Ghost Writing for BLOGS
I GHOST-WROTE the blog copy below over a two year period.
It represents a very small portion of the articles I wrote for this ONE CLIENT.
The articles were on my client’s site and read by tens of thousands of managers, executives, politicians, and the general population.
The copy was also used in Newsletters, Twitter, LinkedIn, YT, & Facebook.
Each piece was posted individually on Social Media, and also emailed in newsletters to thousands of subscribers.
NOTE: SOME of the LINKS no longer work.
I also decommissioned most of the imagery so it’s not so bulky.
Please keep in mind,
the VOICE is the CLIENT’s,
and not necessarily my view.
January 2017
Reporters’ Attention Spans Plummet Radically
8 Seconds?! If you can get 8 seconds out of a reporter you’ll be lucky.
According to a recent fishy fact, the average human today has an attention span of only 8.25 seconds, a drop of 3.75 seconds since 2000.
At the turn of the last millennia humans were purported to have a whopping attention span of 12 seconds, but now, in 2017 at just 8.25 seconds, we can’t even concentrate as long as a bug-eyed goldfish, which apparently has an attention span of 9 seconds.
I say apparently, because no one knows for sure what the real numbers are, but it’s a lot of fun to roll these stats around and to think that a fish can beat us at a staring competition. Goldfish and reporters don’t have eyelids, so how are we even going to know if they blink?
The real danger here is, if you think a reporter will pay attention to you for 8 seconds, I have another hook for you to bite. If Microsoft advertising executives would have run their “attention test” on a journalist they would have seen it drop to -2 seconds. Yep, you read it right, that’s a minus sign in front of the 2.
Even before a reporter shows up at your door she’s already “outgoldfishing” you. As soon as you open your mouth she’s already thinking about the next question, and her attention span for what you’re currently saying is hovering at around 1 second, unless of course you say something juicy and hand her a headline-worthy sound bite. Then, all of a sudden her attention span has jumped to eight hours, or maybe even eight months depending on what you said.
8 seconds would be a miracle! When a reporter has a bead on you the machinegun litany of questions come so fast and furious it would make even a mind like Einstein’s quiver.
Paying attention during an interview is one of a spokesperson’s biggest challenges.
“Did she just ask me if I was texting when my train jumped the tracks in the middle of the city, and was that before or after she asked if I was drinking at my birthday bash the night before?” Pay attention man! You’re life and career depends on it. Send in the Guppy, err, I mean the goldfish. Sorry, I wasn’t paying attention – a fish is a fish right?
Attention span is both objective and subjective, and actually quite hard to define scientifically. The Microsoft advertising team that ran the test was trying to figure out how long someone would look at an online ad before they bailed, which is quite different than how news media interpreted the report. News companies saw the stat, and instead of reporting it in proper context, they thought they’d have a bit of fun and make it a little provocative so we would focus on their story a little longer, because apparently we have a shorter attention span this year than last year.
Here’s the good news, your attention span can extend beyond 8 seconds, but you have to train your brain. According to common theory, our attention spans have decreased because of technology. If you have any age in your bones you know our world is hustling and bustling faster than it was a decade ago, and it makes sense that if we are always in a rush our attention spans will suffer. Fast food, smart-phones, and auto-checkout at the grocers add to a long list of things that make us impatient and lose focus. All we seem to want to do anymore is move on to the next nano-moment of excitement. “Oh joy, a new type of ear buds – without a cord. If I would have just paid more attention I’d remember where I left the left one.”
Like everything, we have to train ourselves to reclaim some of the inherent skills a modern life has washed away. I’m making fun of this because I know that humor keeps people focused. So lesson one is … RELAX! You’re welcome.
It’s not a joke to have a low attention span. It can be a career killer. Staying focused is important in everything we do and if you want to improve your attention span make sure you are MOTIVATED. Give yourself a reason to stay focused. Also make sure you know what you’re talking about. Do your HOMEWORK so you’re not drifting off and wondering if what you just told the reporter is going to land you in the headlines. Multitasking is for machines so ENGAGE with the reporter and listen carefully to what she is saying. Give the reporter respect and “all” of your time without distractions – like your phone vibrating. BREATHE too. You need oxygen in your brain in order to think clearly and pay attention.
My colleagues and I have a few other secrets in our tackle box you can use to help you focus while being interviewed.
Don’t hesitate to contact me if you need help figuring out how to bait the hook and outfox the goldfish.
We have enough fish food for everyone.
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December 2016
2016 Flips Flops and Flies
What a year! There were more surprises than anyone could have predicted.
The loudest news of course was the presidential election, and when Donald Trump won, it started the whole world talking, well, more like arguing with yelling and crying thrown in for good measure. Soon after, reports of FaceBook Fake News stories became news itself.
Brexit exploded and share prices plummeted after the UK left the European Union. No one saw that coming either and it gave news media another excuse to pit politicians against each other, and against taxpayers too, which they did with a vengeance.
The world also watched the Summer Olympics in Brazil. It generated considerable controversy, maybe the most in all of Olympic history when news media reported heavily on human rights violations in Rio flavelas (ghettos). As a distraction Brazilian politicians accused international media of blowing the Zika virus out of proportion and of chasing visitors away. Media disagreed, of course.
Syrian refugees filled the headlines too with their plight and the response from NIMBY groups saying “Keep Out!” It has been a heartless year in many respects with countless distressing stories pitting families and humanity against local and federal governments.
Fifty people were murdered in a homophobic attack on a nightclub where gays and lesbians frequented. It gained attention around the world as LGBTQ groups banded together to express anger and raise awareness. Many hetero people marched alongside too.
Bobbi Kristina Brown, daughter of the late Whitney Houston died in circumstances eerily similar to her mother who also drowned in a bathtub three years earlier. Mysteries surrounding Bobbi’s death swirled heavily with news media fueling speculation. Media is expert at speculation and a good reason why spokespeople have to be sharp.
Hulk Hogan won a 140 million dollar lawsuit over a sex tape Gawker published – they just settled this December for a reported thirty-five million. The interesting twist, as if it weren’t interesting enough, was that Peter Thiel a wealthy Hulk benefactor, secretly at first, paid all of Hogan’s legal fees, and because of this, he won causing Gawker to declare bankruptcy. It was fascinating to watch the social media pseudo news giant dragged to its death, and it sent a strong message that even social media needs to abide somewhat by journalistic rules.
Race riots spread across America and around the world at a feverish pitch. Almost every month YouTube and news programs were filled with horrific events of police shootings and angry mobs. Citizen video cameras often captured Black Lives Matter events and fueled a raging fire. Mainstream reporters had a tough time keeping up with cell phone reporting. Five police officers were killed by a sniper in one incident alone.
Marijuana use was decriminalized, and even legalized for recreational use in a number of U.S. states, and the furor this caused had reporters scrambling feverishly all over the country interviewing users, church groups, and politicians looking for sound bites from victims, demons, and the village idiot.
Many more events in 2016 stirred emotions and there is no end in sight for the new year either. I’m sure I missed a few that are important to you so don’t hesitate to let me know what made your list.
We take stock at this time of year looking back at what was, and forward to what can be, and each year we hope our lives will get easier and our jobs more fulfilling. In many respects that often happens, but when a media crisis unexpectedly drops your name into a headline, communication gets complicated.
Spokespeople today have a lot to contend with when you take into account all the different levels of reporting currently available. We still have of course traditional newspaper and television news companies, many though who can’t afford to fact check as thoroughly as in the past. They no longer have time or finances to report as accurately as they would like, which leaves spokespeople and their companies to pick up the slack to ensure news information is delivered effectively.
Television comedy shows also deliver news, including and especially political satire, but not only on TV. Younger news consumers watch Bill Maher, Stephen Colbert, SNL and many more on their phones, and consider it mainstream news – millennials being one of the primary target audiences.
There is a long and growing list of independent reporters, professionals and amateurs alike who show up everywhere and anywhere thrusting smart phones into the startled faces of beleaguered spokespeople. Independents don’t necessarily follow traditional rules and the information they uncover ends up on YouTube and sometimes goes viral. Citizen journalism is the new black and became even more pervasive in 2016.
Under relentless assault by disruptive marketing and promotion competitors, traditional news organizations are reinventing themselves and their revenue models. They are fighting even harder to uncover information in a world that now recognizes that “Breaking News” means it is reported in real time on Twitter while the action is still occurring, and it is available immediately on your phone while you are at work or play. News finds us wherever we are day and night. Spokespeople are never off the grid and although they’ve never been able to hide, now, they can’t even run.
Trust in news media officially sunk to an all time low in 2016 even though more news is being produced by a very large number of professional and amateur reporters.
So, where do we go from here? Ah, 2017 predictions. Speculation is fun, but dangerous, so don’t do it because that’s where a sharp reporter will get you every time. If you don’t know, say so and that you’ll look into it and get back with the facts about next year when they are available! And then do it.
Hopefully the headline won’t be about you.
See you on the other side of sixteen.
Happy Holidays!
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November 2016
Trump’s Method to Our Madness
It’s going to be interesting over the next few months to watch the battle between President-elect Donald Trump and mainstream news media.
It could be a tipping point for news companies, because whether you like the guy or not, he’s absolutely correct about reporters. Journalists are incredibly hard to control – most say even impossible. If you want to challenge news companies you need well-honed media skills and deep pockets to sustain the battle. We know Trump has the money, but he’s proven time and again he finds it difficult and often even impossible to manage reporters effectively.
Donald Trump is however the kind of guy to have a substantial impact on the way the public regards media, and on the resulting trickledown effect it could have on the media industry. He’s intelligent, driven, and assertive, many even argue overly aggressive. It takes confidence, courage, and a thick skin to go head to head with a reporter, let alone the reporter’s entire news agency.
Trump recently cancelled at the last minute a meeting scheduled with the New York Times because he claims “they” changed the rules. The NY Times however tells a different story.
As reported in the Wall Street Journal, Trump was scheduled to meet with the NY Times on November 22, 2016. When his people called shortly before the meeting insisting that the meeting be “off the record” the NY Times said, sorry, no. Everything you say will be fair game.
That’s how it works in a democratic society. In the past it was fully expected that media’s purpose was to “comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable” although many argue that today it is no longer the case.
Even less people will trust media if reporters allow
themselves to be censored by the people they interview.
Pollsters already claim most people do not trust reporters or news companies, so for Trump, raging against media is a pretty safe argument to make, and also an opportunity to use a basic compliance strategy to have the public agree with you and support your cause. All Trump basically did was pick the public side of a contentious issue and argue for it with the conviction that his word would be the last word. Trump has trouble one on one with reporters, but he’s brilliant at using compliance to manage crowds. He is after all, a successful promoter who knows how to sell tickets to a Mike Tyson heavyweight match and to the showrooms in his Atlantic City casinos.
Compliance works like this, and to use a very simplistic example; I say “Nice day.” You can’t help but agree and say “Yes.” I then say “Beautiful blue sky.” Once again, you agree and say “Yes, it is.” I then say “I’m warm, are you?” By this time you think, wow we seem to have a lot in common, so you say, “Yes!” That’s three yes’s in a row, and while you’re innocently “complying with me,” the fourth question will be, “I think all this stuff about global warming is right. Don’t you agree?” Bingo! Odds are you will say YES, even though it might not be your true feeling. You were just led down the garden path to smell my roses.
Basically, pick a favorite argument you know a lot of people will agree with and leverage it for your own benefit. Yes! The media is untrustworthy. Trump says so, I say so and coincidentally according to Gallup so do almost 60% of people in North America. It feels great to be on a winning team!
Always keep in mind there is a big difference between delivering a message to news media as a spokesperson, and actually convincing news media to report a story the way you want it told. Reporters love to report a spokesperson’s controversial ideas and inadvertent sound bites because they creates headlines that sell newspapers. It’s easy, but that’s not the definition of managing news media. The hard part is getting a reporter to publish your ideas in a nonpartisan way when they don’t necessarily agree with what the spokesperson is saying. It’s up to the spokesperson to convince the reporter to share his idea with the news company’s audience, which is quite hard to accomplish, but not impossible if you know what you’re doing and with a little training. You need the benefit of experience and practice to do it effectively.
At the end of the day President-elect Trump is right. News media is hard to manage, but if you think you can go toe to toe with news companies the way The Donald does you’re in for a scary ride. Yes, it’s possible the pressure Trump is putting on news media will eventually have a long term positive effect for the public in general. As a result of him attacking reporters so aggressively everyone is now paying way more attention than ever. It’s deceiving though, and a big mistake to think your power and Trump’s are similar. Do you really want to mimic his behavior and risk being another of media’s sacrificial lambs?
You’ll need more than luck if you want to go down that road, but if you decide to take on news media, we should talk so you at least have an idea of what you’re up against. It’s probably not what you think. Nothing ever is.
P.S. If you’re wondering what happened re the NY Times interview, Trump caved and did it “On the Record.” Smart man. Good bluff though.
Wall Street Journal https://goo.gl/F4fGxi
http://www.wsj.com/articles/AP41e817c1c27247469a2285be21ff8c58
Gallup https://goo.gl/C0ts7C
http://www.gallup.com/poll/195542/americans-trust-mass-media-sinks-new-low.aspx
NY Times Interview https://goo.gl/Gt582r
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/22/us/politics/donald-trump-visit.html
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October 2016
Political Correctness Imploding
I’ve promoted for many years that “Political Correctness” has reached a level where it is now considered by many to be hurtful to society.
Theoretically, PC has merit because it is a catalyst for diplomacy, but when it is used as a tool to temper free speech it does the exact opposite of what it was initially intended.
Political Correctness makes it extremely difficult to say what is sometimes on our minds, and when you overuse it or use it incorrectly it can send a message to reporters that there is a sub-layer of information a spokesperson is trying to cloak. That alone is enough to make a journalist dig even deeper.
Knowing how to manage political correctness during an interview or a presentation is critical to a spokesperson’s success, and it is a skill that can be learned.
We’ve recently seen both sides of the argument where a spokesperson is either too coy or too brusque. Both strategies undermine the effectiveness of the message.
Donald Trump uses PC as a whipping post for everything he thinks is wrong in America, while others like Governor Nikki Haley hide behind it so they can avoid talking about certain subjects and won’t have to say what they really think. Which is worse? http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/265864-haley-walks-back-criticism-of-bush-rubio
Others like Maine Governor Paul LePage wrestle with PC in perpetuity, and when they do make a mistake they often end up digging their hole even deeper while trying to apologize.
LePage says comment about drug dealers impregnating young white girls was ‘one slip’
Political correctness was hatched in the 90s to soften racism and sexism, and all those other “isms” that exclude people. It started slowly, but as time went on crafty spokespeople learned to modify it to suit their personal agendas. It became a virtual word screen they could duck behind so they could tell two stories to different audiences.
Standing on the blue side of the screen allows a spokesperson to say mostly what was on their mind in the first place. Slipping over to the red side of the screen allows them to quickly couch the sentiment in other terms, especially when they have to back-peddle. This modified PC process provides a spokesperson subterfuge that makes it hard to nail them down. Quite often a spokesperson makes a mistake by saying what they really think, and then, when called on it in the name of PC, they apologize, but, their silly little mind doesn’t understand the crazy byzantine rules of PC – the shield they’re actively hiding behind. How convenient is that? It’s a passive aggressive twist on “It’s better to ask for forgiveness than permission.”
Political correctness has had its moment, and although it will never go away completely, or should it, thanks to Donald Trump we can now see how dangerous PC can be in the wrong hands and how spokespeople use it to advance their personal agendas. The catch however is that reporters are now also smarter and recognize the process.
Spokespeople have had free rein to use the complex hazy nature of PC to keep people off balance and say a lot of words that amount to a hill of beans.
We’ve now seen the result of taking PC to its extreme limit, and ironically we are in debt to Trump for dragging PC to its absolute edge of acceptability and calling out the elephant in the room. Good for us as a society, but not so good for Trump who wants to be president. In a bid to prove his point he ended up being a bit too anti-PC, but it was the incentive we needed to inject some sort of balance into a trend that had become top-heavy and burdensome.
It’s great that the PC bubble is sputtering, but now what? Certainly, there were many spokespeople who were wishing for a POP! … but also many who leveraged the strategy and will hate to see it softened.
The dilemma is that reporters now easily recognize the PC charade too, and as soon as they see it coming they will be ready and call you on it. You could be in serious trouble if PC confusion is the main fallback in your communication toolbox. Not to worry though …
Delivering a speech or talking to a reporter is a learned skill. We often hear that some speakers have a gift, and we often incorrectly assume it is a natural gift. It might be in part, but even the best spokespeople hone their craft. No one just walks up to the podium or the reporter’s camera and starts jabbering away.
Without doubt it is harder to be a spokesperson today than at any other time in history. Granted, we do have new and incredible communication tools to make the job easier, but our audiences also have access to these tools, plus, thanks to social media, they are smarter.
Audiences are putting more pressure on reporters, and guess what, reporters are putting more pressure on you. PC is dead. Long live the King. Did I say King? I meant Queen.
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September 2016
Trump vs. Clinton, and the winner is . . .
The Donald hasn’t tapped out, but he is tapped out after a series of flip flop statements that had viewers of the first presidential candidate’s debate wondering what inaccuracies he might manufacture next.
The first 2016 presidential debate is a good example of what it means to be trained and prepared in order to deliver a great speech and solid debate.
Donald Trump made a number of basic mistakes while debating with Hillary Clinton. He was loud and evasive and couldn’t get his facts straight. When Clinton challenged Trump, and he didn’t have a reasonable answer or he was caught on the spot having to defend a ludicrous past statement, he simply turned up the volume of his voice and yelled over her. In stark contrast and even though she was sometimes just as evasive, she stood her ground and waited patiently for him to fizzle out and sputter before she responded. When she was lost for words she rolled her eyes like a schoolgirl, and instead of answering Trump’s pointed questions about her past history, especially regarding errant emails, she deflected by dismissing him in a non sequitur-like manner. He had an opportunity to capitalize on her weaknesses, but he doesn’t have strong enough speaking skills to think on his feet and turn it to his favor. He needs to learn to speak like a politician, and to turn down his sales pitch hyperbole.
Trump has a reputation for not preparing for speeches, and although it was clear he did some type of preparation for the first debate, it was just as clear he was mostly winging it as usual.
Clinton on the other hand, regardless of her limp answers acted more like an experienced politician, remaining relatively calm and not reacting to Trump’s cacophony of inflaming statements. Trump, the immutable hot-headed reactionist, didn’t calm viewer’s fears that he might be too much of a loose cannon hovering over the nuclear button.
It’s quite possible Trump did have some type of recent media and speaker training because for a very brief moment at the beginning of the debate he actually looked statesmen-like, but as soon as a hard question zipped across his bow he crumbled like a saltine cracker into hot soup and fell into his old “wrestling/boxing promoter” persona. He must have thought he was chest bumping and huff-puffing against Don King at a Mike Tyson weigh-in.
I’m not going to get into the specifics regarding accuracies or inaccuracies of either candidate’s performance because there are many good fact checking sites where you can tally it up yourself.
For the sake of debate here, I am more interested in technique and influence, than I am about statistical rhetoric. The words and numbers that leave your lips are important, but not in the way you might think.
The reality is that viewers are way more impacted by how a speaker delivers their message than they are about the words used. Body language tells us a lot about a speaker. It telegraphs truth, nervousness, and confidence. A well trained speaker knows how to manage these subconscious traits effectively.
Famous research by Dr. Albert Morabian while at the University of California in Los Angeles explains it perfectly. He demonstrated conclusively that when you say something, 55% of the way your message is interpreted comes from the way you use your body and your face when you say it.
38% of the interpretation of your message comes from the voice, tone, texture, and level of conviction.
Words account for only 7% of how your message is interpreted.
When we speak, we have to juggle the visual, vocal, and verbal so that we can look like we mean what we say and say what we mean.
We need to say it like we mean it!
Viewers of the debate constantly received “subconscious” body language messages from Clinton and Trump, and without even realizing they were making decisions about who the winner was based mostly on what they saw and not what they heard. If you want to more easily decipher who wields more influence during a debate, turn the sound off and use only your eyes to decide the winner.
Interestingly, Trump knows that people respond better to emotion and not to dry statistical facts. He knows that when his level of exuberance goes up people pay more attention to the noise he makes. Unfortunately for Trump though, he put all his eggs into this one basket, which is not good enough for any speaker, especially a president.
One might argue that based on body language numbers alone, Trump would come out ahead, but he only gets the psychological nuance partially right. It can’t all be vacuous energy. There also has to be substance and that’s where Trump fell short. The bases of a statement has to be accurate and believable before you paint it with a confident series of body language intonation and facial modeling. There needs to be balance between your words and actions.
Pundits and viewers awarded Clinton a victory in the first round, which means Trump has to get a better handle on how to deliver a message more effectively in order to influence voters. If he’s smart and he really wants to win the next debate and the presidential race he’d be well advised to sit down with a media trainer and pay attention.
Watch more about BODY LANGUAGE from my short video
https://youtu.be/r9M7oFlJ5E8
Here’s what the NY Times Fact Checkers reported after the debate
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/27/us/politics/fact-check-debate.html
RealTime Fact Checking DURING the debate … https://goo.gl/hgn07R
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/09/26/us/elections/donald-trump-hillary-clinton-debate.html