Becoming a Better Writer

What makes a good writer? What is it about a blog post, story, letter or column that makes it engaging, that makes someone want to continue reading? How can I become a better writer?

If you’re in the public relations, marketing, investor relations and/or strategic communications world, perhaps you’ve already asked yourself these or similar questions. I know I have.

The snap answer, of course,  is to write. I’ve heard and read that answer more than 100 times — “If you want to be a better writer then you have to write.”

Okay, duh! But in my experience writing alone is not enough, especially if you’re not a particularly good writer to begin with.

I believe that the most important part of improving your skills as a writer, to becoming a better writer, is to have a good editor (or a good teacher, as the case may be).

In other words, I want someone who is better than me looking over my metaphorical shoulder prompting, prodding and pointing out specific examples of how and where I can improve my writing.

This point was brought back home to me this morning when a long-time friend asked me to review something he had written, and for the record, he told me I could “let him have it from every angle.” So here, in part, is what I wrote to my friend.

•  
  • new,
  • unexpected,
  • controversial,
  • insightful,
  • thought-provoking or
  • out-of-the-ordinary.

Are the items I mention above hard and fast rules? Of course not.

But I know they helped me to become a better writer - that and having a good editor.

Betty Benton Mann, the “Betty” Behind the Betty Factor, Died Friday Morning

Betty Mann (of "The Betty Factor" fame)

Betty Benton Mann, my 83-year-old mother-in-law and the inspiration behind The Betty Factor, died in her sleep early Friday morning, December 4, 2009 of health matters incident to old age and having her gall bladder removed earlier in the week.

Here is a copy of her obituary.

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After 83 wonderful years on earth, Betty Benton Mann returned home to her Father-in-Heaven, the Savior, Jesus Christ, many loving family members and friends, and her beloved husband, Ray, on December 4, 2009, nearly two years to the day after Ray’s passing.

Born July 3, 1926 in Boise, Idaho to Mamie Thompson and Otto G. Benton, Betty was the fifth of nine children. She was raised in Boise, Twin Falls, Idaho and Redondo Beach, California.

From the day she first walked herself to services as a young child, Betty was a devout member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS). As a teenager, she was president of her ward Golden Gleaner organization and helped plan and run the first ever LDS Youth Conference in southern California.

After graduating from Redondo Union High School, she moved to North Salt Lake to help her oldest sister, Wanda, care for her children, and it was there that she met her future husband, Ray Elwood Mann.

Betty and Ray were married in the Salt Lake Temple of the LDS church on May 4, 1948. They settled in Bountiful, Utah where they raised three daughters and two sons, while she also worked as a dental assistant for many years. Betty was active in the PTA in Bountiful where she ran the Halloween Carnival for three years and served as PTA president for two year.

After their youngest children graduated from high school in 1975, Betty and Ray spent an adventurous year in 1976 in West Germany for Ray’s employer, Chicago Bridge & Iron. The next year, Ray was transferred to world headquarters in Chicago where they lived until 1984. During their time in Naperville, Illinois, Betty filled an eight-year volunteer assignment with LDS Social Services working with out-of-wedlock mothers, including service as a counselor to birth mothers and transporting newborns to adoptive parents. She also served for a time as a member of the Relief Society presidency in the Glenbard Ward in Illinois.

Betty and Ray moved to Sandy, Utah in 1984 where they made their home for the rest of their lives. In Sandy, Betty served for 18 years in the LDS church’s Data Entry Program in the Canyon View Stake. She and Ray also served a one-year LDS Service Mission in 1994 near Bakersfield, California for the Home Management Department.

Betty was preceded in death by her parents, five siblings, her husband, and one son, Clyde. She is survived by four children, Linda, Pam (Harold) Egginton, Todd, and Allisha (David) Politis; 18 grandchildren (evenly divided between boys and girls); and 14 great-grandchildren.

A viewing will be held at Mountain View Mortuary at 3115 East 7800 South in Cottonwood Heights, Utah from 6 to 8 p.m. on Tues., Dec. 8, 2009. The funeral will be held at the same location at 11 a.m. on Wed., Dec. 9, preceded by an additional viewing from 9:45 a.m. to 10:45 a.m. Interment, on site, will follow immediately after the funeral.

The family extends its heartfelt thanks and admiration for all of the fantastic doctors and medical providers who worked with Betty in addressing her health concerns during the past few years. In addition, Betty (and Ray) loved living at South Towne Ranch in Sandy, Utah where they made many wonderful friends.

Betty had a sharp mind and wit her entire life, and she loved studying the gospel of Jesus Christ and learning about LDS church history. She was a devoted and loving wife, mother, grandmother, great-grandmother and friend, and although she will be missed, we are happy she has “graduated” from this life to be reunited with her husband and best friend, Ray.

Goodbye for now, Betty.

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Although we had some initial son-in-law / mother-in-law challenges early in the 28 years of our relationship, we both grew to love and respect each other over time, and I’m grateful Allisha and I were able to have both Betty and Ray live so close by as we raised our five children.

She was a good person and taught me much, not the least of which was to always remember to work and work and work to make sure what I wrote could be easily understood by anyone, even my mother-in law.

To that end, I will always use the phrase “The Betty Factor” as a shorthand reminder of that lesson. I will also keep this blog alive in her honor and as a way of continuing to teach about the importance of keeping all marketing messages simple and on-point.

Thank you, Betty, and for now, goodbye. 

Getting Back to Writing

This weekend, I took my wife, Allisha, to go see the new movie, Julie & Julia.

This fun, funny, heart-warming and life-reaffirming film covers the yearlong journey of discovery young wife Julie Powell takes as she sets out to produce in 365 days the 536 recipes found in Julia Child’s cooking tome: Mastering the Art of French Cooking.

For the record, it was a completely delightful movie (yeah, not necessarily a very manly adjective to use to describe a film, but apropos nonetheless), and I highly recommend this movie to everyone.

What I especially liked about Julie & Julia was that I walked out of the theatre feeling energized and hopeful about life and convinced more than ever that I made a wonderful decision nearly 28 years ago in choosing to marry the young lady who has since become my best friend.

Julie & Julia also reminded me once again of the importance of the career-choosing message I learned from Mormon educator and philosopher, Truman Madsen, when he delivered a brown bag luncheon presentation in the Wilkinson Center at Brigham Young University many, many years ago:

1. Choose something you’re good at.
2. Choose something you enjoy.
3. Choose a career you can support your family with while making a difference in the world.

Turns out my best grades as a directionless sophomore/junior were in Mass Communications, which also happened to be the classes I enjoyed the most. And now, close to 30 years later, I am deep into a career that spans more than 25 years and regularly finds me helping clients of all types successfully

• deploy public relations campaigns,
• unleash social media programs,
• support stock valuations, and
• sell more goods and services.

As it turns out, I ab-so-lute-ly love what I do! And I am blessed beyond measure by the good Lord above with several gifts that make me quite good at this career.

Which brings me to the point of today’s blog post.

It’s hard to imagine, but it’s now been more than four months (April 11, 2009) since I’ve written anything new on The Betty Factor. Four months! UGH!

Naturally, April 11 is just about the same time that Politis Communications lost two clients and saw a third client cut its PR budget by two-thirds. Yes, it was awful. Although we had been holding on through the toughest economic downturn that this country has seen since the Great Depression, it’s been a hard couple of months, culminating with the tough decision to let three employees at the end of June (2 full-time and 1 part-time).

As a result, I’ve focused almost all of my professional efforts of late on pursuing prospective new clients. And I’m grateful to say that we’ve been fortunate to land a couple of new projects recently and appear to be on the verge of landing several contracts as well, which is great!

Nevertheless, to circle back to Julie & Julia for a moment, watching that movie also reminded me how much I love writing. It’s been in my blood ever since I was in the 3rd Grade and wrote a take-off on Creature from the Black Lagoon, that campy 1954 SciFi/Horror flick I first watched in the early 60s.

I’ve also been reminded recently how much I enjoy getting down in the trenches to work with clients, craft strategic plans, roll out campaigns, pitch story ideas to journalists, and see concepts become reality.

That said, I feel re-energized and I am recommitting to write regularly here within the four digital walls of TheBettyFactor.com.

I don’t plan to write every day, and I suspect I will mostly be writing after hours or on the weekends, but I am going to write. And I’m going to do so about my professional passions, especially as it relates to the premise of The Betty Factor — identifying and writing about the best and worst examples I can find from all areas of marketing and marketing communications.

That’s it. Thanks for reading.

And if you haven’t seen it yet, I do recommend Julie & Julia.

David

P.S.  Anyone out there looking for great PR, IR and/or marketing communications consulting and/or services, feel free to contact me at dpolitis@politis.com, 801-523-3730 xt. 11, or 801-556-8184(cell). I’d love to visit. 

CNBC: Enjoying the Media Attention?

Love the network, or hate it, CNBC is riding high right now from what some may call ‘negative publicity.’ What I saw as the start to the war of words against CNBC, came from a rant by Jon Stewart, the host of the highly popular show called, “The Daily Show.” Stewart had another rant aimed at one of CNBC’s most famous hosts, Jim Cramer, with a follow up here, ultimately leading to a show (that probably raked in the ratings) when the two faced off on Stewart’s show.

All of this focus on CNBC has me wondering about one of the most profound questions effecting the PR industry, with opinions varying depending on who you ask: Is all press good press?

If I worked for CNBC my answer would be a resolute YES! Why? Even on Stewart’s own show, which is to be a humorous look at the days news (even though more often than not, they delve into very serious questions–often from a left-leaning perspective–and aren’t afraid to shy away from the tough questions to its guests), he showed video footage of the coverage his rant about Cramer received.

And since then, the New York Times published an article about how CNBC is thriving right now, not the least of which is because of the attention its been receiving from other media. From the article, “Whether the attention is positive or negative, it is certain that this tumultuous financial season is CNBC’s reason for being. One month shy of its 20th anniversary, CNBC is being jokingly called “the recession network” within the halls of its headquarters in New Jersey.” The article goes on to say “CNBC is a boon to NBC Universal’s bottom line; it has posted record profits for at least the last three years, and Mr. Hoffman says the first quarter of 2009 has been ‘very strong’ for the network.”

Time Magazine also got into the mix talking about the networks recent stance as the anti-Obama network, standing behind Wall Street, and not as most papers appear to be sympathizing with the folks who have been affected by what many have called the poor decision making by Wall Street. Regardless of your stance on this issue (which is a post for an entirely different blog :-), CNBC appears to be the big winner in all of this.

For me, the answer to the question depends on what the “press” is about–so in that sense, I don’t believe all press is good press.

I’d love to hear your take on the CNBC debate and/or your thoughts on whether or not you agree with the statement: “No press is bad press.”

175 Million Reasons Why You (and Your Company) Should be on Facebook

The latest comScore numbers are out, and there are now 175 million users on Facebook.

In other words, in less than a year, Facebook has now caught and surpassed MySpace as the most relevant and compelling social networking platform in the world. (Hmmmmm, maybe those guys at Microsoft are pretty smart after all.)

Recognize that roughly 70 percent of all FB members are from outside of the United States (or approximately 122 million users), which may or may not be a good thing for you and/or your company.

But for those of you just focused on the U.S., that still means that more than 50 million Americans are on Facebook, which is pretty mind-boggling when you stop and think about it. In other words, since its founding in February 2004, Facebook has now captured more than 1/6th the entire U.S. population as users/members.

Assuming you’re reading this because you work in some aspect of marketing, communications, public relations, shareholder relations, sales, management or a combination of these areas, 50 million of anything is a BIG DEAL! And if 50MM is a BIG DEAL, then certainly 175 million is an even bigger deal!

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The Role of Social Media in Branding Efforts

My friend Jason Kintzler (@PitchEngine) - founder of Pitch Engine and overall social media junkie - started a personal blog the other day called New Media Cowboy and launched it with a post entitled “Social Media is Branding.”

Kintzler’s post reminded me that many internal branding efforts are misdirected at best because they’re caught up in the old world way of marketing-think: Specifically, “I (the big, important marketing executive) will tell you (the lucky consumer) what to think about and how to act toward my brand (be it product, service or organization).

This approach is so bass-ackwards it’s laughable, and yet it’s still the way many companies attempt to brand themselves, their products and/or services.

In reality, the definition of a brand has always been directed by those on the receiving ends of any and all communication and marketing efforts and NOT by those on the sending end.

It’s like my very first communications professor at BYU said: “You cannot not communicate.”

In other words, everything we do or say is a form of communication (or marketing, if you will). But since an effective form of mind control has not yet been invented (thank goodness), we cannot control how others will perceive such communication efforts.

Hence, communication has NEVER been a one-way street; rather (at a minimum) communication is a two-way thoroughfare (marketing too). And it is the perception of those receiving any marketing message that determines the brand of an organization, a product, a service or person and NOT the other way around.

“The perception of those receiving any marketing message determines (one’s) brand . . . NOT the other way around.”

That’s what intrigued me about Jason’s post.

He suggests that social media and the tools/services that make up social networking efforts are in fact branding efforts at their very core because they’re all about two-way communication and engaging individuals with one’s organization, product, service or person.

The reason why this observation is so critical is that the best customers are not just repeat customers - they’re evangelizers. They tell others about their great experiences with your brand and as a result they expand your sales, marketing and communications efforts many, many fold.

Why? Because they’re not on your payroll; they’re independent from your organization. As a result, what they write, say and/or do has a HUGE CREDIBILITY - often times generating more impact than virtually any other thing that you might attempt.

Kintzler’s right - social media is ALL ABOUT BRANDING. 

This is a very important concept to grasp and it should flavor any social networking effort undertaken by every marketing, PR, new media and/or communications pro from this point forward.

Qtrax Lands “Bewildered Betty Award” for Announcing Deals with Major Music Labels Before Said Agreements Are Signed

Major PR faux pas by Brilliant Technologies puts future of nascent free music download service — QTRAX — in serious doubt

Can you think of ANY reason why a company would ever want to “announce” it had closed deals with one or more major partners at a HUGE industry event without having such deals actually signed?

Me neither.

Amazingly, that’s apparently what happened this past weekend at the MIDEM music conference held in Cannes.

According to media reports from around the globe, New York-based Qtrax — a subsidiary of Brilliant Technologies (Pink Sheets: BLLN) — spent close to £500,000 to host a launch party that featured such recording artists as LL Cool J and James Blunt and was designed to promote the “fact” that Qtrax was going to announce Monday it had

• Signed deals with the four largest music labels – EMI, Universal, Sony BMG and Warner Music Group; and that
• These deals would provide more than 25,000 free downloadable songs for users of the new free ad-supported QTRAX music download service.

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Royale Energy Lands the First Sad Betty Award for its Most Recent News Release

There are a couple of questions in life you never want to answer, such as

• Does this dress make me look fat?
• Have you made that appointment yet for your prostate exam?
• You paid how much for that?

Well . . . I’ve got another question to add to the list. It’s

• What do you think of our news release?

Unfortunately, Royale Energy (NASDAQ: ROYL) has just landed the first Sad Betty Award for its January 11, 2008 news release. In my opinion, this is probably one of the most confusing and most awkwardly written announcements I have ever read.

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