Getting your professional message across

GETTING YOUR
PROFESSIONAL MESSAGE
ACROSS
Rhonda Bracey
EAPAA Conference
August 2014
#cybertext

Quick poll
Channel Professional Personal Neither
Website
LinkedIn
Twitter
Facebook
Blog
Pinterest
© CyberText Consulting Pty Ltd
2

‘From little things big things grow’1
3
Start small; add as you grow confident
Start with the medium that requires the least effort and
best suits your personality
Don’t try it all at once  overwhelming
Only do what YOU’RE comfortable with
Personable written communication is critical
1. Paul Kelly and Kev Carmody

Start small: my progression
4
Email
discussion
groups
(from mid
1990s)
Professional
website
(from 1999)
Email
newsletter
(~2003–
2007)
LinkedIn
(from mid-
2004)
Professional
blog on
WordPress
(from late
2007)
Facebook
(from late
2007)
Twitter
(from early
2009)
Pinterest
(from mid
2013)

My blog stats over time….
 Posted 1x day for first 2 years; now more like 1x
week/fortnight, but still they keep coming. Why?
I offer solutions!
5
(as at 04 August 2014)

Why promote yourself/your business?
6

Why promote?
 Raise your profile:
 keep your name uppermost in the minds
of those who need you
 stand out from the crowd
 Maintain your profile to:
 help retain existing clients (out of sight = out of mind)
 encourage new clients
 Word-of-mouth referrals  most powerful advertising
 You have a good message to deliver, so do so!
 Many channels… Social media is not just what you had for
breakfast—use it to present yourself in a professional way
7

How much to share?
 YOU decide how much and what to share
 Be aware of any ethical/ moral/ professional/
business contracts you need to uphold
8
 Decide if you’ll respond to
comments/feedback or not;
watch out for trolls
 Always choose the option to
moderate comments, and
delete as necessary

How often?
 As much as you need to!
 Consistent/regular
 Don’t publicise a time commitment UNLESS you
know you can keep to it for YEARS, but:
 have an internal commitment else you’ll just be
another site/page cluttering up the web
9

Personal attributes
10
 Willing to share knowledge freely
 Willing to help others
 Willing to commit time to these activities, e.g.:
 ~1 hour/day to check streams and respond/reply
 more if you intend writing regularly
 Able to write clearly and briefly in a more informal
style

11 Personable writing is essential
Takeaways:
 Clear and concise
 Business casual
 Avoid real names, situations, locations

Writing strategies
12
 Maintain basics of good communication—be clear and
concise
 Be personable—let your personality shine through
 Don't use real names or locations. EVER.
 Use ‘smart, business casual’ writing style
 Grab attention quickly otherwise tl;dr (‘too long; didn’t
read’)
 Use compelling and guiding headlines and subheadings
for those who only skim/scan
 Learn how to write a clear message in 140 characters!

‘Smart, business casual’
‘formal business attire’ (suit etc.) v. ‘smart, business
casual’  formal business/academic writing v.
‘business casual’ communication
13

140-character limit
 Twitter only; forces you to
 get to the point quickly
 keep it short
 Microsoft Word? Use the
word count function (Review tab > Word Count)
 Excel: Set the character limit for a cell:
http://www.extendoffice.com/documents/excel/952-excel-cell-
character-limit.html
14

Topic ideas
15
 Offer helpful, useful, practical insights to existing/new clients; e.g.
 general advice you regularly communicate—e.g. meditation/ breathing/
visualisation techniques
 case studies, scenarios, inspirational stories
 opinion, commentary
 literature reviews
 resources, links
 Focus on benefits, solutions, strategies
 Headline starters:
 top 3, 5, 7, 10
 hint, tip, how to, best
 Keep a ‘notes bank’ for ideas; e.g.
 online: Evernote, task list in Outlook
 offline: notebook, note cards

Be clear…
16
Terminology (avoid vague words like ‘it’, ‘this’, ’they’, etc.)
Punctuation (use the serial [Oxford] comma to remove ambiguity)
Structure (write lists as dot points, numbered steps; word order)
Object/subject (who is doing what to whom?)
Plain language (how would you explain to a spouse/parent/child)
Dates/times (avoid relative words; be specific)

Be specific
17
 What’s wrong with these words?:
 it, they, their
 this, these
 These words are meaningless unless it’s absolutely
clear what ‘it’ etc. refers to; examples:
 The bomb is connected to a red and to a blue wire. Cut it to
defuse it.
 If the contractor adds value to a company dataset, it shall be
submitted to the company representative with an updated
metadata record.

Be specific
18

Ban relativity!
19
 What’s wrong with these words?:
 Currently, recently, now, yesterday, today, tomorrow
 Last/this/next week/month/year
 New, modern
 Five years ago, two decades ago, last century
 These words are meaningless unless you know what
date is used as the anchor point
 Watch for season names if your readers aren’t local
See also: http://cybertext.wordpress.com/2010/07/29/dating/

Use commas to remove ambiguity
20
 Add commas if there’s
ANY chance the items
could be read as one
and thus
misinterpreted
 e.g. ‘red, white, black
and blue’ versus ‘red,
white, black, and blue’

Use commas…
21
 …to separate items that shouldn’t be treated
together

Be concise…
22
Remove all unnecessary words
Remove all repetitive/redundant words
Switch the words around
Clarity (‘be clear’) trumps brevity (‘be concise’)

Tighten up….. and use plain language
Before (189 chars) After (96 chars)
on an annual basis annually (or yearly)
can be in excess of ten years can exceed ten years
in the event of … occurring if … occurs
in order to to
that is able to can
more than 180 countries around
the world
more than 180 countries
will be able to assist with the
identification of
can help identify
23

Don’t rely on spellcheckers
24
 A spellchecker will tell you if a word is spelled
incorrectly, but it won’t tell you if it’s the incorrect
word

Examples of business casual writing
25
 http://www.blackdoginstitute.org.au/
 http://www.beyondblue.org.au/
 http://www.kidsmatter.edu.au/families
 http://www.mind.org.uk/

26 Social Media
Takeaways:
 Decide which medium (one or several)
 Decide how much to share (possibly moral, ethical,
professional limitations)
 Consider separate business and personal accounts
 Consider cross-promotional options
 ALWAYS set privacy options

Main social media options
27
LinkedIn (professional profile/contacts)
Blogs (posts [articles], comments)
Twitter (‘microblogging’, concise announcements)
Facebook (professional pages option)
Pinterest (online pin/notice board)

LinkedIn.com
28

LinkedIn.com
 Professional profile
 Professional connections—1st, 2nd, 3rd level
 YOU choose how much to reveal:
 Recommendation: Don’t give access to your Outlook
contacts list!
 extensive privacy settings
 can send private message/email
 Cross-promotion options:
 to Twitter, Facebook
 from Slideshare, WordPress
 Can set up professional groups
29

LinkedIn.com
30

LinkedIn.com
 Example page of 4 pages of privacy settings
31

Blogs: WordPress
32

WordPress.com
 Blogging platform
 brain dump
 easy to write/edit, add media
 plenty of free themes available to suit your persona
 Also a cheap (free!) website; however, I recommend:
 pay for own domain name (~$10/year for .com), and point
WordPress site to that domain [$13/year] – i.e. janebloggs.com
not janebloggs.wordpress.com
 pay for no ads ($30/year)
 WordPress can help you set up a full business site ($299/year)
 Turn on option to moderate comments
 Add pictures so Pinterest users can ‘pin’ your posts
33

34

Twitter
35

Twitter.com
 ‘Microblogging’ (aka Tweets)—140 characters REALLY
hones your writing; abbrevs OK
 Follow colleagues, people/groups of interest to get started
 Use Twitter lists, searches, and aggregators to manage
Twitter stream better; e.g.
 Tweetdeck (tweetdeck.twitter.com)
 Janetter (janetter.net)
 Twitter is good for:
 information you might not normally hear about
 instant info on disasters etc. but depends on source of Tweet
(e.g. police/emergency services v. Joe Public)
 live updates in conferences  others spread your message
globally
 quick answers to questions/problems
36

Twitter.com
37

Twitter.com – Tweetdeck aggregator
38

Facebook
39

Facebook.com
 Beware of LOL cats… and goats…
 Can set up Facebook page for your business:
 cheap (free) website
 announcements
 courses
 hours, holidays
 links to interesting stuff for clients
 ask for ‘likes’ from clients/colleagues/readers
 cross-promote on website etc.
 Can set up a Facebook group (private or public) for those with similar
interests
 Like Twitter, can be good for instant info on disasters etc. but depends
on source
40

Facebook
41

Facebook
42

Facebook
43

Facebook
44

Facebook
45

Facebook
46

Pinterest
47

Pinterest.com
48
 Online ‘noticeboard’ for pinning images/videos of
interest
 Boards (collections of pins):
 have a common theme that you choose—e.g.
techniques, ideas, inspiration
 can be private (you and/or invitees) or public
 Users can follow other users’ boards and like or ‘re-pin’
the images they share

Pinterest
49

Others
 Website (fairly static, more ‘business professional’)
 Email newsletters
 big contacts list? use services like mailchimp.com,
constantcontact.com
 Email discussion groups/lists (e.g. Yahoo! Groups;
public or private)
 Online forums (public or private)
50

Cross-promotion
 Consider cross-promotional options in the various
channels; e.g.
 write a WordPress blog post and auto promote to
Facebook, Twitter etc.
 add photos to blog posts to get ‘pinned’
 let LinkedIn add your Twitter/blog feed to your profile
 Cross-promote your business Twitter, Facebook,
LinkedIn etc. accounts on your website/blog
51

Biggest concern…
52
Privacy!

All have privacy settings
53
 Twitter and Facebook privacy settings, e.g.
 can lock Tweets/notifications to only those who follow you and
you follow back
 can block Tweets/users
 Facebook groups can be made private
 can direct message (DM)/private message (PM) on both
 LinkedIn: Many privacy options
 WordPress:
 can lock pages/password protect pages
 can lock entire blog so only those YOU'VE decided can access it
can see it
 Pinterest: Can have private boards

To recap…
54
Start small; add as you grow confident
Start with the medium that requires the least effort and
best suits your personality
Don’t try it all at once  overwhelming
Only do what YOU’RE comfortable with
Personable written communication is critical

55 Thank you…
Any questions?
Contact/connect with me:
 rhonda.bracey@cybertext.com.au
 http://www.cybertext.com.au
 Blog: http://cybertext.wordpress.com
 Twitter: @cybertext
 LinkedIn: http://au.linkedin.com/in/rhondabracey

Getting your professional message across

Recommended

Recommended

More Related Content

Viewers also liked

Viewers also liked (20)

Similar to Getting your professional message across

Similar to Getting your professional message across (20)

More from Rhonda Bracey

More from Rhonda Bracey (12)

Recently uploaded

Recently uploaded (20)

Getting your professional message across