Canright Writers’ Blog

There is such a thing as too much Twitter.

The University of Chicago and Chicago’s public radio station WBEZ recently hosted a talk called “More than a Century of Style” in honor of the Chicago Manual of Style’s historic influence on the written word. A detailed description of the event and its panelists can be found here.

I was interested in the talk, but I didn’t feel like actually going to the U of C campus. Lucky for me, that didn’t matter. I watched and listened to the live stream of the talk on the U of C Facebook page, and I used Twitter to type my comments and questions in real time to @chicagomanual.

After my first question failed to yield acknowledgment from the moderator on my computer screen, I decided to dig deep for the best question I could think of. Recalling an essay titled “Authority and American Usage” that I read in David Foster Wallace’s Consider the Lobster, I tweeted:

To my surprise, it didn’t take long before I heard my Twitter handle and tweet read aloud. I felt my heart quicken and blood rush to my face.

Several questions popped into my head: Why am I participating more in this discussion than the folks who actually made the cold trip to the university? How did technology just prompt several biological responses? Am I going to get more Twitter followers?

As I lay on my couch in my sweatpants, I listened to Anita Samen, managing editor of the University of Chicago Press Books Division, thoughtfully answer my question. The advantages of using social media for events like these were clear: access and participation.

However, the talk also demonstrated how social media can be burdensome when misused. In this case, it suffered from too much Twitter.

First of all, why would a discussion completely bar those in attendance from asking questions? I think a mixture of live and digital questions would have been more rewarding for the physically present audience. Organizers should think of these live panel discussions as an entree with several complementing dishes. Twitter and Facebook should be the salt and pepper.

The non-stop Twitter feed chopped up the discussion among the featured panelists and even distracted panelist Jason Riggle enough that he lost track of what they were talking about. Events like this should be a flowing conversation and even at times an informal debate. Constant twitteruptions are momentum killers.

It also gives voice to people who don’t always deserve one. Here we had some of the foremost experts and authorities in grammar, style, and linguistics, and they were consistently being interrupted by tweets from the peanut gallery. The questions were at times trivial (numerous questions about the Oxford comma), ridiculous (Would you make Dave Eggers conform to Chicago Style?), and outside the discussion’s scope (What about email?).

As one of the lazy armchair grammarians who stayed in to stream the talk and live-tweet questions, I thoroughly enjoyed it, and I appreciate the University of Chicago for consistently sponsoring events like these. The university’s commitment to not only engaging everyone it possibly can, but also directly involving them is admirable. I look forward to more streaming and tweeting in the future, but I hope that the tweets only help tease out the discussion, rather than dominate it.

You can watch the full event here.

You can read David Foster Wallace’s essay as it was published in Harper’s here.

- James

Tags: a century of style, alison cuddy, anita samen, armchair grammarian, ben zimmer, carol fisher saller, chicago manual of style, chicago style, eight forty-eight, Event, Facebook, grammar, jason riggle, on language, panel discussion, Social Media, stream, style, talk, the subversive copy editor, Twitter, university of chicago, wbez
Posted in Canright Writers' Blog, Uncategorized | No Comments »

Two effective communicators have been in the news lately. One is an old man running for president. The other was an old man who wrote his own segment for “60 Minutes”. Getting angry about the status quo is part of both of their job descriptions, and throughout the decades they have demonstrated how to build a loyal following through channeling that anger into effective communication.

The angry old men I speak of are 76-year-old Ron Paul and the late Andy Rooney, who died November 4^th at the age of 92.

Luckily, you don’t have to be old or a man to build a relationship with your audience. You just have to follow the same rules that Ron and Andy did, and don’t be afraid to get angry.

Be Consistent

People respond to a consistent voice and message, just as they appreciate a reliable product. In return, they provide consistent companies their patronage and the most effective advertising there is—word of mouth.

Andy Rooney is proof that consistency does not have to be boring. No one could predict what he would write about next, but he would always deliver his opinions with honesty and a sense of humor. He would often get angry, but his voice would not waver. It was always the same old Andy, pointing something out that had most likely been rattling around in the heads of many for years.

The world of politics certainly  favors consistency, which is why “flip-flopper” is such a dirty word. It represents a sudden change of stance and implies that the only reason for the change was to increase electability. Whether you agree with his policies or not (keep in mind that I’m not talking about what he says, but how he says it), Ron Paul’s messages have changed very little. Earning the trust of his constituents, Paul was elected to serve 12 terms in Congress, first in the 14^th District and then in the 22^nd District of Texas.

Be Simple

Avoid big words that people don’t understand.

Ron and Andy have spoken to ordinary Americans like ordinary Americans. Using a conversational tone and common vocabulary is not only respectful, it’s just plain easier to understand. Never forget that the purpose of words is to convey ideas. Small words and short sentences almost always produce maximum impact.

Be Direct

Hopefully there’s a point to what you’re saying. Get to it.

Andy only had “A Few Minutes” to speak his mind. He never wasted them.

Likewise, presidential candidates have small chunks of time often as tiny as 15 seconds to answer a question or respond to an opponent. In this video from the Iowa Republican Debate held in Ames on August 11 of this year, Ron Paul is forced to quickly make his counterpoints and punctuate his argument with one simple and direct message.

If you can keep your message consistent, simple, and direct, your ideas will resonate, and more people will pay attention. Before you know it, you might even have a core group of die-hard supporters, just like Ron Paul and Andy Rooney, two straight-talking, angry old men.

-  James

Tags: 60 minutes, andy rooney, angry, angry old man, communication, consistent, direct, presidential election, public art, republican debate, ron paul, simple
Posted in Canright Blog, Canright Writers' Blog, Uncategorized | No Comments »

I finally dished out my eleven dollars to see Moneyball, because I just couldn’t bear to attend another party without having something to say about it. While I can now toss in my two cents at the next cocktail party, it turns out that the real lessons of Moneyball are more suited for the business world.

Here’s what I took away from the film:

Cut through the Talk

People love to talk, don’t they? And not just at parties. It’s easy to see why: It’s fun, often exciting, usually affirming, and when conducted in a work setting, it can feel as though you’re actually doing something. But you’re not. You’re just talking about doing something.

Billy Beane, played by Brad Pitt, recognized this phenomenon in Moneyball. Not only were the old scouts just talking, they weren’t even talking about the problem.

What’s the Problem?

Before anyone can solve a problem, they need to know what the problem is. That is not as easy as it sounds. Some might say, “The problem is what it’s always been. We need to make more money.” Picture Pitt as Beane saying, “Wrong.” Making more money for yourself or your company is not a solution; it’s a byproduct of the solution.

Ask yourself why you or your company isn’t making more money. Has the market for your product or service changed? Are new disruptive technologies reshaping the industry? What is the state of your brand?

Adapt or Die

Now that you’ve stopped talking yourself in circles and have identified your problem, it’s time to adapt. Change. Evolve. Whichever word you want to use, it won’t be easy.

It’s easy to talk about change. Have you ever heard a politician say, “You know what? Everything is fine the way it is. Elect me, and I won’t change a thing.” You haven’t, because people love to talk about possibilities, what-if scenarios, and unreached potential. Try to actually change the routine for most people, though, and you will enter a world of pain.

Ask any GM, player, manager, or ball boy of your favorite baseball team if they want to win, and—barring any behind-the-scenes bets—they’ll say yes. Beane, his fellow scouts, and A’s manager Art Howe agreed on winning, too. What they didn’t agree on was committing to Beane’s idea of adaptation. Adaptation, evolution, or any productive change is not easy. That’s because it’s often contrary to normal belief and behavior, difficult to measure, and thankless until the byproduct of the problem’s solution (revenue, wins) materializes.

It’s a Process

The ugly truth is that we all live our lives incrementally: Seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, etc. To see the effect of change, a new process must be implemented and adhered to throughout every little building block of time. You’re not going to see change right away, and that’s hard. You’ll have to resist old habits, and that’s hard. Everyone will ask you why you are doing one thing while so many others are doing another, and that’s hard too.

But just picture Billy Beane on the field saying, “It’s a process, it’s a process, it’s a process.”

Once these minute blocks of time, rich with controlled and solution-driven action, are stacked atop one another to create large chunks known as months and years, the naysayers and habit-huggers will begin to look a little less like humans, and a little more like…

Dinosaurs

John Henry, owner of the Boston Red Sox and played by Arliss Howard in Moneyball, didn’t start the evolution like Beane, but he recognized it. He saw that every team that wasn’t changing its paradigm was a “dinosaur.” In proper Red Sox fashion, Henry attempts to purchase the new technology (essentially what it was) with a sum that would have made Beane the highest paid GM in baseball history. This offer creates a new problem for Beane to solve, a problem that most people wouldn’t mind having.

Share Your Success

Whether it’s discovered that your problem is internal (e.g. culture, design, budget) or external (e.g. technology, demographics, supply costs), there is almost always a communications element that must be tacked onto the solution. Sometimes there is no problem except for a lack of effective communication itself. Either way, trumpet your innovation, establish your position as a leader, and interact with your customers. This will ensure that as you solve the correct problems with a diligent process, the dinosaurs will be revealed and eventually become extinct.

Who knows? Maybe someone will make a movie about it.

– James

Tags: adapt, baseball, communication, innovation, moneyball, motivations, process
Posted in Canright Writers' Blog | No Comments »

Pondering the Future of News at Chicago Ideas Week (Oct. 10-16)

The greatest takeaway from Chicago Ideas Week was something Kara Swisher, co-executive editor of AllThingsD and a leading voice in technology since the early nineties, said: “The federal government has lain down on the job,” when it comes to supporting new technologies within the US. This indictment came at the tail end of a panel discussion called “The Future of News” at the Museum of Broadcast Communications.

Swisher pointed to China and South Korea as examples of countries that invest heavily in the technologies of tomorrow. She had recently returned from these destinations and was amazed at how far their screen technology has come: They are thinner, clearer, and more interactive than anything she’s seen here in the US. She insisted that our government is not investing in the technologies of the future to the same degree, and she won’t be surprised when we get left behind as a result.

To illustrate, Swisher recalled when her very young daughter reached out and touched the family’s new TV. When the screen didn’t respond, she said, “Mommy, it’s broken!” Swisher agrees.

Her other predictions about how technology will continue to shape media:

1. Media will be promiscuous.
2. Media will be everywhere.
3. Media will be noisy.
4. To succeed in the new media landscape, you will have to be flexible and entrepreneurial.

These intriguing—and conceivable—forecasts from Swisher were not revealed until the end of the talk. The discussion that preceded them, however, did not lack its own enlightening moments.

Music and Media

Richard Stengel, managing editor of Time, guided the conversation after introducing himself and the other panelists: Evan Ratliff, founder and editor of The Atavist; Kara Swisher; Joe McGinnis, author of The Rogue: Searching for Sarah Palin and ten other books; Ayman Mohyeldin, foreign correspondent for NBC News; and James Warren, columnist for The New York Times and the Chicago News Cooperative. The diversity of the panel contributed to a lively discussion about how technology will continue to shape how news is reported, delivered and consumed.

Stengel began the discussion by relating the news industry to the music industry. Indeed, today many people regard the album as an organic art form from which today’s MP3-driven culture has sadly strayed. However, Stengel pointed out that the album itself was the product of a technological innovation—the long-playing record. Before that, music was distributed on a song-by-song basis much like it is today.

In fact, The Atavist’s business model relies on this same purchasing behavior to sell its news stories individually. The stories can be downloaded directly to mobile reading devices like the Kindle or iPad. After lamenting the demise of magazines because they once provided him an outlet for stories that wouldn’t work as books, McGinnis pointed to Ratliff as his “savior” for his progress toward restoring long-form journalism. As more people get comfortable paying for stories rather than entire newspapers or magazines, we could see this model gain popularity.

From an organizational standpoint, Ratliff attributed a lot of his company’s success to its small size. Swisher echoed this sentiment, saying today’s new tools for journalists are allowing her to “do more with less people.” She even claims to pay her writers better than the writers in other departments of Dow Jones.

Regarding the ways in which people will get their news in the future, no one seemed to have any preference. Swisher joked that news will be so ubiquitous we might soon see content printed on salami. McGinnis is a little nervous about how new technologies are making it easier for people to avoid any news and opinion that challenge their beliefs, leading to what he calls “Palinization.” Warren complained about the lack of cohesion on the local level, but he maintained a positive attitude about the future, even if he doesn’t know what it will bring.

Mohyeldin explained that he puts a lot of effort into producing his stories, and it doesn’t matter to him whether you view them on TV or your watch. His outlook was based on one simple tenant that has only recently come into question. He said, “Good journalism will always sell.”

Let’s hope so.

– James

Tags: atavist, ayman mohyeldin, chicago ideas week, ciw, evan ratliff, james warren, joe mcginnis, kara swisher, media, museum of broadcast communications, nbc, New York Times, news, palinization, rogue, sarah palin, technology, time
Posted in Canright Writers' Blog | No Comments »

CONFERENCE PREPARATION

No time to use outside writing help? Tell that to Playboy executive Scott Stephen.

To help Scott give a great conference presentation, Collin Canright worked with his schedule. How? Collin followed Scott around his garden on a Sunday morning, taking notes on his laptop to get the initial outline of a keynote presentation.

Collin supplemented the outline with internal documents to prepare a PowerPoint for “Customer-Based Marketing Decisions.” Every other presenter at the conference raved about Scott’s keynote case study.

It’s conference preparation season. Let Canright Communications help with the load. To learn more, call Collin Canright at (773) 426-7000 or email at collin@canrightcommunications.com for an assessment of your conference materials.

Canright writes, designs, and produces a wide variety of conference content, including:

Posted in Canright Writers' Blog | No Comments »

CONFERENCE PREPARATION

What do we get from these conferences, aside from sore feet?

Leads. Even from people who don’t attend.

How? By sending articles, case studies, or white papers based on conference presentations to customers or prospects who can’t attend. You can also send these materials as a reminder and follow up to those who did attend.

Often the time and effort that goes into conference preparation focuses on the getting to the event, with less attention on follow-up strategies and tactics. Canright Communications can help carry the load for both pre- and post-conference work.

As an example, Canright covered a conference roundtable for Bank of America and wrote a “conference findings” and case study report. In addition to the comments from BofA customers and experts in the roundtable, we researched industry trends to provide additional value to readers.

BofA distributed the report initially to attendees and companies that could not make the event, then added it to its website to provide an educational piece for visitors.

It’s conference preparation season. Let Canright Communications help with the load. To learn more, call Christina Canright at (773) 220-9433 or email at christina@canrightcommunications.com for an assessment of your conference materials.

Canright writes, designs, and produces a wide variety of conference content, including:

Posted in Canright Writers' Blog | No Comments »

CONFERENCE PREPARATION

Solid sales materials bring in solid leads…with a coordinated effort by good salespeople to bring ’em home.

As an example, consider James Instruments. James Instruments manufactures a variety of devices used to test concrete, masonry, and construction materials in the field for hardness, moisture content, and possible deterioration. The company serves a client base of concrete contractors and inspectors, and it relies on one main conference to reach them in the US: the World of Concrete (WOC).

James Instruments asked Canright Communications to create a set of posters for use at their booth for the World of Concrete USA in Las Vegas. We redesigned all of the booth’s posters and other materials. We redid the company’s catalog using the new look and format, culling down the content to 16 concise pages from 94.

Said President Michael Hoag, “The overall attendance at WOC was down about 15%. However, our sales leads generated were up about 15% – 20% over last year. I think a lot of that was due to the catalog and posters Canright worked on.” Read the full case study.

It’s conference preparation season. Let Canright Communications help with the load. To learn more, call Collin Canright at (773) 426-7000 or email at collin@canrightcommunications.com for an assessment of your conference materials.

Canright writes, designs, and produces a wide variety of conference content, including:

Posted in Canright Writers' Blog | No Comments »

In my life outside of Canright Communications, I play the cello in a band called The Damn Choir. We’re in the middle of recording our second album, and while doing research on an Executives’ Club event for our Canright Calendar I stumbled upon some much-needed and much-appreciated inspiration from each of the speakers on the program. By the time I attended the breakfast, I had already used each of their ideas to find resources I had never considered. I was inspired to (please excuse my sentimentality) turn my band’s dream of being backed by an actual choir into a reality.

Bob Thacker, Senior Vice President of Marketing and Advertising, OfficeMax:

The more I learned about Bob Thacker’s history in marketing, the more I noticed a trend of highly successful campaigns that also happened to be extremely inexpensive. Instead of being defeated by the smallest advertising budget among his competitors, Bob ran with it and created the now famous “Elf Yourself.”

At the time of my research, I was struggling with how to make our band’s dream choir a reality for our recording. By struggling, I mean I was resigned to the idea that we simply could not afford it. Bob Thacker’s ideas on advertising (and life) inspired me to simply decide to make it happen. I hadn’t figured out how yet…

Cam Balzer, Vice President, Marketing, Threadless:

The driving force behind Threadless t-shirts is revolutionary but simple: consumers and employees need not be mutually exclusive. Threadless t-shirts are designed and chosen by the Threadless “community,” as Cam calls it, blurring the line between the company and its consumers.

Because the band was already on my mind, this made me think about the line between artists and art appreciators. Whoever we got to sing in the choir on our album would probably be significantly more invested in us as a band. On the flip side of that, the people who were already fans of our band would probably be more interested in singing on the album. I still had to get them to show up though…

Ted Wright, Founder and Managing Partner, Fizz:

Fizz Corp focuses on word-of-mouth marketing. I am very new to the marketing / communications world, and until I read about Ted Wright, I had no idea word-of-mouth marketing was even a thing. I knew word of mouth could be a force to reckon with, but had no idea there were so many strategies out there to harness the power. Simply put, Fizz identifies “influencers” (potential customers most likely to talk about your brand) and then finds ways to make them say good things and say them a lot.

Word of mouth has always played a part in the success or failure of music groups. Although I will most definitely apply what I’ve learned about it to our band’s future marketing endeavors, at the time I was focused on making the choir happen. In addition to using every social media outlet we had, asking everyone we could think of, and making an announcement at the big show we had a few days before the recording session, I decided to figure out who in my life were “influencers” and focus on getting them involved in the choir. One of my friends in particular, who will remain un-named, is not the greatest singer but loves going to see live music and has many musician friends. I pressed her to come, without telling her why I cared so much, even though we both knew she couldn’t sing, and (as if to prove the theory of the “influencer” correct) she brought four of her semi-pro singer friends.

When the day came, our friends (and their friends) showed up, sang their hearts out, and we had a fantastic choir for our album. I am very thankful the Executives’ Club Thought-Leader discussion came when it did, because simply reading about the speakers not only inspired me to make the choir happen but helped me figure out how.

-Katy Myers, administrative assistant, Canright Communications

Posted in Canright Writers' Blog | No Comments »

One of our clients has its consultants working on copy for a website we are in the midst of redesigning. The redesign will promote a new service focus for the firm and sharpen both its image and value proposition.

As with many business-to-business and professional services websites, the existing copy explains the firm’s capabilities. The head of business development asked me to provide writing guidelines so that consultants can write about what they do in a less internally focused way. Here’s what I sent, with minor edits and deletions:

There’s really only one guideline to follow:

You are writing from the perspective of the value you provide to clients, not the things you do for clients.

That means the benefits rather than the features, to put it in marketing language.

Secondarily, you are telling the visitor why you are the ones who can best provide the value rather than someone else. You do not need to be heavy handed here, and if you are, that’s OK. We’ll tone it back.

Main questions to keep in mind:

What do we do for the client? What does the client get? What results do we generate? How do we help them?

In other words, keep a focus on the benefits to the clients, rather than what you do for the clients. You can list the things you do ONLY after you tell me what the client will get as a result of what you do. Here’s a quick example from your site to show what I mean:

There is no such thing as “ideal” executive compensation and performance measurement framework. What works for Boeing does not necessarily work for Microsoft. Instead, there are a series of decision points that need to be considered including firm culture, its managers, and its positions in the Company business life cycle. As such, our executive compensation offerings include:

* Competitive compensation analysis, including review of base salaries, annual incentive, and long-term incentive payout;

* Annual incentive pay design;

* Long-term incentive pay design, including cash-based, equity-based and phantom equity-based design;

The beginning is OK as a description of the what and an argument of why I might need to do the what. But it doesn’t really say how the business will be better, how decisions will be better, what result we will help you produce, why you should have us help you produce that result rather than someone else.

Again, this is crudely stated and doesn’t need answers as blunt as the questions (becuase professional services and consulting firms aren’t direct-response marketers), but you do need to tell people why they should buy from you.

What do you bring in your services that your competitors do not? You aren’t [large industry leader]. Why [you]? What does [your firm] offer me in the area of “long-term incentive pay design” that someone else doesn’t? What do I get from that? How can I make better decisions? How will that give better performance?

Finally, have some fun. You all seem to like what you do. Let it show. Write like you are excited and don’t worry about using “professional” language or marketing language. We can fix that easily enough.

What other guidelines do you follow to make sure copy and messaging focuses on the buyer’s needs rather than the seller’s services?

Tags: B2B marketing, copywriting
Posted in Canright Writers' Blog | No Comments »

“Show, don’t tell” is a long-standing admonition to writers, in addition to being Liza Doolittle’s exhortation, “Show me,” to Freddy Eynsford-Hill as he awkwardly professes his love in the movie “My Fair Lady.”

In marketing communications and public relations, the case study provides the best way to show what you do. By letting a customer speak about the results they receive as a result of your product and solution, you gain credibility as you educate potential customers on how your product or service works.

You build even more credibility when your case study gets published in an industry publication, as happened with Canright client GTreasury, a provider of treasury workstation software and services. The case study we wrote on how Love’s Travel Stops and Country Stores grew its business without increasing treasury staff was published in the May 2010 issue of AFP Exchange, the journal of the Association of Financial Professionals, the treasury industry’s primary professional group.

Titled “Small Treasury, Big Results: How a Four-Person Treasury Team Handles a $17 Billion Business,” the article credited treasury automation and the reorganization and streamlining of procedures for the increase in efficiencies. GTreasury’s software played a major role in the automation process.

One of the reasons this case study works so well is that GTreasury’s role in the story is peripheral. It’s not a story of how GTreasury’s software improved a company. It’s a story of how a company improved its operations, using GTreasury’s software as one of its tools, thereby showing what GTreasury does for a company without directly promoting the software.

For more information on how Canright writes case studies, read our “Case Study Backgrounder.”

Posted in Canright Writers' Blog | No Comments »