Be Brief!

Written by Stephen D. Boyd


Centuries ago great speakers often spoke two hours and more. But today when sound bytes on television news arerepparttar norm and serious problems are solved in an hour on a television drama, audiences are most interested in speakers that get their points across in a short period of time. In a speech delivered to a Women in Communication audience, Patricia Ward Brash said, “Television has helped create an impatient society, where audiences expect us to make our point simply and quickly.” Today great speakers are noted for their brevity. Billy Graham, in a recent city-wide campaign in Cincinnati, spoke about 20 minutes each night. Theodore Sorensen in his book, Kennedy, gave guidelines by which President Kennedy prepared speeches. No speech was more than 20-30 minutes. He wasted no words and his delivery wasted no time. He rarely used words he considered hackneyed or word fillers. As Purdue communications professor and researcher Josh Boyd wrote, “In physics, power is defined as work divided by time. In other words, more work done in less time produces more power. Inrepparttar 104243 same way, a speaker’s message is most powerful when he [or she] can deliver a lot of good material in a short amount of time." Here are guidelines to make brevity a key foundation in your next speech. First, keep your stories under two minutes in length. In preparing a story, continue to askrepparttar 104244 question, “How can I say this in less time and in fewer words?” Script out your story and then seek to condense it. There is an adage in using humor: “The longerrepparttar 104245 storyrepparttar 104246 funnier it had better be.” Connecting this principle to stories in general, we might say, “The longerrepparttar 104247 story,repparttar 104248 more impact it had better have.” To make sure your stories stay under two minutes, include only information that answersrepparttar 104249 questions, “Who?” “What?” “When?” “Where?” and “Why?” If it doesn’t answer one of these questions, leave it out. Make sure also that you have a sense of direction inrepparttar 104250 story. Each part ofrepparttar 104251 story should move towardrepparttar 104252 conclusion inrepparttar 104253 mind ofrepparttar 104254 listener. The listener should always feel you are going somewhere in developing your story. Second, when possible, followrepparttar 104255 proverb, “Less is better than more.” Never use three words when you can say it in two. Leave out clichés, filler words, and hackneyed words, such as "You know," "OK," and "All right." Leave out phrases such as “Let me be honest,” or blunt, or frank. Avoid “In other words…” or “To say it another way…” Speak in short sentences, short phrases, and short words. Word choice should be instantly clear to an audience. Make it a goal to make every word have impact in your speech.

PR That Entrepreneurs Often Overlook

Written by Robert A. Kelly


Please feel free to publish this article and resource box in your ezine, newsletter, offline publication or website. A copy would be appreciated at bobkelly@TNI.net. Word count is 1315 including guidelines and resource box. Robert A. Kelly © 2004.

PR That Entrepreneurs Often Overlook

If that sounds like you, here’s what you may be missing oncerepparttar new enterprise is launched

Public relations that really does something aboutrepparttar 104242 behaviors of those key outside audiences that most affect your new enterprise.

PR that uses a fundamental blueprint to deliver external stakeholder behavior change –repparttar 104243 kind that leads directly to achieving your venture’s objectives.

And PR that persuades many of those important outside folks to your way of thinking, then moves them to take actions that help your new enterprise succeed.

That’s why you as a small business owner must gear up to deal withrepparttar 104244 unattended perceptions out there that could nudge your fledgling venture closer to bankruptcy than success. Perceptions that, if left unattended, may well result in actions that run counter to those you and your banker had in mind.

For example, when new ventures fail,repparttar 104245 wreckage is often assigned to undercapitalization. Seldom is failure attributed to a lack of an effective action plan that might have modifiedrepparttar 104246 behavior of prospects and other collaborators in a positive way, thus averting that failure.

So why support your new venture with press release public relations when a basic PR blueprint like this one can holdrepparttar 104247 key to your success? People act on their own perception ofrepparttar 104248 facts before them, which leads to predictable behaviors about which something can be done. When we create, change or reinforce that opinion by reaching, persuading and moving-to-desired-action repparttar 104249 very people whose behaviors affectrepparttar 104250 organization repparttar 104251 most,repparttar 104252 public relations mission is accomplished.

Add to that these kinds of results: fresh proposals for strategic alliances and joint ventures; customers making repeat purchases; prospects starting to look your way; community leaders beginning to seek you out; and even politicians and legislators viewing you as a true innovator.

Major caveat for a new entrepreneurial venture: because repparttar 104253 cost of gathering key audience perception data – an absolute must in this business – can be substantial, it should be built intorepparttar 104254 original funding budget. That suggests that you, asrepparttar 104255 new venture leader, must take repparttar 104256 lead in assuring upfront funding ofrepparttar 104257 perception monitoring function.

So, withrepparttar 104258 people whose perceptions of your venture you care most about nowrepparttar 104259 target of your PR effort, you are ready to launch a well-planned public relations program that can reach, persuade and move those individuals to actions you desire.

Here’s a public relations checklist entrepreneurs may find helpful.

From Day 1, you have to be certain your staff or agency public relations people are really committed to knowing how your outside audiences perceive your operations, products or services. And further, that negative key audience perceptions almost always lead to behaviors that can hurt your new venture. Fortunately, your PR people are inrepparttar 104260 perception and behavior business to begin with, so they should be of real assistance for your opinion monitoring project.

Professional survey firms are always available, but that can be expensive. So, whether it’s your people or a survey firm askingrepparttar 104261 questions, your objective is to identify untruths, false assumptions, unfounded rumors, inaccuracies, and misconceptions.

First, rank your external audiences as to impacts on your operation. For example, #1 customers; #2 prospects; #3 employees; #4 local and trade media; #5 your local business community; #6 community leaders, and so forth. Then, involve your PR team in plans for monitoring and gathering perceptions by questioning members of those you expect will be your most important outside audiences.

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