So, you need a report written, and you approach a #writer with a table of contents. Don’t expect to get a useful cost estimate out of them. A table of contents is a good starting point, a kind of skeleton to hang everything on, but you need to add some meat to that framework to
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I received a speech for review the other day, with the customary acknowledgment of all the dignitaries present at the beginning of the sppech, followed by that phrase you hear so often in South African speeches: “All protocols observed.” Here’s why you shouldn’t be using it. It’s become customary to use this phrase in South
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We’ve all seen it – the social media or blog post that seems tone deaf to whatever’s going on in the world, that doesn’t seem to be ‘reading the room’. This is what happens when good content planning goes bad. Three months of posts have been written and approved, loaded into a content management system,
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The end-of-year madness is almost upon us, and there’s a mad scramble to wrap up this year’s projects and start planning for next year. In the mess of looming budgets and deadlines and feeling like there just aren’t enough hours in the day, suddenly you realise there’s also a whole lot of content you’re going
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It’s time. Gather around, public relations practitioners and other marketing types. Bring your friends in content, and while you’re about it, bring the journalists and editors too. We need to have a serious talk about thought leadership. Why? Because for a term that is bandied about with reckless abandon, there is very little consensus about
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From time to time I produce content for a client that gets feedback along the lines of, “You’re a natural!” Or, “Wow! You’re so talented!” There’s always a faint air of suprise at my ability to express what they want to say in exactly the right words, or admiration at my “gift”. This is like
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“I’m sorry this letter is so long; I didn’t have time to write a short one,” is a quote variously attributed to Cicero, Blaise Pascal and Mark Twain. Whoever said it hit the nail on the head – writing something short that has both impact and depth of content is much more difficult than banging
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  I recently posted the information below as a thread on Twitter, and it got a great response – from writers and clients alike. So I’m reproducing it here in case you missed it. Your brief to a writer is crucial – it will help them to deliver exactly what you need, without excessive to-
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