don't get caught

Weekend read: My weekly share on Twitter

2012-06-01T07:17:00.000-04:00

Took a lot of risks this week? Not sure you're going to sweep the stakes? I've got a sure bet for you: The weekend is almost here. That means it's time to share my best finds and reads from Twitter, where I always feel just like I won the lottery when it comes to getting new facts and ideas. Here's the best of my finds this week:

The long shot comes in: FINALLY, Facebook will let you schedule posts for your FB page, and you can have different levels of permission for different roles in managing your FB page: Manager, Content Creator, Moderator, Advertiser and Insight Analyst.
Too fast out of the gate: Facebook also now requires those social-sharing news and video apps to take a 10-second delay before they publish your shares.
Before you put the neon sign over your casino: Nonprofits about to undergo a branding process will find this discussion at the Communications Network website of interest--and you're encouraged to add your experiences.
Stacking the (Tweet)deck? Can Twitter affect the citation rate for scientific research published in journals? Here's one study that examines the impact. I'd like to see more such studies, with a focus on the top journals, but it's a start.
Not by a nose: If you've been hearing a lot about video-sharing site Viddy, you may have missed this: In the race to be the Instagram of video, Socialcam is blowing Viddy away. Good data here.
Stacking the deck, in the wrong way: "The media contact women scientists less often than men scientists," says this study. Communicators who do media relations can make a difference here, and with this issue: Men outnumber women in submitting op-eds, 9 to 1. Get going with your women spokesfolks.
My kind of town: Google+ Local has launched, and it neatly integrates local search, reviews from your Google+ friends, and even Zagat restaurant reviews. It also replaces Google Places. You'll find a "Local" tab on your Google+ profile on the left side. Plus, don't miss BIA Kelsey's take on the mobile aspects of the new Google+ Local.
A good bet: John Jantsch clues you in on why Facebook is letting you promote to your fans and why he thinks you should, using the new "promoted posts" feature. Listen up, people--this is smart stuff.
One in a million: A research communicator shares how she uses Twitter in Social media for the science PIO.

The early registration discount is over, but you can still register for my June 19 workshop, Be an Expert on Working with Experts--until June 10, or when all the seats are filled. The odds of getting a seat are getting tougher, though, so don't gamble on this opportunity.

Thanks so much for reading this week. I'm glad you're willing to bet on finding things here.

How can I encourage camera-shy experts to break out of their shells? 4 tactics

2012-05-31T07:17:00.000-04:00

You're a communicator wielding a camera, wanting to get your expert to practice. She's doing an elaborate version of "talk to the hand," perhaps by saying she needs to leave the training early to go to an essential meeting (uh-huh) or using delay tactics like asking lots of questions about less important matters. That sudden fascination with meetings and minutia likely means just one thing: Camera-shy.

"How can I encourage camera-shy experts to break out of their shells?" was the question of one registrant in my June 19 workshop for communicators on how to 'Be an Expert on Working with Experts.' Here are three of the tactics we'll be discussing related to using cameras to prep your experts for media interviews, speeches or public presentations:

Cameras are the great equalizer: Nobody likes them. More precisely, no one likes how they look or sound on camera, from the best broadcasters to the never-been-seen newbie. Make sure your expert knows that the discomfort is normal, and something they have in common with people they admire.
Why are you using a camera, anyway? Please explain. I don't use cameras in practice to help my trainees create picture-perfect broadcast-quality productions. I use them for two reasons trainees can appreciate more readily: To help them see themselves in action--something they can't get any other way--and to help catch things we can correct and improve upon. Establish the goals and don't assume your expert knows why the camera is there.
Don't confuse shy with introverted, and vice versa. Susan Cain, author of the recent book Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking, offers some clues in Are you shy, introverted, both or neither? The skinny: "Shyness is the fear of negative judgment, and introversion is a preference for quiet, minimally stimulating environments." You'll do better if you warn an introverted expert ahead of time to expect camera practice in a safe environment, and in some cases, if you train her alone. For the shy trainee, use tactics like letting them be the first person to give feedback on their own video--they'll be much more honest and negative than you ever could be, which lets you come back in and correct misimpressions.
Help them embrace the playback. I've seen trainees watch their videos while wincing, covering their eyes with their hands, or sliding down under the table. To allay their discomfort, make the process constructive, rather than destructive, by giving them guidance on what to look for and how to learn from it. I give all my trainees Instead of wincing, 10 things to look for on that video of your speech, and walk through it with them.

We'll be dishing tips like these and more at the workshop--and there are still seats available. Go here to register, find out what other kinds of questions and challenges the participants want to discuss, and learn about the great network of communicators who are already participating. Registration goes through Sunday, June 10, or until the seats are filled.

When your expert ignores all media but the big guys: 4 tactics

2012-05-29T05:45:00.000-04:00

"Can you explain to him that he ought to talk to reporters or bloggers even if they don't work for the New York Times?" That's almost a routine request when I'm asked to do a media training for an expert or scientist.

Here's the rub: The researchers aren't wrong about the power of the biggest media outlets: Consider this 1991 New England Journal of Medicine study showing that "Journal articles publicized by the Times received 72.8 percent more scientific citations than control articles." But every good communications director knows there's value in reaching out to a wide variety of journalists, from freelancers to small outlets and trade press, in addition to major media outlets. That's not even counting the fact that the majors can't cover every topic, nor that what your expert has to say may not pass muster in prominent media. What can a communicator do to move experts beyond the majors and into interviews with the rest of the field?

We'll be talking about this issue at my June 19 workshop, Be an Expert on Working with Experts, since the expert who balks at media interactions is a common issue for communicators. Here are some considerations you need to explore as a communicator if you want an expert to move beyond the majors:

Is this an avoidance tactic? Sounding all exclusive or setting unrealistic targets might be an effort to mask overall discomfort, lack of experience or bad experience with reporters. It's worth probing why he's choosing to narrow the field to find out.
Is this a training deficiency? Just because he's expert in his subject doesn't mean he gets media relations. If you haven't taken the time to explain why you--and your company or organization--wants coverage from other-than-big-guys, do that before you attempt to set up the interviews.
What's in it for her? Helping experts find motivation is an oft-ignored part of the communicator's work. Is she seeking funding, a tech transfer, research subjects, support from a legislature? Does his public funding call for reporting out findings to a wider public audience? Establishing a motivation for the interview can help you and your expert later on.
Is this a time management issue? One of my favorite experts finally confided that 10 percent of his calls were from reporters, who were taking up 80 percent of his time. That's an easy fix: We started arranging more conference call briefings (think Google+ Hangouts, too) and other approaches that helped make better use of his time.

Those are just a few of the considerations behind this issue--and we'll be discussing more at my experts workshop on June 19. Join us to develop more tactics for varying your experts' media outreach.

(Hat tip to Ivan Oransky for the pointer to the NEJM study.)

Weekend read: My weekly share on Twitter, jobs and a workshop discount

2012-05-25T07:17:00.000-04:00

I feel like a kid in the candy store this week, with lots of finds, reads and insights from the candy store known as Twitter. And I'm even willing to share. Here's the best candy I found after sifting through my Twitterstream this week:

Watching the transition to "social TV:" All that coverage of American Idol's TV ratings dip missed the point. Idol broke many social network records this season, with 5.9 million online comments during the season, and 1.2 million during this week's 2-hour season finale alone. We're watching a transition-in-progress here.
Signal for everybody: If you're trying to get wi-fi right at your next or press room--something we can all get behind--Twitter user @mistersugar recommends @SignalShare.
Like to like you, baby: Facebook's rolling out an option that would let users like your page directly from a post, without leaving their news feeds.
Rights for video. No, not that kind: YouTube has launched a human rights channel.
Healthy regard for social media: The Centers for Disease Control's social media efforts are cataloged in this page full of its best practices and guidelines.
Upwardly mobile: SUNY Oswego's Tim Nekritz looks at social coverage of commencement this year, and notes that "22 percent of our commencement viewers did so on mobile devices." Find out how they geared up for that, and more.
Devices and desires: Nielsen's multi-screen media report is loaded with data on users and their devices. SlideShare's got the skinny.
The move to mobile: Time actually spent on Facebook has been flat for a year--not because users aren't on FB, per se. They're just using it on mobile devices, says comscore data.
This is kid stuff: Everything you need to know about content strategy you learned from children's books. You can't hire Corduroy, but you can steal his wisdom.

And a job: The University of Minnesota's looking for a student outreach and communications specialist.

If you're interested in attending my June 19 workshop, Be an Expert on Working with Experts, today's the deadline for the early registration discount. There are still seats left, but if you register today, you'll pay just $300 for this daylong workshop. After today, registration is $350. I'll close registration June 10 or when the seats are filled, whichever comes first. Join us for a dynamic and unusual professional development opportunity designed just for communicators who work with scientists and other subject-matter experts.

Is your Twitter handle your calling card?

2012-05-24T05:45:00.001-04:00

Don't be surprised if I change my company name to @dontgetcaught. Twitter handles, to my mind, are becoming what URLs used to be as corporate branding...and I happen to like mine.

We may not be there yet, but people like me are already using their Twitter handles as a handy--and short--nametag replacement for their company or title. And Twitter handles abound on everything from bumper stickers to business cards.

The more creative uses of Twitter handles as brands that I've seen come from sports--which makes sense when you consider how much time cameras are trained on athletes, making this a built-in broadcasting tool. Washington Nationals closer @DrewStoren put his Twitter handle on his glove (stitched in, thank you) and you can see Twitter handles instead of names on the backs of the Philadelphia Wings' jerseys. Athletes' Twitter handles let fans know how to reach them and encourage them to reach out. So do yours, on your business card or nametag.

There's another bonus to using a Twitter handle as your primary brand: It's yours. You have carved out your own Twitter identity, right? Mashable brought the standards up-to-date with Should You Combine Your Personal and Business Social Media Identities? -- and most of the discussion is around Twitter handles:

...if you intended to be a public spokesman for a company in 2006, then it made sense to put your company’s moniker in your social profiles. However, in 2012, the standard practice is to be yourself and build a social media following, and then act as a hired gun for the companies you represent....Also there are two fields of identification on Twitter: Your name and your handle; you can change both to whatever you would like (as long as it’s not already taken). Consider the case of Ben Smith, the former Politico editor, who joined BuzzFeed in January. When Smith left Politico, he changed his Twitter handle from @BenPolitico to @BuzzFeedBen, yet his name still appears as “Ben Smith.” He has kept his handle intertwined with his company, but remains his own personal brand on Twitter — as a result, the switch from one publication to another is seamless.

The takeaway: Make sure we know you as a person, not just a broadcaster for your company. I'm guessing we'll be taking our Twitter handles with us for a while, if we play our cards right.

How are you using your Twitter handle, outside of Twitter? Share your creative uses, or the ones you've seen.

7 reasons why putting numbers in your blog post headline isn't all markety

2012-05-22T05:45:00.000-04:00

Saw this tweet in my Twitterstream this week from a writer I like very much:

I resisted for so long, but once I went all markety & added numerals to my blog post titles, I started getting some visits to my blog. :)
— Anton Zuiker (@mistersugar) May 21, 2012

That gave me a chuckle. Numbers in the headlines of blog posts are widely known to help drive traffic--you know, those "8 ways to remove rust from your car" and "27 ways to increase blog traffic" posts. But while that formula's new to bloggers, perhaps, it's an old standby in magazine publishing. Back in the day, and even today, a good cover line on a magazine more often than not reduces the content to a number, even if that number never shows up in the article or sidebar, because it works to help readers grab the issue off the newsstand. These days, it helps them click on the link or article.

Markety or not, why does that happen? The reason numbered headlines work (and the formats they trumpet, for that matter) is worth a think, if only so you know why you're doing it. Here's my take on the real reasons you should use numbered headlines and posts for your blog, based on writing and editing a lot of magazine articles and even more blog posts:

They're concrete: Readers know what to expect from a numbered post. The headline implies something practical, solid, knowable...and that makes it sticky, and memorable, to use a markety word.
They favor the reader in a rush: Reading anything all the way through is almost unthinkable for busy folks, but you'll prompt more of them to take a detour with your post if it's defined in size, small bites they can swallow while they keep moving. 5 tips for improving your life sounds a lot better than "read this entire book of inspiration," on many days.
They disclose a treasure trove: On the opposite end of the spectrum, the high-numbered item--27 reasons you should attend the SuchandSo conference, or 45 blogs to follow today--suggests information galore. And all it took was two numbers to make that happen in the reader's mind. But high numbers aren't the only way to signal treasure. Think of numbered posts that revive history, share secrets or suggest a find. Check out the New York Times's list of 10 Olympic events of yore they wish could be revived as one example.
We like lists: There's even a post that's titled (what else?) the top five reasons why people like to share top ten lists. Lists provoke curiosity: Your list won't be just like mine, or will it? I'd like to find out. Lists can start arguments, bets or long comments disagreeing with the author. Just ask Rolling Stone after it puts out those top 100 guitarists lists.
They provide structure: We also like lists for their order and organization. The reader can expect something crisp, useful, and short. Best of all, they know there's an end to it, coming soon.
They offer options: Knowing that readers won't all agree with your list is one thing. But they know they have options, too; perhaps 3 of your list of 5 items will work for them, and that suggests possibility.
They suggest there's more to know: If I only had 4 ideas about how to save money and you have 27, I'm intrigued. You're pushing my envelope, in a good way.

Numbered posts don't work all the time--but when they do, they're priceless. What's your take on numbers in posts and headlines?

Weekend read: My weekly share on Twitter, with jobs & more

2012-05-18T07:15:00.000-04:00

The walking man walks...right into the weekend, I hope. This week, I waded into Twitter and found these gems in my stream. Wade on in with me...the weekend's on the shore ahead, and I know we can make it there together:

Do all marketing agency blogs suck? Mitch Joel looks at those that do, and defines those that don't.
It's not brain surgery...oh, wait: A live-tweeted brain surgery reached 14.5 million people--but succeeded by incorporating words that Twitter followers used, rather than technical terms.
Been waiting for this: Google rolled out a new toolbox for Google+ that includes a way to record and share Hangouts, making them that much more useful.
What time is it? After you find out, see if it matches these optimal times to post on Facebook.
Le sigh: In The Irony of Marketing Now, Jason Falls pinpoints something I'm seeing every day: Clients are clinging to imprecise metrics of yore, because they'd prefer the fantasy that a million people may have seen something, instead of the honesty of social media measures.

One week from today, the early registration discount runs out for my June 19 workshop, Be an Expert on Working with Experts, here in Washington, DC. You'll still be able to register until June 10 or the seats are filled, whichever comes first. But signups have been brisk for this workshop--and you'll save $50 if you register now. So you know what to do. I'd love it if you passed this offer around to fellow communicators who work with smart people--and I'd love it even better if I could see you there.

Two great jobs in a stunning location: KSL Resorts is looking for a corporate Director of Digital Marketing & New Media, and a corporate Director of Marketing Communications and Strategic Alliances, both located in La Quinta, California (Palm Springs area).

And finally, one of my most popular shares on Twitter this week: A how-not-to-pitch video that skewers you users of "social media news releases" and similar tactics. Enjoy the weekend, and thanks, as always, for being here.

Network with communicators who work with smart people at this June workshop

2012-05-17T05:17:00.000-04:00

Some workshops offer professional development not only through their content, but in the networking among the participants, if you're lucky. And that's how my June 19 workshop, Be an Expert on Working with Experts, is shaping up, based on who's registered so far.

Who's coming? A government agency team. A PR executive. Communicators and media relations pros from advocacy groups and a major scientific society. Senior advisers, program associates and a vice president of communications. Communicators who train scientists, or put them in front of cameras, or ask their experts to spend time explaining their work in public policy settings. Some of the organizations represented focus on science, but just as many have broader missions and different kinds of experts, so we'll have a wide-ranging discussion and plenty of varied examples to discuss. I've asked registrants to share their challenges and questions about working with experts, and you can read their wish list here.

The session is a daylong workshop, from 9:30am to 4:30pm, and includes continental breakfast and lunch--and I'm expecting plenty of networking to go on in the breaks. This is a small-group session, capped at 20 participants, and seats are filling--so don't delay if you want to join us and meet this focused group of communicators. I'm looking forward to seeing some longtime clients and meeting new colleagues in this group, and hope you'll be among them. Go here to register and share your challenges and questions about experts. You'll get a discount for registering by May 25, and registration will stay open until June 10 or the date all seats are filled, whichever comes first.

Young scientists ask: Is there room out there for one more science communicator?

2012-05-15T07:17:00.000-04:00

(Editor's note: When I train scientists in public communications skills, many of them are Ph.D. candidates who wonder whether they might rather be a science communicator instead. While I can speak to that new-to-them profession, I can't advise them on what it would mean to leave their research, not being a scientist myself. So I turned to Becky Ham, Ph.D., a biological anthropologist by training and a science writer by choice, to help share advice straight from the source. Here's her take.)

What to tell a wavering scientist?

As a science writer, I often interview young researchers who have just finished or nearly finished their Ph.D. degrees. They’re enthusiastic and intelligent speakers, eager to explain what they’ve been doing with themselves for the past 4-10 years. And when I’ve run out of questions for them, sometimes they have one for me: “So…I was wondering how you got your job?”

I usually give them the short version, about how I got my own Ph.D. and then promptly stopped being a scientist. And then we’re on the phone for another half-hour, as they explain to me that they’re having second thoughts about getting a job in their field, and wondering if there’s room out there for one more science communicator.

I think about two things when I hear this: what should I tell them, and why does this question keep coming up?

Let’s take the second question first. There are some signs that science Ph.D. candidates aren’t exactly happy with the career choices they’re facing. This month, a study in PLoS ONE concluded that academic jobs become less attractive to scientists as they move through their Ph.D. training. Some scientists in the final stages of their degree are concerned that the research jobs they want won’t be there when they’ve finished their degree. Some, as the study gingerly points out, might have seen quite enough of the academic world to wonder if it’s really for them. Science has never been a nine-to-five job, but it’s hard to know whether that’s an exciting or exhausting thing until you’ve experienced it
.
And then there’s always Ph.D. fatigue, which I recognize. In the last days of my dissertation, I was upping the ante on my carpal tunnel by playing video games and ruining what was left of my sleep by going to the movies all the time. I was desperate to stop thinking about my research, and I bet these scientists feel the same way.

But I’m worried that there’s more to their stories. Here’s something else intriguing from the PLoS study. When they asked the Ph.D. candidates about other non-research careers they found “extremely attractive,” science communicator/writer topped the list.

Why does science writing sound so good? I think it’s because most scientists want to share their research. And new scientists haven’t given up on the idea that they’re allowed to talk to everyone—not just their peers—about what they’re doing.

So back to the first question. What do I tell a scientist who wants to be a science communicator?

Tell yourself the truth. It sounds corny, but you need to have a heart-to-heart talk with yourself. Do you like to do science? If your honest answer is no, it’s time for something new. It might be science communication, it might not be. But you need to get the “am I a scientist?” question resolved before anything else.
There’s no need to choose. If you want to be a scientist and also a science communicator, I urge you to take that Ph.D. and then tell us all about it! Communication is no longer an optional part of a scientist’s job, and you can be part of the vanguard of researchers to fully embrace this idea. Instead of shying away from your desire to communicate, make it a living part of your career.
Either way, you’re going to have to practice. If you want to write, you have to write, by starting your own science blog or tweeting your field’s breaking news. If you want to work in museum interpretation, you have to make a visit to the volunteer office of your local science center. Your academic life was probably rife with “tryout” opportunities like these, and it’s the same on this side of things. There’s no simpler way to find out if you can be a science communicator than to be a science communicator.
...And practice. I was trained to talk like a scientist, to other scientists. That doesn’t work in public science communication, as you might have guessed. But don’t despair. One thing that helps is to push back into the dark ages, and remember why you wanted to become a scientist in the first place. What were the questions, the mysteries, the excitement that you wanted from your career? Remember how you talked about it then, and you’ll find a path toward how to talk about it now.

Go on. We’re listening.

(Denise here, again. If you've got a group of scientists who want to communicate better with public audiences, I'd love to talk to you about the training options I offer for communicating scientists. And now the more important stuff: Becky Ham is a freelance science writer who writes about every discipline of science, a rare talent. She contributes posts about research on public speaking in many scientific disciplines for my blog The Eloquent Woman.)

Weekend read: My weekly share on Twitter, jobs & a workshop

2012-05-11T07:15:00.000-04:00

Feel as if your way to the weekend is being blocked? Don't worry, I have a workaround in the weekend read, a way to ease into the weekend with the best finds I made and shared this week on Twitter. Here, I'll hold the gate open for you so you can sneak into the weekend a little bit early:

A new tool gets better: PinAQuote and its pro version--indispensible tools for making text into visual quotes for Pinterest--is now ShareAsImage, and works for Facebook and Twitter as well as Pinterest. If you already had the pro account, you'll retain it under the new name.
Open the gate: The UK government has asked Wikipedia to help it come up with a way to make research funded by taxpayers more widely available online.
Signs point to yes: Journos from AP, Mashable, Huffington Post and CNN tell PR pros what they should know about infographics.
For sale sign: Pinterest now tops Facebook for commerce in the social space.
Healthy views: TEDMED 2012 videos have started to post here. Check back for new videos each week.
To-go fitness: The market for mobile health apps is soaring and could reach $1.3 billion this year.
Pin this to your wallet: Online eyeglasses retailer Warby Parker blew through its sales goals in record time, thanks to Pinterest. Need a business case? Read this one.
Hurry up on this job: The National Cancer Institute has a senior public affairs post open, but the posting will be up for only a few more days, so move fast. And UNC-Chapel Hill's School of Public Health has another communications job open here.

I had a great time presenting to the Public Affairs Network of NCI-funded cancer centers this week in Portland, Oregon, and you can see my session notes for participants on ways to make blogging easier. Here's one reaction:

@dontgetcaught Great presentation at the @pannaccdo conference. We will start incorporating your suggestions as soon as we can #cancerblog
— Fox Chase Cancer Ctr (@FoxChaseCancer) May 10, 2012

More seats were taken this week in my June 19 workshop, Be an Expert on Working with Experts -- and you'll find some fellow feeling in the questions and challenges reported by participants about the experts they work with. The early registration discount runs out two weeks from today, if there are seats left by then. Don't delay on that--or on getting your weekend started. As usual, thanks for being here.

Communicators: Your wish list when you work with experts?

2012-05-10T07:15:00.000-04:00

If you've worked with enough experts--be they government leaders, corporate whizzes, policy wonks, sage scientists or rock-star physicians--you must have a wish list going, at least in your mind.

Maybe you wish your know-it-all expert could say "I don't know" once in a while to boost her credibility. Or maybe you wish your expert wouldn't blow off media interviews. You might be working with the realization that your expert has a high need to be perfect and fears failure, which means he doesn't want to take chances he can't control. You might have an expert scientist on your hands who dismisses communications as unimportant, not an essential part of her research activities.

Or maybe your wish list involves you: Perhaps you wish you, as a communicator, could do a better job figuring out the experts you're putting forward and what they need to succeed. How do you successfully handle big-ego experts, unwilling partners and dense language? And you're probably shuddering to think what reporters think of your balky experts, rightly so.

If so, you and I have a lot in common. I've spent most of my career working with smart folks and convincing them to participate in public communications, media interviews, testimony before legislatures, funder talks and other public forays. That's why I've created Be an Expert on Working with Experts, the workshop I wish I'd had at many points in my career. It's an intensive one-day session where you and other communicators can start creating solutions and new approaches to your work with experts, so you can be more effective at this important work--and it's based on my extensive experience working with experts of all kinds.

You'll get a substantial discount if you register by May 25--just $300 for the session, which includes continental breakfast, lunch and takeaway materials you can use again and again. After May 25, registration rises to $350, and all registration closes June 10 for this June 19 session in Washington, DC. Registrations are already coming in, and some participants have been on a waiting list for this workshop, so it pays to act quickly.

To get a collective communicators' wish list going, I'm asking registrants what their biggest challenges with experts are, and their questions about working with experts. Here are the challenges communicators are citing in their work with experts:

"wonky language"
experts who are "unwilling to rehearse"
the "belief that their priority should be everyone else's priority regarding news coverage"
"Scientists frequently seem to misunderstand the literacy of the public or the value of the editorial/ communications process."
"They seem to think everyone out there is a wonk with similar knowledge/interest/experience with their specialty."
"They don't grasp the need to talk to an audience that might not immediately see a reason to care about their issue."
"Confidence and overcoming what I consistently perceive as an age/experience barrier. While I'm in a senior position within my company I am years younger than many of my colleagues."

And their questions about working more effectively with experts include:

"What is the best way to communicate the difference between 'dumbing down' and 'being accessible'?"
"How to get past the expert's ego?"
"How can I get them to listen to a communications expert?"
"Any suggestions on how to deal with experts who think they are great interviews but are not?"
"Any ideas on how to convince an expert that "messaging" is a good use of their valuable time?"
"What are some techniques to encourage experts to think ahead for an interview instead of just diving in because they know their topic so well?"
"How can I preserve the content of the science but present in a publicly accessible way and a way that is comfortable to the scientist speaker? Sometimes, they seem uncomfortable with a speech written for them or over scripted."
"How to communicate with confidence? How to understand their vision without getting lost in the weeds? How to provide feedback that communicates collaboration rather than corrections?"

What's on your wish list when you work with experts? If these questions and challenges sound familiar to you, share your wish list in the comments, then register and join us on June 19.

Making it easy to blog, 12 ways: Session notes for my #NCIPAN talk

2012-05-08T08:05:00.000-04:00

This picture says it all for most companies and organizations who think of their blogs as bawling, hungry, insistent infants that needs a lot of care and feeding. Regular care and feeding, possibly at 2 a.m.

Maybe that's why only 149 hospitals of the 5.700 registered hospitals in the U.S. have blogs, says this article, which cites fears about time-intensiveness, risk-taking and executive buy-in as the big barriers for hospitals and health institutions. At the same time, health care institutions have plenty of incentive to use social tools and blogs specifically: A recent PwC study found that 41 percent of consumers said that social tools influenced their choice of a hospital, doctor or medical facility. Last year, a YouGov Healthcare study found that 57 percent of consumers felt that a hospital's social media connections would strongly influence a decision to receive treatment there--and that consumers were going to blogs and review sites as often as they went to the hospital's primary website for information.

With that in mind, I spoke yesterday to the National Cancer Institute Public Affairs and Marketing Network (PAN) on the "Care and Feeding of Your Blog" at the group's annual meeting yesterday in Portland, Oregon. This post will serve as the resource list for the session and let you get a sense of what we discussed. Anyone who wants to dive deep into blogging for business, from content ideas to analytics, should do that on Problogger, which has a great series on 31 days to building a better blog--well worth your time.

Many organization's blog efforts look like Rube Goldberg machines, with convoluted processes behind them, or like Christmas trees, decked out with something for everyone. So my talk focused on 11 ways to make it easier to blog, including:

Making your blog your social media basecamp -- the core of your social publishing -- so you can use other social networks like Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest to share posts from the blog, build the discussion and elicit comments.
Using ready-made platforms rather than over-customizing. One of the easiest ways to take the "easy" out of blogging is to over-customize existing platforms like Wordpress or Blogger. If you can fight the forces that want to overcomplicate your blog platform, you'll save lots of time and effort later.
Using only willing bloggers. That means not forcing your CEO to blog if she doesn't want to or isn't any good at it. Both employees and CEOs can make great bloggers. But if your CEO is willing, you can make it easier for her to blog by getting past these barriers, and sharing some great examples of CEO blogs (here's one by CEO Michael Hyatt, urging other CEOs not to use ghostwriters for blogs and tweets). Another good example is former HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt's blog, all done by himself. Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos, prefers to tweet, but says that CEOs should blog or tweet mainly to connect to the customer, and should start with email and the phone lines first. Don't be afraid to use CEO blogs from many sectors as inspiration.
Varying the length of blog posts, and not fearing the short post. Nothing wrong with a long post if the subject matter warrants it, but you'll get more reads and engagement with a crisp, short post. So why not chop that long post into 3 posts, and make a series out of it? It's also smart to make sure that you're not writing such a comprehensive post that you leave the reader nothing to say...so don't include every fact, and ask the readers to add their tips and ideas. Short ideas and partial drafts prepared ahead of time are two things that help me to blog more without working too hard.
Posting in the "sweet spot" of 3 times a week, minimum, with better results coming 5 times a week. Frequency signals readers that they should keep checking your blog for fresh reads, and it triggers search engines, too. I also urged the group not to ignore Saturdays, which are an important day for reader engagement.

To pull off what seems like a lot of posting at first, I recommended a series of tools and tactics that include:

Building a content stash of ideas and sources for posts, using tools like ifttt.com and Evernote. Used together, these tools--both free--can automate much of your information-gathering activity.
Waste nothing that could be the germ of an idea. Create blog posts that use comments as their basis, pull together three small news items to make one solid post, and use any reactions, kudos or interaction with your blog as content.
Categorize your stash based on the types of post formats you expect to use. Will you have opinion pieces, Q&A interviews, photo posts, video posts? Make sure your stash includes evergreen topics that can be inserted in the blog at any time, as well as some recurring features that encourage readers to come back on a regular basis. To engage readers, make sure you include posts that answer questions from real people, always the most compelling content (cancer center staff should ask nurses and call centers for the questions they field routinely as a starting point). And cultivate tipsters for your blog by making it known that you seek questions, ideas and contributions.
Encourage many contributors. Do your researchers and doctors know you want them to blog, and what the guidelines are for contributed posts? Don't assume they do. Hold competitions to choose bloggers, and feel free to field one team for a short-term, then ask for new contributors. (There's a good model of this from my clients at UMBC, which established a student blog about campus food with a team of student bloggers chosen by competition.)
Look for your employees who are blogging elsewhere: Don't forget to look to your researchers and staff who are blogging elsewhere, on sites not related to your center, like KevinMD--Klout's pick for most influential health and medicine blog--or any of the scientist-driven blogs at Science Online, a great annual conference for research bloggers. You might reprint a researcher's post for an external blog, like this City of Hope research fellow who shared a letter to her 12-year-old self at the blog Science Club for Girls. I also mentioned the BlogHer conference for women-focused bloggers, and cancer centers will want to note the special HealthMinder day at BlogHer for health-related bloggers. Remember: Your future blogger may be blogging elsewhere because someone made it easier for him. But even if that's so, you can still use those posts as content on your center's blogs, with permission.
Promote your blogs, using Google and Google+, Pinterest and Twitter--they're the most effective sites for driving blog traffic. Pinterest, the fastest-growing social site ever, is particularly good at driving web traffic, and you should look at these data and dashboards to help you use Pinterest to promote your blog and to make the use of Pinterest easier to manage. I'm working on an ebook on using Pinterest to promote your blog, so if you want to get on the heads-up list when it's ready, sign up here.
Look to your partners: Some foundations are helping grantees tell stories online on their blogs, like the Colorado Health Foundation, which offers technical assistance and financial help to its grantees for this purpose. NSF-funded researchers can request additional support to interpret and share research with broad public audiences, using tools like blogs.

I encouraged members of the NCI Public Affairs Network to consider attending my June 19 workshop, Be an Expert on Working with Experts, since many in the group are hoping to encourage scientists at their institutions to participate more actively in social media efforts. Registration is discounted at $300 per person until May 25, and is $350 thereafter or until the seats are filled--and they are filling fast!

And I welcome NCI PAN members' additional questions or links to their blogs-in-progress. Plenty of participants shared with me their plans for great blogs, so I'm looking forward to hearing more good examples to share on this blog.

Weekend read: My weekly share on Twitter, with jobs & a workshop

2012-05-04T05:45:00.000-04:00

Let's all slide into home and end the week together, teammates. It's Friday, and if you're going to spend an extra inning on anything, I hope it's my collection of the best baseball cards of the week -- that is, my reads, finds, data and other gems found in my Twitterstream. Here are my MVPs:

First base, first: Google+ has launched pages for brands and companies, and in keeping with its approach to Google+ overall, the launch version doesn't include everything one might wish. Patience, kids.
Mow that outfield: Lots of folks set up a LinkedIn personal profile and never visit the site again. Are you doing the same thing with your LinkedIn company page? Here's how to fix it. As for personal profiles, you might need some spring cleaning there, too. I've been using Copyblogger's 7 Quick Ways to Turn Your LinkedIn Profile into a Social Media Marketing Workhorse, and liking the results.
Scouting counts: If you're hiring someone to manage your Facebook page, here are 6 attributes of the perfect FB page administrator. Once you find her, please leave her name in the comments so the rest of us can lure her away...just kidding. I'm sure there are enough to go around.
You can take all the tickets, but there ain't no more gates to keep: Steve Buttry has wise words for journos (and communicators, too) in Gatekeepers need to find new value when the fences have blown away. Time to rethink your roles.
Make the crowd go wild: Despite its ordinary-sounding title, Five Ways to Get More Facebook Comments is one of the smarter, better posts I've read. Period. All Facebook's Julie Andrews writes it based on her own advice to you: "Do the work to pull out the controversial, spicy points and bring them to the surface." Would that all our posts could read this well.
Keep 'em in their seats: 27 Ways to Increase Engagement on Your Facebook Page is the SlideShare from John Haydon's recent webinar. I can hear the FB page tweaks going on even now, as more people read this.
Not quite a rookie: Inside Pinterest: An Overnight Sensation Four Years in the Making is a long, weekend-worthy read that will likely make you take Pinterest more seriously.
Names on those jerseys? Both Pinterest and Flickr are making it easier for users to attribute photos to their creators.

A smart job: UNC-Chapel Hill's School of Public Health is looking for a communications director.

That workshop you need: My next session on Be an Expert on Working With Experts takes place June 19 in Washington, DC--but communicators from top organizations are already signing up and seats are filling early in the game. There's been a waiting list for this session, so don't delay. You get a substantial discount for registering by May 25, although registration continues after until June 10 or until the seats are filled. Next week, I'll share the challenges and questions that registrants have about working with experts, so stay tuned. (And just think of the networking you could get done with other top communicators in this small-group session.) I look forward to seeing you there.

Another working weekend for me. As you read this, I'm in Portland, Oregon, for the annual meeting of the National Cancer Institute Public Affairs and Marketing Network, where I'll be sharing secrets and strategies for the care and feeding of your blogs. (There'll be a post next week summarizing points from the session and resources you can use for your own blog.) Follow the PAN link and scroll down the front page to find another link to job postings for communications posts at cancer centers, a useful resource. Now: Take care of the weekend festivities for me, willya? I know you can hit this one out of the park.

You and the overused word: A major problem of historic proportions

2012-05-03T05:05:00.000-04:00

Do you have a thesaurus (or a link to one) handy? Better send it up to the state house in Albany, where the strategy of announcing many of the governor's initiatives as "historic" has come under the lens of the New York Times. And the idea that the adjective bears repeating is taking a beating. Of the governor's penchant for apparently historic moves, the Times wrote:

On his fifth day in office, he challenged lawmakers to “write a new page in the history book of New York State government,” and his administration has done just that more than 80 times, judging by the number of press releases issued by his office that described one of the governor’s actions as historic.

You know you're in trouble when they pull out all the press releases and start searching for word usage, and in this case, the Times found the term in releases, presentations, verbal remarks and more. Want to stay out of that historic trap of major proportions? Typically, the trouble includes these factors:

The repetitive term's a distraction: "There's that word again," wrote a reporter live-blogging a statehouse news conference. Just like too many ums or overuse of words like "actually" in public speaking, overusing a favorite messaging word means that at some point, close observers will start counting how many times you use it--and at that point, they're not listening to or reading you.
All those internal rationales don't fly outside your office: I can hear someone saying "But it really is historic!" even now. Despite that, it's not an argument that will hold water beyond your close circles. Just think of all the historians out there to whom you've given the chance to write op-eds explaining exactly why your initiative isn't historic.
Everything can't have the same status: As the Times points out, not all of the initiatives smack of historic proportions, and if all your programs are historic, all your grants are major, all your students are above average and all the food is safe, you're removing what makes them special and attention-getting by giving them the same status.
This happens a lot with adjectives and adverbs: If you're going to keep a sharp editor's eye on something, adjectives and adverbs are usually the culprits in overuse...so tempting. You can nip this in the writing bud by insisting on more concrete nouns and active verbs to describe your products, programs and people.
Alternatives do exist: Repeat after me: thesaurus.com. But first, do a word search on your documents to see what your most overused words are, and keep a list of them posted as a warning. At a major foundation I worked for, we actually banned the word "major" from descriptors of our grants for a while, and you may need a similar no-fly list.

Can you be deft with delete? Erasing the record in social media

2012-05-01T06:11:00.000-04:00

That delete button's awfully easy to use--in fact, some social platforms help you out by automatically deleting certain drafts and other types of posts. But even without the help, the penchant for erasing or editing the record is a powerful reflex, and it's commonplace to see people deleting errant tweets, Facebook status updates, photos, and videos.

I use "see" for a reason, because no matter how stealthy you are, those deletions are in large part visible--which makes social deletions a double-edged sword. Sure, they get rid of the primary record, and to some, I think social media has an ephemeral feel. But other evidence lives on, and people are watching, able to serve as witnesses to the original. Under the microscope of social media, there's a whole lotta flinching going on when deletions are discovered.

I've been collecting string on deletions for some time. Here's the state of play I'm seeing, and I'd love for you to add some evidence in the comments:

The tweet, deleted

Maybe because they're short, or easy to send quickly, or reactive in nature, errant tweets are often deleted, for reasons as small as a typo and as large as a very public faux pas. But in the society around social media, deleting tweets is frowned upon, a blunt tool used where an apology, explanation or just plain silence would do.

The urge to delete tweets isn't unusual or limited to one group. Even editors at the New York Times have been known to delete staffer tweets they found inappropriate. Among Inc. magazine's top 12 list of social media blunders in 2011, misfired tweets (and some ham-handed deletions) made the list. Another high-profile whoops-deletion came from a Komen executive who posted, then deleted a tweet with a pointed, offensive comment about Planned Parenthood during the dust-up over the cancer charity's decision to cut off funding to Planned Parenthood--a case of personal feeling overcoming a professional mien. And presidential candidate Mitt Romney's new spokesperson went on a tweet-deleting binge the day after his appointment was announced. Jezebel blog kept track, as reporters are wont to do:

While he's done some writing on his personal site (which has since been taken down, but major props for using GoDaddy.com for hosting), the majority of his inflammatory comments were made on Twitter. On Friday (the day after his hiring was announced), his Twitter feed showed 7,577 tweets. By yesterday morning, he was down to 6,759 tweets. That's a little over 800 tweets he doesn't want us to see anymore—despite the fact that he once thought they were fit to post in a very public place.

Noted Internet researcher Danah Boyd, who had harrassing comments projected in a live Twitterstream behind her while she gave a keynote, had no documentation left when the harrassers deleted their tweets--but documented it in a forthright blog post, herself. This kind of deletion can be the most damaging kind, causing many users to question the victim of the attacks simply because the Twitterstream was changed by the deletions and no evidence remained.

Despite the apparent urge to correct via the delete button, there are more honest and well-received alternatives if you want to avoid committing two errors at once. In journalism (and perhaps for your communications office), when you need to make a factual correction to an errant tweet, the standard these days is to retweet the error with its correction--without deleting the error. Yes, you might take some hits, but you'll avoid the backlash that comes with attempting to erase what has already been seen--and the chance are very good that your deletions will get plenty of attention, and not the good kind.

Discovering deletes: Other media

Facebook status updates might be next in line for most-frequently deleted. In What would you do about this Facebook post?, a small-business owner thinks through what to do about an employee's disgruntled status update on Facebook, and gets some "leave it alone" advice from an HR expert. But if you look at the link above for the biggest social blunders of 2011, you'll find plenty of issues involving Facebook deletions, from ill-thought-out posts to issues around deleting angry comments from consumers on corporate announcements. And guess what? When you delete their comments, commenters take to their own platforms to report the deletion, sometimes making more of a splash than would the original comment.

Deletions in other kinds of media are being handled or discovered for you by technology, providing evidence in some cases. In some jurisdictions, video of police interactions with citizens are being taken with tiny cameras worn by officers. The video cannot be deleted while it remains in the camera. And YouTube will give you a heads-up when videos that you've added to a playlist are deleted, whether by the person posting them or due to copyright violations--in effect, a direct heads-up that perhaps someone thought differently about that video.

Recovering deletes

Recovery of emails can be important in legal and journalistic investigations, in which your internal business goes public. OneShar.es lets you email information that self-destructs after one viewing. Co-founder and CTO Jerry Thompson says "with the amount of free space offered by Gmail and other services, there’s little reason or incentive to actually delete these emails.” And the new Google Apps Vault is changing how emails get saved, searched and later deleted:

Gmail business customers are about to get some help. Google Apps Vault lets IT staff set make sure that all relevant emails are stored forever, then gives them an easy way to search those emails. Before, staffers would have had to download each user's inbox to a new location and search all of them manually -- and even then, users might have deleted potentially incriminating emails. Vault also lets IT staff set policies for when an email should be deleted. For instance, when an employee leaves the company, Vault could be set to automatically delete all emails to and from that employee within 90 days. That could be useful because Gmail (unlike traditional email systems) is designed to store everything forever.

In many cases, delete isn't as all-powerful an option as you may think. Deleted Facebook photos remain cached, for example. Even those deleted tweets don't disappear entirely, particularly direct messages, which can be found and published by third-party apps to which you've given permission. So much for off-the-record tweets.

Do you have a policy about how your company or organization handles deletions on social media? Is it clear to everyone who's posting? I'd love to hear about policies you use in the comments.

Weekend read: My weekly share on Twitter

2012-04-27T05:27:00.000-04:00

I hope you have a handle on what went down in your world this week, because it's time for the weekend. I've had a jam-packed month and it's been a jam-packed week in my Twitter stream. Time for me to get a handle on the best ideas and finds from others on Twitter, and I do that with this curated collection. Can you handle it? I expect so:

Gold-medal strategy? NBC announced it will live-stream anything at the Olympics "that has a camera on it," but won't archive any footage until after the broadcast.
Road warrior tool: I love Belkin's mini-surge protector for travel, but this new version sits flush against the wall, a design improvement. Belkin has periodic 50-percent-off-everything sales if you can be patient.
News of all kinds: Good: 58 percent of Fortune 500 Companies have a Facebook page. Not so good: 31 percent of Facebook pages have fewer than 31 fans. Unless the 31 are exactly the people you want to reach, of course.
Get a handle on this: Your profile picture on Facebook's going to get bigger--and this post has the specs so you can get started.
Does your door have the right address? 64% of listings on Foursquare are inaccurate. Have you done some housecleaning on your location's presence there? This post shows what you might be missing if you don't.
Where has the time gone? Last year, YouTube had more than 1 trillion views, or more than 140 views for every person on earth. This year, the site turns 7 years old. What were we doing 8 years ago?
What does engagement mean? If you think it's a goal, think again. Engagement is a result. Adjust your approach to social media accordingly.
A door opens on health reporters' social media use: Maryn McKenna Storifyed this panel at the Association of Health Care Journalists meeting on how health reporters use social media.

And here's a great job, from a group to which I belong: The Communications Network, an association of communicators in philanthropy, is looking for a community manager. Send this to smart people you know.

What a month it's been--but I know I wouldn't have made it this far without you. Thanks, as always, for hanging out here. We'll always have the weekend...

Communicators: Gain expertise on experts on June 19

2012-04-26T08:10:00.000-04:00

When you work with subject-matter experts--scientists, policy wonks or other smart folks--to get them to communicate clearly in public settings, how does it go? Do they blow off media interviews you've worked hard to set up? Or do they agree to training opportunities, then blow them up? Maybe they've got a high-level fear of failure that keeps them quiet when opportunities come around. No matter what, you know something's gone wrong...but what to do about it?

After a career of working with smart folks, scientists and experts, I've developed the workshop I wish I'd had much earlier--and it works well whether you're a newbie communicator or a seasoned pro. Be an Expert on Working with Experts returns on Tuesday, June 19, 2012, here in Washington, DC. Register for this unusual professional development opportunity and learn about:

Your experts' default communications style and why you're asking them to do the exact opposite of what they've learned, as well as how to bridge the gap;
Handling introverts, extroverts and egos, and how each one responds differently to your coaching;
Why they don't need to "dumb down" their expertise, and how to handle this and other common objections they raise to communicating with non-technical audiences;
Handling hands-on feedback to smart people, pushback and Q&A when you're training experts. Find out what they don't know--but won't tell you--and how to fix that.

Early registration is recommended--this workshop has had a growing waiting list, and registrations are already coming in.

Many participants in this workshop come with a work partner or team, which helps them to continue reinforcing the learning on their own. But even if you register on your own, you'll come away with tactics and resources you can use again and again with experts of every type. Due to the specialized nature of the workshop, attendees learn from one another as well as from me--we wind up having insightful conversations based on what's really happening in your communications efforts today. The workshop is a small-group session to allow plenty of time for hands-on exercises, discussion and your particular questions, and you'll get plenty of takeaway materials for ongoing reference.

Register now at the early registration rate of $300 per person. (If you're on don't get caught on Facebook, you can register at this link.) After May 25, registration will be $350, and all registration closes on June 10. You'll get continental breakfast and lunch at the workshop, which is conveniently located right next to the Red Line Metro Center stop in downtown Washington, DC, close to Amtrak trains and with convenient nearby parking. Sign up today! I'm looking forward to sharing insights with you at this special--and specialized--professional development opportunity.

The socialized op-ed: 4 new options for opinion pieces

2012-04-24T05:05:00.000-04:00

We pay less attention to them than the shiny social tools, but op-eds and opinion articles really expanded their range and came into their own in social media. Some of the first corporate blogs were, in essence, op-ed platforms that shared official and dissenting opinions. Today, your op-ed has many options thanks to social media. Here are four I've been noticing:

Questioning the questioner: Question sites from Quora to Ask.com allow for a longer discussion of the question posed by your op-ed, so think of them as the after-party for your opinion posts. Mashable's roundup of the web's most buzzworthy questions of 2011 included several discussions of op-eds and opinions, such as the parenting discussion on Quora about Is Amy Chua right when she explains why Chinese mothers are superior in an op-ed? The question led to readers sharing experiences and included responses from Chua. Take a leaf from her book, op-ed authors, and take to question sites to continue the discussion on your next opinion piece.
Video documentary as op-ed: The New York Times calls them "op-docs," a name that might need some work. The idea: Use short, opinionated documentaries as opinion "articles" online. This week, Taking the Waste Out of Wastewater offers the latest example of the form; the package includes a commentary/introduction from the filmmaker. That gives communicators a new option for op-ed submissions to news sites--or the inspiration to post their own docu-op-eds online.
A wider landscape for op-eds: Traditional news media outlets aren't your only options for op-eds. Popular blogs like Mashable feature op-eds (try this one on 10 features missing from Pinterest), and there's no reason you can't approach a popular news blog to ask whether it would publish an opinion piece from your organization.
Get educated on the ed board: It's always good to suss out your intended media targets, but editorial boards have been short on transparency, traditionally. Not so the Florida Sun-Sentinal, where the ed board is tweeting its meetings in part to show how its opinions are formed. It's a surprisingly open discussion of whether topics qualify for editorial treatment. If you're thinking of an op-ed on the topic, it's an essential eavesdrop opportunity.

How are you using social networks for your op-eds and opinion articles? Share in the comments.

Weekend read: My weekly share on Twitter

2012-04-20T09:11:00.000-04:00

Are you looking for the door prize today...or just the door? Here's your gateway to the weekend, with plenty of prizes in the form of data, resources and ideas I picked up in my Twitter stream this week. Everyone can be a winner with this collection of great finds:

More prize for your ticket: Facebook ads have 35 times the reach of comparable spending on Google ads.
Mining the past for prizes: DataSift customers can access two years of past Twitter status updates--and can use maps to mine some of that Twitter data in interesting ways.
Prize-winning meetings? Rebooting the medical meeting: 8 lessons from TEDMED has fresh observations on what worked for this physician-attendee. Having done speaker coaching at this conference, I'm glad he liked the well-prepared speakers, I have to say. Lots of those speakers are looking over my post Instead of wincing,10 things to look for on that video of your speech, from The Eloquent Woman blog. Videos from TEDMED will be posted in about 3-4 weeks.
For the winner of the I Have Plenty of Time Award: Here are 8 alternatives to Pinterest. Please let me know if you try any of them and how you found the time.
A real winner: You'd think PR people would understand that Twitter is not there as a board for their complaints about journos, but examples like this keep cropping up: Hill & Knowlton intern fired for insulting journalist on Twitter.
Winning personality=winning podcast: Want a popular podcast? Lead with your personality.
My prize for good writing goes to this. I love blogs that make me hungry and jealous of the good writing.
The winning ticket: "Keep Bill Wyman away from Keith," and other to-do items from the Rolling Stones 1976 tour.
The dance prize: Ivan Oransky catches the New England Journal of Medicine in describing how it (along with other journals) uses embargoes in a "carefully choreographed production" to get media attention, on Embargo Watch.

For me, this is a working weekend: Today, I'm at the University of Oregon today, delivering a lecture on women and public speaking, and tomorrow, facilitating a communicating science workshop there. But I feel certain I can delegate the getting-the-weekend-started chores to you, can't I? Thanks, as usual, for hanging around on the blog this week.

Where to catch me: With the University of Oregon Women in Graduate Science

2012-04-19T06:09:00.000-04:00

This weekend, I'll be speaking and working with the University of Oregon Women in Graduate Science for two sessions, including:

A lecture on "The Eloquent Woman: Issues for Women in Public Speaking" on Friday, April 20th, with a reception following, and
A daylong workshop on "Communicating Science: Skills for Scientists to Reach Public Audiences" on Saturday, April 21st. Spaces for this workshop are limited and pre-registration is needed.

Details on both sessions are at the link above. I'm excited to have the chance to discuss two specialized topics that are both relevant to this group of motivated young women in science, and I'm eager to hear their experiences in public speaking and outreach to non-technical public audiences.

If you're surprised that a group of graduate students is hiring me to train them in communicating science to the public, it's time to catch up. I'm seeing more interest from groups of science graduate students in seeking the funding and help to learn smart communications skills, so don't count out these early career communicators. I'm grateful to Jim Barlow, director of science and research communications at the University of Oregon, for pointing this group my way, and to Sarah Brady, synthetic polymer inorganic chemist and seminar chair for the UO Women in Graduate Science, who has organized these events with a thoughtfulness and enthusiasm that makes me eager to get to Eugene today.

Data and dashboards to help you reconsider how you use Pinterest

2012-04-17T05:05:00.001-04:00

So many marketers dismissed Pinterest as a hobbyist site, dominated by women--some estimates said as many as 90 percent of the users were women--that many male marketers I know don't give it a second thought, or just aren't sure how to use it for business. But it's time to take a fresh look at Pinterest, now that it sits behind only Twitter and Facebook in terms of traffic. That, in turn, makes it a powerful driver of traffic to your blog, social presence or website. (And current estimates put the proportion of female users at about 60 percent, by the way.) Here's what's been happening that might change your use of Pinterest:

More business uses

You'll find a surprising array of business uses, and some creative reinterpreting of what pinned items can be to a business. Here are some examples:

Baseball cards: Major League Baseball is all over Pinterest in a big way, timed with the season openers. In addition to its own boards, every MLB team is represented on Pinterest, with boards about the ballparks, player lineups for the season, product lines and more. This will take your baseball card collection to new heights--and is a smart marketing move.
Office furniture catalogs: Moving beyond pinned images from living rooms and bedrooms, some companies are using Pinterest to encourage employees to post suggestions for office redesigns or new office furniture. If those are your products, shouldn't you make it easy for them to post images from your catalog?
Postcard messaging: Taking advantage of Pinterest users' love of short, snappy messages delivered in graphic form, NPR issued a board full of "valentines" about its programs and even included a shout-out to a funder among them. Your company or nonprofit can take its tagline for a ride in the same way. Make sure your messaging is easy to repin here.
Collectibles case: Ferrari has its store on Pinterest for small products, like accessories, games and clothing as well as its line of Ferrari collectibles.

Yup, those are boards that only women would follow, I'm sure. You can find more ideas in my post on 17 things you can pin on Pinterest that are not pillows or dresses, and I collect more examples like these on the board Great ways to use Pinterest, which is frequently updated with new examples of business uses, along with data and tips for using Pinterest.

3 new tools for managing your Pinterest presence

As Pinterest matures as a social network, tools and apps are being developed to help you better manage your presence. Here are a few to check out:

Repinly will give you a better look at what and who is popular on Pinterest. Prepare to be astonished at the users with millions of followers. You can use Repinly as a directory to find popular users in your subject category, see pinned items that are trending (with the data behind them), and what topics are popular on the very useful statistics page.
Pinerly, still in limited beta, promises ways to schedule your pins, plus additional analytics. Mashable walks you through the service here. I'm working my way into the beta, which cleverly asks that your friends sign up to get you further into the service, so please use this link to sign up....I promise to report back on what's inside the beta once I make it in.
This infographic from Dan Zarrella uses analysis of Pinterest photos to help you get pinned and repinned, using factors like amount of text and height of photos to guide you.

What are you using Pinterest for? Share your approaches in the comments.

Weekend read: My weekly share on Twitter, with favorites

2012-04-13T05:05:00.000-04:00

Were you communicating with other worlds this week, or just out of your usual range? No matter--you can turn your signal toward the weekend, which is just ahead. This week, I had lots of good reads and finds in my orbit, via my Twitter stream, and I've sorted out the space junk and lined up the planets I found just for you:

Looky here. No, here: Inside Facebook walks you through an eye-tracking study that shows how FB users are interacting with the new timeline pages for six major brands. It suggests users are still finding their ways around the new format, but you'll gain some good insights.
Share that look: Uploading webcam images to your blog just got easier if you use Google's Blogger.
Know your place: 1 in 4 Facebook users are adding location tags to their posts. Are your locations a presence for FB users? Don't forget that as users add past events to their timelines, they'll be tagging locations from long ago as well as those of today.
See this brilliant read: Camera phone inventor Philippe Kahn says the future of mobile is motion. A must-read.
Hangouts still puzzling you? Here are 10 tips for using Google+ Hangouts for business.
Everything old is new again: You can find a record shop on Google Maps.
Plus-up: Google+ is about to get Google Analytics.
Oh, really? Book agent Robert Gottlieb confesses he finds authors through Amazon, and notes that it does something the book industry never has done well: "work on authors’ behalf in terms of marketing and promotion, which has not existed previously in our industry.” Whoops. Someone just admitted what authors have long known.

My weekly mantra: I'm grateful for your readership--and have a fantastic weekend!

You're a top communicator. Why would you need speaker training?

2012-04-12T05:05:00.002-04:00

In every communications director post I've ever had, I saw myself as a behind-the-scenes person, a strategist and advisor. And in every one of those posts, my image was the opposite: Fellow executives described me as the out-front person, and made all sorts of assumptions about my public speaking and presenting skills. It felt as if those bars were set higher for me. No one would expect the finance director or the head of operations to hit one out of the park in a presentation, but the communications pro? Had to be excellent.

No wonder I get puzzled queries from communications pros about public speaking, many at my blog The Eloquent Woman or in the training sessions I conduct across the country. They're apologetic, or defensive, or just confused. "Shouldn't I already know how to present? After all, I'm a communicator," or "Why don't I feel more confident about speaking? Shouldn't I be a natural at it?" or "It's too late now--I've been doing this for years."

Here's the truth: Just as you weren't born a writer or strategist, you weren't born a great public speaker or presenter. It's a skill we give short shrift to in the business world. Plenty of people give presentations, but few are taught how--or what they could do better. If the skills are learned at all in a formal setting, they're rarely updated for new technologies or best practices, even though the art of presenting has moved light years from what you may have started out with. And just like others, you might be an introvert who needs a different approach to presenting, or a young executive who needs to establish credibility, or a seasoned pro who's picked up some bad habits and needs to unlearn them. Being a communications pro doesn't mean you're perfect, after all. In fact, I've seen communicators so used to putting their experts out in front that they stumbled when they had to do the honors at a speech, presentation or media interview. Maybe that's too comfortable a position for those of us working "behind the scenes."

Professional development opportunities--good ones--get harder and harder to find as you advance in any field, and that's true in communications as well. Over time, I've found that the skills I've developed in public speaking and presenting are the ones I use every day, just as much as I use that other skill we spend so much time developing, writing. They work at networking events, in one-on-one conversations, in speeches and presentations, when I have to give impromptu remarks or introduce someone--or just explain what it is I do. And if you believe, as some do, that we'll all be entrepreneurs and free agents at some point, take it from me: Presenting well and with confidence will make your business thrive.

These days, I offer training in media interview skills, public speaking and presenting, among other services, and I'm happy to tailor communications training for communicators. While you're scheduling training for your experts and fellow executives, maybe it's time to put some on the schedule for yourself. You can choose to customize that training, by the way. Ask me about a session that gets at your weak spots, prepares you for a bigger audience or a different presenting task, or gets you ready for your next professional move. I've been there, myself, and I'd be happy to help you.

Social goldmine: NTEN's crowdsourced conference notes

2012-04-10T05:05:00.001-04:00

NTEN's Nonprofit Technology Conference took place last week, and the conference set up a fantastic resource that's a social media goldmine for you. A series of Google Docs were created and participants were encouraged to share their notes in a great collaboration.

You'll find a spreadsheet to track the sessions and notes here, which includes links to the collective notes, indicators for sessions without notes, and an "all notes" document, along with instructions for saving all the notes into Evernote. Note-takers covered major points, juicy quotes and lists of resources, so this array of notes represents one of the most useful tools I've seen come out of a professional conference. Don't be stopped by the nonprofit label: They're useful for nonprofits, companies, entrepreneurs and more, and cover technical topics as well as content development, social tools, IT governance, community management and more.

Why don't we have more of this? That's what I'll be asking the conferences I attend. Enjoy this flood of smart resources on technology and social media. (Hat tip to Zan McColloch-Lussier for the pointer to this great resource, and kudos to the NTEN organizers.)

Weekend read: My weekly share on Twitter

2012-04-06T05:05:00.000-04:00

How was your week? Nice and spicy, or too hot to handle? Get a taste of the weekend here, with my recipe for success. The ingredients list comes from the data, resources and ideas that came through my Twitter stream. They'll have you feeling like a Top Chef just in time for the weekend:

Heating up search: Now you can use that Google search box to find resources suitable for particular reading levels, or to plot a 3D graph.
All seeds, no heat: Did you wonder how those studies on fan engagement with Facebook timelines could come out so fast? Inside Facebook advises "Ignore them." Find out why.
The spice of life: Ever wonder how to do what you love? Paul Graham has, and shares some good ideas in this long and thoughtful read.
Best of the bunch: My protip for making sense of SXSW: Find good thinkers and get their insights. The Colorado Health Foundation's communications director for web and new media, Lisa Harris, shares her SXSW inspirations and insights here.
Farmville knows you like peppers: Put aside those other privacy concerns. The real question is: How much do your friends' Facebook apps know about you?
Hot (CEO) suite: Your CEO will be seen as more trustworthy if she's using social media. Says so right here.
Pepper-e: Check out these 5 ebook hurdles and how to get around, over and through them.
Add flavor to your music explorations: Seevl, a Chrome extension, will add liner notes and ways to discover more music when you watch YouTube music videos. Oh, dear. There goes the rest of the week.
Pep up your page, 2 ways: Involver has added an easy-to-use, no-code way to build custom apps for your Facebook page timeline. And now UStream brings live video to your Facebook timeline. Let the games begin...
No budget for spices? The 2012 Nonprofit Social Networking Benchmark Report has lots of good data, and this gem: 43 percent of the nonprofits surveyed budget exactly $0 for social networking.
Get it while it's hot: The Associated Press Stylebook Online will go up in price 5 percent in May, the first price increase since 2007....you know what to do now.

Next week, I'm diving into TEDMED, which takes place here in Washington--so let me know if I can find you there. And this week, as always, I'm grateful for your readership. Enjoy the weekend!

What's your advice for the rising communicator?

2012-04-05T05:05:00.000-04:00

A while back, readers and I shared advice for the rookie public information officer, and a couple of readers asked whether I'd update that post for the next rung up the ladder: Communicators who are still early career, but not quite newbies--say three to five years into their communications careers.

This time, I'm going to start you off with my list and ask you to continue it by putting your advice in the comments. Here's what I'd advise the rising communicator:

If the job or the boss turn out to be awful, beat tracks: No one ever said, "I wish I'd spent more time at that awful job." It's easier and less expensive for you and your company if you leave when you figure out that it's not a good fit for you. So do it. You'll put years back on your life and have less to regret later. Trust me.
Ask for training in presentation skills: Looking back, my own career expanded when I was pushed to do presentations to high-level decision-makers. It's a skill I've been honing and using ever since--and now that I teach those skills to others, my favorite callers say "That training just helped me get a promotion!" Ask your organization to invest in your training, and keep practicing.
Decide whether you need special communications skills to advance: Media relations has traditionally been a requirement for communicators to advance to management ranks, so if you haven't worked with reporters, it may be time to find opportunities to do so. But it's not the only special skill out there. Think about any special skills you need, then go out and get some training.
Decide what you don't need to learn: Will you be coding--or just supervising people who do? Must you learn graphic design, or can you just learn to work effectively with graphic designers? I will never regret having learned early in my career how to work with graphic designers and manage production, without having to do it all myself--and I get better results when I hire designers, photographers, videographers and other specialists, even today.
Figure out how to gain management experience: That might mean managing the intern or the office staff meeting to start, but you need to try managing--even if you don't expect to be a manager. Ask for more responsibility each time you prove yourself at a management task.

Now it's your turn: Mentor a rising communicator and add your wisdom in the comments, please. What would you advise? What would you leave out, at this stage? I'm looking forward to a long list, with your help.

Using Evernote with your freelancers: 5 ways

2012-04-03T05:05:00.000-04:00

If you're like me, you think of a program like Evernote as your own private stash, an internal resource/goldmine/backup system that only you use. But it was one of my freelance writers who turned me on to Evernote a couple of years ago, so I knew from the start that it also can be an outstanding tool for collaboration. Here are some of the ways you might consider putting Evernote to work with your freelance writers, artists, designers and other pros:

Share source material: For freelancers who write recurring features for me, we put source material into a shared notebook to which we both have access in Evernote. It includes a list of story ideas as well as material clipped from various sources on the Web, from photos and video to articles. Opening access to materials can save time for both of you--no need to call or email to ask or share. This works well enough that I'm planning to open more notebooks (fair warning, freelancers). You can email notebooks to freelancers right from Evernote, or just change the settings to give them access.
Share drafts and ancillary material: I can review and make notes on draft articles, and receive everything from video and audio notes to photos to accompany the text, all in Evernote. If I have a thought on the fly, I can use my smartphone and the Evernote app to record an audio note and send it right into that notebook. And now that Evernote's Android app has a speech-to-text feature that transcribes while retaining the recording, no one needs to transcribe my note.
Forward correspondence: You get a special email address with Evernote, so you can forward emails you receive (or anything else) right into your notebooks. Emails sent to this address go to your default notebook, but you can direct them to other notebooks just by adding @[NOTEBOOK NAME] to the subject line. (You can tag them by adding #[TAG NAME], too.) Want to save yourself a step? Give the Evernote email address to your freelancers and let them send correspondence to a pre-designated notebook.
Track and send invoices: I keep files for each freelancer with her invoices and a spreadsheet that tracks payments. Some email the invoices into my Evernote files; others have shared notebooks and just keep the invoicing updated by adding a new one to the notebook.
Samples and portfolios: A couple of smart freelancers have shared their notebooks full of samples for me to review--and if they're as smart as I think they are, those notebooks are customized to particular potential clients. If I were still a freelance writer, I'd also keep Evernote notebooks of my work, arranged by subject, style and length, just for good measure. The contents are synchronized as you add items to the notebook, so it's a great way to have a standing portfolio of your work that's updated automatically. If you don't want to give potential clients direct access, you can publish your samples notebook to the web, hosted by Evernote, and send a URL to those needing to see your samples.

Do you use Evernote or something similar with your freelancers? Share your tips in the comments.

Weekend read: My weekly share on Twitter

2012-03-30T05:05:00.000-04:00

If you're tired of the explorations and forced marches you had to make through the jungle that is your desk this week, put your feet up. It's time for the weekend read, full of trail markers that are my best finds, reads and resources from my Twitter stream. No need to wander back into that jungle. Follow this path to your weekend retreat:

You need a map to explore news: Bitly analyzed data state-by-state about where people get their news, based on who clicked on which links where. Forbes kicked it into an interactive map. Have fun exploring.
No need for binoculars here: You can now see Facebook photos full-screen and in high resolution.
That's not quicksand: It's your Facebook page interaction data that will soon give you a sinking feeling, as FB starts to change how it counts your fans' visits to your page.
Ear to the ground? Or to Evernote? Windows or Mac users can use Callnote to record Skype calls and save the audio to Evernote.
Happy trails? These folks have it all mapped out for you: Google Maps Mania, a great blog for all things mappish, profiles AllTrails, whose 200,000 members have mapped more than 45,000 trails on Google Maps. Crowdsourced directions, anyone?
Lost in the FB timeline jungle? Facebook timelines take effect today for all Facebook pages. Here's sound advice on what to pin to the top of your timeline. Still lost in the jungle? Go here to sign up for my free notebook full of updated articles on how to implement the Facebook timeline for your page.
Blog your way out of the jungle: Here's a case made--10 reasons long--for why blogging tops Facebook for brands.
Or you could, um, wall off that jungle: Turns out some brands have turned off the option for fans to send them private messages, a feature built into Facebook timelines for brands. Find out who's doing what.

Clients are starting to book late spring and early summer training sessions and consultations in social media, public speaking, media interview skills--for individuals or for groups. What can I help you with? Email me at info[at]dontgetcaught[dot]biz, and don't forget: I'm happiest when you spend time getting lost in this blog. Have an amazing weekend!

Media interview smarts: Explain your process or method

2012-03-29T05:05:00.000-04:00

When I'm coaching subject-matter experts for media interviews, they often make the mistake of thinking they need to simplify what they have to say so much that all detail is stripped out of it. Not so, and I think that's especially true when it comes to sharing some of your process or method, whether you're talking about research or a regulation.

Here's the thing: Very little is obvious--and even if it seems to be, reporters still need you to describe it so their readers/listeners/viewers can understand it. A case in point, in book form, can be found in Why Calories Count: From Science to Politics. The two nutrition researchers use the introduction to prominently explain all the reasons that nutrition, and calories, are difficult to research with accuracy. It's a great clear explanation that helps the reader get all the way through the book.

In interviews, there are more volatile reasons to include an explanation of your methods. For example, omitting an explanation of your process may imply you didn't have one, a dangerous thing in a controversy. You'll add to your credibility and that of your company or organization if you take the extra time to make clear the steps you took. Here are some prompts to get you to start sharing more about your process in media interviews:

How did you arrive at your findings, decision or choice? If there was a formal process, describe it. Scientists, here's where we want your methodology, and anything else we need to know to understand it. Policy makers, how was the sausage made? If others had to weigh in on a policy matter, share that. Don't assume we know about what went into that tough call on your part, or how you came to your conclusion.
What prompts the delay between an issue arising and your action? If you can't assure the safety of city drinking water until the tests come back from the lab, and that takes three days, say so. If accusations have been made but an investigation and a board deliberation have to take place first, describe those steps. When something prompts questions, but your action won't happen immediately, that's not a bad thing--as long as you make clear why.
Can you characterize it as a close call, unanimous, or a long and hard-fought debate? When you emerge with a board policy position, weigh in on a public debate on behalf of your members, or take a position based on feedback from your users, characterize the discussion for us--and the reporter. Your process, in this instance, can underscore the variety of views (or singular purpose) reflected by your crowd, and add perspective to a policy.

If you've got a good example where explaining your method made a difference in an interview, share it in the comments....

Etch-a-Sketch tests for your next analogy: 3 fixes to use

2012-03-27T05:05:00.000-04:00

The analogy worked so well, it went viral. All over the U.S., people hearing the quote could picture exactly what the spokesperson was talking about, so concrete and easy to understand was the comparison he chose. “Everything changes. It’s almost like an Etch A Sketch. You can kind of shake it up and restart all over again.”

An aide to presidential candidate Mitt Romney uttered those words, prompting endless jabs from his opponents and coining a whole new way to say "flip-flop." Unfortunately it wasn't a well-chosen analogy, just a well-phrased one. Here are three ways analogies can trip you up, and how to fix them before you blurt them out:

When you use analogies to describe very large numbers, extra caution is called for, since most audiences don't have a sense of the number you're using to make the comparison. The Wall Street Journal's "numbers guy," Carl Bialik, writes here about using analogies to describe very large numbers and shares some bad examples, like the website that figured every American adult could buy two pairs of Manolo Blahnik pumps for the cost of the war in Iraq. He notes: "...one popular device is to describe a stack of bills stretching into space." Rather than stack up dollar bills or lay them out in a line a million miles long, don't compound the problem. Make the analogy simple: One expert suggested using costs per person rather than stacked-up cash. Check out Bialik's blog post on this column, which includes links to all sorts of sites that help you visualize numbers and dollars, as well as some real-life good and bad examples of analogies stretching to make big numbers more manageable.
When you haven't tested the analogy, you get the Etch-a-Sketch problem: A facile analogy that unfortunately helps your opponent make a point against you. It's worth it to test your analogies in advance for clarity, brevity and that all-important "Russert test" we do in Washington, turning your words against you as your opponent (or a tough reporter) will do. The test was one used by the late "Meet the Press" host Tim Russert and any guests savvy enough to know it, often after getting hoist with their own petards during a bad experience on the air. In the Etch-a-Sketch analogy, pundits and comics were, by the weekend, pointing out how apt it was for politics, since you can swivel the knobs to the left or the right--and that's just one example of how this analogy could be used against you.
When your analogy doesn't stand the test of time, you may miss your audience completely by packing an out-of-date comparison that goes right over their heads--in which case, you've wasted precious time in an interview or speech. (The Etch-a-Sketch veers very close to being outdated, saved by the many Baby Boomer users and the fact that it is still manufactured today.) That works in the other direction, too, when you use a current pop analogy that older audiences might not get. Check out my four timeliness tests for your next analogy.

Do you have good--or misfired--analogies to share as learning examples? Put 'em in the comments....