Our Thoughts

These articles convey our thoughts on various subjects related to Corporate Communications.

Presentation Tips

Whether you’re an expert presenter or preparing for your first speaking opportunity, here are some practical tips that are guaranteed to make you a success.

It’s no cause for alarm if you say things in the wrong order or have to correct yourself. The audience likes to know you’re human and not a robot.

Practicing

Contrary to popular belief, you only need to practice your presentation until you feel familiar with which slide is coming next. You don’t want to practice so much that you memorize what you’re going to say, because then you won’t sound spontaneous. You want to think of your presentation like you’re having a conversation with your audience.

Using Notes

You don’t need to tell your audience upfront that you’re using notes. Lots of people refer to notes or notecards during their presentations, so it’s not unusual.

Pacing Yourself

If you’re a fast-talker, as many of us are when we feel nervous, you can slow yourself down by looking at your slides and looking at your audience. It’s not always easy to remember when you’re on stage, but having a few seconds of silence or pause between slides or between sentences is a good thing. Glancing at your notes will also give you an opportunity to pause for a few seconds, even if you don’t really need to look at them.

Interacting with Your Audience

You can interact with your audience by saying things like: “Has anyone else had this experience?” and waiting for them to nod or laugh. This gives you an opportunity to smile, too. Don’t be afraid to ad lib. Ad lib comments are a great way to interact with your audience.

Imperfection is Okay

It’s no cause for alarm if you say things in the wrong order or have to correct yourself. That happens all the time—just smile and get back on track. The audience likes to know you’re human and not a robot. If someone makes a comment or brings up something you didn’t know about, it’s always good to thank them and acknowledge that new things are coming up all the time, and that’s what makes your subject so interesting!

A Guide to Industry Analyst Briefings

Your initial presentation to an analyst will not be very much different than a basic presentation to a press contact. The difference is, there would not be a “story angle” to focus on.

Generally speaking, your initial presentation to an analyst will not be very much different than a basic presentation to a press contact. The difference is, there would not be a “story angle” to focus on. You will have 30 minutes to an hour to make a general presentation that reflects the history and future direction of the company, and to highlight your strengths. Most of our clients prepare a PowerPoint for this, and we go over it together by phone conference call, or in person. Subsequent briefings to the same analysts could focus on a new product, or other very specific news topics.

The analysts will ask questions throughout the presentation, and will often make recommendations or helpful comments to you, based on their knowledge of the industry. They are interested in how your company will influence the market, in detail. They occasionally are very helpful in suggesting contacts that would help your business. They will always give you an opinion on what they think about your company, which is obviously useful.

Analysts value company presentations as part of the research they need to comment on industry trends. You may even be mentioned in some of the reports they publish. They frequently allow companies to publish short quotes that they may make during the briefing. So, if they have a positive opinion of your presentation, we may be able to use their comments in pitching to the press, or for publication on your website. In general, you don’t have to worry about them making any negative comments about your company in any of the documents they publish.

Analysts can be very helpful in suggesting contacts that would help your business.

Analysts also expect to have the opportunity to present their company services to you, and usually want to interest you in using their services in some way. This usually takes the form of purchasing a report that they write, or participation in programs as a client of their firm. It varies greatly from one analyst firm to another. Sometimes, analysts invite companies to participate as exhibitors or speakers at important events that they sponsor, without a charge. Your participation in any contract for services, or participation in programs is optional. We can make suggestions and recommendations about the benefits of their services on a case-by-case basis.

A Guide to Email for Business Communication

A hastily composed email can cause anything from a minor misunderstanding to outright disaster.

With the ease and speed that email offers today, the written word is becoming one of the most important vehicles for business communication. Yet the ability to communicate clearly and concisely in writing seems to be a skill that eludes many, often because people are in too much of a hurry to dash off that message. With personal emails, the slap and dash approach can work just fine. But for business communication, a hastily composed email can cause anything from a minor misunderstanding to outright disaster. In lieu of a face-to-face meeting, email correspondence may very well be the first impression a business contact receives, and as we’ve all heard so many times, we only have one chance to make a first impression.

When writing and sending email, a few guidelines and precautions are all it takes to prevent a potentially serious misunderstanding. First, using all capital letters is almost never appropriate, UNLESS YOU WANT THE RECIPIENT TO THINK YOU ARE YELLING AT THEM. It is very difficult to interpret the emotional mood of an email message, so font features such as upper case letters often end up as substitutes for facial expression and body language.

Journalists and industry analysts may decide to read or delete a message solely based on the information in the subject line.

Some extra thought should be put into creating a subject line that provides a meaningful synopsis of your message, especially if you’re sending business-related email or email to a stranger. Your email’s Subject Heading is one of the first things that the recipient will see. This is extremely important when we are contacting journalists and industry analysts. Because they may receive hundreds of emails daily, they may decide to read or delete a message solely based on the information in the subject line. That means we have one quick chance to deliver a brief but descriptive heading that will cause our messages to be read instead of trashed. And if you keep hundreds, or even thousands of emails filed away, an informative subject line will help you retrieve a message that you may want to review at a later date.

When forwarding a message, it’s helpful to the recipient if you can take a moment to delete extra lines, headers and text that aren’t relevant to your message. This is especially important if a message has been forwarded several times; the body of the email may contain row after row of useless header information requiring the recipient to scroll down over and over, impatiently searching for the real content of the message.

Be extra careful using the “Reply to All” feature of your email program. Sending a response to multiple recipients may be appropriate if everyone is collaborating on a project, but often people get carried away using the “Reply to All” feature to send out off-the-cuff comments, criticisms, or accolades. To people who are copied on the original message, but who are not the main recipient, this can be annoying, at the least. There is also the danger that a personal comment to the main recipient might accidentally be sent out to everyone who received the original message. This blunder has caused more people to eat crow than you might imagine.

Don’t use email to negatively criticize or chastise others.

Always check your own email for readability and spelling. It’s terribly easy to overlook typos and grammatical glitches when you’re in a hurry, and you never know how these simple little mistakes may be misinterpreted. Some recipients will be in just as big a hurry to read your message as you were to send it, and typos may not matter. In the worst case scenario however, your misspellings and bad grammar could be viewed as ignorance, lack of education, carelessness, or even apathy. This is a dangerous risk to take in business just to save a few minutes.

Be hard on yourself and easy on others. Remember that everyone makes mistakes. If you receive a carelessly—or sloppily-composed email, let it go, as long as you are sure you understand the content. Don’t use email to negatively criticize or chastise others.

Once you hit the “Send” button, your fate is sealed.

Finally, before you hit the send button, ask yourself, “Do I really need to send this message?” If you are feeling particularly emotional about an issue, save your message as a draft until you have a couple of hours to cool off. Then read it again and decide if it’s really necessary. Once you hit the “Send” button, your fate is sealed (although there are companies working on software that will allow you to retract a message, don’t count on this to save you from an embarrassing display!)

Email has become an indispensable tool for businesses today. When used with care, email facilitates our day-to-day communications and encourages collaboration and openness. Spending a few extra minutes on our emails is a quick and easy way to make things run more smoothly in both our business and personal communications!

The Company Newsletter—Your Own, Personal Communications Tool

A newsletter lets you reveal the human side of your business—the people and ideas that are its heart and soul.

Does your company issue a periodic newsletter? A company newsletter can be an extremely valuable communications tool, and can serve a number of purposes. It can be geared toward your customers, or your employees, or perhaps a combination of both. A newsletter not only gives you the opportunity to highlight your company’s recent achievements, but also lets you reveal the human side of your business—the people and ideas that are its heart and soul.

Many business executives are so focused on getting mentioned in the big print media that the idea of a company newsletter as a communications tool has never occurred to them. But a good newsletter can be a very powerful way to reinforce your company’s top priorities and objectives. One way to look at it is to think of a big story in the press as a theatrical production while behind the scenes, your newsletter is setting the stage, making sure everyone is working from the same script.

The content of a company newsletter can be quite diverse, depending on who your audience is. For an employee newsletter, you will want to include articles that will boost morale by providing recognition, improving employee relations and educating employees, helping them to work together toward common company goals. A newsletter can unite employees that may be working in different divisions or locations by keeping all informed of what’s going on within the company. In particular, a letter or article from the CEO is an excellent means to identify the company’s top priorities and objectives.

Your newsletter can drive traffic to your website for more information about your products and technologies.

Newsletters that are aimed at existing and potential customers are good vehicles for introducing new products and services, or sharing customer testimonials and success stories. It can also be valuable to share stories with your customers that highlight your employees’ expertise and qualifications. Such articles can be used to build customer trust and confidence in your company. Your newsletter can provide enticing lead-ins that will drive traffic to your website for more information about your products and technologies.

Online or email newsletters have become very popular with growing use of the Internet. If you have the resources, electronic newsletters can be substantially less expensive than printed newsletters because you don’t have to pay for printing, postage or shipping costs. Online newsletters are also a good choice if you have a short distribution schedule, because production turnaround time is much quicker. However, hard copy newsletters have the distinct advantage of portability—they can be handed out at trade shows or included in your press kit. And you never know when it might be nice to have an extra copy for the contact you just met on the airplane.

If you decide to create a company newsletter, it is absolutely critical to choose a distribution schedule that you can stick with. If you want your audience to believe that the information you are giving them is important enough to read, they must also believe that it is important enough to you that you will make a commitment for regular distribution.

Most of all, a company newsletter can help you reveal the human side of your business, and that’s what differentiates you the most.