Tag: writing

[Infographic] & [Useful Reminder] – How to Write & Create Content for Publication

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This is an infographic on tactics I already know, have known my entire writing life, but never have the time (or patience) to carry out –

Fear not the ugly rough draft, sleep on it and always have another pair of human eyes review your final copy. 

One piece of advice not previously articulated to me stood out, tip no. 5: “Write to one person.” This is an incredibly insightful manner to avoid the “idea clutter” that often builds up in a writer’s mind and creative processes. Identifying one person as the reader allows better focus on the main message you are trying to convey.

You can’t write content that’s valuable to everyone, so figure out one person/identity that embodies the audience your objective is to reach. Tell a story to that person catered to their tastes and designed to invoke your desired reaction.

If I had to select one person this post would be for… it’s someone just like me – New-ish to the game, trying to produce quality content that compels in a business environment.

That tip and the content in the below infographic come from the amazing Everybody Writes by Anne Handley, a great guide to writing “coherent, useful pieces of content that engage audiences.”

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Writing a Blog is Hard… Not Writing is Harder

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I am going to talk unabashedly about how this empty WordPress box makes me feel in this exact moment: Stressed.

Often, I’d rather just pet my cat and ignore the turmoil in my mind that persists until expressed. Much like my gym membership, this blog can be more a source of personal guilt than fulfillment.

My cat can't read, she prefers pets versus blog post from me.

My cat can’t read, she prefers pets versus blog posts from me.

It’s unfortunately easy for me to ignore this blog. The internal nag to become more selfaware through writing is something I’ve grown accustomed to pretending I can’t hear. I spend all day in the minds of my clients and their publics, articulating through text what they can’t effectively. Specifically avoiding my own voice and biases, I isolate myself from the process, making it much easier to churn out writing. I don’t get overwhelmed articulating the specifically requested ideas of others like I do when it’s just me, my mind and an insatiable need to write.

Currently sitting in this blog’s “drafts” folder, are at least five blog posts that I would consider about 50% complete. Each contains 500+ words of carefully considered semantics that have been derailed by unattainable standards. No matter how long I stare at any paragraph, on any post on this blog, I will always find words to change, ideas I’d like to expand on or tangents to remove.

– If you read my first blog post, you know that was never what I wanted for this blog.

Knowing I will never be completely satisfied with how I express myself is the largest source of backlog and inactivity on this site (unlike the closure I receive on work completed for work and by clients). Working myself up only makes it more difficult to articulate exactly what it is I am trying to say.

shade

Being concise and compelling requires digging into and slicing away at my mind. Tossing out what I later see as irrelevant begins to feels contrived. After 30 minutes on a headline and hours more on a blog post that doesn’t end up talking about that original idea anyway, I doubt why I started writing to begin with.

So, what am I gonna do about it? This. I am going to publish this post immediately after I finish it.

Already as I am writing this now, I am running through this post in my head, wondering if I have even said anything, questioning why I would ever think people would bother reading this. Have I just repeated myself incessantly? What will people think of me as a professional writer if I’m telling them I struggle sometimes? Why would any stranger on the internet care?

In order to bring myself to hit publish, I have to change the way I think about what it is I am doing:

I write because I have to. I’m compelled to do it from a source within myself. I must write what spills out of me, but people must not like it. That’s ok. If I cater too much to what I think people want to hear, versus what I want to say, this blog becomes another PR campaign and not the repository of reflections on working in social media, journalism and marketing that I intended – it becomes work. 

When I scrutinize myself with impossible expectations, the fear of my own criticism keeps me from success. If I were more relaxed with myself and the words that already come naturally, this blog would be much further along. However, like making it to the gym, with each post I do “complete” and surrender to the public, my motivation to do so grows.

Want to work in PR? Prepare for Life as a Ghost.

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When I inhale, I exhale my own used breath. When I trip and scrape my knee, it’s my blood that spills. When I articulate complex ideas for mass publication, it’s my brow gaining wrinkles but my hard-fought clout goes to someone else. But that’s ok. When I believe in someone or some brand, I enjoy furthering their goals and ideas through the skills I’m good at and paid for.

You must enjoy hunting a spotlight that you never get to claim.

You must enjoy hunting a spotlight that you never get to claim.

Contrary to popular notion, few public relations (PR) professionals are ever basked in the spotlight they engineer. Being the on-camera face of a brand, the signature at the bottom of a company-wide memo, or the byline above a published article is not a PR  professionals role. In the exceptional instances where that is one’s job, it’s often during crisis and to protect the image of another reputation (brand/person/product) .

In public relations you pen many things that others will sign their name to.

In PR you pen many things that others will sign their name to.

We toil our days away, clamoring for attention that we can focus on those who pay us to do so. The term is called “ghostwriting,” but I don’t let it haunt me.

In the beginning of May this year, I drafted a lengthy blog post on a topic that I knew nothing of beforehand. It was in hope that the piece would be published on a specific, well-known blog that I won’t name.

The aim of this particular blog post was and is to promote the industry leading position of our client’s CEO. It’s written in the first person, voices personal opinions and makes experienced recommendations to other professionals in the industry.

Whether it was current industry trends, best/worst practices, or doomsday vs. utopia scenarios, readers need to be confident that not only does the author have zero doubts about the theories they are sharing, but that the listed insights are revolutionary and demand immediate action.

Tasks like these are “interesting” for a couple of reasons:
1) The first time I heard of the topic was the same day as my (at that point) assigned deadline.
2) I found I had no strong opinions on what I did research and by noon that day, still only a vague concept of what it all meant.
3) My client’s CEO had worked in the industry for over 35 years and that depth understanding of had to be reflected in the piece.
4) I had never even spoken with the man whose mouth I’d be putting words into.

Despite my efforts to produce and turn in something valuable in under 24 hours, I spent over a day researching the topic, at least three hours on a first draft,  and another 60 minutes on the revision. After a week of communicating via email with the blog’s editor, it had been accepted for publication.

Waiting for approval to post content under another persons name can be the longest portion of the PR publication process.

I was enchanted, something I wrote was about to be read by thousands! But, and this is the biggest but of all in PR,  the blog post’s “author” still needed to approve of the words he would be credited with. So, I sent it to Silicon Valley, crossed my fingers and awaited the green light.

Just this week, due to backlog on our client’s end and what was described to me as “more pressing items” More pressing than my beautiful prose? Inconceivable! – it went live on the “renowned” blog, more than three months after I originally wrote it.

It sits there now: 1,100+ words, carefully strewn together in a manner that shows no sign of the teeth pulling it took to place them there. What lies right below the oh-so-clever headline I crafted? A byline of course.

Does it read “Halie Noble”? Absolutely not. Instead, it credits the CEO of my employer’s client. His name is accompanied by a flattering headshot, so readers can put face to the genius they are about to read.

Before you rally in mass over my honor, we must remember a two things:
1) I was paid to write for my efforts.
2) I was never unclear on the objective of my work: Demonstrate the expertise over a complex subject held by the author.

If you want to excel in PR, desire making things happen. Understand that when it comes to promoting the values and ideas of others, accomplishments are accomplishments for your client- not yourself. You won’t exceed if you thrive on personal, public recognition versus that of your clients.

Be happy producing quality work and quietly watch (and analyze and report) the results.

What’s in a lead? A blog by any other intro would archive so quickly.

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I could spend hours, days, even weeks trying to think of what I’m typing at this very moment; It would be agonizing and unnecessary.

-Ahhh there it’s done, the first sentence out of my way-

My work persona is a perfectionist; real me does not have to nitpick. At work when I write a news release, or even ghostwrite for a client’s blog, 100% of the time it is the first sentence that takes

This graphic was created in hopes of repurposing original, plain text into a visual item that's more stimulating.

This graphic was created in hopes of repurposing original, plain text into a visual item that’s more stimulating.

90% of my time. While I can be the heroine who catches the “pubic vs. public relations” typo, being positive there is error where there is not can be devastating to my productivity. What if what I say doesn’t capture the audience? What if I could do it better? How do I convey that what I’m saying is essential to my audience?

–Chances are, no matter how spectacularly it reads, the client will want changes-

This is my personal blog. I’m doing it for fun – Not to raise a “klout score,” not to make money from advertisements, or receive free goods in exchange for endorsements. I work in the interesting crossroads of media communications and high-tech. These two industries directly affect one another. Like most bloggers, I have thoughts about the things I discover and trends I notice that I feel are worth sharing [to an empty WordPress].

-My expertise is in written communication, digital or otherwise, that is: 1) Engaging; 2) Concise and 3) Relevant-

That’s how I found myself in the tech world. Software developers can be fluent in multiple languages, all more complex than English (the single language I speak fluently) and yet they often have a difficult time conveying even their most basic principles to their customers and investors their those who can’t understand the code.

That’s where I come in. I act as a translator and articulate ideas that C-level audiences understand not only in a technical way, but that spotlights benefits particular to their business’ situations.
Let me tell you something about being do this while being neither software developer or C-Level: The words do not just flow, inspired from your fingertips. You have to work for it.

This is something I made for a social media campaign in the surprise/cheer category. The easiest content I encounter is for twitter because you can't get too deep in 140 characters- which can also hurt you.

This is something I made for a social media campaign in the surprise/cheer category. Easy when compared to writing actual material over brand new concepts.

Topics like Continuous Delivery, Agile methodologies, DevOps, and the ever-mysterious “Cloud” can hurt my brain but, I’m unwilling to do half-assed work for clients. I will stay with a project for as long as necessary to assure it is above and beyond expectations.

So, when it comes to this blog, which I hope you find resourceful nonetheless, I’m just going to relax, write and enjoy myself. Sure, I’ll run spellcheck before posting and fact check my statements, but I will not spend weeks, days, even hours stuck writing any single sentence on this blog.