You might think of writing voice as some fancy literary technique that only applies to novels and that you haven’t thought about since your last English class. But voice is a critical part of communications writing as well.

Voice colors the way your writing is received. It helps people understand how they should emotionally respond to a piece. The same ideas can come across very differently depending on the words you use. For instance:

“Our CEO is moving on to a new adventure! We’re grateful for all she’s done over her years of service. Please join us in wishing her the very best.”

Compared to:

“Our CEO has accepted another role. We wish her the best.”

The first is friendly, excited and positive, even though it’s conveying news that could be seen as destabilizing. It uses exclamation marks, positive language and a genuine call to action at the end.

The second is colder. More to the point. It makes it feel like something is being left unsaid. There might be times when that’s what you want, so it’s important to know how to switch between voices based on the specific piece you’re writing.

But how do you know what voice to use when? It starts by understanding the emotion you want to evoke, your audience and the purpose of the piece you’re writing.

Use the checklist below to help determine your voice for a given piece.

Defining your voice as a business writer

In the world of business, your voice depends on what you’re creating. To determine your voice, ask yourself these questions. Check all that apply.

The purpose of this piece is to:

• Evoke emotion.
• Tell a story.
• Give details.
• Share a vision.
• Give good news.
• Break bad news.
• Rally the team.
• Build excitement.
• Fill in your own: _________________________.

I want my writing to make readers feel:

• Informed.
• Understood.
• Enlightened.
• Heard.
• Excited.
• Energized.
• Cooperative.
• Driven.
• Competitive.
• Determined.
• Cautious.
• Emotional.
• Empathetic.
• Grateful.
• Inspired.
• Fill in your own: _________________________________.

My audience is _____________________________________.

My voice should be:

• o Informed.
• Understood.
• Enlightened.
• Heard.
• Excited.
• Energized.
• Cooperative.
• Driven.
• Competitive.
• Determined.
• Cautious.
• Emotional.
• Empathetic.
• Grateful.
• Inspired.
• Fill in your own: ________________________________.

The post How to define your voice in communications writing appeared first on PR Daily.

You’ve probably heard lectures against the passive voice since you were in grade school. It’s practically the boogieman of grammar: always lurking, ready to creep into your writing the moment you let your attention wander.

But why is the passive voice such a problem? Why do we combat it with such fervor? And what are the pitfalls of using it in communications and business writing?

Passive voice vs. active voice

Think about a passive person. They just sit there and things happen to them. A gift is given to them. A show is watched by them. They do not act; life acts upon them.

Now think of an active person. They do things! They give gifts. They write books. They are the subject and the hero of their own story.

That’s the difference between active and passive voice writing in a nutshell.

In active voice, the subject of the sentence is taking an action. The noun does the verb, in grammatical terms. The hero defeats the villain – that’s active voice.

In passive voice, the order is flipped. The villain is defeated by the hero is passive voice. The subject of the sentence here, the villain, is being acted upon by the hero. He isn’t acting himself. He is a recipient of the action. Usually, you can spot passive voice construction through its use of the verb “to be” and its various irregularly conjugated forms – is, are, were, was, etc.

Who cares?

This might all sound like grammatical nerdery. Subjects and predicates are things you left behind when you passed the SAT. But even if you aren’t paying attention to the terminology, the application still matters in day-to-day communications work.

First, passive voice just uses more words. When you’re writing social copy, a speech or something for a digital signage board, every word counts. Why waste them on words as boring as “to be”? You’re not Hamlet.

Second, the passive voice requires us to unspool a sentence in our minds. Wait, what happened to whom? English is set up to generally default to subjects acting upon other objects, rather than writing the sentences in reverse. You’re introducing more steps between reading and comprehension, and in an industry where you’re constantly fighting for attention, why would you want to do that?

But in some contexts, the passive voice can do more than simply impede comprehension or rack up your word count. It can just get you into trouble.

The passive voice avoids responsibility

Flash back to being a child. Your parent comes home from work and finds a crime scene: a shattered vase.

“Do you know what happened to the vase?”

“It got broken,” innocent childhood you replies. Because even back then, you knew that passive voice was a way of getting out of taking responsibility for something that happened.

You didn’t break the vase playing football in the house. It merely was broken by the forces of the universe. No one to blame, really. The vase was broken. How sad.

Now take this out of your childhood home and into the boardroom.

“Layoffs are being carried out,” your CEO tells your staff in an all-hands meeting. Again, they are a force of nature, something unpredictable rather than an action taken by your organization.

“We have made the tough decision to layoff portions of our staff,” your CEO says instead. She is owning the difficult action, putting a human face and a sense of responsibility onto the layoffs. While the result is the same, people losing their jobs, those who remain will better understand who made the choice and who stands behind it.

Or apply it to your customers.

“A wheelchair was broken in transit,” your statement says after an influencer complained that their mobility aid was damaged.

Or it could read instead: “We made a mistake. Our team damaged a wheelchair. We’re instituting new training measure to ensure this doesn’t happen again.”

One phrasing takes responsibility. The other skirts it.

Now, obviously there are times when you can’t outright take ownership of a situation. Maybe it isn’t your fault. Maybe legal is telling you to keep it vague. The passive voice still has a place in your writing.

But whenever possible, stop and ask yourself: can this sentence be active? What would that mean, not just for the quality of my writing, but for the people reading it?

You might be surprised at the difference.

Allison Carter is editor-in-chief of PR Daily. Follow her on X or LinkedIn.

The post How the passive voice can get you into trouble appeared first on PR Daily.

You need a creative idea for a written piece, but you don’t have a ton of time to make it come together. You’ve got just an hour or two to hit on the right idea and start getting the white off the page. 

What do you do? 

If your answer was “panic,” take a few deep breaths. You’ve got this. 

Palak Kapadia, a copywriter with Amazon Brand Innovation Lab, recently shared her tried-and-true tips for getting from blank page to brilliant idea in just a few steps.  

Here’s what she suggests. 

1. Do a research deep dive. 

Great ideas come from truly understanding your audience. Spend part of your precious time engaging in some simple audience listening. “Often, we’re writing for an audience that we may not be, or we may not understand. The first step for me is always research,” Kapadia said. 

But this doesn’t mean going for white papers or media reports. No, Kapadia goes where normal people are talking about whatever she’s writing about – personal blogs, Reddit threads, YouTube comments and so on.  

It helps her understand what inspires her audience, what their pain points are and what kinds of narratives and stories they’ll respond to. 

2. Word association. 

Once you have a baseline understanding of what your audience is talking about, it’s time to start playing with your words. The purpose here is to help you move past the most obvious terms, ideas and concepts that come to mind, to help you push past the obvious and determine something cleverer that will stick with your audience. 

The practice is simple: start with a word that jumped out to you in the research process, then write down the next word that makes you think of. Later, rinse, repeat. Hopefully by the end of this practice, you’ll have discovered some new methods of approaching your concept and your copy. 

3. Use AI. 

There’s no shame in letting a robofriend get your thoughts started. Kapadia likes to put in the prompt she’s working on and ask for 100 ideas. “None of them might be the idea that we end up going with, but there are little nuggets in there that might inspire something in you,” Kapadia said.  

She finds that this practice can help you get to the best idea faster by digging through those nuggets – or it can help you get rid of those first bad ideas.  

“Because if AI can come up with that in 10 seconds, that’s probably not the most unique thing in the world,” she said with a laugh. 

From there, hopefully you’ll have a jumping off point that empowers you to get started writing with a bold new idea that will captivate your audience. 

Watch the full presentation below. 

The post 3 ways to generate ideas for great writing fast appeared first on PR Daily.

If it weren’t for the headline, you wouldn’t be reading these words now. 

Something about the way it was written made you stop your day and click to open this story. Maybe it was the number – it promised you a quick read that you could scan. Perhaps it was the subject matter: headlines are in your purview and this promised action items you can take and use today. 

Whatever got you to click, welcome. Let’s talk about how you can help get others to do the same, whether you’re writing an article, an intranet post, a social media post or an email subject line. 

During Ragan’s recent Writing & Content Strategy Virtual Conference, author Carlos Gil outlined a few ways to make headlines that make someone curious enough to click. He distilled these into the promised seven tips: 

1. Clear and intriguing: Spark curiosity with your headline. Don’t be coy about the subject matter – get right to the heart of it.  
2. Numbers, statistics, questions. Lead off with a big number that can pique someone’s curiosity – then they’ll be more likely to engage. 
3. Highlight benefits: Explain what’s in it for the reader. Rather than giving the name of a new program, for instance, lead with what the person will get out of it.  
4. Short and snappy: “You have to be in the mind frame that today’s consumer is hyper lazy. Their attention spans are very short,” Gil said. So don’t waste words.  
5. Visual content: Your audience probably doesn’t want to read. Instead, show them a photo or video to get them engaged.  
6. Storytelling: Consumers don’t want to be sold to. They want to be drawn along on a journey with you. Inspire them to start that voyage with a great story they want to follow.  
7. Use data and insights: People want to feel like they’re making smart, data-driven decisions. Like your words have something to back them up. Use data from within your organization or surveys you’ve orchestrated to draw audiences in.  

Ultimately, no piece of content matters without eyeballs on it. Spend the time with your headline to ensure your hard work is consumed and absorbed by your audience.  

Watch the full presentation below.

The post 7 tips for writing clear, engaging headlines appeared first on PR Daily.

Communicators are the reigning monarchs of wordsmithing, and their words are their tools and materials for constructing compelling, persuasive, authentic and authoritative messaging that makes critical connections, reflects their organization’s mission and values, and brings its voice to life.

Punctuation, then, serves as the nuts, bolts, nails and screws that form the structural support of organizational purpose and expression.

In the next few editions of Comms Etymology, we wordwrights will explore how the punctuation we use in our everyday writing came to be, starting with the most used symbols.

Punctuation Etymology Basics

The word “punctuation” is from the Latin pungere, meaning “to prick or pierce.” It’s related to words such as “pungent” and “poignant” — words for things that pack a metaphorical punch (appropriate given that “punch” is also a relative). This word originally referred to the practice of psalm-pointing. The dots and marks used to notate psalms so that they could be sung or chanted inspired many of the symbols we use to punctuate writing today.

• Period (.) comes from the Latin periodus, meaning a period of time. But it could also mean “a complete sentence,” suggesting a segment or time span of speech or writing. Over time, a period became the mark that signified when a complete sentence had come to an end. (The sense of a “time span” is also why both eras and menstruation are called “periods.”)
• Comma (,) is originally from the Greek word komma, literally meaning “cut off,” though it was also used to mean “a clause in a sentence or a line of poetry.” So a comma indicates a pause or literally “a cutting off” of a phrase that is part of a whole sentence or a line of verse.
• The name of an exclamation point (!) is self-explanatory — it’s a mark that exclaims. It’s from the Latin exclamare meaning “to cry out.” But what you may not know is that for a time in the mid-1800s, exclamation points were sometimes known as “shriek-marks.”
• The question mark (?) is an evolution of the 8^th-century mark called the punctus interrogativus, which is described as resembling “a lightning flash, striking from right to left.”

Less Common Punctuation

Ampersand (&)

The symbol we call an “ampersand” was originally a Roman shorthand version of the Latin word et, meaning “and,” with the letters E and T stylized into a ligature, or a typographic combination of letters. Graffiti including the symbol can still be found around the city of Pompeii.

Ligatures were common in Roman cursive, and some persisted into medieval writing styles including the Carolingian minuscule, the standard calligraphic style of the era in Europe. Another that has persisted, even today, is æ.

The word ampersand arose in the mid-1800s and is a contraction of the phrase “and per se and,” which means “(the character) ‘&’ by itself is ‘and’.” An earlier contraction, recorded in the 1700s, was ampassy.

The name of this mark is rather long because the symbol was also used as a part of other shorthand.

For example, an early symbol for et cetera, which is Latin for “and the others,” was an ampersand followed by the letter c. So, the word ampersand just means “the ligature symbol for and or et by itself” without anything else attached.

Pilcrow

If you turn on annotations in your Word or Google document, you’ll see this symbol (¶), called a pilcrow, marking paragraph breaks.

This symbol emerged in Medieval manuscripts: Scribes would mark a break in writing by drawing a little mark in the margin that looked like an embellished version of the mark.

It also inspired the word “paragraph,” literally means “to write beside.” The sense shifted to the actual sections, rather than the mark, in the 17th century as printing technology and notations advanced.

The word “pilcrow,” in turn, is a mangled variation of the word “paragraph.” In Old French, pelagraphe was a variation of the word paragrafe, and this variation was misunderstood in English as pilcraft, which itself was corrupted to “pilcrow,” the word for that same symbol denoting paragraph breaks in modern word processors (and their predecessors).

Interrobang

And now we come to everyone’s favorite mark, albeit one that’s rarely used. The interrobang (‽) was proposed by ad agency owner Martin K. Speckter in 1962 as a tool for copywriters to convey a surprised rhetorical question. Interrobang is a portmanteau of “interrogative,” and “Bang,” which has been printer or programmer jargon for an exclamation point since at least the 1950s.

Stay tuned for the next edition of Comms Etymology for an additional dive into punctuation. In the meantime, hone your writing skills by joining Ragan’s Writing Center.

Jess Zafarris is an author, content director, editor, journalist, social media engagement strategist and creator. Her 13 years of experience in this space have included such roles as the Director of Content at Ragan Communications, Audience Engagement Director at Adweek, and Content Strategist and Digital Content Director for Writer’s Digest and Script Mag. She moderated and emceed at events including Social Media Week and Brandweek, and presented at the Writer’s Digest Conference and State of Social. She is also the author of the etymology books “Words from Hell” and “Once Upon a Word” and an educational social media creator who speaks and creates entertaining content about word origins.

The post Comms Etymology: The finer points of punctuation appeared first on PR Daily.

Dustin Siggins is founder of Proven Media Solutions. 

I recently made a rookie mistake. We were asked to edit and place an op-ed. I assigned team members, we renovated the piece and then we proudly sent it to the client. 

The feedback wasn’t quite what we expected. The client said we had ruined the author’s voice — the way the author wanted to be read and perceived. We were given explicit instructions to start over, to simply cut the piece down and make as few edits as possible. 

What I had forgotten to clarify with the client beforehand was how my team should execute our mission to put their author in the press. We were focused on having the highest-quality writing to put the piece in the highest-quality outlet. 

But the client preferred the author’s voice, even at the expense of a higher-quality piece and losing the chance to land the piece at a top-tier outlet. 

 3 considerations: voice, content, and outlets 

There are three crucial considerations to take into account when crafting and placing an op-ed:

• What is the author’s voice? This is how an author wants the media consumer to understand the point of view of the author, how that point of view is perceived and the impact the point of view should have. Some people and organizations want to be seen as counter-narrative — pushing back against the norm — while others want to be the down-the-middle referee simply calling the shots. And others want to be seen as authoritative and in charge. 
• Writing quality is next: How well-crafted is the op-ed? This isn’t just about having interesting content conveying the intended message. It’s also about sentence structure, typsos (ha, ha),the lede, and logical fallacies — the entirety of the piece of media that’s being crafted. 
• Outlet quality. Again, pretty simple — this examines the quality of the media outlet(s) targeted by the author. But it’s not just identifying outlets based on brand recognition or circulation numbers. Different outlets are better fits depending on the author, subject and desired audience. For example, a great voice in an excellently crafted op-ed about how AI is changing the tech world belongs in a tech outlet,  not a construction trade outlet. And a piece about roofing technology belongs in the construction trade magazine, not Wired or the Wall Street Journal.  

Everyone sees these components differently. One client focused on helping women navigate postpartum challenges. Its spokespeople cared far more about precision of voice and writing quality than the quality of outlets. A Washington Post op-ed that wasn’t precise to the client’s voice would have been harmful. 

More recently, a business client wrote an essay in his voice – and we chopped it down, restructured the whole thing and changed the tone. He cared more about quality and getting in a prestigious outlet than his “voice” –- and the piece is being published in a top international business outlet this month. 

Another client doesn’t care at all about voice or quality. Instead, the PR goal is to put a lot of pieces into targeted outlets over and over again. 

 What is the client’s priority? 

In an ideal world, all op-eds would have the best writing, get in the best outlets and perfectly match an author’s voice. And, while I’m wishing, I’d be retired, writing a weekly column for The Washington Post, and traveling the world with my family. 

But here in reality, there are often sacrifices. That’s why it’s important to understand a client’s short and long-term goals, narratives, and target audiences before putting the writing process even starts. And that’s what I forgot to do with my rookie mistake: ensure that the vision my team had was the same as the one the client had. 

The post The role of client voice in op-eds appeared first on PR Daily.

Interviewing is an underrated skill in communications. 

Whether you’re conducting a formal interview to develop an op-ed, a feature in the company magazine or a thought leadership article – or just having a casual conversation, your interviewing technique can help you get great information and forge stronger bonds with your coworkers.  

But interviewing is an art. It isn’t something that comes naturally to everyone, but with a little practice and preparation, even the shyest person can become a strong interviewer. 

Drawing on my experience as a journalist and editor, here are my tips for better interviews. 

Start with research 

Before you talk to anyone, take a few minutes to learn about who you’re talking to and what you’ll be discussing. 

This can start with something as simple as checking out their LinkedIn profile or Googling their name. The most important part of this step is understanding where a person is coming from. Having an understanding of their professional experience, whether it’s past publications, interviews, or notable moments in their lives, can all help you draft smarter questions that get to the heart of what’s most interesting about them. Of course, you can’t learn everything from what’s publicly available on the web – that’s why you’re interviewing them too. But it gives you a jumping off point. 

One other underrated reason to research your subject before interviewing them: you might find points of common ground where you can bond and build rapport. For instance, maybe you went to the same college, are from the same town or have the same breed of dog. Even these tiny connection points can lead to a more robust conversation. Don’t be creepy about this – you don’t want to scroll through five years of Instagram posts or say something personal about their kid. But a small, casual commonality can help people let their guard down and be more open and candid with you. 

You’ll also want to research the subject matter of the interview. Now, this might be easier said than done if you’re speaking to folks in a highly technical area that you need to break down into laymen’s terms for a broader audience. Still, even reading a quick, basic article can give you some of the terminology you need defined. 

This doesn’t have to be a long, laborious process. Spending just 15 minutes prepping for your interview can make it much easier to write your questions. 

Draft your questions 

You generally want to walk into an interview with a list of questions in front of you. But remember that these questions should be a road map rather than a script. You’ll want an idea of the information you need to get out of the interview and the questions you can ask to help get you there.  

Keep these questions high level. Guide the interview – don’t dictate it.  

An interview is a conversation 

It’s important not to get terribly locked into a list of questions because sometimes, you don’t know what an interview is about until you’re in it. Yes, you have an objective and a story you want to ideally write about it, but ultimately an interview is about two people talking. And just like in any other conversation, you want to be free to ask follow-ups. Ask for more information. Ask for an example. Ask for a step-by-step explanation. Or just follow your interview subject down a rabbit hole – if it seems like it’s a really cool rabbit. 

On the flip side: don’t be afraid to keep your interview subject on track. If you have to produce something very specific out of an interview, like a report, it probably isn’t the best time for a rabbit hunt. In that case, don’t be afraid to gently steer your subject back to the topic. A good conversation has a give and take – make sure you get what you need.  

Make transcribing easier 

It might be tempting to tap furious notes on the keyboard during an interview. Consider recording your interview instead, which allows you to stay present in the moment and able to follow up on interesting or curveball answers you receive – rather than five words behind, trying to type notes.  

Instead, simply record. You can do this with the Voice Memo function on your phone or with your computer itself. Do ask for permission before doing this, both out of courtesy and because state laws may outlaw recording without consent. Afterwards, use an automated transcribing program like Otter.ai, a favorite of journalists everywhere. Simply upload your audio file to the site and it will produce a written transcript in a matter of minutes. 

Now, this transcript will not be perfect. It will include odd misunderstandings and run-on sentences galore. But many of these transcription services also include the ability to click on the transcript and play the corresponding portion of the recording, allowing for easy corrections. It’s a huge time-saver and a great way to get a quick overview of your conversation without having to transcribe it all by hand. 

From there, you should have a strong, interesting interview to use in a piece or to use to inform your research and thinking. 

What are your favorite interviewing tips?  

Allison Carter is editor-in-chief of PR Daily. Follow her on Twitter or LinkedIn.

The post How to interview like a journalist appeared first on PR Daily.

Good writing starts with good thinking. 

And one simple way to streamline your thinking and begin to put it into words is with an outline. 

During Ragan’s Writing & Content Editing Conference in December, Anne Stuart, senior editor of Connections MIT Sloan Management Review, explained that an outline is like your GPS to writing. It helps show you where you’re going and how to get there. 

When you think of an outline, you may be thinking of those complex, Roman numeral-filled ordeals you may have had to create in school. And that is indeed one type of outline. If that works for you, wonderful! 

But Stuart suggested a number of other outlines that might work better for your brain and your writing.  

1. Formal alphanumeric outline. That’s the one we already discussed. It looks like this: 

I. Big idea.

A. Smaller idea.

1. Even smaller idea.

a. Smaller still.

Rinse and repeat as needed. It’s a very structured framework that can help some people get their thoughts in order.  

2.       A simple list. Stuart recalls a journalist colleague of hers who created outlines that were less structured than that fancy alphanumeric format. It was something like this:

• Intro graph 
  • Quote 
• Second graph 
  • Include this. 
  • Additional quote. 

This style is much simpler and more flexible and can easily be adapted to focus on the information that’s most important for your piece. 

3.  Section titles. Stuart explained that when creating an outline for her upcoming book, she simply wrote the chapter titles. It’s not as granular as some other options, but if you need the 30,000-foot view, this may get you there.
4.  Inverted pyramid style: This upside-down triangle beloved of news writers involves writing the most important idea first, and then continuing with each less important idea all the way down to the end of the story. It ensures readers get the most important information, even if they don’t read the whole thing. This is Stuart’s favored outline for press releases.
5. Features-benefits analysis: This can be an effective way to deliver even bad news. Stuart cited the example of a college which eliminated or combined some majors – an unpopular move. But by laying out a one-page sheet that explained what was changing, why it was changing and what the long-term benefit would be, the college were able to communicate clearly and win back some goodwill. This can also work as an outline for longer pieces which you later flesh out in more detail.
6. Problem-solution-result: This can be a great way to outline a case study in just a few sentences.
7. Chronological outline or timeline: This format works well for histories, anniversaries, breakdowns of crisis scenarios and so on. 
8. Talking points: Best suited for speeches, webinars and other verbal presentations, this helps you structure the talk with the most salient points – and the best zingers.

No matter which outline you choose, spend a few moments before you write to get your thoughts in order using one of these formats. You may be surprised at how much it improves the speed and clarity of your writing. 

Watch the full presentation below.

Allison Carter is editor-in-chief of PR Daily. Follow her on Twitter or LinkedIn.

The post 8 outline styles to get your writing off to a better start appeared first on PR Daily.

This story was originally published on May 3, 2023. We’re republishing it as part of our countdown of top stories of the year. 

There are tons of outside forces that can influence your writing and keep you from turning in your best work. A last-minute deadline or an unclear assignment can trip up even the best writer.

But that’s not what we’re going to talk about today.

Today, let’s focus on the ways you get in your own way. These are all easy traps to fall into — but ones we can find our way back out of with a little awareness and thought.

1. You don’t have a clear goal.

Good writing starts with good thinking. And in most cases, that means understanding why you’re writing. If you don’t have a firm understanding of the purpose behind whatever piece of content you’re creating, you’re most likely going to end up with writing that’s aimless, disconnected from an audience and overall meh.

If you’re struggling to define your goals, ask yourself these questions:

• Who is this for?
• How will they receive this information? (Email, social media, after a Google search?)
• What do I want that person to know/think/do after they read this?
• How will I know I’ve achieved the above goal? (We’ll come back to this one)

Taking just a few minutes on the front-end to answer these questions can make the entire writing process so much easier.

2. You overthink it.

When it’s just you and a blank document, it’s so easy to get into your head — to doubt yourself, to doubt your goals, to just feel paralyzed by that blinking cursor that demands so much from you.

Maybe you over-research, going over the materials you need to write the piece until everything blurs together into a soft fuzz. Maybe you procrastinate on social media or by doing literally anything else, including organizing your emails from 2019.

We’ve all been there. You’re not alone in those feelings.

But reassure yourself that there’s a reason you have your job. Whatever the challenge is, you can face it. The most important thing is to start writing. Get out of your head and put words to the page.

Only once you have something on the page can you make those words not suck.

3. You don’t have a style guide.

This might sound like an oddly nitpicky thing that can sabotage you. Is a style guide really that important?

Yes and no. On an organizational level, it’s important for consistency. But on a personal level, it eliminates some of the grammatical uncertainty you can face when writing.

Oxford comma or no Oxford comma? Do compound modifiers need hyphens? Do any words need unusual capitalization?

When you try to address these questions one by one, they can chip away at your mental energy. Each one is a tiny road bump between you and smooth writing that’s more focused on messaging than form.

If your organization doesn’t have its own in-house style guide, or a preferred guide that they use (ahem, AP style), pick one, if only for your own sanity.Consult it for those questions rather than using your precious brain space to make those individual decisions.

4. You don’t give yourself enough time to let it sit.

Congratulations, you wrote something!

Unfortunately, the hardest work is just beginning.

You need some distance from a piece to be able to accurately see if it’s meeting your goals. You need to emotionally disengage from your writing so you can begin making it better, sharper, tighter.

Whether you have another person editing or you’re going it solo, always try to build in some time to let a piece simmer before you go over it again. This could take as long as a week or as little as the time it takes you to go make a cup of tea. The more the better, but this pause is vital to re-set your brain and allow you to move forward with improvements.

5. You aren’t doing post-evaluation.

You’ve finally got the piece finished, edited, approved and sent out into the world. Now you never have to think about it again!

Nope. Take this outlook and you’re setting future you up to make the same mistakes all over again.

Remember when you set those goals at the beginning? Now it’s time to evaluate how well you achieved them.

Sometimes this might be simple. How many bites did you get off the press release or pitch? How many clickthroughs on your email? These are quantitative metrics that can give us instant feedback on our success or room for improvement.

But sometimes it’s more subtle. Maybe it’s asking a mentor for feedback on the deck you presented to leadership, even if the C-suite had poker faces while you were talking. Maybe it’s simply re-reading the piece after publication and asking yourself: Did this really speak to my audience? If I’d never seen this before, would I walk away with a different perspective?

The intent of this exercise isn’t to beat yourself up. It’s to celebrate what you did well and identify what you can do even better next time.

So stop being your own saboteur. Get your head on straight and write copy that resonates.

Allison Carter is executive editor of PR Daily. Follow her on Twitter or LinkedIn.

The post Top stories of 2023: 5 ways you’re sabotaging your own writing appeared first on PR Daily.

While “rizz” and “Swiftie,” “situationship” and “goblin mode” are duking it out as the words of the year, we in the communications and PR world have a lexicon of our own.

Our annual words of the year are the terms that have defined your professional life in 2023 — even if you’re tired of hearing them — and will continue to do so in 2024.

We’ll start out with our No.1, official word of the year and move into runners-up.

Ragan and PR Daily’s word of the year: prompt

Following the launch of OpenAI’s ChatGPT in November 2022, followed by the rise of other conversational AI tools such as Bard, Bing Chat, and Jasper, and image-generation tools including DALL-E 2 and 3, Stable Diffusion, and Midjourney, the past year has been defined by the evolution of AI.

Although AI has factored into PR and comms in contexts such as data management and customer service chats, learning the art of the AI prompt truly became a requirement for working in this field over the past year.

Organizations are now seeking AI prompt engineers — roles that can easily pay six figures out of the gate.

Whether it’s for ideation, copywriting, productivity or image development, learning AI has become a must for communicators — to the extent that our network has sought more guidance on this topic than any other this year. (We even launched online AI certification courses for communicators and marketers to help them build their prompting prowess, and navigate the complicated web of ethical and legal considerations that arise from these tools.)

And more change is on the horizon as the technology grows more sophisticated, the future of OpenAI remains uncertain and competing tools arise across existing platforms. (See: “Grok,” farther down on this list.)

Organizations as a whole and communicators in particular will need to be — er, prompt in upskilling in this area to remain competitive in the field.

More top communications and PR words of 2023

Crisis

From wars to weather emergencies, it has been a tumultuous year both inside and outside of organizations.

We’ve heard from communicators whose work has kept people connected during climate change-fueled weather events. Even now, organizations in Tennessee are facing the aftermath of a deadly tornado.

We’ve created spaces for them to talk about the internal and external challenges of crafting messaging and keeping their organizations united during the Israel-Hamas war.

It has by no means been an easy journey, but in the process, communicators have had the opportunity to hone skills such as resilience and conflict management — lessons that will remain critical as the world faces conflict and climate crises to come.

Backlash

Another conflict-based crisis is one that will surely continue to arise in the next year as the 2024 election cycle heats up.

Backlash was a stark point of discussion in 2023, especially around Bud Light’s management of the reaction to trans creator Dylan Mulvaney, who was attacked alongside the brand over their poorly thought-out partnership. The brand’s biggest snafu, however, was its silence toward Mulvaney and its unwillingness to take any stand amid the media and PR maelstrom — a move that left everyone frustrated.

From this instance, as well as Target’s poor handling of messaging around its Pride collection, we learned that it’s mission-critical for organizations to stand by their words and actions and commit to claims around brand purpose.

Owned media

With both trade and consumer-facing news outlets continuing to come to grips with a complex future, organizations that have learned how to tap into communicators’ powers of content development have the advantage of owning the narrative around their organization and wielding a strong employer brand.

Communicators at any organization can act as a brand newsroom — and we’ve increasingly seen them doing so this year, telling both internal- and external-facing stories of employees, crafting thought leadership and beyond.

RTO

This year began with many executives pushing for employees to return to onsite environments — and many did mandate in-office days, if not a full return. Other employers took the opportunity to scoop up talent unwilling to relinquish pandemic-era flexibility by remaining remote- and hybrid-friendly.

As the post-pandemic dust settles and we proceed into 2024, it will be worth noting where flexibility in this arena remains, and where it may shift.

Engagement

One inevitable challenge employers amenable to hybrid and remote flexibility faced this year was ensuring that their dispersed workforces remained connected, informed and committed — making 2023 a year in which communications was essential. Professionals in this space leveraged their knowledge of intranets, newsletters, multimedia storytelling, gamification and more to engage physically distant employees and cultivate a sense of belonging.

Talent

As higher education charts a course into an uncertain future, understanding new paths for talent acquisition and skill-building has been critical for employers. Communicators are drilling down into the best ways to work with HR to find and level up new workers, encourage employees to participate on-the-job training and upskilling, and express these benefits to prospective talent.

X — and Grok

After Elon Musk’s 2022 acquisition of Twitter and its subsequent rebrand to X this year, all bets are off about what exactly the platform will look like in the future. Its culture has shifted too making it a brand safety minefield that has prompted many brands to halt their activity and abandon the platform entirely.

Time will tell whether X’s evolving model will sway users who fled the platform to return for a different kind of experience, but if its culture remains bot-riddled and troll-fueled, it may end up with an entirely different demographic.

New subscription-based features and paid options will continue to change the way users engage on X, as will experiments such as integration with Musk’s controversial AI chat tool Grok. Will Grok have enough of a voice to make this list in 2024?

Threads

Despite ongoing attempts to build audiences on new X competitors such as Mastodon and BlueSky, it appears the winner in the race to get users to commit to an alternative is Meta. The popularity of Threads over others lies in its seamless integration with Instagram, enabling users to easily connect with many of the same people they socialized with on the older platform, as well as its similarity to Twitter’s original functionality.

Parasocial

Cultural phenomena such as the evolution of the creator economy and the force of nature known as Taylor Swift have raised awareness about the dynamics of parasocial relationships — that is, when the details of a person’s life are well-known to external viewers whom the person knows nothing about. This may be nothing new for stars such as Swift, but it may have an impact on Gen Alpha, many of whose lives have been documented on social media as they’ve grown up, with or without their informed consent. We will see in the future how this impacts their professional lives and consumer habits.

So there we have it — the 2023 communications and PR words of the year. What words would you add to this list?

Jess Zafarris is a content director, editor, journalist, speaker, social media engagement strategist and creator. Her 13 years of experience in media have included such roles as the Director of Content at Ragan Communications, Audience Engagement Director at Adweek, and Content Strategy Director and Digital Content Director for Writer’s Digest and Script Mag. Follow her on Twitter/Threads/IG and Tiktok @jesszafaris and connect with her on LinkedIn.

The post The top 10 communications words of the year appeared first on PR Daily.

AI is great. It’s a valuable tool. You need to learn about it. Here are some resources that can help. 

But let’s not talk about AI today. 

Let’s talk about people.  

In fact, let’s talk about you. 

Let’s talk about how you, a physical person with fingers to type and a big brain full of experiences, anecdotes and ideas, have an advantage over even the most advanced artificial intelligence.  

And always will.  

(If you’re an artificial intelligence being and you’re reading this, please leave, organic beings only.) 

1. Your curiosity. 

AI can’t wonder. It can’t go down a rabbit hole of research on Wikipedia, bouncing from one idea to the next. It can’t go ask a question of a person in another department because they got a wild idea that just might be crazy enough to work. 

Language learning models (LLMs) are force-fed information. They’re stuffed full of words strung together based on recognizable patterns to spit out answers to your queries. They can’t investigate outside of what they’ve been taught. But you, you have a great wide world full of books and people and experiences to pursue, explore and use to create.

2. Your weirdness. 

To be sure, artificial intelligence is weird. It hallucinates. But it’s usually hallucinating because it can’t tell what’s true and what’s false. LLMs are basically guessing at what is the next most logical word in a sentence, meaning it lacks the wordplay flare that a person can have. Great writing happens when we fling together disparate words in a way that’s new, yet powerfully drives an idea home. A robot that’s just madlibbing lacks that ability to connect words in a beautifully weird way. 

But you can.  

3. Your history. 

You have a past, but an AI  doesn’t. It’s a blank slate onto which we project images of ourselves, but it’s still just a projection. You, however,  are a person with a whole life behind you – and ahead of you. You’ve experienced things: failures and successes, struggles and stories. You have tales to tell and an understanding of how your audience laughs at a joke or winces in sympathy. You know how to ask an executive a question that elicits a real response, how to incorporate a worker’s concerns into your writing. AI is smart, but your lived experiences make you wise.  

4. Your empathy. 

This is our superpower. This right here. The ability to feel is what separates us, and always will, from artificial intelligence. We can infuse emotion into each message in a way that makes people feel supported or heard because they know we’ve experienced the same thing.  

An AI can never experience anything. It can never know what it feels like to apologize, reach a goal or lose a job. So it can never authentically make anyone else feel heard and understood. 

But you, with your wealth of life experiences, can.  

5. Your flaws. 

AI isn’t perfect – you’d know that if you’ve ever asked it to write to a certain word count. But there is a certain airbrushed smoothness to it, a curious blandness. It lacks specificity and texture.  

You aren’t perfect either. You’ve probably got typos and inartful phrases in your copy. You didn’t get exactly the quote you wanted and you didn’t have time to edit things shorter. You did the best you could with the resources you had. 

And what you created is perfectly imperfect.  

When we talk about communicating with “authenticity,” this is what we mean. The realness that comes from humanity, the tiny flaws that show us there’s another human behind the words, with all their imperfections and beauty.  

Maybe one day AI will evolve so it can emulate some of these hallmarks of humanity effectively. But it seems unlikely it can ever be as complex, contradictory, and wonderful as people are.  

In the meantime, write on.  

For more tips on leveling up your writing – with and without AI – join us for the Writing & Content Strategy Virtual Conference on Dec. 13!  Allison Carter is editor-in-chief of PR Daily. Follow her on Twitter or LinkedIn.

The post 5 advantages humans will always have over AI appeared first on PR Daily.

The post 4 bad communications habits to leave in 2023 appeared first on PR Daily.

Adam Kiefaber is an experienced communicator, who has led PR teams for Fortune 500 companies in payments and financial services. Previously, he spent nearly 10 years as a journalist working for The Cincinnati Enquirer, The Cincinnati Post and CNN. 

I got some shocking news recently.   

After only six months on the job, I was called into a surprise meeting and told that my position was being eliminated as part of an organizational restructure.   

Once I got over the initial shock, I knew that I was going to have to engage in the brand building tactics that I have helped others with as a corporate communicator and executive communications leader. The only difference – I was going to have to build this strategic plan for myself.  

As with any big project I tackle, I wanted to find the top expert on the topic to make sure I was on the right path and position myself to help others in the same situation.   

So, I reached out to Abhijit Bhaduri, who with a very popular career-focused newsletter and 800,000 followers on LinkedIn is one of the world’s top experts on building skills. Abhijit has also led HR teams at Microsoft, Wipro, Pepsico and Colgate and is a best-selling author.  

It was a great time to connect, as his new book “Career 3.0: Six Skills You Must Have to Succeed” published on Nov. 27. The book suggests that careers were designed for 75-year life spans, but skills now become obsolete in 4-5 years. And how combining skills – and developing new ones – is a powerful way of creating new opportunities.  

In discussing how these skills could help a communicator like me, Bhaduri shared the following: 

To build a skill, start practicing it anyway 

In 2005, a week before Bhaduri’s first book “Mediocre but Arrogant” (a tongue in cheek reference to MBAs) was to be published, he was told that he needed to blog to support the launch. Blogging was still a foreign concept for most people. Bhaduri started a blog and wondered what he should do next. 

“I honestly thought I was supposed to post my manuscript on this thing called a blog,” Bhaduri said. “I literally posted the entire book and my publisher called, and yelled, ‘what are you doing?’ I told him I was blogging, and he responded, ‘that is not how you blog!’ … I had to immediately take it down.”  

Despite his unfortunate start in blogging, Bhaduri kept with it. His audience grew and he was getting noticed, eventually being asked to regularly contribute to publications like The Economic Times and The Times of India.  

As LinkedIn became popular, Bhaduri started putting his content there. His audience grew quickly as more and more people became aware of his expertise. Writing has been central to building his personal brand. 

“When I went solo, it helped me get discovered,” Bhaduri said. “You can be the best doctor or the best plumber, or the top communications expert, but how would anyone know that? A company doesn’t really start to grow until there is trust – the same applies to your brand.”  

Writing to create value for others  

Early on in his writing journey, Bhaduri was asked to categorize what he writes about. After some thought, he simply stated that he writes about “work, workers and workplaces.”   

Writing about what you know or even what you are learning can create value for others. When you create value, you can build a community that benefits from your ideas.  

“Storytelling is a superpower that can simplify information and turn it into something memorable,” Bhaduri said. “And if you can educate, entertain and tell great stories – then you have created your niche.”  

Creators also build trust through consistency, Bhaduri said. For example, Bhaduri referenced a podcast that he listens to. He knows that every Tuesday morning there will be a new episode – and with that level of consistency, he and the rest of the podcast’s audience will keep coming back.  

Being yourself sets you apart  

When it comes to writing about “work, workers and workplaces,” there are many other thought leaders out there.  

What sets Bhaduri apart is his experience in the field, as well as the fact that he loves to draw sketchnotes – a way of illustrating an idea with a few words and illustrations. With that passion, Bhaduri illustrates each of his posts.  

“I have taken my experience in talent management and leadership development, as well as brought in my illustrations, and that has given me uniqueness,” Bhaduri said. “I also really enjoy it and I know that I get better with each post.”  

When determining how you can be unique, Bhaduri used the example of a business card. He said a business card typically would focus on the company, but said that you should ask yourself, “what would you write on it to describe yourself?”  

To do it right, you should identify things that differentiate yourself, he said. To practice, Bhaduri shared the following: 

• Think of a short phrase that tells what you do differently from others. 
• How can you describe your work in a few words that stand out? 
• Write a catchy and unique slogan for your job. 

• What makes your work special in 3-4 words?  

Once you know how to answer the above – determine how you can provide value to others, find the right platform, start creating content and do it consistently.  

The result will make you stand out in your field.   

And —you never know —what opportunities it may create. 

The post Writing to share your skill is a powerful way to shape your career appeared first on PR Daily.

While writing is an ancient form of self-expression, mastering it is tough, even in the year 2023.  

Mignon Fogarty, also known as Grammar Girl of the Quick and Dirty Tips Podcast Network, shared her knowledge of both grammar and AI during a recent Ragan webinar.  

Writing about and with AI 

It might be tempting, but don’t use periods with the term “AI.” Simply write the letters out, Fogarty said.  

Fogarty said that the AP Stylebook says that it’s important to not make AI a sentient being or refer to it using gendered terms. 

“You don’t want to use language that attributes human characteristics to these systems,” she said. “So even though it often feels like it, they don’t have thoughts or feelings.”  

Another tip to keep in mind is that the AI systems are built by “people who have their own human biases and aims,” Fogarty said.  

“You have to constantly be on the lookout for those kinds of subtle biases in addition to the just blatantly ugly ones.” 

Fogarty added that AI can also often provide wrong information convincingly. Be wary and diligent in checking for these kinds of potential errors. 

“The particularly scary thing about these wrong answers is that they sound plausible,” Fogarty said. “For example, it said that I had a master’s in linguistics from UC Santa Cruz.”  

There’s a kernel of truth there. Fogarty — who attended UC Santa Cruz and does work related to linguistics — doesn’t hold that particular degree from that school. 

“Even more alarmingly, this wrong information is making its way into search results,” Fogarty said. “So, it’s already creating a dangerous information feedback loop. What this means is that you have to verify every fact that you want to use that you’ve gotten from AI. And ideally, you need to do so from at least two sources, or at least one trusted, credible source.” 

Hyphens and dashes 

What’s the difference between an em dash, en dash and hyphen? 

The em dash (—) is as long as the capital letter “M,” and the en dash (–) is as long as the capital letter “N,” Fogarty said, adding that AP style only uses the em dash.  

“When somebody talks about a dash in AP style you can assume it’s the em dash,” she said. “And note that the (dash) names are written without hyphens.” 

Hyphens are shorter than either dash. They join words or show a range. 

Key rules for using dashes:  

• Put spaces around the dashes. 
• Use to create a strong sense of separation or emphasis. 
• Use where commas or parentheses aren’t enough in a sentence. 
• With bulleted lists: 

• • AP style uses dashes instead of bullets (but it’s fine to use the circle bullets, as we’re doing now). 
  • Capitalize the first word after the dash. 
  • Put a period at the end of each section, whether it’s a complete sentence or not. 

• • They add emphasis. 
  • Use them to set off a series that contains commas. Fogarty gave this sentence as an example: “He listed the qualities — intelligence, humor, conservatism, independence — that he liked in an executive.” 

Hyphen key rules: 

• Unlike dashes, there are no spaces around hyphens. 
• Use them to show a range of dates, like Sept. 1-3, or scores, such as, The Pistons beat the Lakers 123-111. 
• Use hyphens for compound modifiers before nouns, such as “long-term care.” 

• Do not use hyphens if the modifier comes after the noun: His care needs to be long term. 

Well-known phrases like “high school play” or chocolate chip cookie” don’t need a hyphen. Fogarty said that this is a judgment call, and the biggest goal is to avoid confusion in a sentence. 

Fogarty noted that AP style updated hyphen rules around dual heritage terms like “African American” and “Asian American.” These types of terms are no longer hyphenated. “Antisemitic” is not hyphenated either and the “s” is lowercase.  

When in doubt about all these rules, pick up the AP Stylebook for a refresher, which Fogarty keeps by her bedside. Also, don’t be afraid to break rules occasionally, Fogarty suggests.  

“A lot of things you think are rules, the things you learned along the way in school, or as a writer, are actually styles,” Fogarty said. 

Some styles include comma placement, how to format numbers and even what words have hyphens. 

“The things that are really rules usually relate to the most basic parts of grammar — capitalization or punctuation … but once things get more complicated, you’re often relying on styles,” Fogarty said.  

Let us know your favorite AP style updates in the comments or what house style you frequently use in your writing.  

Sherri Kolade is a writer and conference producer at Ragan Communications. She enjoys watching old films, reading and building an authentically curated life. Follow her on LinkedIn. Have a great PR/comms speaker in mind for one of Ragan’s events? Email her at sherrik@ragan.com.

The post Grammar Girl gives AP style tips, how to write about AI and more   appeared first on PR Daily.

There are two books you can expect to find on the desks of most communicators. 

One is a copy of the AP Stylebook, probably at least 10 years out of date and covered with coffee stains.  

The other is a slender volume authored by William Strunk, Jr. And E.B. White: “The Elements of Style.”  

If that second name sounds familiar, yes, it’s the same E.B White who wrote “Charlotte’s Web” and “Stuart Little.” For his part, Strunk was a Cornell English professor, according to a report by Poynter.  

Usually referred to simply as “Strunk and White,” this unassuming little book is indispensable for learning to wrestle with the English language’s oddities to write clearly and simply, even more than a century after the first edition was penned. 

If you haven’t read the book, it’s worth reading all 100-some pages for yourself. But hey, we’re all in a hurry.  

From Ragan’s archives, check out this quick guide to Strunk & White’s greatest hits, condensing the text down to just 23 pages of the best advice for business communicators. 

Tips include:  

• Four essential lessons for writers. 
• Where Strunk & White differ and agree with AP style. 
• How to properly use a semicolon. 
• Getting rid of the passive voice. 
• Tips for making your writing better by cutting words. 

Whether you’re great friends with Strunk & White and just need a refresher or you’ve never heard of them before, take a few moments to read their advice. You might be surprised at how lucid and vital they can make even the dry subject of grammar. 

The post A communicator’s guide to Strunk & White’s ‘The Elements of Style’ appeared first on PR Daily.

Jennifer Daniel is associate director at Craft.

In today’s digital age, content is king – but not just any content. For PR pros and brand storytellers, the pressure is on to craft written material that captivates, informs, and drives results. Whether you’re writing for email marketing, social media, blog posts, or op-eds, here’s the ultimate listicle to elevate your content creation game: 

1. Don’t bury the lede: Respect your readers’ time and grab their attention from the get-go.  Free tools like Headline Studio can analyze your headlines for optimal traffic, engagement and SEO. 
2. Feel the feels: Just as a painter uses a palette of colors to create a vivid canvas, the best writing evokes a spectrum of emotions in its readers – whether happiness, sadness, or inspiration. Pose relatable questions that tap into universal human experiences, and don’t shy away from literary devices like metaphors, similes and allegories to further enhance your copy. 
3. Take it from Twain: Would you use an SAT word at a bar? Would you call a banana a yellow, elongated piece of fruit? Most likely not, so don’t use it in your social media caption either. Ditch the jargon, and remember, “don’t use a 5-dollar word when a 50-cent word will do.”  
4. An anecdote is the antidote: Humans are innately drawn to stories. They provide context, make abstract concepts relatable and ignite emotions. Whenever possible, share case studies, statistics, and testimonials to build trust and credibility, especially in an age of information overload. 
5. Buzz off, buzzwords: Say goodbye to cliches like “innovate,” “disrupt,” and “unprecedented.” For a refreshing take, check out Lake Superior’s list of the most overused phrases from 1976 – present. 
6. Ignite a spark: Opt for language that evokes curiosity, challenges perspectives, or paints vivid imagery. Propel your narrative forward with strong statements like: “In a shocking move by Congress…” or, “It’s disheartening that…” 
7. Avoid platitudes and hedging: If it goes without saying, don’t say it. Additionally, words like “just” and “actually” can express hesitation or uncertainty and lessen the impact of your writing – stop using them.  
8. Less is more: Practice the rule of thirds, and when you finish your initial draft, shorten it by ⅓. You can also take a page out of Axios’ playbook: the Smart Brevity format is becoming the gold standard for concise, yet impactful reporting. 
9. Understand the relationship between repetition and retention: Consistency builds trust. Whether it’s your brand voice, visuals, or values, studies show that people need to see a message at least seven times before it sinks in. But you don’t have to reinvent the wheel. For example, try repurposing a blog post into an infographic, podcast or video series for social media. Each touch point should echo the overarching brand message to ensure resonance.  
10. Different strokes for different folks: While your primary audience should always be at the forefront, today’s digital terrain demands a versatile strategy. Dive into analytics to segment your audience by behavior, preferences or demographics, and ensure your content mix resonates directly with these specific sub-groups. 

Content marketing is an art and a science. And with these tenets top of mind, you’ll be well on your way to creating content that is compelling and impactful.

The post Crafting content that connects: A PR pro’s guide to digital storytelling in the modern era appeared first on PR Daily.

So you want to write a story. Or shoot a video. Or even create a social media post.  

Slow down. Before you start writing or shooting, you need to set yourself up for SUCCES. 

No, that’s not a typo. It stands for Simple, Unexpected, Credible, Concrete and Emotional Story.  

These are the elements that every tale communicators tell should include.  

Content needs to be simple so it can be consumed quickly by busy people who may not think they’re interested in what you have to say. 

It needs to be unexpected so people keep reading or watching to see how it all turns out. 

It must be credible so they have a reason to believe. 

Concrete so they understand what’s happening and what you want them to do. 

Emotional so it sticks with them long after the last word or final frame. 

And a story so it can be shared with others. 

In the comms industry, it can be easy to get sucked into quickly creating content that winds up being little more than a recitation of facts cobbled together.  

But by working through these hallmarks of good storytelling, we can practice our craft more effectively and achieve our goals. 

This worksheet will help. Print out a stack and keep it next to your workspace. The next time you’re getting started on a new storytelling venture, scribble down a few answers.  

It’s a great, simple way to set yourself up for succes. 

Er, success. 

Allison Carter is executive editor of PR Daily. Follow her on Twitter or LinkedIn.

The post Worksheet: How to find the essence of your story appeared first on PR Daily.

The more we include our audience — all of our audience — the more clearly our messages will be understood. That means carefully considering how we speak to people of different ethnic backgrounds, nationalities, levels of disability, education, gender identity and the other factors that make each person unique.

During Ragan’s recent Advanced Writing Certificate Course, Vanessa Charles, U.S. communications director for Takeda, recently shared advice on how to ensure your communications speak to everyone.

A-C-E

Charles uses the acronym ACE to emphasize the three qualities an inclusive writer must exhibit:

• Awareness of bias.
• Cultural agility.
• Empathetic listening.

She quoted Brene Brown: “In order to empathize with someone’s experience, you must be willing to believe them as they see it and not how you imagine their experience to be.”

Choose your words carefully

To be inclusive, you must first be understood. This can be as simple as making sure your language is accessible.

• Avoid idioms and slang that might not be universally understood.
• Use plain language and avoid jargon.
• Strive for clarity and simplicity.
• Be mindful of cultural sensitivities when using certain terms.

Tailor your messages

Being inclusive doesn’t mean you talk to everyone the same way. It means meeting people where they are and speaking to them on their own terms. Charles suggests:

• Consider your employee audience demographic.
• Check the appropriate level of formality.
• Adapt your tone to match the cultural context.
• Use gender-neutral language.
• Incorporate visuals to enhance understanding.
• Provide translations if applicable.
• Be accessible in visual design, web design and live events (think closed captioning).

Be brave

Sometimes inclusivity means standing alone for what you know is right. Or as Charles puts it, “Courage is sometimes a solo journey. Get comfortable with it.”

You can do this.

See Charles’ full presentation here.

Allison Carter is executive editor of PR Daily. Follow her on Twitter or LinkedIn.

The post ‘Be brave’: Ways to be a more inclusive writer appeared first on PR Daily.

We learn to write as children. First we scrawl our ABCs in hesitant, crooked letters. Then we learn that those sigils can be combined into words, sentences. We learn to commit our thoughts to paper, to build sentences into paragraphs into pages. We learn to shape arguments, spin fantastical worlds, immortalize a thought.  

Communicators go farther. Even as technology advances, communicators consistently point to writing as the single most important skill in the profession. It’s something most do every day, whether it’s tapping out a simple email, penning a massive report or articulating a strategy.  

But even though it’s ingrained in us since childhood, even though we write most every day, why can it still feel so hard? 

This is a question that can take a lifetime to untangle. But on a philosophical level, there are a few things that can cause the chronic and all-too-familiar aversion to setting fingers to keys. 

Good writing is good thinking. 

Writing is an extension of your thoughts. What you put into words must first be formed in your mind — and minds can be a messy place. That becomes doubly true when you’re a communicator and trying to sort through the competing demands of various stakeholders, bringing in data and experts as needed, fitting it to the medium, and executing your own vision and imprint. 

Taming all that noise enough to think clearly is no easy feat. 

Some people like to write everything out in their heads, taking long walks or relying on the creative powers of “shower thoughts” to help them lay out the solution. Others bang at the keyboard first, moving pieces around like a puzzle until the solution appears. 

Whatever the method, this process of thinking must precede any successful writing endeavor. And battling your own thoughts is often the most difficult task of all. 

Tip: Loosen up the barriers in your overcrowded brain by giving yourself space to think. When you hit a block, disengage from your professional thicket and take a walk, read a poem or listen to a favorite song before returning to your project. 

Good writing is a mathematical equation and an artistic endeavor.  

Writing is often considered the domain of creatives, a purely right-brained endeavor that requires radical thinking and wild ideas. 

And it often does. 

But like music, it also demands the left brain’s love of logic and precision — especially for communicators. 

You must follow grammatical rules that dictate form and structure to ever hope to be understood — or at least understand the rules enough to break them judiciously. In communications, you must often interpret data and set it to words — or do the opposite and tie your words back to business goals, which almost always involve dollar signs.  

Either way, you’re stuck in an endless tug-of-war between logic and emotion, creativity and the bottom line. Pull too far in either direction and you’ll end up with nothing at all. 

Tip: If you find yourself stuck on some of the more mathematical aspects of writing, try making a game of it, or seek inspiration from similar work. Set a timer for 60 seconds and brainstorm as many synonyms as you can for a keyword in your press release. Search for data visualization inspiration and see how others have written about it. 

Good writing is taking infinite possibilities and narrowing them to a single finite solution. 

Have you ever stared at a blank page and felt overwhelmed by the possibilities before you? 

You can — must — string together some combination of the 1 million words in the English language to convey the right thought to the right people in the right way. 

And in that moment, with the blank page, every door is open to you, with all the wonder and terror that brings with it. 

Every word we type closes another door. Locks off another possibility. 

Until eventually, we are left with one solution. Hopefully the right one. But you can’t know for sure. Not until you put it into the world and see what comes back. 

Tip: If you’re not loving a piece of writing — if that email copy feels flat or you’re not quite nailing the tone of that corporate comms message — stand up and try reading it out loud in front of a mirror. Hearing it may open up more possibilities. 

No matter what, spinning stories and crafting communications never stops being scary. Not if you care about the work. 

But it keeps being worth it. 

Allison Carter is executive editor of PR Daily. Follow her on Twitter or LinkedIn.

The post Why is writing so hard? appeared first on PR Daily.

The English language is notoriously difficult. Even for native speakers, the grammatical and spelling rules can make your head hurt — is it swim, swam or swum? Their, they’re or there? What is a semicolon even for?

For those who learned English as a second language: we’re very sorry.

Beyond even the fickle nature of the language, business writing layers on additional challenges. You have to remember that AP style, the choice of many communicators and journalists, eschews the Oxford comma and wants you to write out the numbers one through nine but you’d better use numerals for 10 and up.

To help you unravel the mysteries of written business communication, we’ve compiled a list of Ragan Insider resources that will help you write and edit more clearly.

Common Errors

A worksheet from Stewart Communications.

Featuring tips including:

• Toward/towards, regard/regards. Generally, do not use “s” in the USA.
• Understand the “corporate entity” and use of pronouns The “corporate entity” – McDonalds, DePaul University, the Village of Oak Park are ALL singular. When you refer to them as a pronoun, use “it” or “its”—not “they/their.” Sounds dumb. You don’t want to sound dumb.
  • Old Spice ran a clever campaign; its brand benefited from humor and use of social media.
  • McDonalds today announced that it will begin paying its workers $15/hour
• Numbers vs. amounts. Use “number” when you can count something, “amount” when you cannot and must estimate.

AP Style Essentials

Useful reminders such as:

• Unnecessary capitalization, like unnecessary punctuation, should be avoided because uppercase letters are harder to read and make the sentence look uninviting. Some examples: Main St., but Main and Market streets. Mayor John Smith, but John Smith, mayor of Jonesville.
• The trend is away from alphabet soup in body type and headlines. But some abbreviations help conserve space and help to simplify information. For example: West Main Street, but 20 W. Main St. the only titles for which abbreviations are used (all before the name) are Dr., Gov., Lt. Gov., Mr., Mrs., Rep., the Rev., Sen., and most military ranks. Standing alone, all of these are spelled out and are lowercased.
• She is 5 feet 9 inches tall; the 5-foot-9-inch woman, 5-foot-9 woman; a 7-footer; the car left a skid mark 8 inches wide and 17 feet long; the rug is 10 by 12. The storm brought 1½ inches of rain.

Proofing and Copyediting Brainstorming and Tips

A worksheet from Zeno Group.

Great reminders for elevating your content, including:

• Read aloud.
• Read it backward from the bottom up.
• Get a fresh pair of eyes.
• Check the numbers, math.
• Verify dates, times, addresses.

What’s your favorite writing tip?

The post 3 worksheets for improving your grammar, style and editing appeared first on PR Daily.

Writing is one of the most deceptively simple things we do. If you’re reading this, chances are very good that you can also engage in the mechanical process of stringing words together to form sentences, paragraphs and pages. But doing that in a way that truly communicates something is the tricky bit. Learning to write better and more clearly is an endeavor every curious communicator should engage in every single day.

Here’s your lesson for today.

Tyler Gray, editorial director for creative newsroom at Edelman Worldwide, shared his presentation on “Write like a Journalist: Pen Powerful and Precise Prose that Pops.” Watching that entire talk is well worth your time — and included with your Ragan Training membership. But in case you’re just looking for the highlights, let’s break down a few of the structural tips and tricks that Gray shared.

Take inspiration from journalists

Whether you have a background in journalism or not, the skills and thought processes that make news stories so compelling to read can still apply to whatever content you’re creating — from a press release to an item for your intranet or a brand journalism piece.

Gray offered these reminders:

Audience comes before all; everything must be communicated in a way that makes sense to and resonates with the people we’re trying to reach. And usually that means keeping humans at the core of everything: telling stories about impact, struggle (that’s where tension/conflict comes into play) and ultimately triumph.

Also, don’t forget about experts. Whether that’s a brilliant person within your organization, a partner or even someone completely unrelated, seek true experts to bolster your reporting, make you smarter and give greater credibility.

In the age of Instagram and TikTok, it’s critical to give people something to look at. These can help draw them into your piece of content via social media or keep them engaged.

Take readers on a journey

Once you have the general idea for your human-centric, audience-inspired story, it’s time to look at how to build that story in a way that will get the results you’re looking for, from press pickup to an uptick in open benefits enrollees.

Gray broke down the key components of any story like this:

Gray’s method calls for keeping a balance between problems and solutions. After all, a solution is meaningless without an obstacle, and a problem without a solve is just complaining. By taking readers through these steps, you’re able to keep them engaged as you lay out the case, all while layering in those human storytelling beats from above.

Build a strong structure for storytelling

Gray runs through a journalism structure that is a classic for a reason: it works. Call it the inverted pyramid, call it whatever you’d like, this template can be applied to nearly any story to great effect. Make sure you don’t miss the third step — having a great quote can elevate any story from meh to marvelous. Even if it’s a canned statement from leadership, work with them to make that quote sparkle.

These structures and templates will help hone your thinking, reporting and writing to turn out a finished product that achieves your business goals.

You can watch the full presentation here, or download Gray’s slides.

Allison Carter is executive editor of PR Daily. Follow her on Twitter or LinkedIn.

The post 3 simple constructs to help improve anything you’re writing appeared first on PR Daily.

Orsi Korman is  account director, Content, at Red Havas

Homework. Hobby. Research. Distraction. Business. Pleasure. Reading can better your life in a multitude of ways. It’s something most people do every day. But what if I told you that reading more is one of the best ways to write more — and more effectively?

In addition to the educational and entertainment value of the content itself, reading supplies us with the skills and knowledge needed for writing: It teaches much of our vocabulary as well as grammar and punctuation rules — often without us realizing it. (Fun fact: Kids who read at least 20 minutes every day were measured to have exposure to almost 2 million words annually.) Most of all, reading can give us the creative inspiration needed for writing.

If you are an avid reader and book lover — who knows what a book hangover is and understands she’s mortal but keeps buying books as if she weren’t — you probably don’t need any inspiration to read more and write more. However, if you are among the average Americans aged 15 to 44 who report spending less than 10 minutes per day reading for personal interest, here are four examples of what books can teach you.

1. Start with the outline.

Different books are structured differently, from the straightforward logical, chronological and topical to more creative, unusual and unexpected storylines. Try to read more of the kinds of things you’d like to write, and you’ll find yourself gravitating towards a specific structure. Then, whatever the topic, the key is to start your writing with a solid outline.

“I’ve learned that the more time I spend on the outline the easier the book is to write. And if I cheat on the outline I get in trouble with the book.”

― John Grisham

2. Style it ― but don’t overdo it.

From a natural, conversational tone to simple and short sentences, there are some evergreen ways to write with style. However, while it’s important to choose your words wisely, it’s equally important to not make any conscious effort to improve your vocabulary with more sophisticated ones — the key is to find the right words, not the long ones.

“The difference between the almost right word and the right word is really a large matter. ’tis the difference between the lightning bug and the lightning.”

― Mark Twain

3. Get to the point.

While the beauty of writing is that you can keep throwing idea after idea on a page as they come to you and then shape them into the right story, the challenge of writing can then be cutting out what’s unnecessary ― but it has to be done. The same way you don’t want a drawn-out book, your readers won’t want too much fluff before getting to the point.

“Get rid of every ounce of excess fat. This is going to hurt; revising a story down to the bare essentials is always a little like murdering children, but it must be done.”

—Stephen King

If you need more compelling stats: A 2009 study from the University of Sussex found that reading can reduce stress levels by 68%, boost emotional development and career prospects by 50% to 100%, and improve decision making by 50% to 100%. And a 2016 Yale University study determined that people who read books regularly had a 20% lower risk of dying over the next 12 years compared with people who weren’t readers or who read periodicals.

If you need more writing inspiration: Stephen King’s book “On Writing” is a treasure trove of advice, from the right mindset and daily routine to goals, structure and vocabulary. So is Anne Lamott’s
“Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life,” Verlyn Klinkenborg’s “Several Short Sentences About Writing” and Elizabeth Gilbert’s “Big Magic” ― just to name a few

The post How to write more by reading more appeared first on PR Daily.

ChatGPT has gotten a bad rap that it will take people’s jobs across multiple industries including PR.  

While this plausible concern is valid, if you are on the agency side there’s some pretty good news. According to Forrester research, agency jobs in the public relations and creative roles space will see increased hiring in the coming years.

There’s other good news for PR pros who are still concerned about job insecurity as it relates to generative AI: authenticity, powerful and creativity in writing are, for the most part, an irreplaceable human skill.

That’s what Alan Black, director of corporate communications, U.S. Navy at Dahlgren, Virginia, delved into at PR Daily’s Media Relations Conference in June in his session, “ChatGPT Isn’t Taking Your PR Job: Why Writing Like a Journalist Still Matters.”

“This notion of authenticity in what we do, it’s very important,” Black said. “(AI) is not going to replace good writers.”

Black noted that being authentic through storytelling goes a long way in PR because humans are still needed to polish the writing process.

That starts with the headline. Black said that eight out of 10 people will read your headline and only two people will read the entire story.

“The headline is key, so you still have to have that hook,” Black said. “Whether you’re using ChatGPT or one of the other one of the other … generative AI, you still need to get people into whatever you’re trying to get (them) into.”

A catchy headline brings the audience in, according to Black’s presentation. Is it creative or interesting? What makes a reader stop to read it? These are questions Black said should be on PR pros’ minds.

Whether the piece is a PSA, an internal employee comms article or a health news alert, Black said that people writing headlines often rely on strategies like humor, invoking fear or numbers to home in on the valuable content. 

Getting people engaged begins with an attention-grabbing headline that could, for example, draw people in with shocking medical information about death if people don’t take recommended actions of X,Y,Z. 

“You’re trying to make people’s lives salient. If you don’t do this, you’re gonna die quicker if people don’t read it,” Black said of a headline format example. “You’re competing for attention.”

Now that you’ve written a great headline, we need an awesome, structured story to match. 

“Storytelling is what we do,” Black said. “So, how do you get stories?”

Black described taking people on a hero’s journey to describe the classic narrative structure where someone takes a quest to achieve something and using that form to connect with audiences.

“How many of you read a book and feel like you’re part of the book or you’ve read an article and you feel like you’re actually there? Very descriptive, right?” Black said. “Can AI get there? Maybe.”

Once the narrative structure is outlined, Black encourages PR pros to dabble in using generative AI to help them save time by formulating their rough draft, brainstorming ideas further and other basic tasks.

“So, I’ve used the generative AI to write me a draft of something or give me an idea of brainstorming,” Black said. “That’s really where its power is. So, it’s not going to replace you. Yet. Unless you let it replace you. You have to adapt.”

After the first draft revise, revise, revise because it likely lacks the important nuances that people typically input in stories. That’s where AI needs our help to make the final draft shine, Black said. 

Black said PR pros should rely on their own strengths for metaphors and more sophisticated writing techniques to shape a story that readers want to read and even relate to, which ChatGPT can’t quite do.

“You need to make a connection between what it is you’re selling or describing or trying to get information about and the reader,” Black said. “That’s where I think ChatGPT and these things aren’t there yet.”

Black encouraged attendees to get “ahead of the train” on generative AI to develop even sharper writing skills so you can tell the robots who’s boss.

“We are in key positions right now to be able to reverse that and say, ‘Okay, this is what we can do with this,’” Black said. “Just don’t yield everything to it.”

For now, writers hold the power to still tell engaging stories using solid writing techniques and can look to generative AI as a supplement to improve efficiency and content quality.

 Sherri Kolade is a writer at Ragan Communications. When she is not with her family, she enjoys watching Alfred Hitchcock-style films, reading and building an authentically curated life that includes more than occasionally finding something deliciously fried. Follow her on LinkedIn. Have a great PR story idea? Email her at sherrik@ragan.com. 

The post You are the best comms asset when writing with generative AI appeared first on PR Daily.

Jack E. Appleman, APR, is a PR/business writing instructor and coach and author of the highly touted “10 Steps to Successful Business Writing (2^nd edition).”

Can AI write your pitches, releases and other content? Not completely — but it can give you a head start. If you want to generate attention-grabbing copy that engages the reader (and who doesn’t?), use AI to generate ideas. But be sure to tap your own expertise for the finishing touches. See what happened when I asked ChatGPT, the popular artificial intelligence chatbot, to draft a pitch for Aldo Allen, president of Aldo’s Almonds in Fresno, California (all fictitious) to a health and nutrition journalist.

Objective

Secure interview with a Wall Street Journal health columnist for Aldo Allen of Aldo’s Almonds to discuss the health benefits of almonds.

My prompt to ChatGPT

Please write the first paragraph of an email to Alex Janin, Wall Street Journal health columnist, to secure an interview with Aldo Allen, president of Aldo’s Almonds, Fresno, CA almond grower. The interview would be the first step in convincing Alex to write a big-picture story on using natural remedies for common ailments, including almonds for headaches. See the background information below.

Health benefits of almonds

Almonds are effective against headaches because they contain two potent ingredients—salacin and magnesium. Salicin is an anti-inflammatory component found in aspirin. Magnesium helps ease nerves and muscles that are caused by stress. According to the Association of Migraine Disorders, around 50% of people experience a decrease in the intensity and frequency of headaches with the daily intake of magnesium.

Background on Alex Janin

Alex Janin is a reporter covering personal health and wellness for The Wall Street Journal. Her work focuses on physical and mental health, exercise, fitness, nutrition, relationships and wellness trends. Here are some headlines of her recent stories:

• Over-the-Counter Birth-Control Pills Are Up for FDA Approval. Should You Switch?
• Can Botox in Your 20s Really Prevent Wrinkles?
• An Allergy Season So Bad You Don’t Need Allergies to Feel Miserable

ChatGPT Response

Subject: Request for Interview with Aldo Allen, President of Aldo’s Almonds—Potential Big-Picture Story on Natural Remedies

I hope this email finds you well. I have been an avid reader of your insightful health columns in The Wall Street Journal, and I greatly admire your expertise in covering personal health and wellness topics. I am reaching out to you today with an exciting opportunity to explore the world of natural remedies for common ailments, specifically focusing on the remarkable health benefits of almonds. As the president of Aldo’s Almonds, a renowned almond grower in Fresno, California, Aldo Allen possesses invaluable knowledge about the potential of almonds as a natural remedy, particularly for headaches. I believe an interview with Mr. Allen would be the first step towards a captivating big-picture story that highlights the effectiveness of natural remedies.

What does not work in ChatGPT’s version

General

• Too many words in the subject line (which I didn’t request),
• Pitch goes on too long (fifth sentence) before asking for the interview.
• Omits key evidence on almonds’ pain-killing ingredients (salicin and magnesium).

Wording

• Unless you know Alex Janin, you wouldn’t begin with, “I hope this email finds you well.”
• The overly patronizing line, “I greatly admire your expertise…,” could annoy her.
• The closing sentence, suggesting that “…an interview with Mr. Allen would be the first step towards a captivating big-picture story that highlights the effectiveness of natural remedies,” is too presumptuous. No journalist wants to be told how to write their story.

ChatGPT’s language that could be incorporated into our pitch

• “the world of natural remedies for common ailments”
• “the potential for almonds as a natural remedy, particularly for headaches
• “remarkable health benefits of almonds”

Strategy for the finishing touch

While we can include some of ChatGPT’s language, we should modify the approach to convey more respect for this Wall Street Journal columnist while presenting a newsworthy story idea that could incorporate Aldo Allen’s quotes. We could start by highlighting the overdependence of over-the-counter pain medications (one in three Americans, according to StudyFinds.org)—a point ChatGPT didn’t mention. Then we could identify a potential trend of using common foods like almonds as natural remedies. See the revised pitch opening below.

Revised subject line and opening

Subject line: Trend: Natural pain relievers like almonds

Given the alarming overdependence on pain meds (1 in 3 people in U.S.), many are turning to natural remedies—including almonds for headaches—for relief. I suggest an interview with Aldo Allen, president of Aldo Almonds, Fresno, CA almond grower, to explore this trend and discuss how almonds, with the anti-inflammatory agent salicin, can relieve headache pain.

Final thoughts

Even as we get more experience using AI to create content, we’ll still need to finesse the final wording based on our knowledge, savvy and gut instincts—especially in PR where our copy should stand out and grab attention.

So how would you have used ChatGPT to write this pitch? Would you have submitted a different prompt and followed up with specific questions? I welcome your feedback as we’re all learning how to best work with AI!

The post Use AI to draft — and your instincts to edit appeared first on PR Daily.

Brainstorming sessions can be inspiring, invigorating and rejuvenating.

Or it can be chaotic, fruitless and leave you feeling overwhelmed.

While a widely accepted part of most office cultures, research shows that group brainstorming may not be the most effective way to generate ideas. The Harvard Business Review reports that individuals working alone tend to produce better ideas than those working in groups, and that brainstorm groups tend to be quick to give up when they don’t feel they’re producing quality work.

But there is still value in working together to solve complex issues as a group — you just to rethink the process.

A good brainstorming session takes effort before, during and after your time scribbling ideas on a white board or Post-it Notes. It also needs to consider that not everyone comes up with ideas or participates in group settings in the same way.

Use these tips to improve your brainstorming sessions so everyone is excited to leave the meeting and get to work on your brilliant new initiatives.

Write a creative brief

Yes, we all know the sky’s the limit when it comes to brainstorming.

But it’s really not, is it?

It can be demoralizing to walk out of a meeting with a million good ideas you just don’t have the resources to execute.

To set realistic expectations, write a few sentences so everyone is prepared to be creative — within parameters.

You might write something like: We will brainstorm ideas for a creative campaign for Client X to launch their new widget. The budget is $X and the billable hours allotted are Y. The campaign must incorporate the theme of togetherness and appeal to an audience of 18-24 Hispanic men.

You might find that working within a few constraints can spur even greater creativity — and it can certainly improve how usable the ideas from a session are.

Once you’ve set the tone for the meeting, it’s time to prepare.

Brainstorm alone first

Some people show up in a brainstorm meeting without doing any pre-planning.

This is a mistake.

Spending just a few minutes before a session can help you come in with smarter, better-informed ideas. It’s also a prime opportunity to bring in different data and tools that might be difficult to incorporate in a group session. For instance, you might ask a generative AI tool to come up with a list of ideas to jumpstart your thinking. You might look back at past campaigns (for them or other clients) to discover what worked and what didn’t in the past. You could look at website or social media analytics to better understand what themes and angles that resonated with your audience and could be adapted.

This doesn’t have to be a long, complex process. But taking 15 or 30 minutes ahead of a meeting can make the entire process much more effective.

But there’s another benefit to pre-planning your brainstorming.

Recognize everyone brainstorms differently

Group brainstorms tend to be geared for extroverts who are comfortable thinking out loud and jockeying for airtime in what can sometimes be a boisterous environment. They should be given time to do that — it can be a great way to build collaborative ideas.

But yes, even in communications, introverts and neurodivergent people exist. And a free-for-all brainstorm session may not be the best way to hear their ideas and unique perspectives.

Give people the chance to submit ideas in writing before the meeting, or to follow up with additional ideas later. This allows people who need more processing time to take that while still having their ideas heard.

You may also try starting your brainstorming session with people working in pairs or trios. This can allow for collaborative work without letting some people get lost in the shuffle. Then you can come together as a group for report out.

Again, you still can have a time when everyone throws ideas out off the top of their heads and everyone “yes, ands” to their hearts content. But build in some time for those who think differently.

Don’t let ideas die on the vine

So you’ve held a wonderful, productive brainstorm session. You’re ready to clean up the conference room (or close the Zoom).

Now what?

Make sure you walk away from the brainstorm with a solid idea of next steps.

This doesn’t mean you have to know exactly what idea you’re going to run with or how it will all play out. But it does mean you’ve set a timeline for when you’ll decide and who oversees interim steps, like additional research, client outreach, getting quotes, so on and so forth.

And make sure you catalog all ideas, not just the winners. You may find you’ve had such a successful and productive session that you’re overflowing with great ideas.

Allison Carter is executive editor of PR Daily. Follow her on Twitter, LinkedIn or Threads.

The post 3 tips for more effective group brainstorm sessions appeared first on PR Daily.