Chapter 1
Your Message
“I will be so brief I have already finished.”
—Complete text of a speech given by Salvador Dali
The first thing to consider when crafting your announcement is your ideal audience. The more you can visualize who that might be and what’s most important to them, the more you will be able to appeal to that audience in a style and on a level that speaks to its interests and needs. The second consideration is your media choice, which also might affect the style and phrasing of your message. Whatever your message and your media, remember this: Words are forever. Use them wisely.
Media Choices
Media choices are continually expanding and increasing in speed and accessibility. Where do you post announcements? Do you blog, update through social networking sites, or send newsletters or regular e-mail updates? Do you send press releases the old-fashioned way to the newspaper or through online PR sites, and if so, which level do you choose? Where is your intended audience most likely to look for announcements from you? Where are you most likely to capture the attention of your target audience? Even online, you need to choose from among a myriad of choices. Will you use the written word? Video? Audio? Is your announcement newsworthy enough for a press release? Is it so newsworthy that a reporter might be interested in running a feature? What is your advertising budget? Should you have a public newsletter and/or an employee newsletter? How often should it be issued? Should you run special editions for key events and announcements?
As you continue to refine your messages, remember to always be assessing your media choices. The most effective media choices may be changing at a rapid pace, so be careful not to lock in to one method, and don’t be afraid to try new things. Some once-popular networking sites have fallen off as other sites have been more responsive to user needs and more forward thinking in terms of helping people find or maintain connections. For instance, one site that was extremely popular and was even used by many as a main website is now frustrating to most because of a lack of security on the site and slow-loading pages. While maintaining a page on that site may have been impressive at one time, companies that keep pace have either moved on or, at the very least, don’t use it as a main site anymore.
Some networking sites also make it easier than others to send regular announcements. Know about the places where you post your profile, and remember that while your company’s image may be laid-back and friendly, a professional image is still important. Your announcements may reach beyond where you post them, and more power to them if they do. But your original postings should always be in places that support your professional image.
Internal Announcements
Your team is the lifeblood of your company. Team members want to be informed and to receive information directly, not by rumor. Selecting the right time, medium, and tone for significant internal announcements can strengthen or weaken a team. Information about personnel changes or policy decisions is better received when given directly and honestly by management before rumors and distortions heighten an already tense situation. Unfortunately, sometimes what is or is not a “perfect phrase” may have to be determined by legal counsel. Find out what you can say and how you can say it to give the most honest, up-front information you can. Do your best to announce anything that affects employees. They deserve the best information you can possibly give them.
Your company can set up numerous forms of online connections and ways to keep the team posted and in touch. Be careful not to use one medium for everything without considering the circumstances. While you may establish a pattern of posting company announcements in one place, some messages to certain departments or individuals will require more private, direct communication and will not be appropriate or appreciated if posted publicly. Although it may seem that you could save yourself a few minutes by hitting one public post, don’t forget that taking the time to send a direct e-mail about a sensitive issue will make an immeasurable difference in how the message is received and in an employee’s feelings about the company. Remember also that some information is still best delivered by phone or in person.
External Announcements
No matter how great your business is, how unique your products or service, no one will know unless you tell them. The smaller your company, the more likely people will have to hear the news from you. Make getting announcements out to the public a part of your weekly or monthly plan. Tout your good news, new products and services, new product reviews, company changes, awards, events, and more. If a change or event says something good about you, announce it to the world. Announcements are as good as advertisements. You just need people to see and hear your name; it doesn’t have to be in a glossy, expensive ad. As a matter of fact, a press release can be more effective than an ad because it appears as an article about you. The more your company’s name is seen or heard, the more likely it is that yours will be the name that will be recalled when someone needs your product or service.
Whether you make your announcements through press releases, newsletters, Internet updates, or other media choices, knowing when and how and how much to announce is a fine line. This world is suffering from information overload. In response, some of us tend to announce less rather than more. We don’t want to be part of the problem, and we hold on to old-fashioned notions of customer, employee, and company loyalty. However, with so much information coming at people every day, if you do not communicate regularly, they may even forget about your company or simply think of the one they heard about most recently when they might have thought of you.
We tend to think that if we provide a good product or service and make customers happy, they’ll tell two friends, and so on, and our business will increase exponentially. While happy customers often pass on the word, to help the process you have to at least remind them you exist. Satisfied customers are much more likely to forward your e-mailed announcement than to think of your business over dinner with friends. In the information age, subtlety is lost, and those who are too subtle will be forgotten. Announce yourself to be remembered, announce your good news, and be proactive about addressing bad news.
Good news travels fast. Bad news travels faster. If you have a sensitive announcement to make to the public, don’t delay. You want your company’s news to reach the public when, where, and how you choose before people are reading or circulating it online. With the rapid-fire spread of information and the constant blurring of public and private information and social and business networking, the line between internal and external communication is sometimes fuzzy. You know your employees should be given certain information; but they shouldn’t necessarily blog or post about it. Consequently, information control becomes a sensitive and key issue. Internal controls and precise wording are critical to releasing important information about your company.
Promotional Writing Basics
Promotional writing, like all writing, should be clear, concise, and correct. Beyond that, promotional writing must attract, entice, and convince the reader or listener to visit your website, come to your place of business, or pick up the phone to take action or learn more about your company, services, or products.
Promotional writing includes, but is far beyond, the standard press release or advertisement. Any announcement you make promotes your business in some way. Even if the promotion is subtle, if it’s getting your name out, it’s promotional. While this book focuses on information specific to press releases and promotional writing, keep in mind that any advice about promotional writing you see or hear in books, blogs, and podcasts can provide additional valuable insights about how to phrase and where to post your company news.
E-Mail Basics
The ease of sending e-mail often leads to oversending, which is not always in your best interest. Don’t oversend. That means don’t send an e-mail announcement to everyone who may have once sent you an e-mail; it also means don’t overburden those who are willingly on your e-mail list because they want relevant information. Oversending e-mails is the surest way to be ignored or find your way to the junk mail file. Don’t let your announcements sound like white noise. E-mails should not be overused for announcements, and they should always be appropriately directed, have a clearly stated subject line, and be clear and succinct. E-mails are quick and easy to send, but that doesn’t mean that they should be sent quickly and without consideration; your e-mails are as much a part of your image as any other written communication.
Your subject line is critical to catching your audience’s attention. A reader not taken with a newspaper headline might still glance at the article, but a reader turned off by an e-mail subject line would just as soon delete the message as open it. Use your subject as your hook. Avoid spam-alert words such as guaranteed, promise, and get rich. Use your e-mail signature to give websites, blogs, full contact information, or taglines. You can also use it as a way to send a brief, current phrase announcing recent good news such as “Winner of the Downtown Association’s 2010 Local Business of the Year Award” or “Celebrating 15 Years of Artful Living Expos.”
Blogging, Facebooking, Twittering . . .
Blogging is great for business; however, if you’re making important or regular announcements on your blog, don’t assume that everyone is checking in daily, weekly, or even monthly. Blogging regularly is a good way to keep your website current and let interested people know what’s new, but not everyone you would want to reach will be a subscriber, and not every subscriber will check in when there’s an update. If you make announcements on your blog, make that a place to go for more information, but announce your news more prominently as well. At the very least, be sure to note new announcements on your website’s home page.
Better still, turn people’s attention toward your business by making your announcement in an e-mail or newsletter or any print or online media that’s likely to drive people to your website or into your store where they’ll find more information. If you have news that you want to get right out and you want it to stand out, send out an “Update” to your newsletter list that will make that announcement stand apart.
If you’re linked into the latest social networking media, that’s the best way to make quick, immediate announcements. As we write this book, people check in regularly to Facebook and Twitter, and who knows what will be next? Watch and wait before you put your time and energy into posting announcements on a social media site that might not take off, but if you didn’t know Twitter was coming into the media fold in a big way before the 2008 elections, you knew it when Barack Obama used it to announce major campaign news and updates and when CNN starting reading “tweets” on the air. Such sites have become a part of the culture and are used by CEOs and PR companies everywhere to make regular announcements.
These sites offer an opportunity to connect with employees and customers in a new way, promote yourself, learn what people are saying, see what your competitors are announcing, and take word-of-mouth advertising to new levels. Twitter, for instance, lets you post a question for immediate response to obtain feedback or a quick market test of ideas—and good ideas will spread quickly. Such a posting can serve as a combination focus group, press release, and way to show your company’s personality.
Words Are Forever
The right phrase can be memorable, inspiring, or motivating, while a flip or badly worded phrase can cause confusion, misunderstandings, and negative feelings. On the other hand, a slip of the pen (or keyboard) can not only spread through the company rumor mill in a flash, it can become international news within seconds. These days, anything you put into print or on video can be transmitted around the world in an instant.
Think of any phrase you put out into the world in connection with your company as permanent. A tweet, for example, seems fleeting, but everything you post is stored. Once in cyberspace, a message may be impossible to remove, and bad information spreads as quickly as—actually, more quickly than—good information. Consequently, you have to think more carefully than ever before about your messages, your language, and even the unanticipated inferences that others may draw from what you write.
What Works for You?
While instant information has exciting advantages, always keep in mind the potential downsides as well. Craft all of your communications with clarity and purpose and be certain that the statements they make are understandable, positive, and impactful. Keeping that in mind, new and expanding ways to communicate can be used to great advantage, allowing you to make company announcements more regularly and in more venues than ever before. Try things, track effectiveness the best you can, ask clients how they found you, and ask others what they’re doing that’s working. As you explore, continue to use announcement venues that are tried and true—and always try to be true to your own style.