How readable is your writing?

While the Gunning Fog Index was developed in 1952, it is more important today than ever before.

In an age of biz-babble, written language uses more jargon every day—and becomes less easy-to-read as a result.  

On the Gunning Fog Index, a readability score of 12 can be read by a high school student.

For universal comprehension—and the standard journalists aspire to—the goal is 8. Eighth grade.

Annual reports often come in at 26.9 or more.

The lower the score, the better luck you’ll have getting people to read it. 

Journalists will love your releases.    

To lower your score, scratch the three-syllable words. Shorten the long sentences and muster active verbs.

This copy had a Gunning Fog of 8.001.   

To test your copy, go to http://gunning-fog-index.com/ or the Flesch/Kincaid Grade Level at http://www.standards-schmandards.com/exhibits/rix/index.php. 

For more information on Dell Richards Publicity, call us at 916.455.4790 or visit www.dellrichards.com.

Have your 8-sec pitch ready, but...

People think at 600-800 words a minute, but only speak at 115 to 300.

Which is why people only have eight seconds to gain someone’s attention.

The only time this isn’t the case is when giving a presentation.

Speakers have about 30 seconds—if they’re saying something valuable to the audience. *

As if all that doesn’t make sales difficult enough, how it is said is actually more important than what is said. 

We are visual creatures. We believe what we see more than what we hear.

Here’s the breakdown:

          Body language = 55 percent,

          Paralanguage (tone of voice, pitch, volume) = 37 percent.

          Words = 8 percent. **

Regional dialects and class accents—which often carry stereotypes—also complicate the matter.  Think "street slang" versus "erudite academic".

Individual words also have positive and negative connotations or feeling responses, which affect people without them being consciously aware of it.  

Have your elevator pitch ready, but in the long run, being genuine, interested and compassionate works better than a canned pitch.

For more information, call Dell Richards Publicity at (916) 455-4790 or visit www.dellrichards.com.

*Max Potentials seminar

** Albert Mehrabian’s “3 Vs”

Ethics trumps expedience....

We recently had a press conference that television covered—only to find a few hours later that the spokesperson didn’t want her face seen because of domestic violence issues.

We immediately called the reporter to see if we could get the woman’s video clip removed.

The reporter said she’d pull it, but was very curt. It had been her lead.

We got other coverage, but were disappointed to lose a story on homeless housing.

I thanked the journalist, apologized via email—and sent a large box of chocolates to her, even though she wouldn’t get it for a few days.

In the meantime, the client put better controls in place for choosing spokespeople.

In the end, the journalist was able to salvage the story, which ran the next day. By cutting the anecdotal lead, she made it shorter, which the producers loved, she quipped.

We were lucky it worked out for all concerned. But we didn’t know that when we acted.

We did what we had to do, no matter what the potential cost, because it was the right thing to do. Period.

For more information, call Dell Richards Publicity at 916-455-4790 or visit us at www.dellrichards.com.

How to kill a press release

The easiest way to kill a press release is to ignore the target.

That means not using language journalists use, but using language a professional in the field would.

If journalists smell jargon, they’ll think you can’t speak at the 8^th grade level the media requires and they’ll delete the release immediately.

Jargon can be used for trade journals where technical information is more important, but not mainstream media.

Journalists are swamped and only want the basics in a release.

We constantly remind clients that you can’t tell it all in a pitch.

The purpose of a release is to plant a story idea.

Educating everyone comes later.

You present a problem, back it up with facts and offer a solution, nothing more.

If you allow your knowledge or focus to get in the way of what the producer or editor needs, you’re only wasting everyone’s time.

For more information, call us at 916.455.4790 or go to www.dellrichards.com.

The worst time to pitch a reporter is

People sometimes call us because a competitor has a story in the media.

It’s great they want publicity, but they’re not going to get an article from that source, which is usually what they’re after.

To paraphrase Jeff Haden, a columnist at Inc.com, “If I just wrote about the subject, I’m good for the next year or so.”

Luckily, there are always other media to approach.

If the article was in the local daily paper, we could pitch the local business journal, the local weekly or monthly magazines.

We could go for broadcast media: television and radio appearances or quotes in Internet stories.

We could target trade journals—not the ones clients themselves read—but the ones read by their clients.

To do so, we come up with angles focused on the specific media.

That way, a missed opportunity becomes a way of creating a broad-range public relations campaign that delivers long-term results.

For more information, contact Dell Richards Publicity at 916.455.4790 or visit us at www.dellrichards.com.

How to handle a crisis

When people ask us about crisis communications, we tell them to prepare for the worst by creating a plan. If you wait until you have a crisis on your hands, it’s too late.

Here what to do:

Have one spokesperson and one spokesperson only. Send all media to him or her, even if it means being on call 24/7.

Figure out what you’re going to say before you talk to the media. Think of the worst questions imaginable. Answer them as honestly as possible.

Never say “No Comment”. It implies guilt, sounds like you don’t care and are arrogant.

Say you’re doing everything possible to find out what’s happening and to fix the problem.

Tell the media you’ll let them know as soon as you can. Then do it.

Say you’re sorry. Show empathy for injury and suffering. Do not get defensive, no matter what anyone says.

Never lie. Journalists get people to spill their guts just by lending a sympathetic ear.

What say to the media and on social media networks in the first hour is crucial.

Having a plan is the basis for handling the pressure of a crisis if you ever face one.

For more information, call Dell Richards Publicity at 916-455-4790 or visit www.dellrichards.com.

Websites make updating news easy

The other day I grabbed a handful of hand-outs as I rushed out the door to a speaking engagement and didn’t realize I had the wrong one until it was too late.

I used it to talk about how public relations has—and has not—changed in the past few years.

The most revolutionary change is that company news sections now replace press kits.

A well done newsroom lets journalists scan what they need faster than a brochure, press release, backgrounder or business card.

Unlike printed material, news pages can be updated instantly—at much less expense—with as many pages and links as the company needs.

We tell clients to place articles prominently as they have more credibility than press releases.

We also suggest that clients get reprints of articles and quotes to link to the news page. Ditto broadcast appearances.

Reprints let the company add their logo and contact info to the story while still maintaining the integrity of journalism.

Press releases also can be used in the newsroom, but they don’t have the implied third-party endorsement of expertise that media recognition does.

For more information, call Dell Richards Publicity at 916-455-4790 or visit www.dellrichards.com.