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- What to Write When an Employee Dies
- 5 Ways to Get Your Email Read, Remembered and Responded To
- Six Tips for Writing in Easy Reading Season
- 12 Ways to Plug the Email Productivity Drain
- Two Questions to Ask Before You Start Writing
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- 6 Ways to Become an Idea Machine
- 3 Reasons Why You Need to Improve Your Writing Skills
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Posts Tagged ‘social media quality’
For everyone who uses a computer, writing is a vital business skill. Because so much hinges on written communication, employees need to write clearly, concisely and quickly. To foster engagement and achieve their organization’s goals, they need to spread their energy and passion through the written word.
Misunderstanding can cost organizations dearly. The Titanic would not have sunk if the navigator had read the iceberg warnings. Wall Street would not have imploded if people understood the meaning of credit debit swaps and collateralized debt obligations.
Understanding, on the other hand, can clear the path to innovation, change and growth. That’s why tech success stories like Apple don’t talk about robust platforms, synergies or share-worthiness. They chat like regular people.
The elephant grows
Routine writing, especially email, drains more and more of each work day. According to a study by the US National Commission on Writing, most employees spend about a third of their day writing. No doubt that proportion is increasing, as we reach out to clients, coworkers and other stakeholders through emails, social media, wikis and other collaborative tools.
The other side of the writing productivity coin is reading. Subpar writing results in other employees or stakeholders spending too much time trying to figure out what a document means or missing out on important information. A survey by the UK’s Loughborough University found that only about a third of emails were straight to the point.
Suppose an employee composes 30 and reads 60 emails a day for a total of 90 emails. If one minute is wasted on two thirds of them, that’s one hour or more lost every single work day. And that doesn’t take into account all the other kinds of writing and reading a typical employee does every day. Ouch.
Wrangle the beasts
| Businesses wouldn’t expect their employees to start using new software without adequate training. Yet, many organizations want their employees to communicate, collaborate and connect without the writing skills they require.Some provide writing training, but they frequently complain that employees don’t retain much. They’re back to their old habits quickly, rambling on instead of getting to the point, using jargon their customers don’t understand or confusing it’s with its or maybe even writing its’.
To help solve this growing productivity problem, every employee who uses a computer should read my book Write like talk–only better. Better still, if they live in the Greater Toronto Area, they should sign up for one of my workshops. Write like you talkMy approach works where others fail because it’s based on everyone’s first and favorite way to communicate–talking. As a result, participants will remember what they learned. With worksheets and checklists for practice, they’ll continue to improve. If you want to learn more about the small-group workshops, check out my new page or contact me and I’ll send you a detailed outline of the options and typical days. Or simply read the book. You writing will become easier, faster and friendlier. Promise. You’ll wish all those people who send you long, foggy emails would read it too. |
Jakob Nielsen is my sherpa. He’s guided my ascent to high open rates, about double the industry average.
So I was thrilled to read that his latest findings confirm the value of compelling subject lines, getting to the point quickly and other earlier recommendations. Better still, he explored the impact of social media, smart phones and video.
Social media
According to Jakob, people prefer longer updates, though not too long, in email newsletters. Save Facebook, Twitter and similar micro-communication for information snacks.
However, many people like to grab these snacks from newsletters. Let me add that most email service providers have added options for sharing your newsletter on social media sites.
As a result, email newsletters and social media, though different, can feed each other. Brilliant.
Mobile
While I used to think that smart phones people were too busy to read longer content, Jakob’s respondents told him they often read them when they need to “kill time.” So give smart phone people interesting content to scan while waiting for a cab or a meeting or filling those countless other open minutes in their day. This works, however, only if your newsletters display well on a small screen.
Video
Although we’re seeing so many more videos on the internet these days¸ Jakob’s research subjects didn’t think video belonged in newsletters. Sigh of relief.
I’m not impressed by most of those flip-cam-in-the-face reels, but I’m keeping an open mind. Communication can change for the better, or worse, in the blink of an eye. We need to think critically, but quickly.
Evolve and endure
Jakob conducted his first research eight years ago, when email newsletters were in their infancy. Facebook wasn’t invented. Mobile phones were just for calls. Video was reserved for slick corporation productions or shaky family memories.
Despite predictions of their demise with RSS feeds, social media and other developments, email newsletters have evolved and endured. So hang in there if you have one. Don’t think the parade has passed you by if you haven’t started yours yet.
As Jakob concluded: “When it comes to customer relationships, newsletters must be seen as a long-term investment: they work their magic over time.”
Most of my clients are pretty conservative, with few of their customers pushing them into blogging. They know all about search rankings, thought leadership, collaboration and the many other reasons they need to get involved.
But if I ask them “when,” they roll their eyes. Although they know it’s inevitable, they lose sleep worrying about workload, quality and control.
Tell a busy executive that she has to start blogging and see a look of fear. I understand. Like asking me to prepare tax returns or paint starry nights, it’s not going to happen.
She’s already working way too many hours. She’s spent years building her knowledge and reputation in her specialty. Her time is highly valued. Deep inside, she’s afraid some people won’t get her writing.
Because writing is not her core competence, she knows she may not deliver the high quality of work people expect from her.
On the other hand, I’ve heard blogging CEOs talk about “whipping up” posts in 20 minutes, still a valuable chunk of executive time. That’s terrific for C-suiters who have the gift of written communication and the people to help, but others are out of their depth.
Quality concerns
Quality often suffers with user-generated content. For example, I organize photos for a client intranet. Despite clear instructions and repeated rejections, people keep submiting photos of nasty-looking food and unattractive butts.
However, they’re worth sorting through. The photos we choose are enthusiastically viewed. And I can usually dig through the employees’ descriptions to get enough information to write the blurbs and cutlines.
But, from their often rambling, typo-ridden emails, I would hesitate to ask many of them to write much for official posting. And I’m relieved that we select what goes up rather than posting everything.
Of course there are ways over the obstacles of workload, quality and control.
Some solutions
To ease the workload, corporate bloggers should be able to simply talk through what they want to say in a phone interview or long voice mail, with an expert editor focusing and fixing. Those who want to write should read Write like you talk–only better. so they can become faster and friendlier.
There’s lots more training companies need to do, if they expect employees to write with the speed and eloquence online communication demands. But who has the time or interest? And what if their innate talent lies elsewhere?
Unless your company is willing to bulk up on writing staff or hire freelancers like me, don’t count on corporate communication employees. Many balk at the prospect of having to rewrite well-intentioned, but untrained writers. They’re too busy keeping up with with the ever-growing demands on their time. Besides, many pundits insist that ghost writing violates the spirit of blogging.
Control issues
The control issue can be dealt with through fire walls, moderation, clear policies, spam filters and other means. But with the recent deluge of WikiLeaks and the privacy complaints about Facebook is it any wonder that organizations worry about confidential patient information being exposed or strategic secrets revealed?
Earlier this week, I read an interesting guide from Hubspot on business blogging. I’d recommend it to anyone developing their web prescence through blogs.
Despite all their practical and insightful recommendations, however, I think the Hubspot editors didn’t seriously consider the obstacles of workload, quality and control. That’s not surprising from a company that mobilizes businesses to take on the web. But suggestions for contests, for example, won’t fire up over-taxed employees who aren’t comfortable writing.
More answers needed
Like Hubspot, I think the benefits outweigh the downside. But I also understand the reluctance of my later-adopting clients. They’re wise to climb the mountains of workload, quality and control before they make that leap of social media faith.
Any suggestions for them?
As I was reading Mitch Joel’s insightful book Six Pixels of Separation, I was struck by his advice to bloggers to find their voice by continuing to write.
Mitch, that’s only part of the story. Yes, practice will give many the confidence to write in their own voice. But it’s not a question of finding your voice. It’s not lost, just buried under loads of conditioning.
Your voice has been there ever since you uttered “Da-da,” as your parents beamed. The trouble is your voice did not follow your mind when you learned to write.
Our elementary school teachers insisted that writing is different than talking. True. To go from spoken to written words is a major leap. Most of our parents were just as proud when we read our first words as they were when we started to talk.
What works in conversation
But your mistake was to feel you probably had to abandon what’s good about talking when you learned to write. With the possible exception of your secret diary, you were taught to be impersonal and objective, to sacrifice opinions and personality to objective analysis and facts. You were prohibited from dangling your prepositions and other intuitive conversational practices.
Fortunately, many bloggers and other social media participants have reclaimed their voices. They write in a relaxed conversational style. They state their opinions. They share parts of their personal life. They encourage their readers, friends and followers to join the conversation. They let us peek inside their heads, much as great novelists do when they develop their characters.
Yes, writing relies on more rules and conventions, which enable us to communicate with each other. More thinking is often required.
What sounds right: the top rule
But unless you come froma home where your parents “don’t got no idea” or you joined a gang or a profession that required you to adopt its dialect, you already speak well. You had grasped most of the linguistic protocols before you started to write. That’s why, when you’re stumped about a rule, your natural reaction is to refer back to what sounds right.
My voice isn’t lost. I use it in conversation all the time. It has matured with practice, the acquisition of knowledge and emotional growth.
As a blogger, my challenge is to take that speaking voice, and the personality that goes with it, and use it in written words.
That goes against much of what was taught in school and reinforced in the work world.
After many years’ writing for the corporate world, finding my voice has meant no longer writing in the formal tone that reflects the image clients think they should project.
Let your light shine
Finding my voice means sharing my opinions. I don’t parrot other people’s views for the sake of popularity.
Sometimes I inject humor, which I wouldn’t try to do if I weren’t sometimes funny in person.
Occasionally, I throw in some personal tidbits, so you can relate to me-–like that fact I go to the gym, talk fast, have a nearly-blind father, hormone-crazed teenagers, aqua bathroom fixtures… Okay, enough. I’m chatty.
I agree with Mitch that practice is helping me get more comfortable writing in my voice. The more I blog, the easier it is to shed the expectations and constraints that became second nature as a corporate writer.
I still write for clients, preferably in their voices, almost like an actor would portray her character. But when I’m blogging, I write in my own voice. It’s way more fun.
Although many bloggers aren’t saddled with my professional conditioning, most still hear their inner English teacher and other censors telling them how to write. Without training and experience, some lack the confidence to raise their own voice.
Practice to increase comfort
With writing, practice does not make perfect, just better.
I’d advise bloggers who are learning the craft of writing to listen more to how they speak in personal conversation. That is you.
So, Mitch, in your next edition, I think you should tell bloggers to write like they talk. Share their opinions. Tell their own stories. Use their unique sense of humor.
Be yourself. You are right here. No voice finding required.
Photo credit: Beppie K, Flickr Creative Commons
When people talk about social media, they often refer to its most personal form, Facebook. But yesterday at the Webcom 2010 conference I realized that the profound business purpose of the many forms of social media is collaboration that leads to innovation.
When Walton Smith of consultant Booz Allen Hamilton gave us a glimpse of his knowledge management system, Hello, I realized how I had honed the mindset for working online with other people by updating my Facebook status, following links on Twitter, bookmarking on Delicious, debating on Linkedin groups, voting on Digg, writing this blog and my other online social interaction.
Some of my clients are moving toward tools like Sharepoint and Hello, but not fast enough for me–or their business.
I’ve been sold on collaboration ever since I heard Don Tapscott talk about his book Wikinomics a few years ago. Yesterday, I added his new book, Macrowikinomics, to my reading list. Don is still talking about the profound structural change our society is undergoing, which we’ve been hearing about for more than 30 years in books like Future Shock . While I sometimes feel overwhelmed by all the changes we’ve experienced in those years, more often I wish that the world was turning faster.
Companies struggling to climb out of the recession or seeking to compete more effectively in the shifting sands of world trade really need to grab on to collaborative tools. As Helix founder Dr. Cindy Gordon pointed out, collaboration is fostering innovation at companies like Cisco, IBM and Accenture. Their leaders appreciate the need fresh ideas and critical thinking from everyone in their organization, not just an isolated cadre of C-suiters.
Of course many people will be reluctant to speak up, until they see that their ideas are acknowledged, seriously considered by their peers and often acted on. What’s more, they must trust each other.
I think they also need access at work to Facebook and other social media that foster the collaborative spirit. As Shel Holtz said yesterday, employees need breaks to refresh, especially those who work long hours, deeply concentrate or are tethered to smart phones 24/7. A growing number enjoy Facebook. in the same way that people make personal phone calls or chat around the water cooler.
But there’s more to it. Many of the speakers gave examples of companies using social media to launch products, conduct research or defend themselves from criticism. But the most compelling business reason I heard for web 2.0 is to bring people together to become smarter, stronger organizations through collaboration.
I spent much of my weekend glued to the television, watching the amazing coverage of the G20 summit protests in Toronto. With multiple cameras and reporters zipping between action sites, displayed on split screens, I felt as close to the action as I wanted to be.
City Pulse news (CP24), a feisty neighborhood channel, was backed by its relatively new owner CTV, a large Canadian network. The result was an in-your-face local perspective, partly directed and supported by citizen journalists, backed by big-time resources.
I switched to the competition a few times, but saw mostly CBC anchors safely ensconced in their studio or regular programming on Global. CP24 was the accident I did not want to keep watching, but couldn’t resist.
News as spectacle
Let me admit I’m one of those people who is mesmerized by TV news theater like CNN’s Shock and Awe light show. Thanks goodness, I’m not a soccer fan, or I would have had to toggle between protests and World Cup matches.
As soon as I saw the first scuffle of protesters and police on Friday evening, I was hooked. I worried about my twenty-something nieces, two of the thousands of people planning to peacefully march for worthwhile causes.
When all hell broke loose on Saturday, with those sinister, masked Black Bloc anarchists, I was bounced from Anne and Stephanie in the studio to Farrah, Omar, Craig, Naomi, Lisa, Austin and a huge cast of reporters on the scenes.
Strumming while Toronto burns
Probably the most dramatic was on Saturday evening when one live screen showed a police car blazing, with no cops in sight, while another displayed hundreds of armored police arresting protesters at Queen’s Park. As was suggested later, our provincial capital, the officially sanctioned site for the peaceful protests, had been infiltrated by the bad guys who were trying to deflect attention with their fiery antics.
On Sunday, one of the protests came to within a couple miles of my home. But seeing as they were directed at the temporary detention center, ironically the former filming site for a cop drama, I didn’t worry about the angry hordes coming closer.
The coverage became more about arrests than free speech zest. Commercials and replays replaced much of the live action. So I was relieved to pry myself away from the television, to prepare for my G20 barbecue summit (tag line: make food, not protest).
I don’t want to go into the big questions of good versus bad protesters, police, free speech, the role of the G20 or the ego and wisdom of Prime Minister Stephen Harper. If I started writing about these, I probably would not stop until the Korean summit, where I will not have a ring-side seat.
How social media played
But I would like to add my two cents about social media. No doubt this was the most photographed and videoed summit ever. I saw more cameras than banners raised. Many of the participants were not even protesting. They came to witness and record history. Had it not been for the rain, citizen journalists might have outnumbered police.
Flickr is bursting with amateur photo and video, many better quality than the professional shots.
If the police did, as some of the hundreds arrested insisted, use unnecessarily force, they will be held accountable. Think of how the world would have remembered Black Sunday or Kent State if citizen video-journalism had been alive. Think of the grilling World Cup officials will get with that bad ref call caught on countless cameras.
On the other hand, most of the Twitter coverage was banal. The Twitter feed displayed on CP24 was mostly solid citizens thanking the police for protecting our city. Not much more from the locals I follow on Twitter.
I’m sure many CP24 elves were busy behind the scenes, sifting through and verifying the social media tidal wave, which they selectively featured.
Herd protesters and media
Of course texting, Twitter, Facebook et al were critical means of herding protesters and media to the next action site. But beyond that, I couldn’t see a profound impact.
Then just before I sank into sleep Sunday night, I couldn’t resist one last look. A university student was talking via cell phone to CP24, while the screen displayed a Facebook photo of him shaking hands with the prime minister.
Sammy explained how he’d just come down to take photos, but ended up corralled into what he called “a human box” by police no doubt eager to end the weekend’s mayhem but unwilling or unable to cart more bystanders to the overflowing detention center. His camera and phone were damaged by the heavy rain. Wet, tired and cranky, he just wanted to go home.
Ah ha. The peaceful protesters and the violent anarchists were expected. Sammy and his friends were the new news story.
This morning I was glad to see no one was seriously injured and our city survived mostly intact.
And I’m glad that I got to watch, from the safety of my couch, such a spectacular, yet authentic unfolding of history. Our peaceful city will never see anything like this again. Neither will our media coverage.