Readers Want to “Like” You Online!

Aug12 by Gail Tycer

People may be a whole lot nicer than given credit for, according to a new study published on the Journal of Science website last week. Study findings could well have significant implications for communication – especially traditional marketing communication – in the long run.

To reach their conclusions, researchers examined how thousands of people reading online comments reacted and responded, perhaps providing new ideas on how marketers can present their products or services positively today.

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Here’s what researchers found:

If a post, perhaps on a site like Facebook, garners a “like,” more people are likely to “like” it also, “even if the reporting and writing are not all that great,” researchers said, adding that a positive comment “can set off a bandwagon of approval.”

Apparently the same is not true in reverse – in fact, rather than inspiring readers to dislike an article or post, an “unfair negative reaction” will quickly rally readers to counteract the negative view with positive ones. See? A lot of nice people out there!

Additionally, researcher Sinan Aral, professor of information technology and marketing at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, found that “Hype can work, and feed on itself as well.”

Calling the study “provocative,” Matthew Jackson, professor of economics at Stanford noted that it raised many questions to be answered. Jackson was not involved in the research.

Conducted over a five-month period with an unnamed website to provide objectivity, users submitted links to news articles. Readers then scored and/or commented on the articles, and commented on other readers’ comments to provide the raw data. Researchers applied mathematical formulae to compile their findings.

Among the most interesting findings were that site users were initially twice as likely to comment on the article favorably. And when the researchers posted a fake positive score, the first person reading the comment was 32 percent more likely to give the article an “up vote, ” with no change in the likelihood of subsequent negative votes. Over the course of the study, those comments with the artificial “up vote” garnered scores 25% higher than those of the control group.

“…a significant change,” Aral noted, “…very small signals of social influence snowballed into behaviors….”

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What Makes You Open an Email Immediately?

Aug5 by Gail Tycer

Take a moment to consider: What is it that makes you open an email immediately? For most email readers, it’s either (1) who sent it; or (2) what it’s about.

There may not be much you and I can do about being who we are, rather than our boss, our most important client, or the head of the company, but there is a great deal we can do about the subject — specifically about the subject line. Here are some ways your subject line can help get your email read:

Always use a subject line. Simple, to the point, and short: 50 characters or fewer. Not only does this bring your reader up to speed quickly, but it helps to move you up in your reader’s priority list. Your email may be competing with hundreds of others to be read at all, let alone promptly. A good subject line helps your email say, “read me now.” If you are asking for action, or on a deadline, it may be helpful to include that in your subject line.
Use additional communication tools. Occasional phone calls, in-person conversations — can also help to move you up in your reader’s priority list. All things being equal, we’ll open the email from someone we have a friendly relationship with sooner than someone we don’t know. That human relationship, the personal touch, can supplement what might otherwise be a virtually anonymous medium.
Limit your emails to those who really need the information. Resist the temptation to send that email to everyone on the list, even though it’s so much easier just to hit the group send. And then ask yourself not only whether each person on the list needs to have this information, but overall, “Does this information need to be passed along at all?” If not, don’t. Respect others’ time.
Think about the corporate culture. Many readers feel that being “cc’d” means this email is more of an “fyi,” and not that important for them to read. They may either not read it at all, or put off reading it until later. List the reader as a primary recipient if you want him or her to read your email. Also, keep in mind that a “Re:” will seem more important, and garner better readership than a “Fwd:”
Many email writers like to include (brief) content in the subject line: “Marketing meeting 2 p.m. Tuesday 4/20” and then provide additional details in the body of the email. The theory is similar to the old direct mail “hook” — give them the information quickly, the details in the supporting copy.

And then, make sure that your email delivers what the subject line promised. Make it short and concise. Help the reader “get it” at a glance — in the first three to five lines. Make it easy for your reader to do what you are asking him or her to do. Check your email frequently, and be easy to get back to.

Five Tips to Get Your Email Read and Answered

Jul24 by Gail Tycer

by Alan Taylor, Guest Blogger

Email today is both a blessing and a curse. While it is a quick and effective way to communicate, it can also be a huge burden when used to avoid personal contact or when used excessively. If you work for a mid- to large-sized company, chances are you deal with well over 100 email messages a day – a majority of which are either unnecessary or unnecessarily long. Chances are also – big company or small – that you don’t respond to every email that needs responding to – even with the best of intentions. With that in mind, here are some tips to help you get your email read and an answer to your email faster:

1. Be brief – Get to the point and stop. If it takes more than two paragraphs to make a point, the subject most likely requires a face-to-face or voice-to-voice conversation. There are great benefits in live discussions that typically aren’t realized in email. Another way to be brief: Don’t repeat yourself.

2. Keep to one subject per email – Covering numerous disparate subjects in a single email bogs the reader down. Each additional subject distracts from the others and typically ends with lost actions and confused responses. If you need to list multiple items within a single subject, use bullets or numbers to keep things organized.

3. Take advantage of the subject line – be as descriptive as possible in the subject line. Instead of “Important Reminder,” say “Important Reminder: 7/23@5:00PM Charity Run, don’t forget water.” This lets the reader get most of the information in the subject line. The body of the email can then be used to list additional reminder items. OR:

4. Use only the subject line – (If you work for a very large company, like Intel, you probably already know this) If your email is only a reminder to bring water to an already-announced run, use (EOM – End Of Message) in the subject line: “Important Reminder: 7/23@5:00PM Charity Run, don’t forget water (EOM).” Readers learn quickly and also appreciate brevity in emails. The first few times you use this, you can include the phrase “(EOM) means ‘End Of Message’” in the email body. After that you can just send the email with no body message. Win, win: You save time by not having to repeat yourself in the email body and your reader gets the message without having to open your email. It’s like an Instant Message when you don’t have the recipient’s IM address!

5. Highlight actions needed – If there is specific action in an email that someone needs to take, highlight it using asterisks or underlines. Don’t use all caps (it looks like you’re shouting). This helps the reader focus on the items needing action.

A large reason Instant and Text messaging is so popular is the forced brevity of the messages. If email were forced to 140 characters or less, chances are there would be a big productivity jump since people aren’t wading through long, repetitive emails.

There are thousands more tips like these and we bet you have some of your own. Please add your tips in the discussion thread below!

Alan Taylor is this week’s guest blogger. He runs his own consulting business, Alpine Technical Group, which focuses on web presence including website design, SEO/SEM, social and online marketing.

Business Writing Tip of the Week: Strategic Business Writing – a Powerful, Cost-Effective Marketing Tool

Jul8 by Gail Tycer

Companies that thrive today realize that as dollars tighten, every word of every email, memo, letter, report, or proposal could also have a financial payback, as well as the more subliminal, less tangible results brought about by clarity and directness.

More and more, successful business people understand that strategic business writing — writing that gets the results it was meant to get — can be an extremely powerful marketing tool, and certainly one of the most cost-effective.

Here are a few quick tips on what makes everyday business writing — whether we’re talking about email, or paper writing — work today:

Decide what you want this piece to accomplish. It may be that all you want to do is to provide information, and let the reader decide what to do with that information. Alternatively, you may want this piece to generate an action, or to avoid an action; perhaps to influence, or to change what your reader thinks, or believes.
Focus on the reader’s needs/wants/desires. Think about your reader. Your reader wants to know “What’s in it for me?” “What will happen if I do,” or, “What will happen if I don’t?” Focus on benefits to the reader. Understand your reader’s options. Consider and address his or her real concerns, rather than just what you want to say, if you want to get, and to keep his or her attention.
Select the items you will discuss based on your reader’s need for the information, your reader’s use of the information, and your purpose for writing. If your information does not meet at least one of these criteria, leave it out.
Determine, and use the appropriate tone for this specific message and for this specific reader. “Tone” is the relationship that you — the writer — set up with your reader. What do you want that relationship to be? Formal? Informal? Friendly? Helpful? Authoritarian? Professional? No-nonsense?
Decide on the “take away” — what do you want your reader to understand, and to remember from this piece.
Provide a “call to action.” Tell the reader what he or she should do with, or about the information you provide.
Aim for clarity, not cleverness.
Write carefully, thoughtfully. Make it easy to read. Select comfortable words. Use the best format to make your point. Use active sentences for greater clarity. Keep your average sentence length in the 14-17-word range. Vary the length of your sentences, words, and paragraphs to keep the reader reading: some short, some long, some mid-length. Work with syntax — try moving the words around in a sentence; sentences in the paragraph. Be consistent.

And finally, nothing will destroy respect for a company or organization faster than sloppy, grammatically incorrect correspondence — and that goes for email as well as for paper mail.

Good business writing has generally become more strategic, and a bit less formal than it was at one point. In many organizations, it’s now considered acceptable to use contractions; to start sentences with “And,” or “But”; to use alternate formats — and even to end a sentence with a preposition if it makes your meaning more clear!

Check what is acceptable in your workplace. Each company has its own personality; its own style; its own way of doing things. Even if there are no company-wide guidelines, your particular boss may have his or her own ideas about how things should be done. Understanding your organization’s “ground rules” — the environment in which your writing must work — is a good place to start writing strategically.

Business Writing Tip of the Week: How to Say It When You Can’t Think of What to Say

Jun24 by Gail Tycer

How many times have you or I sat, staring at a blank computer screen, waiting for inspiration to strike? How many times have we wished there were such a thing as a business writing fairy godmother – or at the very least, a ghostwriter, who could come along and give us a fill-in-the-blanks draft to get us started?

Soon it becomes apparent that inspiration is on vacation, and we’re going to have to handle it on our own.

Let’s say that your email is the type of email you write all the time. And the question becomes just how many ways can you say the same thing? So it can often be helpful to use a sort of template for the same sorts of pieces, and many companies and organizations do just that.

The downside of course is that these form letters tend to sound much the same, and are usually, of necessity, quite impersonal.

Especially from a tonal point of view, these impersonal form letters can be quite destructive to a relationship that we have worked so hard to develop with each individual reader. Obviously, it is far preferable to write most of our correspondence directly for that specific individual reader. Templates, or “form letters” are not for everyone, nor are they for every situation.

On the other hand, when carefully crafted, and especially when they are of the “save as and fill-in-the-blanks” type, they can be quite useful. Just “save as,” fill in the blanks, and you’re done!

Let’s see, for example, how this might look for a very simple standard meeting announcement:

“The (date/topic) meeting of the (name) committee will be held (at/in the) (location) (at/from) (time) on (day and date). Please see attached agenda for details.”

This simple “save as and fill-in-the-blanks” template might become something like:

“The April meeting of the waste reduction committee will be held in the third-floor conference room from 4 to 5 PM on Thursday, April 24, 2013. Please see attached agenda for details.”

The RSVP request will be your second paragraph, which could also be a “saafitb” paragraph.

Be sure that the attached agenda details include who will be responsible for each report, or presentation agenda item, so the responsible person will be prepared. It’s also a good idea to send a quick reminder email to each of these individuals. You may even have a system that does this automatically.

You probably have a number of standard emails you create on a regular basis. Try developing your own “save as and fill-in-the-blanks” templates for these sorts of emails, and see if it makes the process easier and faster.

More complex repetitious communications will require a more complex format, but the principle is the same: You want to avoid as much repetitious key stroking as you reasonably can, using the “blanks-to-be-filled-in” to provide both the specific information for the piece you are writing, and to personalize this information for your specific reader. This will go a long way toward avoiding the impersonal “form letter” tone, while speeding up the process.

For example, a persuasive proposal should begin with a persuasive “lead” paragraph clearly summarizing exactly what the proposal is, and stressing the benefit to the reader, or to his or her company or organization. Quick tip: Increase the effectiveness of your proposal by starting with the benefit.

As appropriate, other sections of the persuasive proposal could include, for example:

• Significance of your proposal. Why do? Why need? Why now?

• Proposed time schedule.

• Resources required/Resources available.

• Changes that will be needed.

• Similar programs/activities. Review and evaluate how, and how well they worked. How were they the same, and how did they differ?

• Projected positive results, with time frame and evaluation criteria.

• Anything else your reader needs to know to decide in your favor.

And finally, you will have a very strong, very clear, very persuasive conclusion to the material covered, in benefits-to-the-reader terms.

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Business Writing Tip of the Week: Why Don’t They “Get It?”

Jun17 by Gail Tycer

How many times have we asked ourselves that? Lots. How frustrating that they don’t understand our point when it is so clear to us!

Over the years, we’ve talked about a great many of the techniques that will help our readers understand the point quickly and easily, and we will continue to do so.

But today, let’s talk about the essential basics of what happens in the communication process, and what we need to know about that process to communicate more effectively with our readers. To help them “get it.”

We’ve said many times that writing is a visual art. And indeed it is – how those words and other visual elements look on your screen or on paper when printed out, has a tremendous impact on how the reader understands the point we are trying to make – or not. That’s another one of those “essential basics.”

Business writing is certainly a cerebral art as well. The thought that goes into each piece is critical to how your reader will feel about what you have said, and subsequently how your reader will feel about you and about the organization you represent. Please do not underestimate how important this is, or the responsibility you bear because of it.

The following diagram shows what happens, and what you need to know about what happens during the communication process:

The big question we’re asking ourselves here is, “Will the message that comes out of the system be the same as the message that went into the system?”

As you see, the message you start with begins with you. Then it goes through your “filters.” So what are some of these filters? Filters are things like experience, education, understanding, expectations, biases, and in general, how you look at the world.

Mechanical issues, such as your competence in the language in which your material is written, factor in as well. Another mechanical issue can be how well you understand, and can use, the channel through which your message will be sent.

So let’s take a look at that channel, now that the message has gone through your filters. The channel is the vehicle by means of which your message will travel. This could be an email, an advertisement, a phone call, a personal visit, a training session – well, you get the idea.

But once that message is on board the channel, it will still have to negotiate the receiver’s filters. Like you, that reader will likewise have his or her own filters. An objective understanding of your reader’s filters can be very useful. Note the word, “objective.”

So now it’s time to retrieve the message from the system, and to answer the question, “Does the message we sent equal the message the reader ‘got?'”

When you were a kid, did you ever play that birthday party game, “Gossip”? Or maybe you called it “Telephone”? Same game, different name. The way the game went was this: The first little kid would whisper a short sentence to the second little kid, who in turn whispered what he or she had heard to the third little kid, and so on around the circle until that message stopped with the last little kid, who had to repeat what he or she heard.

Thus, “pressing papa’s purple pants” (for some reason, this one was always a favorite at the parties I went to – don’t know why, maybe it was the effect of whispering so many plosives into the next kids’ ears), came out of the system usually sounding something like, “pop, pop, the bandana.” This result was, of course, always unfailingly funny to a group of six- or seven-year-olds.

But how funny is it in adult miscommunication? The objectives are not the same. Kids of a certain age love to be silly. The objective of their game was to laugh, and to make others laugh – even to the point of laughing at them.

Adults in the business situation: probably not so much.

To answer our question: No, it’s not a sure bet that the receiver will 100% “get” the message exactly as sent. There are many tactics and techniques we can use to improve the odds, but those filters are very powerful influencers in the communication system. Understanding them well – ours as well as the reader’s – can go a long way toward improving those odds.

And so will the careful selection, and knowledgeable use, of the most appropriate channel through which to send your message.

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Business Writing Tip of the Week: Hide, Hedge, Mask and Cloud?

Jun11 by Gail Tycer

It happened to me again, just this past week, and maybe it happens to you as well. “So you help business, government, and association people to be better business writers,” my dinner guest said. “Does that also mean you show them ways to hide, hedge, mask, and cloud?”

Huh?

Although, by doing just the opposite of the clear, concise business writing skills we talk about in a workshop, that could be the result. But no.

Another guest volunteered that it’s pretty easy to identify some of the techniques that will lead to “hiding, hedging, masking, and clouding.” So that turned the conversation to how a particular situation we’d all been following is being covered. Seems an incident, with possibly unfortunate ramifications for the company involved – and certainly for their customers – had been reported. “Did you notice how they did it?” another guest said. “It was almost like they used the company’s press release.”

I kept thinking about that comment, as well as our dinner-table discussion all the next day, and decided to take a look at the article being discussed to see whether there might be some sort of formula for how the information was presented that might have created the impressions and observations these folks passed along.

Of course our mealtime conversation had been somewhat disconnected, interrupted with bits and pieces here and there – vital issues like “Please pass the salt.” For the most part they were the quick, disorganized, random impressions of a group of average adult readers who had read (or scanned?) the article or maybe just the headline. They were the “take-aways.” Impressions that would subsequently be passed along in conversation, and perhaps, when all you have to go on is the first information available, form opinions based on that information. Impressions that could be, maybe even would be, passed along, and along, and along.

The formula used? It looked like (1) company name, followed by a very positive phrase describing the company; (2) re-frame, and raise the question: Was the incident an act of sabotage, or was it an accident (two choices only); (3) history and background, weaving in information supporting both aspects of part two, and suggesting who could have been the perpetrator if it had been an act of sabotage; and (4) finally concluding with an inclusive statement as to the effect on the stock market.

Then I looked at some of the concepts, words, and phrases used to position the “incident.” (Note: not “catastrophe,” but “incident,” or maybe “situation.”)

There was a general air of mystification around the article. How could this have happened? Impossible! All safeguards had been taken. However, the company was calling in the appropriate government authorities to look into it thoroughly, to make certain such a thing would never happen again.

The situation was downsized, lessening its importance because such a small (amount, number, dollars) had been involved, that its effect would hardly matter at all in the big scheme of things.

Then there was a quick quote from an authority, supporting the sabotage or accident suggestions, disclaiming responsibility on the part of those involved, and providing numbers to back up that conclusion.

We have talked about, and will again discuss, three other writing issues that can lead to a lack of clarity, and accelerate hiding, hedging, masking, and clouding: passive sentences, poor use of pronouns, and lack of specificity. Probably next week.

So there you have it – some quick thoughts on that very first article, and on the writing techniques that generated the first thoughts on the issue that were voiced at my dinner table.

Your assignment – assuming you choose to accept – is to follow a reported issue from its beginning as far through as you can. Note the structure and the wording. When a story breaks, it’s very difficult, if not impossible, to get complete, accurate information immediately, and later, perhaps, not at all as particular points drop from the reader’s radar screen. A story develops over time, as additional information becomes available. Note also how important the very first statements are, how memorable, and how difficult it could be to change the initial impressions they created.

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Business Writing Tip of the Week: How to Offend, Anger, or Frustrate Without Realizing It

Jun3 by Gail Tycer

Do you wake up on a workday morning and say to yourself, “I wonder how many of our customers/clients/contacts I can offend/anger/frustrate today?”

Of course not! And yet, it’s so easy to do just that, and never even realize it – perhaps until it’s too late.

Here’s one: How many times, with the best of intentions, have you ended a letter with, “Please feel free to call on us if we can be of further assistance”? If you’re like most of us, you’ve used that phrase as a “curtain line” hundreds of times. We’ve all done it. Somewhere in the distant past, we may even have been taught that this is a standard business phrase to be used at the end of most correspondence.

Let’s talk about this.

To begin with, you never need a “curtain line” to end your correspondence. There are actually four customary ways to finish writing: a summary, a conclusion, a “nicety” (a word I made up to describe this type of an ending), or – and this one is too often overlooked – just plain quit when you have said what you have to say.

Well, if it’s acceptable to “just plain quit” when you’ve said what you have to say, why do you need a “nicety” at all? And if you do, when should you use it?

A “nicety” is a tool of tone. Remember that tone is the relationship the writer sets up, or reinforces with the reader. Think about what you want that relationship to be: Helpful? Knowledgeable? Respectful? Friendly? Cooperative?

So the only time you will use, and the only purpose of a “nicety,” is to build or reinforce that relationship. And if you are not looking to do that, “just plain quit” can be a great option.

Now let’s look at the wording of that “nicety,” beginning with the phrase, “Please feel free.” You do not have to give your client, customer, or contact permission to call on you! Of course he or she should “feel free” and your telling that reader so may well sound a bit patronizing. Or at least it could, if your reader paid any attention to your “nicety.”

So here’s the good news: That phrase is so trite your reader is more likely not to read or even notice it at all. So why bother?

And then there’s that phrase, “further assistance.” We may have just informed the reader that he or she did not get the job, does not get the extension, or will not get the expected refund. Now we are essentially telling that reader, “If there’s anything else we can do for you….”

It’s wise to be sure you have done something of assistance before claiming you have. Better yet, avoid that concept altogether. Let your reader tell you if you have been helpful!

Let’s clarify a point here: The idea of offering help is a good one. Just be careful how you word it, and personalize your “nicety” to your specific reader, and the specific situation.

The same thing goes for the words and phrases we use. Most of them, as well, are carry-overs from what we learned in school. (Bless our English teachers – where would we be without them?) Just remember that formal, or academic writing, can be very different from practical business writing, and generally is.

For example, can you think of three ways to say “about”? Well, to start with we could say “about,” or “regarding,” or “with regard to.” Now, which one is the most formal? Which is the least formal? Which one is down the middle?

It’s helpful to decide how formal, or how informal you want your writing to be before you begin to write. Consider the level of formality that will best support the tone, or relationship you will be establishing or reinforcing with your reader. Oh, and by the way, “about” is the least formal, while “with regard to” is the most formal. “Regarding” is somewhere down the middle, perhaps leaning a bit toward the formal side.

This week, please give particular thought to the words, phrases, and even paragraphs you use habitually. The throwaway ones. The ones we never think about, but just use without much thought.

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We appreciate your recommending a Gail Tycer business writing workshop for your workplace or a shorter presentation for an upcoming professional meeting. Thank you.

Business Writing Tip of the Week: “Spin”

May27 by Gail Tycer

Can you remember when “spin” was what we did as little kids to make ourselves dizzy and fall down? And then we all laughed so hard?

“Spin” is not a laughing word today, is it?

In the kindest terms, maybe we could say “spin” is “putting the best face on it,” or maybe just call it “reframing,” helping your reader to see the positive side of what might normally be considered a negative.

For example, pretend you are the copywriter for an advertising campaign promoting a new housing development. Here are some of the facts about this housing development you must deal with. See if you can turn each of them – which would normally be considered negative – into a positive statement about the development:

The new housing development is across the street from the main entrance to a busy urban airport, and directly under the flight path.
There are sidewalks on only one side of the street.
The playground has only one swing.
No required minimum landscaping will be provided.
There is a dangerous swamp in the southeast corner of the development.
The model home blew up last Friday.

Now let’s have a little fun with this exercise. Take a couple of minutes to turn each of these probably negative statements into positive ones.

So what did you come up with?

Perhaps on negative #1, you thought how perfect this new housing development would be for the busy business traveler, saving commute time, and allowing his or her family to be alerted to his or her return.

Negative #2: Did you think about the sidewalks provided for safe walking, or greater privacy with reduced foot traffic?

For negative #3, how about “Children’s playground thoughtfully designed for cooperative play, and to support sharing.”

“A once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to stretch your imagination and create the unbelievably beautiful garden you have dreamed of, and only imagined until now,” might work for negative #4.

And of course the dangerous swamp in negative #5 can easily be translated into an unusual wildlife preserve allowing your family to observe nature at first hand.

Finally, the model home in negative #6 that blew up last Friday? “Only one home has not met our rigorous standards, and it was promptly removed last Friday.”

You’ve probably come up with many other negatives-into-positives, and I hope you have had some fun with this exercise. Let us hear from you!

Now that we have the general idea of negative-into-positive with this light-hearted exercise, let’s get a little more serious. Over the next week, listen for “reframing” statements. Listen to the ads, listen to the news, listen to your co-workers, customers, and clients. Listen for how your family members – kids are particularly good at this – manage to “put the best face on” what could be a negative situation or fact.

Word choice can also be a tool of “spin.”

We all recognize connotative words, words like “propaganda,” “gossip,” and “manipulate” – words that carry baggage. Words that in and of themselves can create a negative emotion. And of course there are also words that in and of themselves can create a positive emotion.

But let’s talk about “neutral words,” and how they can be ramped up, or ramped down to inflame emotion, or to calm emotion. For two examples, let’s use the words “situation,” and “important.”

How many ways can you think of to say “situation”? Take a minute here to jot down half a dozen or more as they occur to you.

Which of these words might, under certain circumstances, create a panic? Which are the potentially inflammatory words? Crisis? Disaster? Catastrophe?

Which of these words could you use to calm a general sense of panic? Which neutral words tend to minimize the serious nature of a crisis? Situation? Issue? Matter?

Now let’s look at “important.” Well just how important is “important”? Not very is it? How much attention do you pay when someone says, “This is an important issue”? Let’s ramp it up a bit. How about critical, crucial, life-threatening? Dire, desperate, or grave? Even there you can see various levels indicating just how important this issue may be.

And to ramp it down? Important? Worth consideration? Or fairly serious?

While thinking about the quality, nature, and potential effect of the words you use may not be critical, crucial, or life-threatening, probably not even dire, desperate, or grave, I do hope you will find it worth your consideration this week.

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Business Writing Tip of the Week: Writing a Powerful Presentation – Part 2: Grab ‘Em With Your Strong Beginning

May1 by Gail Tycer

Think back to the last business presentation you’ve heard. A business presentation does not always involve a rapt audience, podium with microphone, and multimedia presentation.

In fact, almost never. We will be thinking staff meeting; training for implementing a new process or procedure; a report to the board or council; representing your organization at a gathering. In the business situation, your presentation opportunities cover a lot of ground.

So what was it about that last presentation? How long did it take you to decide that you wanted to give the speaker your 100% attention, or whether to multi-task and get something else done while “listening”? Probably within the first 30 seconds? Certainly within the first minute, for the typical listener. That’s where the speaker either “grabs you,” or…

So, after you have greeted your audience (step 1), what do you say next; how do you begin? How do you get their attention (step 2)? Here are one dozen thought-starters for your first 30 seconds:

1. Straight information. Here’s the typical speech-class introduction, and it still works just fine. Tell your audience what you are going to tell them in a straightforward manner, using the who-what-when-where-how-why formula for clarity, and to set expectations.

2. Quotation. Start with a grabber. Find a quotation that sums up succinctly what they may look forward to hearing about. You may quote a well-known and respected authority – or, if the point is well made, someone no one has ever heard of. In the latter case, it could be useful to describe his or her background to provide credibility for having made that statement.

3. New information, perhaps a startling fact your audience has never heard, or may not know.

4. Evoke emotion. This can be done with words – a story is particularly useful here – or with an action. The breaking of his dearly-beloved dead father’s precious gold watch onstage at the beginning of his speech was the hallmark of a particularly emotion-arousing evangelist of the 1920’s. And this sort of drama can be used even today – almost a century later. (You’ve already figured out, I’m sure, that the watches he used were the cheapest ones from the dime store, and that his father may not have had a watch at all, nor been particularly beloved!)

5. Start with an activity. Get your audience up out of their seats and have them do something. Or have them discuss a specific point with the person next to them. Or give them the tool you will be teaching them to use, and ask them to start doing something with it immediately. Get them physically involved right away in the first 30 seconds.

6. Tell a story. A particularly good way to have people identify with the subject, or with you, immediately. Also an excellent technique for evoking emotion. Telling your own story can also be the perfect way to establish your credibility (step 3).

7. Self-interest. What good thing will happen for your audience members if…. People make decisions based on enlightened self-interest. If you use this technique, be certain you can deliver, and that what you are saying will work as promised. For example, “By using the new technique I will show you, you can cut the time it takes to install this ABC product by 50%!”

8. Statistics. Should also be used effectively to back up the startling fact, or new information beginning. Using numbers builds believability, because the point you are making is specific, and can be checked out (not that most people will very often!)

9. Challenge the listener. Here are two examples: (1) Are you the one person in this room who…” or (2) “Today I am going to ask you to put your courage, your dedication, and every bit of skill you possess on the line. I am going to ask you, beg you, plead with you to….”

10. Start with a testimonial. It can be your own personal story, or that of another, demonstrating the good that will result if….

11. Refer to current news. And relate it to your “take-away point.”

12. A performance piece. Most often used to begin an entertainment presentation, this technique can be adapted to the business audience as well. Unlike the entertainer who sings a song, or reads a poem, Perhaps the speaker performs some physical activity with a piece of equipment being introduced to the sales team to demonstrate the equipment’s benefits, differences from the competition, and ease of use.

There you have them – a dozen ways to get started with your powerful presentation! How to tell them what you are going to tell them. Next week, how to write the body beautiful of your presentation: how to tell them.