Monthly Archives: June 2014

Ask not what the Press can do for you..

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mediaAttended an interesting conference today produced by the Human Service Forum. The last session of the day offered a panel of local/regional members of the media, and they shared some illuminating thoughts, which I’ll pass on to you.  We heard from a regional news magazine, network television station, radio station, and local weekly and daily news representatives.  Some of what they had to say echoes the thoughts provided in my earlier post, on press releases.

In addition, just a few underscores that are really helpful. For those sending press releases, announcements, and even photos, by way of pushing content to the media:

  • Find out what your chosen media outlet wants to report on before you send releases, and tailor them to both the style and the type of content they are seeking.  Many news outlets have had to cut back on reporters in this recession, and they do welcome articles that are well written, in their style (safe to use AP style), without a lot of gimmicky formatting. Keep it simple and information based.
  • Interesting nugget from one news representative: reporters are often (most often) not in the office, and functioning virtually via mobile devices.  If you are sending a press release, it may be optimal to copy and paste it into your email. Sending the release as an attachment just means the reporter has to have the capability of opening whatever format your file takes – and they may not be able to do it.
  • Keep your news timely and, if you can, tie it to current events. Most panelists said they receive at least 100 press releases a day. And while they are happy to get them, they won’t use all of them.
  • Photos are OK, even good, to send. But if you are going to send a photo, don’t send one that is substandard. It needs to be clear, and focused (not blurry), feature no more than 3 people in the photo (more is too many to distinguish in print), and carry the names of those pictured. 200 DPI jpegs, captioned, are best for the newspapers.

Relationships Matter.

Of particular interest to me was some discussion about establishing yourself as a source for the news media. Releases about your work and events are great, but to create a relationship where you become a trusted source, you should consider your role as a subject matter expert. One voice today spoke about creating a mindful strategy, where a nonprofit organization identifies those subject areas where they have real expertise; and then creates a media plan including monthly “news” releases sent to their targeted media connections that don’t necessarily have self interest in mind.  This begins to build an identity for you that says you are go-to source for expertise on a given topic (for instance, in my industry, education). If you do this, do your homework first. Your monthly “news” should attend to current events and strive to actually be helpful to reporters.

Once you have begun to be viewed as a go to source that can be relied upon for perspective, good information, and helpful quotes or interviews, you may be contacted for an interview as news breaks in your space. If this happens, make yourself available. Reporters seeking additional commentary on a story are on a short string – and they have looming deadlines.  Take the call, every time, and be available or make your experts available when needed.  It will pay off as your relationship with the press becomes less “push” and more “pull”.

 

Audiences won’t wait- on your website or elsewhere

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goldfishOn your website or in your offline communications, it will always be important to keep your communications simple, clear and direct – and ensure that your readers get what they came for in as little time as possible.

Why? There are all kinds of statistics and studies about the average attention span.

It’s shrinking. That’s important to you when you are looking to get a message across.

According to the attention span study published in early 2014; conducted by National Center for Biotechnology Information, U.S. National Library of Medicine, the 2013 average human attention span is now 8 seconds. In 2000, it averaged 12 seconds. And just for fun, the current average attention span of a goldfish is 9 seconds.

On the web, a recent U.K. Study found that the average person browsing the web switches between devices used to do so an average of 21 times an hour. When you are writing or designing for the web, take care to include key information front, and know where you want your visitors to next. Studies have shown that 32% of consumers will start abandoning slow sites (and slow searches) between one and five seconds. On a average web page with 593 words of text (and that’s not that much), visitors will likely read only about 28% of the words you have displayed.

Finally, if you use video content on the web, know that while images and video have tremendous power to tell a story, your script will need to be short. Viewers of videos on the web will on average watch for only 2.7 minutes before they tap out. And that statistic was gathered in studies that pre-dated the wide use and acceptance of Vine.  Vine videos are a maximum of 6 seconds. So, if you are putting the expense and time into taping a video that communicates your mission or service, keep it short.

This is great perspective to keep strongly in mind (post it on your office wall!) when you are designing or writing a web page. But it pays to realize that even offline, the impact of our online habit and behavior is impacting our collective patience. If you are not editing yourself, do that. Do it multiple times, and then ask someone else to read what you’ve written.

There’s no doubt that briefer communications will pay off in a better chance to capture your audience’s attention. But in addition, it is an expression of your respect for their time.