gay,’” Mrs. Griffith wrote after much soul-searching and Bible study, guided by a pastor of a church accepting of gays and lesbians.

She is portrayed as the quintessential homebody, whose shyness and lack of self-possession make her an unlikely spokesperson for a movement that draws venomous opposition. But Aarons writes that her lack of polish makes her seem more genuine, and her first-person narratives let audiences see only a boy who needed unconditional love and a well-meaning mother who failed him.

Mrs. Griffith wrote in a letter to her son after his death, "You were the apple of God’s eye just as you were. If we had only known.”

Menu: Choose your advice

2010-10-17T14:40:00.000-07:00

Here are a few past posts in menu form so you can easily choose a topic that fits your situation.

Type of writing

Evaluating writing

Writing mechanics

Copy editing -- counterintuitive path to success

Editing for substance

What you wish you'd learned in college

2010-10-14T14:02:00.000-07:00

I'm giving a talk next week to PR students at Santa Clara University. If you share your insights with me here, I will be able to pass them along to (a few of) the next generation.

What do you know now that you wish you'd learned then about business and PR writing?
What writing advice would you give to a new PR grad?

Incidentally, at A&R Partners, we loved hiring PR grads from Santa Clara University. If I were choose one school that gave us the best employees, that'd be my pick.

Pretty pictures from the university's website

What I do? Problem-solve, mostly.

2010-09-24T09:17:00.000-07:00

Q: Tell me more about your work - do you contribute? ghost write or mostly edit/proof? (From a Twitter follower)

A: I mostly help people *develop* compelling content. So the emphasis is on pre-writing, critical thinking, audience analysis, and identifying storytelling elements and news value.

I teach people to restructure their drafts altogether, so that it doesn't resemble what they learned in school. (Essays have their place, but not in a world of information overload.)

Instead, I encourage business professionals and other writers to "tell the story out of order," to give away the punchline, juxtapose unlike items for contrast and subtle tension, and reduce word count by editing content, not words.

Pre-write, restructure, edit differently

If you do a better job of pre-thinking, restructuring and counter-intuitive editing, you'll arrest the attention of skimmers, get heard by an executive who has the attention span of a flea, and get people to respond to your e-mails more quickly.

People will forward your analysis up the chain of command rather than put it in a well-intentioned "read later" pile. People will follow your instructions rather than skip your memo altogether.

I am happiest when creating new classes to solve problems that people weren't sure could be fixed.

Examples of past requests:

We're changing our brand from heavy engineering to consumer-friendly. Can you help our PR, marketing and analyst relations writers make that switch? (Technology used to be for geeks but became more mainstream starting around 2005.)
We want our writers to demonstrate more business acumen when writing for executives and journalists -- do you see a way to do that?
We want people to be self-aware enough to raise their own standards when editing their own work, especially for complex assignments.
How can we meet tight deadlines for press releases when the people who are supposed to provide the content don't get back to us until the last minute?
We want our startup's voice to be a cross between (1) inspiring like Obama, (2) smart and irreverent like Jon Stewart, and (3) approachable like Kari Byron (of Discovery Channel's MythBusters). How would we do that?
Does our writing voice fit our audience? Why are we good at reaching one kind of audience but not another?
Our staff are seasoned professional writers but even they can do better. What would you recommend?
Our staff now have to write for audio and visual formats, but their experience is limited to the written word.
We find ourselves having to re-purpose corporate content for social media and Web use, but it comes out in the wrong tone, lacks zest and is mostly being overlooked. How can we fix that?

Eagle Eye training isn't what you think

I created a two-month training program that teaches copy editors to find what other professionals miss. It's successful in large part because it's unconventional. I teach techniques that I call "brain off," "hot zone" and "professional restraint."

I'm one of the fastest and most accurate editors you'll find anywhere, though I don't always proofread my own work, which brings untold embarrassment. But I am also *not* an advocate of perfect proofreading in high-trust relationships or situations where too much fussing is a waste of time for the purpose at hand.

I'm not a snob. Personally, I don't care if people make mistakes. But I can uphold standards when paid to do so. I'm not one of those people who sneers at a wrong application of whom, lay or less, or who bewails the end of literacy as we know it. I care about content and connection, and most of all about people making progress.

Who gets help and why

I'm primarily an investment in quality, critical thinking and effectiveness. I teach people to do better work faster. My customers have mostly been engineers, PR and marketing pros, and internal communications writers (who at big companies nowadays are seasoned journalists). I draw on strengths and help people write more as themselves, not as clones.

What kind of freelance assignments I accept

I happily accept freelance assignments for contributed articles (technologist, scientist or executive byline for a magazine) and op-eds, but I draw the line at press releases. I won't write a press release unless you pay me an inappropriately large sum of money. (!!)

New-media team, come to me now!

What I want to do more of is social media for a business purpose for a science-related company. I'm hoping to get in with a new-media team that does much more than the written word. I'd love to be facilitator of a growing audience that engages with a company and a cause in a meaningful way and improves quality of life.

The perfect job? Yes, I think so!!!

2010-09-15T09:54:00.001-07:00

OMG! Friends, doesn't this totally sound like me?!! I just sent in my cover letter and resume.

Everybody, please wish me luck!

POSITION RESPONSIBILITIES
Responsibilities include but are not limited to:

Content Development
- Review, evaluate and organize existing in-house material as potential content ( interviews, program and region descriptions, knowledge products, case studies, stories from the field, articles, and multi-media galleries)
- Collaborate with staff across the organization to identify, recommend and encourage (to self- produce) new and relevant content (including from external sources)
- Identify news stories about the organization's work
- Develop written and multimedia content that is clear, concise, compelling, and conveys key messages to target audiences
- Prepare, write and edit new web content in consultation with staff
- Review Web content drafts and incorporate feedback as appropriate for final versions.
- Provide editorial guidance and support to content production. Edit final version of Web content for good flow and readability.
- As website is developed, posting Web content, photos, and multi-media through the Content Management System (CMS) such that it attracts users and search engines

Planning
- Develop and/or recommend a system for on-going organization of potential content coming into the organization
- Work with staff to plan and produce written and multi-media content for new website launch and beyond
- As website is designed and developed, review and make recommendations to ensure quality implementation
Other related responsibilities, as required by an evolving initiative.

SKILLS AND QUALIFICATIONS

Essential
The successful candidate will have:
- Bachelor’s Degree, preferably in journalism, communications, international relations, political science or related disciplines
- Extensive professional experience in communications including as a journalist; preferably seven years or more
- Proven ability to identify, select, analyze and produce information and content from a variety of sources.
- Excellent writing and editing skills, with fluency and a strong command of English
- Proven ability to convey complex ideas in accessible language to a variety of audiences in a clear, direct, and lively style
- Experience in effectively communicating and translating ideas across multiple cultures
- Experience in conducting interviews
- Strong organizational, project management and interpersonal skills. Flexibility and ability to juggle multiple tasks
- Be both a hands-on self-starter who knows how to take the initiative, and a collaborative colleague who can work effectively in a small and extremely diverse (multi-cultural and multi-disciplinary) global organization
- Prior experience in thematic and issue areas related to biocultural diversity and demonstrated experience as writer, editor, advocate, analyst and/or researcher in these areas. Understanding of, or the willingness and proven ability to quickly learn about, the organization’s specific regional and issue areas.
- Global perspective learned through on the ground experience particularly in the global south. Cultural and political sensitivity

Desired
In addition, preference will be given to those with the following:
- Experience working with online technologies and social media trends. Hands on experience building websites a bonus.
- Hands-on, solutions-focused, creative and resourceful; demonstrated sound judgment in resolving issues/problems
- Knowledge of digital archival and records management principles and practices, as well as the systems and automation techniques utilized.

Social media for B2B: Avoid this common marketing mistake

2010-09-08T09:18:00.001-07:00

This Slideshare prezo below (by Radian6.com) outlines the process very well, but watch out for allocating too little time for content production.

Analyze the audience the way a journalist would

It doesn't matter that you met your content quota (in this example, one e-book per month) if you don't gain traction with your target audience.

Analyze the audience the way a veteran journalist does by looking for:

(1) the unexpected

(2) info needed for decision-making

-- both from the audience's perspective, not the company's. (There's more to that ... much more.)

Give direct access to sources; a fact sheet won't work

Give the content producer direct access to people with direct experience using and developing the product or service.

They need to see demos and do interviews. It's not enough to hand them a fact sheet filled out by marketing staff (HUGE mistake there).

Process the info, don't just fling it

Allow time for an editing process that isn't just "freewriting," which means the putting of words on the page. Or in the case of video, simply uploading what you caught on the flipcam. Instead, leave time for processing the info in a way that permits storytelling, which will hold your audience's attention long enough to get your gist, giving them the time and a reason to identify with the info and -- ideally -- share it with friends.

Enjoy this presentation (below). I particularly like the metrics, which make it easy to quantify success.

Final advice:

(1) Be sure to tie the metrics to business goals, not just outreach goals.

(2) Consider hiring content producers with enough experience to read the direction of ongoing industry debate, so you can better position your company as a thought leader.

Social Media for B2B: It’s Not as Different as You Think

View more documents from Radian6.

Open letter to trainees nearing success

2010-08-27T11:12:00.000-07:00

This is an open letter to Eagle Eye copy editing trainees, most of whom are nearing the end of a difficult process of learning and transition. Most have passed the first of three final exams and are searching inside themselves for the confidence and clarity needed to go the distance.

***

Hi all,

Just a reminder to keep the big picture in mind. The tests aren't about scores and right versus wrong. They are filters that show you what you don't need to study anymore. They focus your attention on what still needs a bit more of your attention.

In that respect, they are your humble assistants, not the enemy.

They are also opportunities to demonstrate consistency and reliability, which are key traits for Eagle Eyes. Even when you're having an off day, the right response needs to fly out of your body without excess effort and attention.

Tests show you where you could use a little more shoring up.

In my karate school, we are told that losing in a tournament translates to "you have homework." It means an opponent showed you what aspect of competing you need more practice and training in. A loss is a new agenda, not a defeat.

I know it will feel good to feel finished. But take a deep breath, take some time off, then look with a laser-like focus at the items that the tests pointed out as good places to spend a little more time getting perfect clarity.

Make it social by talking it out, especially with people who have already graduated.

It's really important that you learn the principles rather than become familiar with the answers. Your mind needs to be able to bend in all directions around the many kinds of editing challenges out there; you need a dynamic, multi-dimensional response, not a 2-D black-and-white "answer" that fit a prior situation but not the current one.

Emotion enhances memory, so if you are mad at yourself for missing a particular item on a test, let that emotion be a memory aid.

Key point: Stay positive in your response to the anger. Turn frustration into motivation. Focus on what's correct, not on the mistake. Channel that energy into moving forward, not explaining or examining the past -- not in excuses but in concrete actions toward your new destination.

You are so close. Just be positive and keep stepping forward.

Lauren

My post-employment life: What's next?

2010-08-14T21:18:00.000-07:00

Most immediate goals:

harmonious ending with my current employer
as many Eagle Eyes as possible safely through training
experimentation with HTML and pro-grade sound equipment
last but not least: yard work and home maintenance

Job-search strategy: to pursue activities and people who genuinely interest me for their intrinsic, in-the-moment value, not for networking per se. Let passion and purpose pulse through the synapses of my inter-personal relationships, so a great job can find me, seemingly serendipitously.

Sure, I will do the practical thing and apply for jobs and go on interviews, but as you probably know from your own experience, the best jobs seem to come out of the blue, usually through someone who already knows your work well.

The position for which I will apply, as seen on job lists, is content strategist. If you are already in my industry, you know what that means.

However, I find myself having to explain to others that it means doing social media for a business purpose, with emphasis on getting customers involved in activities and causes they care about that also dovetail with company goals, ultimately resulting in higher sales.

It's like advertising except that the audience drives and the company guides, unlike the old way: the company talks and the audience sometimes hears. There's big emphasis on planning, measuring and reaching goals, but the plan includes discovering, refining and trouble-shooting in real-time. Uncertainty is my comfort zone. I like having to figure things out fast.

I'm interested in geeky content and geeky people, so I'm looking at science-based companies (clean tech, biotech, semiconductor, medical, IT, etc.). Think R&D.

Surprising suggestion: People keep telling me they see me as a university instructor. I tell them I don't have a Ph.D. or even a master's degree, but no one seems to think it matters.

I'd probably enjoy the heck out of that, especially if I got to work with MBA students. I'd come in with unusual but highly practical courses that I created in response to real-life corporate challenges.

If you think of someone I ought to meet or at least learn more about, please speak up.

Error, error, where are you hiding?

2010-08-03T16:14:00.000-07:00

Instead of editing for error, try editing for probability of error. This is the second of our three tenets for Eagle Eye copyediting training. (The first was “brain off” and the third is “professional restraint.”)

We call this second tenet “hot zone” editing.

Where errors tend to lurk

Eagle Eyes in our 25-hour training program (spread over two months) learn to look for hot zones. These are writing situations where errors tend to fall in.

When editing your own work, you can get by not knowing or ignoring certain types of grammar, usage, punctuation and style rules. That’s because you can re-write to avoid a problem, or because you don’t have a particular problem – like which/that or misplaced modifiers -- in the first place.

For example, I usually avoid “lay/lie” on deadline because it makes me nervous and I don’t want to look it up. I also rewrite to prevent awkward-looking punctuation combinations.

When re-writing is a worse response

But when editing the work of others, you don’t get to re-write, especially when proofreading a document that has already made it through an approval process that includes the legal department, a product manager and a marketing vice president.

Good editors know how to find and surgically fix errors that normally wouldn’t crop up in their own work.

Here’s a sample of items from our hot zone list:

Hone (when it should be home)
Between (when it should be among)
Product names (gotta get them exactly right in every reference, but account teams tend to stop looking at them in a document because they’re overly familiar with them)
Introductory clauses (that may harbors misplaced modifiers)
Each of ______s (each is singular, even if what follows the “of” isn’t)
Comprised of (no such phrase; we recommend changing to “composed of”)
Appositives (often the second comma is left off)
It’s/its (even people who understand the rule still make the mistake)
VIPs and other plural acronyms (no apostrophe)
No “Mr.” in AP style

How to get sensitized

Trainees do exercises that sensitize them to these words and situations, kind of like Pavlov’s dog, minus the saliva. When EEs see these words, a little bell should go off in their head, reminding them that it might look fine on a fast first read, but there might be a hard-to-find error embedded there.

At first, they go over documents with a highlighter, marking hot zones without asking themselves whether the usage is correct. Then they use the highlighter on a first pass, and edit on a second pass. In time, they don’t need the highlighter.

As I explained in a previous post, our brains are wired such that we are all inherently bad proofreaders. So we have to learn to “turn off” our brains and scan for probability of error, not actual error.

More on the third tenet in a future post.

How to gain relevance with your target audience

2010-07-21T07:14:00.001-07:00

The old joke from my days as a science writer was that the photo was too often the same: a man in a plaid shirt presiding over a metal box filled with wires.

That's how I came up with the mantra "Write about people with problems, not boxes with wires." As writing coach in technology PR for the past 10 years, I asked professional writers to think about the group of people that both journalists and marketing directors share an interest in, and write about them.

Customer, reader -- one and the same

Marketing directors care about the customer; journalists care about the reader. And guess what? That's the same person. Write about that person -- his problems, decisions and actions -- and the technology and messaging come along for a free ride.

But write about the technology or the messaging and ... zzzzz. MEGO sets in.

Keep eyes from glazing over

MEGO stands for My Eyes Glaze Over. (I got that phrase from a Los Angeles Times New Delhi bureau chief. )

This is how to gain relevance with your target audience: Write about the audience.

Magic unveiled: To edit well, turn off brain

2010-07-17T08:52:00.000-07:00

Executive Summary:

Impeccable copyediting on deadline -- without the excessive re-writing that dilutes ROI -- sounds like an impossible dream.

But our agency's unusual training program turns PR account executives into elite 9-1-1 copyediters. Eagle Eyes find mistakes that other conscientious proofreaders don't know about or miss. They bring impeccability to documents on deadline.

Key Points:

Instead of learning proofreading and grammar, Eagle Eyes learn the "brain off" and "hot zone" techniques, which attack root causes of errors.
Training includes "muscle memory" exercises in which trainees learn to enter the right mindset on demand.

Sound bite:

"Our brain is designed to keep us from seeing things as they really are. It 'fixes' what's wrong so that we can smoothly absorb the gist without getting hung up on glitches."

*****

Read the whole article:

The sneaky, brilliant details underlying the success of our "Eagle Eye" training program for copyeditors is that I don't teach style, grammar, usage and punctuation. You can get that from a book or in school. In Eagle Eye training, recruits study most of that on their own time in addition to what I teach in class.

Best practice: Short-circuit root causes

To develop the program, I homed in on the root causes of proofreading errors and found techniques for short-circuiting them. Then I distilled principles to show good writers how to develop the professional restraint needed to correct errors by others without re-writing. (If you've seen my other blog posts, you know that I consider re-writing the eighth deadly sin.)

I call this special brand of magic the "brain off" and "hot zone" techniques. I'll describe one now and save the other for a later post.

"Turn my brain off? Where's the switch?"

Notice that you can understand what's below even though it's rife with errors.

To keeep up wth th wolrd and the ecnomy, innoavtion ins't enoguh; creatviity is aslo rquired, he says. "Innovtaion is suvrival in the prceivd wrold--maikng somtheing new in the exstng sistym. To be creativ is to thnik abuot a neew systim," said Luc de Brabandere, athuor of "The Forgtten Half of Chnage: Acheeving Graeter Craetviity Thourgh Cheanges in Percption" (Dearborn Trade Pubilshnig, May 2005). Anti-lock breaks stem from inovation. The comptr muose and Stabruck's and Coka-Cola's use of ther bradns to get into muzik sales come from creativity.

Now have a look at this link. It's about Betty Edwards' "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain." In Eagle Eye class, I ask trainees questions about pictures from this book.

My point: Our brain is designed to keep us from seeing things as they really are. It "fixes" what's wrong so that we can smoothly absorb the gist without getting hung up on glitches.

It's not your fault; DNA conspires against you

This means we are born to be really bad proofreaders. It's genetic. We can't help it. All of us are bad.

To counter this, we need to find our brain's "off" switch and commandeer it.

In the first couple weeks of Eagle Eye classes (twice a week, an hour each time), I give trainees exercises that teach them to "turn their brain off" so that they can see things as they really are. Visual artists do this all the time. Proofreaders must do it, too, but most people don't know that.

Sit-ups, push-ups for "brain off" decathletes

The exercises include reading things backward and circling subsets of letters in paragraphs of gibberish. Immediately on the first day, trainees feel the sensation. It's a lot like driving on autopilot -- you know, where you zone out and don't remember the last couple of miles. Through practice, trainees learn to commandeer the on/off switch and keep it off even though it keeps trying to pop back on again.

There's more, but we'll save it for another post.

Become an Eagle Eye fan

The next training session begins July 22. Check out our Facebook fan page to find out what some of the veterans are telling the new recruits.

Calling all Eagle Eyes! Got advice and encouragement for new recruits?

2010-07-12T10:10:00.001-07:00

We're recruiting our next batch of Eagle Eyes, a team of internal agency copyeditors who can be counted on for impeccable editing on deadline. Eagle Eyes catch mistakes others miss.

Veteran EEs out there, we'd love to hear from you on our Facebook fan page. Got advice or encouragement for the new recruits?

What do you wish you'd known from the start?
How is the program different from what you initially expected?
How has EE experience altered your career path or relationships with team members?
What surprised you?
What's the biggest misconception about Eagle Eyes?
What was more fun than you thought it would be? What was harder?
What else is on your mind?

Please chime in and share your thoughts! http://bit.ly/9SovXj

It's official: I'm looking for a new job

2010-07-01T23:41:00.000-07:00

Executive Summary:

I'm looking for a job as a new-media content strategist or community manager. Social media, yes, but beyond that, too.

Key points:

Dream employer is a science- or technology-based company that wants to build community among its partners, customers and the general public.
Here's my LinkedIn URL:www.linkedin.com/in/laurenedwardssv.

Sound bite:

"I'm a trouble-shooter whose happy place is the unknown. I like figuring things out quickly, then sharing what I've learned with whomever is around me. I listen, I ask, I invent, I share. I'm highly adaptive and creative."

*****

Read the whole article:

Hello, friends! With humility and gratitude for your readership, I impart this surprising news: I'm winding down my longtime position as writing coach for a tech PR firm and beginning a job search.

I'm not sure what that means for this blog, but my guess is that it will still be relevant to you. My future posts probably will skew more toward content development and strategy than to tech PR -- I think. No promises, though, because as the saying goes, "Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans."

Case in point: While trying to become a ghostwriter for medical researchers 10 years ago, I ended up becoming a writing coach in technology PR. And before that, while trying to become a foreign correspondent in Tokyo, I became a science writer. Who'd a thunk?

All my life, I've been recruited to writing and editing positions. But if you ask me about my passion, I'll tell you it's teaching.

My dream position is with a science- or technology-based company that wants to build community through social media and other online publishing tools.

The job titles being advertised all say things like "content strategist," "content marketer" and "community manager," so I will accept those labels in my job search.

But, really, I'm open to something less well-defined. I'm a trouble-shooter whose happy place is the unknown. I like figuring things out quickly, then sharing what I've learned with whomever is around me. I listen, I ask, I invent, I share. I'm highly adaptive and creative.

If you don't mind passing my name along to those who might need someone like me, I'd appreciate it. I expect to wind down my current job in late September.

Here's my LinkedIn URL:www.linkedin.com/in/laurenedwardssv.

Thank you so much for your kind support.

Why so little success with corporate storytelling? Here’s what to do instead.

2010-06-30T10:05:00.000-07:00

Executive Summary:

Marketers interested in experimenting with storytelling can start with a low-risk, low-cost piece of collateral: the customer case study. Use narrative structure to engage prospective customers. Add resonance to your value proposition.

Key Points:

Social media is inviting marketing executives to take a second look at narrative structure, which is standard in top-tier business press but missing from most marketing collateral.
A customer case study can be repackaged to show a hero (your customer) overcoming obstacles (with your products and services) and achieving market success (your customer's aspiration).

Sound Bite:

"Your social media guru and PR team usually are not equipped to write in narrative form. Senior PR people -- in the VP, SVP and EVP levels -- may have the skills, but they don't write case studies. An ex-journalist on your team is your best bet."

*****

Read the whole article:

With little success, I’ve been trying for 10 years to teach storytelling principles to PR practitioners. Workshop and class attendees understand it and enjoy it, but the few who try to apply a narrative structure to their work get bogged down in the approval process.

I rarely recommend it these days as a workshop component or class. My own PPTs and handouts are dusty.

The only time I teach it now is within the context of a class on writing award submissions. This seems to be the one type of document where the marketing department is willing to let go.

I wonder if this will change.

Scary for old-school marketers: audience that "talks back"

If you read trade press for the advertising industry, you’ll recall that the sudden rise of social media and the audience’s new ability to “talk back” in public prompted substantial fear. This was about five years ago.

Generation gap

Since then, I’ve noticed a generation gap in marketing approaches. In my own mind, I’ve come to divide marketing executives into two groups – new school and old school. For a while, the old-school guys were in positions of authority and making decisions that struck me as anachronistic. Meanwhile, the new-school guys were too low-ranking to exert influence and lacked necessary business insight.

Humpty Dumpty

In 2010, it appears to me that a balance is being struck within some companies. I picture the old-school guys as Humpty Dumpty, fallen and cracked but alive and powerful. Their strength: They understand business. But they’ve lost their creative mojo and know it, so they yield to new-school concepts and hire people whose skills are unfamiliar to them.

Twitter, FB, etc.

But will storytelling become part of the new mix? Will videos, websites, blog posts and short-form posts (Twitter, Facebook) adopt the narrative structure that turns novelists and movie-makers into millionaires?

Sam Whitmore of Sam Whitmore Mediasurvey, who gives media advice to the tech PR industry, last week sent his clients a report raising a similar question. He pointed out significant obstacles. The details are proprietary, so I can’t share, but I can say that I concur, for reasons of my own.

Start with case studies: affordable way to break the mold

Nonetheless, if companies are interested in a small, affordable way to begin breaking the mold, I can offer one highly do-able suggestion: Start with case studies.

This is the easiest ground to give and likely to produce immediate results.

Here are my contrarian teachings:

(1) Give away the punchline in the opening paragraph. Tell the end of the story at the very beginning. In other words, take a sentence or two from what would have been the results section at the end, and move it into the lead.

(2) Don’t keep the “situation,” “problem” and “solution” in separate sections. Mix them. Instead use this framework: a heroic figure whom we care about overcomes obstacles and gets what he wants, learning lessons along the way.

In a case study, the heroic figure is your customer. The obstacles he overcomes are common to prospective customers, some of whom didn’t recognize the problem as clearly you have articulated it or didn’t know it could be solved.

In the course of overcoming obstacles, the customer uses your company’s tools. But picture the customer as MacGyver, the resourceful TV show character who could engineer his way out of any jam with scotch tape and a tin can. This means the emphasis is on the customer (MacGyver), not particularly on your tools – although the story cannot be told without your tools. Go light. Don’t sell. Just tell.

Your subheads could like like this:

Executive summary – Here you mix the “problem” (beginning) and “results” (end) in one or two sentences – briefly -- just enough to tell “a story of transformation.”

Show change, not the “situation analysis” or “background.” Customer X had a problem common to your prospective customers; now he has business success. Ignore the middle of the story for now. That comes in the next section.
Use your best stats in the executive summary. Don’t save them for the “conclusion” at the end, especially since most readers won’t get that far, anyway. Even if all they do is skim the first graf, the readers will walk away with the most important idea.

Problem/solution – Here you tell the middle part of the story. This is your customer overcoming obstacles they have in common with your prospective customers, with your tools in hand.

By juxtaposing problem and solution, you gain tension. When you separate them, you have static facts. Tension keeps readers reading.

Ideally, the customer is learning along the way. What lessons can he share? What would he have done differently from the start, knowing what he now knows? What can other businesses learn from his experience? What’s replicable about his success?

When you mix the problem and solution, you are telling a story. When you separate them, you are writing a conventional case study. Which do you think will get higher readership?

Results – Here you amplify the phrase or sentence you pulled out for use in the executive summary. You list business results, if possible, that were outgrowths of the problem’s being solved. You give more stats, while reminding the reader of that super-great one stat you included in the executive summary.

Why adopt this storytelling framework for case studies?

An image of business success will now be associated with your company's products or services, even if the reader was a skimmer who quit reading after the first graf.
A skimmer is less likely to stop after the first graf because you’ve added an element of suspense (the missing middle), and rewarded him from the start. It’s silly to think that a reader will patiently wade through static facts in hope of a possible reward at the end. Give him confidence from the start that you aren’t wasting his time.
People remember stories more readily than they remember facts.
Your reason for writing isn’t to tell the world about your customer; it’s to draw in prospective customers who will recognize themselves and their problems in the story. Your customer is a stand-in for your prospective customer, who can now visualize himself succeeding, thanks to the concrete specifics of your story.

Breaking the mold takes courage. You might consider trying it a couple of times and watching the response. If it works, keep it. If it doesn't, toss it. It's a just a case study, right? A tiny piece of your marketing collateral. No big deal. Case studies are not costly in time or money. They aren't high-profile. There's little to lose and readership to gain.

Caveat: Your social media guru and PR team usually are not equipped to write in narrative form. Senior PR people -- in the VP, SVP and EVP levels -- may have the skills, but they don't write case studies.

An ex-journalist on your team is your best bet. Or, if you've got a member of junior staff who successfully pitches top-tier business press, give them a crash course (30 mins) and let them learn from experience. Top-tier business press often write in narrative form.

The advent of social media and questions about the rise of business storytelling give you soft ground for experimentation. The conventional powers that be as well as the audience are now in a forgiving mood. Risk for this type of experiment has never been lower.

***

For more how-to posts, check out:

For PR peeps: Quotes advice & AP style visuals

2010-06-19T08:02:00.000-07:00

Have you seen these two SlideShare prezos?

Writing quotations for press releases

The first has been popular. It's guidance on crossing the chasm between a conventional PR quote and one that journalists will find useful and credible. My advice: Try to strike a balance.

Learning AP style with visual reinforcements

The second isn't eye-opening; it's meant for reinforcement. When you're learning AP style, it helps to expose yourself to visual representations of correct style. Better still, if you do a lot of editing or writing of press releases, that experience is a valuable way to acclimate yourself. This prezo puts right and wrong on the same slide, with visuals to reinforce which is good/bad.

Counterintuitive tip for PR clients & other corporations: Hire a pet journalist

2010-06-02T14:17:00.000-07:00

Addendum posted 6/4/10: A U.K. publication makes essentially the same point, saying PR is sidestepping trad'l media to go straight to the public. Great article. Disclosure: Edelman is in the story and is also my employer.

A smart move for old-school companies adapting to new-media dynamics would be to hire a journalist.

Could you pick up one of the former stars at a reputable publication like BusinessWeek to write a weekly column on your company’s Web site?

Nowadays, yes. Ten years ago, no. Even two years ago, no.

New business models, newly available talent

Counterintuitive opportunities are emerging in the collision of free online distribution platforms and the end of journalism as we know it. The best moment to act is now. Seasoned talent is newly available and newly receptive to new platforms.

Well-known examples include former technology news reporters Steve Hamm, now writing for IBM, and Steve Wildstrom, now writing for NVIDIA.

But why stop there?

Your PR agency could assemble a team of experienced journalists (for example, as needed: reporter, photographer, videographer, infographics designer or metadata/SEO expert) who temporarily coalesce around a project related to a social cause. Does your company have a corporate responsibility or good purpose budget? Does your marketing department engage in social media campaigns?

What not to do: ghostwrite a blog

By contrast, many companies' response to new-media opportunities has been limited to re-purposing content for a corporate blog or looking for a ghostwriter for a CEO blog, which can be questionable for a variety of reasons.

Before getting into why, I need to disclose where I’m getting the inspiration for this blog post. It’s not coming from me.

Multimedia entrepreneurs emerging now

I’m fresh off a two-day conference where the most successful entrepreneurs in new media gave a crash course to photographers, videographers, print and broadcast journalists, data designers, university instructors, PR pros and others looking for unexpected opportunities in emerging multimedia capabilities. (I'll write more about it in future posts.)

I’d been hearing Sam Whitmore of Sam Whitmore Mediasurvey (an expert in technology news media who sells advice to PR agencies) say this for the past six months or more. I believed him before, but now I’m on fire about it.

Below, I’ve included a list of the brilliant minds who spoke to us at Visual Journalism Bootcamp on Whidbey Island, Wash., last weekend. The event was sponsored by Fusionspark Media, which itself pioneered the journalist-for-hire idea a good 10 years ago when it did environmental reporting paid for by Toyota and Epson.

Why it's different now: Portal doesn't matter

Meanwhile, here’s the pivotal dynamic of the moment, and where it’s headed in coming years: Niche is king.

The economies of scale we associated with giants like CNN, BBC, The AP or The New York Times don’t matter as much as they used to. The refinement of search engines (still barreling along with no slowdown in sight) and no- or low-cost sharing platforms mean “the place” on the Internet doesn’t matter anymore.

You can go anywhere easily.

[For a deeper, broader perspective on “the portal doesn’t matter,” listen to Harvard business professor and "Innovator's Dilemma" author Clayton Christensen talk to Chris Hill of Motley Fool (10/14/09) on disruptive innovation, his investing philosophy, and his take on Amazon.com, Apple and Google.]

Two caveats: transparency & editorial freedom

Whether a reporter with a sterling reputation and huge following is at the Wall Street Journal or Acme Corp.’s website matters less these days. As long as transparency and editorial freedom are priorities, either works.

When companies try to hire ghostwriters for CEO blogs, it’s usually because someone in the marketing department said, “Hey, blogs are big. Let’s add blogs to what we’re already doing.” But that’s missing the point.

You don’t want “a blog.” You want a quality reputation. You want a following.

Hire someone who's already got those things in abundance. Give him a new kind of job.

Let your corporate journalist write about (or photograph or make videos of) compelling issues in your industry. Set parameters, but leave him the freedom he'll need to be a success.

To learn more about multimedia journalism from a PR perspective, you can contact my colleagues Elizabeth Powell and Terri Nopp in Edelman’s Seattle and Portland offices, both of whom attended the event.

****

Speakers at Visual Journalism Bootcamp last week:

Brian Storm, MediaStorm

Tony Deifell, Managing Director, Q Media Labs

Hanson Hosein, Director, Master of Comm., Digital Media Program

Brent Friedman, Electric Farm Entertainment

John Gauntt, Media-dojo

Russell Sparkman, Fusionspark Media

Dan Lamont, MultiMediaBiz.org

Leif Utne, Board Member, TheUpTake.org & VP of Community Development, Zanby

Paige West, Studio Director, MSNBC.com

Solo rock CD as multimedia communication: Meet Paul Lesinski

2010-06-02T11:57:00.000-07:00

Reprinting an e-mail from my longtime coworker Paul, who does PR for Adobe and is a musician.

In the spirit of the Visual Journalism Bootcamp I attended last week (top quote from Brian Storm, primary instructor at the bootcamp: "Audio is the spine of multimedia."), I'm declaring Paul a multimedia journalist. It's a stretch in that we normally don't think of rock music as journalism, but I'm re-thinking a lot of things these days, so why not.

In fact, Paul's got a journalism background, too, so it's doubly fitting. Viva creativity and self-actualization! Go, Paul!

You can listen to his music for free. Click on the first link in his note below.

From Paul, 6/2/10:

You may be aware that over the past year I have been working on recording my first ever solo CD. Well, today is the big day and the release, called A Fear Of Flashing Light, is now available for download at

http://paullesinski.bandcamp.com/

Recorded from April 2009 through May 2010, the 12 song CD spans various genres including straight ahead rock and roll, progressive rock, and some acoustic-based tunes as well. There is also a fancy 13 page digital booklet with lyrics and artwork so your eyes can be as jazzed as your ears.

Various talented musicians joined me on this CD, most notably all of my bandmates from colorfield as well as all four former members of my touring band from 1990-1995, The Strangers. In fact the tune Walkin’ (track #5) is a veritable Strangers reunion of the original band.

I am making the CD available as a free download but am also offering the option to pay a suggested $5 to help offset the cost of recording and mastering. Physical CDs will also be available via snail mail in about a month, and I will let you know about that when the time comes.

Thanks, and ENJOY the music!

~Paul

Start with "why," especially if you're talking about science

2010-05-26T09:14:00.000-07:00

Executive Summary:

Talking science to lay audiences is difficult because scientists themselves are trained for academic rigor, not public outreach. Examples from Wired magazine, TED talks and the Wright brothers demonstrate that by telling a story "out of order" -- by starting with "why" -- scientists (and their spokespeople) can influence society and invite financial security.

Key Points:

Just by rearranging the order of your presentation or online post, you can reach a broader audience and get peope to lean forward while listening rather than passively sit back.
Start with "why it matters," even if it's just your opinion or if the proportion of your presentation dedicated to that perspective is scant to nil. Let "how" bring up the rear.

Sound Bite:

"Unfortunately, science is underrepresented in social discourse, in large part because scientists are reluctant to communicate with lay audiences."

*****

Read the whole article:

If you're communicating with a lay audience about science and technology, start with "why." For most of us, that means telling the story out of order.

If you don’t start with “why,” you won’t be heard. Instead, you’ll be white noise that people easily tune out. Your audience needs a personal reason for becoming engaged with your “what” and “how.” So first create a sense of purpose, and only then follow up with facts. Give people a reason to listen and they will.

Unfortunately, science is underrepresented in social discourse, in large part because scientists are reluctant to communicate with lay audiences. When they do communicate, their “story” adheres to academic standards in which the lead is buried and the natural drama is drained out.

If you work in science PR or are a scientist willing to reach out and influence someone, this post is for you.

I suggest starting your first draft of an article or speech by asking yourself these questions from the audience’s perspective:

• Why?
• Why now?
• Why does it matter?
• Why should I care?

Also ask, “What role does the technology or research play in the larger scheme of things?” In other words, say why it matters to have that particular role fulfilled. Do not describe how it works or what you did to arrive at your conclusions – save that for later.

When you do this the first few times, it feels wrong. You'll argue, "How can I tell them why they should care if I haven't even told them what they should care about?" That seems logical, I agree. But as it turns out, telling the story out of order is only a problem for you, the explainer. Readers and listeners have no problem with it.

If you’ve got an academic paper on hand, try this: Go to the very end, even past the final summary, to the very short section where the author suggests future questions or experiments. It might only be two sentences and you may not consider it the most important point, but it’s probably there.

Now make this the opening line of your speech or article, even if presenting to an audience of scientists. Why? This is the part of the presentation the audience can act on or make decisions about – in their own lives.

I guarantee they will perk up and listen closely.

By contrast, if you start with your assumptions, they’ll half-listen, waiting with patience for the good part because they have been conditioned to do so – that is, if they’re scientists. Non-scientists will try to listen but fail to find a handle they can hang onto, and eventually their minds will wander.

After starting at the end, now go out on a limb and venture an opinion. Tell everyone why you think they should consider these suggested actions and decisions. Tell them what’s at stake. Describe what could happen if they don’t. Show them how the future could potentially differ from what we expect, and why that would be advantageous.

If it makes you feel better, tell the audience it’s your opinion, and then tell them again that it was your opinion right before you dive into the objective facts.

If you don’t believe me, try it yourself and watch the audience response.

The approach above (starting at the end of the academic paper) is just one way to find the “why.” I’ve got many more up my sleeve, which I can share with you when you hire me for a workshop.

I’m not alone in preaching the virtue of “why first, how later.”

If you look closely, you’ll notice that news stories on scientific topics start with “what’s in it for me,” “why care,” “why care now,” or “why it matters.” The “how” is always near the bottom or at most two-thirds from the top.

Below are similar messages, one from Wired magazine, the other from a TED talk. (Thank you, Edelman clean technology team (my colleagues), for bringing these to my attention.)

In the Wired article, Jennifer Ouellette – a director with a National Academy of Sciences program – is quoted as saying scientists “feel that the facts should speak for themselves. They’re not wrong; they’re just not realistic.”

Another person quoted in the story – Kelly Bush, CEO of a PR firm called ID – says, “They need to make people answer the questions, ‘What’s in it for me?’ ‘How does it affect my daily life?’ ‘What can I do that will make a difference?’ Answering these questions is what’s going to start a conversation.”

“The messaging up to this point has been ‘Here are our findings. Read it and believe.’ The deniers are convincing people that the science is propaganda,” Bush said.

In his TED talk, Simon Sinek says business leaders need to start with the why, and only later give the what and the how. (My, my! How familiar!) He uses Apple Inc., Martin Luther King Jr. and the Wright brothers as examples of history-changers who started their communications with why.

I’m heavily paraphrasing, but have a quick look:

Apple: “We believe in changing the world and thinking differently. We’re doing that by making products that are beautiful and simple to use. Oh, and by the way, we sell computers. Want to buy one?”

Imagine if the order was reversed and the why was left out: “Want to buy a computer from us? Ours are beautiful and simple to use.”

Not so credible. Not so compelling.

MLK: “I have a dream,” not “I have a plan.”

Wright brothers: “This flying machine can change our world for the better.”
Langley (who made the same effort but whose name we don’t know): “I want to build a machine and make money.”

Tell people why they should care, then backfill with the backstory. If you do it the other way around, you risk losing your audience altogether or – at a minimum – losing an opportunity to engage them in your entire presentation.

Writing tips: How to shift from traditional press release to social media news release

2010-05-12T10:55:00.000-07:00

Executive Summary:

PR teams are having to adjust the style and tone of social media press releases (also called Smart News Release or Rich Media Release). This article offers granular how-to advice.

Key Points:

Think "info-snacking." Today's readers want visually appealing information broken into smaller bits, including visuals like photos, videos and infographics.
Shorten words, sentences and paragraphs. Use more subheads with verbs in them. Picture sentences as pullout boxes floating in an inviting sea of white space.

Sound Bite:

"Plunk down the snacks as if you're arranging carrot sticks, dip and whatnot on a tray for guests. Journalists and bloggers can nibble as they like, clicking and lifting up whatever bits they think they can use in their online story."

*****

Read the whole article:

Going from a traditional press release to a social media news release requires three big shifts:

Length
Visuals
SEO

I'd say there's a fourth category -- tone -- but the changes you make in length (and SEO) will give you the changes you need in tone. And since this post will focus on "how," I'd rather keep it simple, so you can be like Nike and just do it. No need to impress you with my erudition on the whole enchilada. ;-)

Having said that, though, let me address tone for just a quick minute. You'll see how it leads into length.

Imagine yourself writing website copy, which is a little closer to ad copy. But don't go so far as to write like it's a blog post, which usually includes idioms and strong opinions.

SMNR tone usually isn't as direct as ad copy, which uses second-person "you" instead of third-person "he/she/it/they." Nor is it like broadcast copy because you still have to write for the eye, not the ear, which means catching skimmers with a strong "first three words," not letting the punch fall at the end of the sentence.

But the words and sentences in an SMNR are shorter and plainer (not boring, just simpler), as you usually see in all of the forms mentioned above (Web, ad, blog, broadcast). So if you've got sentences with introductory clauses ("Blah blah blah -- comma -- blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah."), break them in half. Often you can delete the first part of the sentence altogether.

Likewise, streamline the vocabulary by using more Anglo-Saxon words than Latinate (next, not adjacent; set, not establish; start, not initiate; build, not construct). And take verbs in noun's clothing, and turn them back into verbs (the deployment of, deploy; the provision of, provide; the implementation of, implement). In other words, shorten everything.

The vast majority of traditional press releases are done poorly, in my opinion. And if you are in PR, you know what I'm talking about. You're sort of forced into a bizarre straightjacket of formality and distance from the customer, which seems contrary to the goal of a press release, but who am I to question decades of entrenched custom?

My advice here is directed at what I know your reality is, not what I think a good press release of either kind (trad'l or social) should look like. So, back to that ...

You've shortened your sentences and words, which has also changed tone. You need to continue deleting or ignoring content that would normally appear in a traditional press release. Most of this will be intuitive. I think you'll choose well, once you know that 50 percent to 85 percent of the words will have to go away. Usually, people I have worked with do this easily, once given permission to cut-cut-cut. So I won't dwell on that here.

Now for visuals. Imagine that you are designing layout not writing copy. Pretend you work for a fashion magazine in New York or you're in the art department at Fortune magazine.

This is really the essence of an SMNR. It's a visual jumping-off point, much the way a resume is a visual jumping-off point in a job interview. People spend time making a resume look pretty at a glance, and it's meant to be glanced at, not really read. It's meant to give the gist, then trigger questions and conversation.

But in the case of an SMNR, it's not questions and oral conversation we're after; it's clicking. You want to give the essence of your announcement, and then let the rest be "snacks" for the new style of reading, which has been called "info-snacking."

Standard "snacks" in this new world are photos, videos, info-graphics and links.

More and more, I'm also seeing slide shows on the top-tier news sites, and I'm liking that trend, by the way. But that's a bigger time investment, and your client may not be able to deliver.

Usually, the PR person doesn't create this kind of content on the spot in response to being assigned a press release. So you need to negotiate for it. You need to ask your client early on for photos, demos and links. Increasingly, clients know they must produce this stuff, so that's no longer as hard as it used to be. But the switch for you is that you must add this conversation to your standard process, and add it early.

Nowadays, the quest for creating visual content should be ongoing, so it's not necessarily related to writing a press release of any kind. The press release is just one more vehicle for delivering what has been produced. This gets into the larger issue of "public engagement" versus one-way communication, but for the purpose of this post, I'm focusing on the needs of a PR person who has been asked for the first time to switch to SMNRs.

Usually, there's a template you can use. BusinessWire has one (called a Smart News Release), and others are also available elsewhere. Edelman calls it a Rich Media Release and uses Adobe software called Contribute (discosure: Adobe is a client).

Just plunk down the snacks as if you're arranging carrot sticks, dip and whatnot on a tray for guests. Journalists and bloggers can nibble as they like, clicking and lifting up whatever bits they think they can use in their online story.

So, going back to content for a moment, remember we talked about deleting a lot?

The words you kept will go into little boxes or box-like chunks floating in white space.

There might be a general intro, then another box for details (perhaps in very short bullet points but no more than four -- three is ideal), then another box for a quote (or an entire section of quotes strung all together like beads on a string rather than interspersed throughout the text as in a news story), all of which should be shorter than what you're used to.

You might even have a box for customer quotes that link to case studies on a website, for example. Or you might link to a Facebook page.

The Karcher Group puts it this way. I'm quoting from its website here:

- Content separated into different sections, such as Key Information, Facts, Quotes, Links, etc.
- Use of popular social media tools, such as RSS feeds and tagging
- Ability to share content on social networking sites like del.icio.us, Facebook, Stumbleupon, LinkedIn, etc.
- Ability to view/download items such as logos, banners, audio promos
- Include links to blogs and other resources
- Embed multimedia elements like video, photos, and audio

Your links, video, info-graphics and photos will tell some of the story that your now-missing words would have told, only better.

More visuals: subheads and headlines. Just as a resume uses boldface to divide up and call out different kinds of content, your SMNR needs boldface subheads. And just as you did for the body of the text, you'll need to tighten the words and content in the headline.

Your SMNR should be an invitation to delve further by clicking on electronic story elements.

I call this "pogo-sticking." The reader isn't meant to glide smoothly from the first word to the last but to hop around, almost at random.

If you're good at helping your client understand what will have traction with the news media and bloggers, those very same storytelling elements are what should be in your SMNR. If you or your client instead prefer company-centric bragging, those will be your elements.

An SMNR is *not* likely to be any more successful than a traditional news release. Format isn't the point. If you have material that will surprise or delight a reader or help him make a decision about something coming up soon in his own life, you will get pickup. If you don't, you won't. You're either useful to readers or you're not. Format seldom improves relevance.

Which brings us to SEO. I have long advocated what the SEO people are now telling everyone these days: Write in the language of the audience. Please, please, please stop trying to coin new words or market categories, without at least also using the vocabulary already in use among prospective customers.

The SEO people will also tell you that this natural language needs to be in key places (headline, subheads, first paragraph, captions, video description). But I have been fighting that battle and losing it for nearly 10 years now, so good luck with that. I'm hoping that this new SEO/Google world we live in will shake clients up a bit and get them out of their self-absorbed marketing bubbles.

For more on that, check out this post by Maddie Grant on SocialMediaToday. Her post also links to the now-famous diatribe by Tom Foremski ("Die! Press Release! Die! Die! Die!").

I recommend going to Business Wire for advice on all of the above. In my dealings, this company has been ahead of trends while well-grounded in ethics and principles that never go out of style.

Can PR ghostwrite client blogs?

2010-05-05T10:13:00.000-07:00

Executive Summary:

As marketing departments turn corporate collateral into blog posts, they find the task more time-consuming and difficult than imagined. Should you hire ghost writers? Yes and no. It depends on your audience's expectations. This article tells you how to decide and suggests effective small tweaks to the options you've probably already considered.

Key Points:

Social media experts generally caution against ghostwriting blogs. They say the medium and audience expectations make blogs unlike speeches and contributed articles.
Analyze your audience and ask key questions about your company's goals and resources before deciding which blogs to ghostwrite or whether to write a particular post at all.

Sound Bite:

"The smartest and most trusted people say, 'Don't ghostwrite company blogs.' But if you absolutely must do it, disclose the contributor's real names or only ghostwrite content the company created previously and is simply re-purposing for easy digestibility."

*****

Read the whole article:

Should your PR team ghostwrite your company's blog posts?

The short answer is "no." The long answer is "sometimes."

Let's do the long answer first. If you absolutely insist on having your PR team write some of your company blog posts, proceed with caution. Give ample thought to:

your company's goal
the degree of expertise/attitude/thought leadership required from the author
originality of content

Questions you can ask yourself while making decisions:

(1) Is the content company-created and is the PR team merely re-purposing it for social media digestibility?

If so, fine. Go for it. But avoid packaging overly canned material in a business-neutral voice. If you must include posts like this, consider interspersing it with more personal and authentic pieces by individuals. Otherwise, your audience is likely to tune out, justifiably so.

(2) What are the audience's expectations?

Consider the degree of skepticism and ethical rigidity of a particular audience. What does the audience value most highly? How will they use the information? Are they likely to be forgiving of sterile business content as long as it includes a tip or resource they can use? Are they expecting a CEO blog with business acumen or an app developer blog with technical depth? If you walk a safe middle line, you may turn off the very people you hope to influence.

(3) Is the time and money worth it if the blog isn't influential?

It's safe to say that a CEO blog carries more weight when it shows incisive thinking and passion, even if not necessarily "good writing." In the world of blogs, "good writing" can be icing, since most posts are produced rapidly in response to an ongoing conversation by a person who isn't a full-time professional writer.

Do application developers carry more weight when they are irreverent and independent? Probably. In some scenarios, it's possible that this level of integrity and authenticity is almost more important to the audience than the content. A rough-around-the-edges post that's spirited and technically well grounded might be better than a smooth vanilla offering.

Writing is time-consuming. That's why people quit blogs after a while or try to hire ghostwriters. But what matters most is substantive content that will influence people. If you don't have that, should you be blogging at all?

(4) Can you manage expectations by disclosing who sometimes contributes?

This is the best practice if the author's credentials aren't the main draw. Avoid leaving a post unsigned or just using the company's name. Commonly, companies-in-the-know say something like "Contributors to this blog include Sam Smith, Jessie Jones and Betty Buttons."

But even so, better to sign each post with "Sam S. for Acme" or "S.S." or "B. Buttons" or "Jessie Jones." If you feel like you don't want the audience to see the "man behind the curtain," then you've got a problem, especially since "transparency is the new black," as they say. At any rate, hiding fake wizards behind curtains is bad -- period.

It's OK to say that your PR team creates some of the blog posts. It's better to do it and say it than to do it and not say it. Otherwise, you risk losing trust down the road. Audiences may think you are hiding something other than a writer's name ("What *else* is this company keeping from me?").

Bottom-line as I see it, the smartest and most trusted people say, "Don't ghostwrite company blogs." But if you absolutely must do it, disclose the contributor's real names or only ghostwrite content the company created previously and is simply re-purposing for easy digestibility.

It's not like a speech. Some people argue that a blog post is like a speech. Presidents of companies and nations hire speech writers, right? Yes, but we all know they do that.

Our *expectation* is that a really talented speech writer did the leg work, the president absorbed the content in full, made substantive changes as he saw fit, then practiced for hours, with coaching.

In contrast, a blog post is perceived as a more informal and less well measured opinion, often formulated quickly, as part of an ongoing social conversation.

In 2004, social media purists said, "No ghostwriting."

In 2010, I see a lot of softening in expert opinion.

People now admit there are gray areas where careful consideration can make a ghostwritten blog OK. For more on that, see an excellent discussion led by Toby Blomberg and John Cass. Thirty-nine contributors weigh in. My favorite comments were those by Lynn Anne Miller, who looked at social media from the corporate perspective.

Edelman's Steve Rubel foresaw the debate in 2004 and said, "What we need to do, however, is separate what works from what doesn't and what level of transparency and input is required. Time will tell."

I agree that we are still determining best practices and that they are likely to change as the blog-reading public itself continues to mature and evolve.

Hyphens: when to use them

2010-04-23T19:12:00.000-07:00

When people ask about hyphens, I talk about Frankenstein, rhythm and glue. This is what makes me an unusual teacher: I make up more resonant ways to remember correct usage.

Examples are often easier to understand than rules, so let's start with a few of those. These hyphens are all correct:

-A do-it-yourself kit
-A technology-based solution
-A lily-lined basket
-A wish-you-were-here postcard
-A 6-year-old boy
-A 20-percent discount
-The end-user experience

These are all examples of compound modifiers. In other words, multiple words together ("compound") modify (or describe) a final word. You can usually hear the rhythm: BLAH-BLAH-BLAH blah, DA-DA-DA da. They feel like they go together. So if you write by instinct or ear and feel fuzzy on grammar and punctuation, I suggest listening for this rhythm as your first guidepost. Then clarify your thinking with a few easy principles, which I'll explain in a bit.

Also correct but confusing:

-I will make a follow-up call.
-I will call to follow up with him.
-I will handle the follow-up.

Same words, different hyphen usage. Bummer, huh? Why the inconsistency? Here's where we talk about Frankenstein. I'll warn you now: It's a little gory.

Think of "parts of speech" as body parts -- arms, legs, nose, etc., rather than nouns, verbs and prepositions.

Notice the "body parts" in the examples above:

follow up -- verb + preposition
follow-up call -- as above but "follow-up" is glued together with a hyphen and used as an adjective modifying call
follow-up -- verb + preposition used to make a noun

Why this matters: You don't need a hyphen when the words are being used as their natural selves -- as in, a verb used as a verb rather than forced into service as an adjective.

The Frankenstein analogy refers to putting together disparate "body parts" to create a new whole. It's unnatural. When you do something unnatural, you need glue to hold it all together. (This sounds goofy in the real world, I know, but it's a good memory tip, so ...)

Hyphens are glue. They hold together Frankenstein words, which are words forced into unnatural service as something other than their natural parts of speech.

So if you "call to follow up," you are using "follow" as a verb, which it is, and "up" as a preposition, which it is. Nothing unnatural. No hyphen.

But if you "make a follow-up call," you are forcing the verb and preposition into an unnatural new role as an adjective modifying call. This is a Frankenstein word. You need glue (a hyphen).

Let's look again at the first set of examples. To get rid of the hyphens, you need to use words as their natural parts of speech:

a kit that lets you do it yourself
a solution based on technology
a basket lined with lilies
the boy is 6 years old
the experience of the end user

There are two exceptions to the compound-modifier rule, but I will save those until the very end of this post.

Now you know most of what you need to know about compound modifiers. And now you realize that your "hyphen" question is really a "compound modifier" question. But there's another situation where hyphens turn up, and luckily the Frankenstein and glue metaphors apply there, too.

Here's Part 2: hyphenated nouns. When you put two words together to make a new noun, they become a Frankenstein word, so you need glue (a hyphen). In "I will handle the follow-up," we've turned "follow" and "up" into a noun, even though -- when taken separately -- the parts are actually a verb and a preposition.

Eventually over time, some hyphens go away. It's hard to keep up with which words have gone over to the other side. So I suggest checking http://www.m-w.com/ whenever you wonder if a word is one word, two words or hyphenated. The AP Stylebook is usually in agreement.

Examples of words people often think are hyphenated but aren't:

pickup
firsthand
nonprofit
end user (two words)

That last one is tricky, though, right? Now you know that it's not hyphenated as a noun but that would be if you turned it into a compound modifier: end-user experience.

Got it?

Hyphens are glue. You need them for Frankenstein words. Your first clue that you might be looking at a compound modifier may be the rhythm: two things modifying a third, three things modifying a fourth, DA-DA-DA da.

Now for the exceptions to the compound-modifier rule:

(1) Ly-adverbs never take a hyphen (which makes sense because the adverb remains an adverb) -- centrally located knob, specially designed interface, wholly owned subsidiary.

(2) Proper nouns never take a hyphen -- Jordan branded handheld, Web hosted application, Cincinnati based headquarters

A final word: A dash is not a hyphen, and a hyphen is not a dash. They are not interchangeable. A dash -- the long version of a hyphen or two hyphens together -- is scissors. Scissors cut things apart. Dashes can sometimes replace commas, as I've done two sentences above this one in blue. Dashes, as scissors, cut apart the parenthetical explanation from the rest of the sentence.

I could say more about the dash, but let's leave that for another post.

For now, just remember:

(1) Compound modifiers take hyphens unless they involve a proper noun or an "-ly" adverb.

(2) To find out if a noun is hyphenated, look it up in the AP Stylebook first and, if it's not there, look in up at http://www.m-w.com/.

website, not Web site -- rare revision from AP

2010-04-16T12:29:00.000-07:00

It finally happened. Earth has fallen out of orbit. The blue moon, once a rarity, has now become every night’s moon.

The AP -- which hardly ever changes its stylebook at all, other than to add or rearrange – has changed its style on Web site, which is now website.

Hallelujah!

This is the day we’ve been waiting for. I didn’t think it would come so soon, though by some people’s estimates, it’s 10 years late.

So it’s website, not Web site – got it? As of today.

From Twitter, about an hour ago: @APStylebook "Responding to reader input, we are changing Web site to website. This appears on Stylebook Online today and in the 2010 book next month."

Thanks, Michelle Cwirko-Godycki, for alerting me.

OK, I'll ask: When can we change e-mail to email? I'm begging. Pleading, really. Let that be next.

***
P.S.

People have been asking me, "Why was it like that before?" Well, in 1995, it made more sense to say Web site than website. Back then, the Internet was called the World Wide Web and people actually used the term.

Most of the time, we called it the World Wide Wait.

It took many minutes for a page to load and when it finally got there, the info wasn't worth the time. The only browser was Netscape. The notion of an effective search engine was still just a gleam in a visionary's eye.

World Wide Web is a proper noun, like Spain. So the exact term back then was World Wide Web site, and only the most devoted geeks had the patience to visit one. And this was back in the day when "geek" wasn't a compliment.

In the AP's San Francisco bureau, I remember a summer evening in 1995 when a coworker showed me the World Wide Web. We had to turn on the lights ahead of us as we walked to a darkened section of the office where no one was sitting.

She flipped some switches and did a little typing. Then we waited and waited, chatting and killing time but mostly waiting. Recognizable images eventually took shape on the screen. I can't remember what they were because they were about as useful to me as a speck of dust.

Now, a website is a fully formed concept in everyone's mind. Not only do the vast majority of us have personal experiences with websites, we feel crippled without them. The Internet is omniscient, omnipresent, interactive, social and highly personal.

It would have been nice if The AP had made this change in 2000, the dot-com bubble's peak. By then, Nasdaq had become an important stock index and Internet companies were making headlines every day. Surely, by then, anyone who didn't live in a cave knew about websites.

But -- I hate to say it (sorry, New Yorkers) -- The AP's headquarters is in New York City, which (fabulous though it is) is conservative -- in thinking, writing, editing, business attire and definitely enthusiasm about new technology. So California may have been ready in 2000, but NYC wasn't.

You'd think The AP could have done it in 2005. But then again, The AP aims to be as inclusive as possible. News should be easy to digest on a fast first read, by anyone. The AP errs on the side of immediate clarity. And maybe in 2005 there were still a few elderly people in small towns in Idaho who didn't know about websites.

In The AP's defense, one of the reasons AP style is an industry standard is because it doesn't flip-flop with the times.

Also in The AP's defense, it was way ahead of the rest of the world in technology innovation of its own and always has been. Six competing newspapers (in NYC) founded The Associated Press in 1848 so they could share the costs of a crazy new technology called the telegraph.

April Fools' Day: Edwards to Terminate Best-of-Breed Educational Assistance; Cult-Like Status Fades to Legend; Your Guru No More

2010-04-01T09:20:00.001-07:00

SAN MATEO, Calif., April 1, 2010 -- Lauren Edwards, a leading provider of educational guidance for professionals in the public relations industry and an unparallelled specialist in delivering best-of-breed customized workshops for technology companies in emerging markets, today announced termination of her revolutionary campaign against corporate communications featuring formulaic leads and canned messaging.

"At a time when more PR professionals are increasingly challenged to compose corporate communications that provide clients with a more streamlined internal approval process, it is crucial that they seek out robust, scalable and secure solutions to their writing challenges," said Edwards, writing coach at the Silicon Valley office of Edelman. "Therefore, I will heretofore downsize my cult-like status as a guru of approachable communications methodologies and join them in writing dense paragraphs, choosing Latinate words over Anglo-Saxon and misusing semicolons as a means to position their clients as thought leaders."

Kidding, of course.

Happy April Fools' Day!

That dang (apostrophe)+(S) in names that end in S -- is it Edwards' blog or Edwards's blog?

2010-03-26T17:08:00.000-07:00

Is it "Edwards' advice" (one S) or "Edwards's advice" (...S'S)? The first one is correct.

OK, then, is it the hostess' advice or the hostess's advice? This time, it's the second one.

No wonder everyone's confused, right? I gave you two opposing answers, but both are correct.

The key point is this: "proper nouns" (names) versus "common nouns" (not names). It's "no" on the extra S for names but "yes" on the extra S for ordinary nouns.

My way of remembering this is to remind myself that people get to spell their names any way they wish. So if Marie wants to spell her name Maree, that's OK. It's her prerogative.

In my experience, companies are very touchy about their names -- understandably so. It seems to me that most tend to leave off the extra S, which happens to be in keeping with AP style. I feel the same way. I myself don't like the look of "Edwards's advice." I don't know why -- I just don't like it. I prefer "Edwards' advice."

So ... names don't have to follow the standard rules -- that's how I remember it. My personal suggestion would be to ask the person whose name you're making possessive, if they are available to you. If not, go with the AP rule. If it's a company's name, I'd look on the Web site for press releases and see how the company chooses to handle it. It really is their choice.

Now for the exception: Even with a common noun ending in S, *don't* add the extra S after all if the next word begins with S. Under that rule, these are all correct:

the witness's answer
the witness' story
the hostess's advice
the hostess' seat

You'll find this rule in the back of the AP Stylebook, in the punctuation section that many people don't know is there, under "apostrophe."

Don't ask me why it's like this. That's a question for Grammar Girl.

Does everyone agree on this rule? No.

Strunk & White is at odds with AP style on a few points, including this one. So are a few other style guides.

Grammar Girl is with The AP on this one, I noticed. But she, too, acknowledges there's no agreement among the experts.

Some guides extend the exception to words that end in ce, x and z. The AP doesn't.

Content Creation & More

Startups Must 'Sell' Their Executives, Not Just Products

What to do when you have writer's block

What's your New Year's resolution for writing?

Writing class for bloggers and marketers in SF Bay Area

Humankind can't live on profits and UVs alone

Commas are *not* pauses

Press releases: A necessary evil & how to use them

7 fave features from 7-ish months at Patch.com

Watch me in my new multimedia website job

Interviews that bring copy to life

Tip for community journalists: Look for people with problems

If you're hiring an online content editor ...

Why I blog and Tweet less lately

Taking a break; I'll be back

My interview with Maya Angelou

How to attract audiences to your company's content

Seminar retreat for next-gen marketers

This Eagle Eye does voice analysis, too

Advice for editors

For All-Hallow's-Even, a sweet ghost story

For Spirit Day, "Prayers for Bobby"

Menu: Choose your advice

What you wish you'd learned in college

What I do? Problem-solve, mostly.

The perfect job? Yes, I think so!!!

Social media for B2B: Avoid this common marketing mistake

Open letter to trainees nearing success

My post-employment life: What's next?

Error, error, where are you hiding?

How to gain relevance with your target audience

Magic unveiled: To edit well, turn off brain

Calling all Eagle Eyes! Got advice and encouragement for new recruits?

It's official: I'm looking for a new job

Why so little success with corporate storytelling? Here’s what to do instead.

For PR peeps: Quotes advice & AP style visuals

Counterintuitive tip for PR clients & other corporations: Hire a pet journalist

Solo rock CD as multimedia communication: Meet Paul Lesinski

Start with "why," especially if you're talking about science

Writing tips: How to shift from traditional press release to social media news release

Can PR ghostwrite client blogs?

Hyphens: when to use them

website, not Web site -- rare revision from AP

April Fools' Day: Edwards to Terminate Best-of-Breed Educational Assistance; Cult-Like Status Fades to Legend; Your Guru No More

That dang (apostrophe)+(S) in names that end in S -- is it Edwards' blog or Edwards's blog?

Commas are not pauses