Rule #1: Know Your Audience

It's the first rule of good communications: know your audience.

Whatever you're communicating, you need to make the content relevant and interesting to your audience, first and foremost.

After attending an awards event last evening, I believe that this rule needs further clarification: you must also respect your audience.

It is only in the rarest of circumstances that an audience will wish you spoke longer. Therefore, be concise and to the point. Short speeches, I guarantee you, will be remembered as more entertaining than long ones no matter who you are. Even professional entertainers know this: "Leave them wanting more."

When you speak without notes, without preparation and to entertain and amuse yourself, you are not respecting your audience.

So, know who you're addressing, make the effort to connect with your audience, and show them respect by preparing and keeping it tight.

And, one last word on this subject, at risk of stating the obvious: remarks by outgoing presidents should be shorter than the remarks of the incoming president, and similarly, remarks introducing an award winner should be shorter than acceptance speeches. When these natural laws of speaking are inverted, audiences revolt.

Did You Know? 4.0 - Must-See Internet TV

'Did You Know?', this fantastic presention, debuted as a response to the massive shifts in the global competitive landscape that kids in school today can expect by the time they graduate. Teachers, who realized what they and their students were up against, were the catalyst for the original concept. The world is changing so quickly, it's physically impossible to teach students the skills and impart the knowledge they'll need by the time they enter the workforce.

We wrote a post on an earlier iteration of 'Did You Know?' on Aug. 12, 2008 (see: The Best Thing School Can Teach You These Days is to Adapt).

The mind-altering presentation is back and better than ever with a version 4.0 on YouTube and now co-presented by The Economist. For communicators and their clients, it's an extremely relevant, compelling and inspiring 4 minutes 39 seconds. Watch and learn...

5 Qualities Communicators Need Today!

The barriers to entry in the communication, publishing and broadcasting fields have crumbled thanks to ubiquitous, user-friendly and largly free web-based technologies. With Twitter, anyone can be a pundit or a pitchman. On LinkedIn, anyone can build a massive professional network. And using YouTube, anyone can share original film productions or star in the their own reality TV show.

But just because you CAN does not mean you SHOULD! (Seriously.)

Since technology is no longer the barrier to entry in our field, what is?

Well, it's many things, but I've boiled it down to what I see as the top 5, and if you've got 'em, you've got it.

1. Talent: natural ability as a communicator -- you can write and present. Plus, you're constantly thinking about how to do these things better and more often as well as share your talent with others.

2. Common Sense: you can work it out for yourself. You've got 'critical thinking skills' and aren't afraid to use them.

3. Motivation: you want to learn, grow, challenge yourself or be challenged by others and are intrinsically curious.

4. Creativity: you approach old problems in new ways or find new ways of saying the same ol' thing. When you're presented with a problem, your first instinct is to find a creative solution.

5. Adaptability: Where others find variety and change threatening or frustrating, you thrive.

If you've got these qualities, you can always learn the technical steps required to become an accomplished communicator. However, if you don't have them, by all means use the technology, but find someone who does have them to guide and coach you (and listen to them).

By the way, if you have a degree in communications or a related discipline and some fantastic life and work experiences that would help you hit the ground running, (W)right On Communications would like to hear from you for our open Account Coordinator position!

In this position, you'll support the agency’s consulting team in coordinating various client activities as well as some of the agency’s own branding and communications activities. You'll also work directly with clients, the media, and vendors and support social media activities across a variety of web-based platforms.

Be prepared for an environment that will have you working your magic on topics of an extremely technical nature to lighter fare such as music, entertainment and hospitality. (Did I mention 'adaptability' is a requirement?)

This is a full-time position and includes benefits. Please review the responsibilities below to get an idea of what the job entails and please forward your resume to career@wrightoncomm.com if you're interested in it.

RESPONSIBILITIES
Provide client account team with professional account coordination support including:
o Gather, compile and research competitive and market information including secondary research and occasional primary research
o Research, update, and maintain listing of public relations opportunities and deadlines via editorial calendars for press opportunities
o Review HARO and ProfNet daily feeds for client PR opportunities and follow up as needed
o Research and maintain the agency’s media lists
o Manage media monitoring activities including reviewing/capturing client press clippings, broadcast coverage, Google alerts, and media monitoring services and generating monthly summaries and reports for client review
o Manage social media monitoring activities including reviewing/capturing client conversations and coverage via the agency’s social media monitoring service and generating monthly summaries and reports for client review
o Coordinate artwork development, production (print & mail), photo shoots, trade shows and other meetings, and PR events as needed
o Coordinate client approvals on collateral and public relations copy and designs
o Contact editors and reporters as directed by consultants to research or ‘audit’ media interest and needs on a per client basis
o Coordinate the dissemination of PR materials through newswires, online sites, and social media outlets
o Assist with drafts of press releases and editing of public relations support materials
o Assist with social media communications to support client programs
o Attend client events and provide on-site event coordination as needed
o Support consultants through handling Constant Contact emailings and other online tools and web-based updates including tracking results

Kanye West: interruption vs. disruption

The do's and don'ts of civil discourse used to include don't shout "You lie" at the President if you're a sitting U.S. congressman and don't jump up on stage, grab her mic away, and then tell the world that some other performer deserved Taylor Swift's MTV Video Music Award. Thankfully, the past few days and hours have shown via social networks that these interruptions are still social taboo.

Sometimes an outburst or a stunt works because it's disruptive. By disruptive, I mean that the event is one that disrupts your focus but attracts your attention. For instance, Lady Gaga's wardrobe changes and Pink's trapeze act at the VMAs were disruptive.

An interruption is entirely different; it takes away your choice and it's in your face whether you want it to be there or not. Television advertising is an interruption (unless it's extremely well done and then it becomes a disruption.) Panhandling is an interruption whereas street performing is a disruption.


Kanye was once an exciting, disruptive artist but now is in danger of just becoming an another interruption in a world where attention is among the highest prized commodities.

Our dinnertime ritual interrupted by a telemarketer, our social media conversations interrupted by an automated self-promotional message, or an email selling us something we don't want for a body part we don't have--like Taylor Swift, we've got a lot of our own Kanyes in our faces ruining our moments, large and small.

During his hasty apology on the Jay Leno Show premier Monday night, West was asked by the host "What would your mother have thought?" (She passed away a year ago.) But West doesn't need his mother to tell him what's right and wrong. He and all brands today have to answer to the wisdom of the crowd--if they'll just shut up long enough to listen.

The beauty of disruption is that it's unexpected but not unwelcome, distracting yet attractive, has shock value but also some value for the targets and not just the celebrity's ego or brand's self-interest. If that sounds like an art, it is one. And it's why stunts run such a high risk of backfiring and, thanks to social media, backlash

OK, enough about Kanye...

9/16/09 - UPDATE: I know I said enough about Kanye but I could resist this YouTube mashup and, while I've got other things to do, clever people have taken Kanye's interruption and turned it into many fine, fun examples of disruptive communication. Examples follow:

For more examples, check out Mashable.com's Top 10 Kanye Parodies list.

Twitter demographics shift

I'm on the wrong side of 40, but up until March, my age made me part of Twitter's 'in' crowd: 35-54 year olds.



Boomers and gen X'ers were the most likely demographic to be on Twitter. But something happened in April that caused a massive influx of millennials. Comscore released data showing this trend. Look at the top two tiers in the chart below and how they're getting squeezed from April through July.
What happened to cause this shift? Some are suggesting it's the Ashton Kutcher effect. In April, the young celebrity began a Twitter battle with CNN: the first to reach one million followers would be declared the winner (and malaria nets would be donated to Africa so there was a feel good element to this silly competition).


No word on whether malaria rates have fallen at the same pace as Twitter use has risen. But as Twitter grew from 9.3 million users in March to over 50 million users in July, the type of user has shifted and more brands and spam accounts are now joining the ranks of the Twitterati, for better or for worse.

Social Media: are you a consumer, producer or both?

I've just finished catching up on some of my favorite industry blogs. These blogs--written by my peers in public relations and social media--have replaced trade journals and e-newsletters as my go-to source for best practices, trends, data and industry gossip.

In addition, sites like Mashable.com and the quality links shared by my Twitter Tweeps and Facebook Friends are also major info sources for me.

This shift in my media consumption behaviors began just over a year ago. The 'tipping point' was very sudden!

The communication industry puts me on the forefront of exciting changes, and it might incline me to be more of an 'early adopter?'

I know our tech clients have embraced social media channels like Twitter and Facebook for communication. But what about using these channels as sources for information?

Are traditional trade publications or websites serving your needs primarily or is the bulk of your information coming from social media channels or tools?

Looked at another way, is social media primarily something you produce (i.e. content for your Facebook Fan Page or Twitter feed) versus something that you consume (i.e. reading the content of others such as your customers, competitors, industry gurus; monitoring conversations with search and listening tools)?

Annual event helps keep it all in perspective

Once a year, Interfaith Community Services holds a meeting for all of its supporters to celebrate their generosity and the community's accomplishments. I started volunteering with Interfaith in 2001/2002 but they've been around over 25 years.

You can imagine what kind of year this past one has been for a lot of folks (and for social services agencies like ICS).

More than 33,700 people in North San Diego County came to it for help this year.

A few of them got up to share their stories today.

First up was a mother who developed a quart-a-day vodka habit to drown her demons. When that didn't work, she tried drowning them once and for all by drinking liquid Drain-O. Her family steered her to get help. She is now sober, beautiful and strong, giving back to ICS by counseling others and donating to the current residents of its amazing sobriety program.

A two-tour Iraq vet spoke about the help he got transitioning from the Marines to civilian life. The job training he received from ICS was the difference-maker for him. (Finding a job in the U.S. should not be harder than dodging improvised explosive devices in Iraq, and yet it nearly was for him this past year!)

A battered wife with nowhere to turn when she needed it most was living in her truck and ready to disable the airbag and drive it into the median. She found ICS and is now in transitional housing, confident and employed.

Stories like these give me hope and faith that people can overcome, but they can't do it alone. That's where Interfaith comes in--people of every faith or simply a faith in the human spirit ready to give a hand up to those who need it.

What a beautiful thing to pause and celebrate!