Don't let your web site embarrass you
Tim Hicks, ABC

Robert Browning wrote, 
" ...a man's reach should exceed his grasp
Or what's a heaven for?"  

I'll bet he would have made a lousy painter or window-washer - or Web site builder.

A Web site is like a puppy. It starts with enthusiasm, but if you don't give it regular care and attention it will embarrass you later.

Your site's size and complexity should be constrained by your ability to maintain its accuracy, timeliness and freshness. Your business case - you DO have one, don't you? - should include the value of the time you have to allocate for maintenance of the site's content. 

Some short-lived features may be beyond your ability to replace them frequently. So don't build them in the first place. It's better to have fewer pages than to have stale ones. 

If you have a good programmer on your Web team, you can put in some simple automated content management tools. 

Put a hidden comment in each page that indicates when it should be updated next, then regularly run a program that scans your pages looking for those that have reached their "best-before" date. Change that best-before date every time you update its page. Different pages will have different "shelf lives." 

The grocery store analogy is appropriate. Some of what's on a grocery store's shelves will keep indefinitely, but a month-old newspaper or cabbage won't do much for the ambience.  So appoint a stockperson today to make sure everything is fresh every day. 

Tim Hicks, ABC
TRH Communications
Victoria, B.C. 

You can visit Tim's site at http://trh.bc.ca
Tim Hicks is an associate of Soaring Eagle Group, and there's more information on our web site review services here

Tuesday, October 24
Four kinds of communications

There is overlap among all sectors in a well-run, comprehensive, total communications program. 

Corporate Communications and Public Relations
The use of communications techniques to cause a broad range of stakeholders to take actions to the benefit of an organization. Subsets include government relations, media relations, customer relations, marketing support, employee / internal communications, management communications, academic relations, community relations, supplier relations, industry relations, corporate advertising, investor relations, public speaking, donations and sponsorships, recruitment support, retention support, relocation support, and others.

Tools include speeches and presentations, face-to-face meetings, corporate brochures, web sites, annual reports, paid advertising, building and vehicle signage, newsletters and newspapers, books, and much more. 

Interpersonal Business Communications
The techniques (and to a limited extent the tools) used by business people to communicate with each other. Meeting management, memo writing, effective listening, creative thinking, delegation, adapting to change, writing for the web, e-mail styles and structure, internal and external presentations, etc. are all elements of successful interpersonal business communications. 

Marketing Communications
The tools and techniques of product and service advertising and sales promotion. Newspaper, magazine, and direct mail advertising, sales sheets, trade show exhibits, product and service demonstrations, user group meetings, product and service brochures, posters, in-store collateral, contests, and much, much more.

Telecommunications
The hardware and software used to carry information among stakeholders in wide-spread locations, ranging from telephones through e-mail, audio and audio/video conferencing, to other Internet Protocol devices and techniques, and beyond.

New Labor Day Weekend, 2000

A BAK's Report advisory for Chief Executive Officers and other senior executives who need to make speeches that inspire.

Nine tips for ensuring the quality of your speech

1/ Start hard and fast, like a great movie. No history, no recapping, no setting the scene.

Take the machine gun, climb out of the cockpit, crawl along the wing, and jump into the passing helicopter.

"Thanks Bob, good afternoon – Ladies and gentlemen, get ready for the ride of your life, because next year we’re cutting turnover 25 %, we’re doubling the number of people we’re going to recruit, and we’re going to integrate our national operations with the rest of North America.

And while we do this, we’re going to become an even greater place to work! Are you up for it? Let’s go!"

2/ Allow weeks, not days, for the speech to be researched, written, read over, revamped, vetted by your senior management, rehearsed, revamped again, rehearsed some more, and presented. This always takes longer than you think, and your delivery of the speech will get better.

3/ Eliminate words that do not fall clearly upon the ear. Cut "these policies are endemic in our organization," and put in "found throughout the company." Never use a word that starts with "a" to indicate the opposite of the rest of the word. Atypical, for instance.

4/ Minimize middlemen. If you are going to be standing on the stage in front of 400, or 4000, or 40 people worth speaking to, it’s up to you to make sure the writer is properly briefed and updated, and always in sync with what you think is important. Not the job of your underlings.

But remember…

5/ Vetting counts – make your vice-presidents sign off on the specific facts relating to their areas of responsibilities. Do not stand on stage and spout the wrong information because the low-level manager who briefed the speechwriter did not know the latest departmental managerial strategy. Get the executive management involved.

Incidentally, it takes a lot of time and effort, on the part of many people, to develop and delivery a great executive speech.

6/ Respect the professionalism of the speechwriter, and don’t screw around with the copy. Sure, the facts must be right, and the tone must be something you’re comfortable with, so you can make some alterations. It is, afterall, you up on the podium with the spotlight. But deal with the speechwriter yourself at this stage. Chicken mid-managers will suck the life out of your speech if you give them half a chance.

And trust the speechwriter to choose the words and the phrasing and the pacing, and don’t try to change something like "We have three goals for the next month" to "At this point in time an analysis of opportunities allows us to delineate several priorities within the balance of Q3." Readers: you know this is true, don’t you?

7/ Remember that a speech has its own rules of grammar and style, designed to be heard and remembered, not read silently/.

The audience can’t backflip – there’s no way for them to stop listening now and re-hear what you said a few paragraphs ago, the way they stop on a page, and flip back a page or two to make sure they understand what is written.

So a speech will have a structure you may be uncomfortable with when reading it silently to yourself sitting at your desk, but which will fall clearly upon the ears of your audiences.

Phrases, not sentences.

Words that depend on inflection and tone for their meaning. Repeats of something you said before.

Want some examples? Use "two thirds" and "about half," or "the vast majority," instead of 67.9% and 54.7% and 87.4 percent, because after three or four multi-digital numbers, the audience gets lost.

Try this if you've got a speech draft handy: Read it, with feeling, into a portable tape recorder or dictating machine, and play it back. Does it sound stilted and boring? You'll probably see complete sentences and good grammar. Fire the speechwriter? Does it sound vibrant and alive? Then it's written like a good movie script, so hold your next meeting with the speechwriter over a good, expensive, steak (or tofu, if appropriate)

8/ Don’t confuse a speech and a presentation.

In a speech, there’s a spotlight shining on you, the audience looks at you, and you inspire and lead and motivate.

Speeches are what CEOs of major corporations, and presidents and prime ministers of nations, and executive managers of major divisions, and winning coaches of sports teams, and genuine gurus of the new and innovative, make.

In a presentation, you are in the dark, and the audience is looking at a screen, using much of their brains trying to read the slides. They barely hear you.

In a well done presentation, you inform and build technical understanding, but rarely do they inspire. Winston Churchill kept his Powerpoint slides under his bowler. Abe Lincoln deliberately left the extension cord in the log cabin, so he had a good excuse to talk without the computer projector. Abe knew he wanted the audience looking at him, not some fuzzy slides.

Presentations are for getting budgets approved and selling widgets.

Speeches are for changing the way people think and act.

9/ Take the speech out of the room. When the CEO or an executive manager speaks about confidential company issues at a company function attended by all employees, it’s clear the most important audience is in the room.

But when a CEO or an executive manager speaks about company issues that affect shareholders, customers, suppliers, prospects, current and future employees, regulators and other stakeholders, most of the effort that went into writing, rehearsing and making the speech goes to waste if the speech bounces off the walls, but doesn’t rush out the door, too.

If it’s a company function but only a few employees can be present, send copies of the speech to everyone absent. Get the speech up on the web site, and put the highlights into a news release.

Underline the points most important to various types of stakeholders, and mail copies to them. Include the CEOs, in addition to the day to day contacts, at your largest and your highest potential clients and customers. Give copies to your sales reps, to drop off on their rounds. Let your suppliers know how you are transforming your team.

Even have copies of your speaking notes in piles by the door, so your audience can take your information with them, and share it with others.

Tip of the week - Tuesday, August 1
MANAGEMENT DEPTH MATTERS
As public relations people start working on programs for the fall, perhaps you should reassure your stakeholders that if anything unexpected happens to the CEO, (jail, a car accident, a great offer from a dot com)  there's still lots of excellent management at your company, ready to keep the business running smoothly. Put the appropriate vice-presidents in front of the appropriate audiences this fall, and then make sure you publicize their appearances. If your operation guru speaks at an industry conference, put the speech, or at least a news release about it, up on the web site, and send it to analysts. Same deal with the HR V-P's speech at a major job fair, the purchasing expert's presentation on on-line exchanges and marketplaces at a computer conference, even your presentation at IABC,  PRSA, CPRS, the AMA, or wherever you pass on your wisdom.