As a journalist, I’m well aware that people are probably more comfortable around second-hand car salespeople. I get it, I really do. But there’s no need to panic. Unless you are embroiled in the middle of a media storm or a scandal that warrants some sort of investigative journalism – and you’ll know if you […]
READ MOREHow Poor Internal Communications Are Damaging Your Brand
So you’ve spent squillions on branding. You have a top agency, your brand identity is beautiful, everything is designed to within an inch of its life, and your PR and marketing and various digital platforms are vetted and checked at every possible point. Sorted, right? Wrong. Your internal communications need just as much work, or […]
READ MOREEmail like a boss
For a while, ‘inbox zero’ and the abolition of email were all the rage. That all seems to have died down now, as people realise that email is something of a necessary evil. And yet, so many of us still do it badly – not only on the writing and communication front, but on something […]
READ MOREHow to annoy a journalist: a 10-point primer for NPOs
Non-profit organisations (NPOs) do a lot of great work, often on a shoestring. And often that work requires educating the broader public on little to no advertising budget. Of course, they could take the time to make friends with the media – and to enlist them in helping them spread the word about their worthy […]
READ MORELose that lexicon of opacity and loquacity
I received an email today from an organisation I’m involved in. It was about an important new project and the aim of the email was to introduce the organisation’s clients to the project . Here’s the first paragraph (with some biographical details changed to protect the guilty): As our strategies begin to take shape, we […]
READ MOREHelp! They asked for a picture!
If you are quite senior in your organisation, or a young mover and shaker, at some point you might be asked to be part of an editorial feature in a print publication. These days, many newspapers and magazine have cut back on costs wherever they can, and often people they interview are asked to supply […]
READ MORE5 tips for working with an editor
Most people outside of the media or literary worlds haven’t ever made use of an editor before (although they really should – not that I’m biased or anything…). But let’s say you’ve decided you do want someone to look over what you’ve written – to check that it flows well, that you haven’t left out too […]
READ MOREI hope this blog post finds you well
There’s a principle I was taught in journalism, and it’s this: it can be dangerous to ask a question in the introductory paragraph of your story, because readers might answer it very differently to the way you do – and most often, they’ll be facetious. I have that impulse when people send me an email […]
READ MOREMake a note
This is not the blog post I’d planned to write – if I’d taken the advice I give many of my clients, I’d be writing something completely different. I had a brilliant idea for this blog post a couple of days ago, I forgot to write it down, and now it’s gone. So this post is […]
READ MOREChange the script
Houston, we have a problem – and it’s with the way most companies are running their social media accounts. Because customers are turning to Twitter accounts, in particular, for help – and most of the time that’s the last thing they get. What they get, instead, is an extension of the uselessness of the company’s […]
READ MORE