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Losing Our Most Precious Asset

Written by: Andy Marken

Article Overview: “Danger, Will Robinson, danger.” -- The Robot in the 1990’s movie, Lost in Space

Losing Our Most Precious Asset

It wasn’t much of a TV series and it was a lousy movie. For some reason we thought of the robot’s alert in Lost in Space as we thought about the fact that managers seem to be losing one of their most critical assets…writing.

Perhaps rather than writing we should be more succinct and say communicating.

People “write” every day.

They email.

They IM.

They blog.

What are the “words?” LOL. LMAO. WTF!?!

Is it professional communication?

While Management talks in terms of strategy, strategic plans and performance success by the pound; when all of the discussion is done someone has to sit down and do the most important task – write.

Or as people have modified Gustave Flaubert’s quote … “The Devil is in the details. Whatever one does should be done thoroughly; details are important.”

And it is the details that kill most marketing and communications programs because:
- increasingly we focus on embracing technology crutches rather than our real job
- we feel that the use of a spell and grammar checker produces effective content
- we never learned or have long forgotten the discipline required to communicate effectively

We are long past being a teen or tween. However, we find it difficult to imagine how we did our job before the computer, the Internet or the multi-function cellphone.

We find it efficient and effective to be available and in touch with clients, clients’ customers/partners and the media round the clock, round the globe. Increasingly a carefully thought out, rapid response can keep programs and projects on track or keep minor issues from becoming major problems.

As John Robinson said in the movie, “There’s a lot of space out there to get lost in.”

Monitor, Think
That’s why it is important for professionals to monitor as many outlets as possible – print, radio, TV, email, website traffic, use lists and the blogosphere. The danger is an immediate, knee-jerk response that turns a non-issue or minor problem into a major crisis.

Not having a product included in an article is no reason to fire off an email asking the reporter how he/she could possibly overlook one of the most important products in the field. Or responding to a negative article/posting by questioning the motives and professionalism of the writer.

But this is done with alarming regularity.

Disagree?

Ask any journalist with any medium about the volume of positive vs negative and downright vicious responses they get to pieces they byline.

The marketing or communications manager feels he/she has shown management how well he/she is doing in protecting the company’s or product’s reputation. They also set the reporter/writer straight!

That is a response that should have been written and deleted.

With all of the software tools that are available to us today there is absolutely no excuse for communications of any type going out that have spelling and grammatical errors.

Yet they appear with alarming regularity.

We had some of the toughest and most unrelenting journalism and literature instructors in college. They were absolutely brutal when it came to grading stories, articles, news items and reports on every aspect of our written communications.

They made us understand that quality writing is both an art and a science.

They made us realize that it wasn’t important what we were communicating but how the reader received and interpreted/understood our communications.

With management and marketing communications becoming so critical in today’s global organizations and markets it is now it’s own discipline of study. It is not simply a sub-set of journalism schools. There has been an increased focus on research, behavioral analysis, business management, crisis management and other equally important disciplines.

But if our communications people can’t write so that others will read, use, interpret and pass along their message; what is the value of their work?

The Art, The Science
Where does good business and marketing writing start?
- Ask all of the right questions before you begin writing. Understand your corporate and product strategy thoroughly. Understand your competition. Understand the issues and the answers. Understand what you want to accomplish. Understand your target audience and their wants/needs.
- Distill and understand your information and your goals. You have an advantage over a journalist because you have (or should have) a goal before you at the outset. From all of the information you have accumulated you are able to determine what is important and not important to the piece you are writing. Whether it is a news release, a speech, a technical/application article or a report; you know what you action you want the recipient to take.
- Do your best to deal in strong, informative, persuasive writing rather than platitudes and throwaway phrases. What do we mean?
• How often have you written…XYZ, the world’s leading? ABC the industry’s largest? We are delighted to be working with XYZ, Bill said?
• Have you ever seen the statement or quote used by a journalist?
• Have you ever seen a company proclaim they were number three in a three-company industry?
• How often do you use technobabble that even you don’t understand or load your writing with acronyms that only technical insiders understand?
- Write for your target audience, not management. Management is certainly your first audience because if they don’t sign off on the work then it will never see the light of day. But don’t use “what management will approve” as a crutch for poor writing that never gets used by the media or is never read by your electronic target market. Those are the same rationalizations that the CEOs and CFOs used in justifying the “adjustments” they made in the company books.

At some point you will be judged on results!

Writing for print journalist is different from writing for TV or radio journalists. It is different than writing for web editors. It is different than writing for uselists and blogs. It is different from writing speeches and presentations. It is different for data sheets, brochures, ads. One style doesn’t fit all. Study the differences. Practice the art of writing for the various audiences.

The results will amaze you.

Driving Home the Message
Despite all of our technical advances and tools, Mark Twain in the 1880s best described the art of writing for us – “I notice that you use plain, simple language, short words and brief sentences. That is the way to write English - it is the modern way and the best way. Stick to it; don't let fluff and flowers and verbosity creep in. When you catch an adjective, kill it. No, I don't mean utterly, but kill most of them - then the rest will be valuable. They weaken when they are close together. They give strength when they are wide apart. An adjective habit, or a wordy, diffuse, flowery habit, once fastened upon a person, is as hard to get rid of as any other vice.”

That’s good writing!

That’s great communications !!!

That’s good advice for any marketing and communications professional.

In the vast reaches of the Internet and the world of digital content we would love to think that our words, our ideas could survive the test of time.

If we can’t focus on and tap into the information needs of our various audiences we have only ourselves to blame.

Or as Penny Robinson said, “We’re lost, aren’t we?”

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