News announcements are fleeting, and at their worst, inconsistent over time. If you spend too much of your time “drinking the Kool-Aid,” you’re going to miss an opportunity to understand broader market sentiment. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, Features that appear on CDC’s homepage are a great place to find topics and content that can be repurposed for Facebook, Twitter, and text messages. Understanding how people naturally use or participate in different social media channels will help you determine your engagement strategy. Many times PR practitioners can provide an ear closest to the customer, given their access to what press and analysts are hearing from end users. More than you would expect. Important characteristics of effective public relations content are a good headline, brevity, keeping the target audience in mind, and efficiency. Appendix A provides key points on several of the audiences the CDC reaches. Where do you start? Hyperlink to a CDC.gov Web page, photo, or video. Test your message on a cold reader. Use social media to promote Web content or start a conversation with community members who have joined your social media channels. Use day of the week, comma, then month, date, comma, and finally, year when needed, followed by a comma or other punctuation mark (most often a period). (Refer to a company as “it,” not “they,” because “company” does not take the plural form.). Use numbers when they help you make your point. Currently, 98% of cell phones can send and receive text messages. Get a mammogram.Talk to your doctor. These two Facebook audiences can update their pages with new posts that display in the “news feed,” which is the main page a user sees after logging in. Open with a strong, compelling lead. Research indicates that most health information is not presented in a way that is usable by most adults. Learn more about Ragan Insider. For help crafting social media communications, please visit Health Literacy: Accurate, Accessible and Actionable Health Information for All. We’ll feature a different book each week and share exclusive deals you won’t find anywhere else. Social media messages should have a call to action, urging people to take the next step. Get heaping discounts to books you love delivered straight to your inbox. When you start to drift from your principles, it’s time to take stock of the current situation and think about what needs to change to keep you on track. The alternative, doing a bunch of activities that are not aligned to a broader strategy, isn’t the best use of your resources (nor is it the way to build a durable team). In this guide, you will find information to help you get started using social media—from developing governance to determining which channels best meet your communication objectives to creating a social media strategy. Put things together that go together, transition smoothly from one idea to the next, and don’t jump back and forth between thoughts. The team should be integrated into the long-term plans of the company to ensure product and PR plans stay aligned. Pieces should relate to real-life events, with anecdotes and examples showing how the topic has a measurable impact on the achievement of strategic organizational goals. Provide a mix of simple, compound and complex sentences. Here are some ways to help you achieve a balanced, conversational tone. Consider using alternatives to words expressing mathematical concepts, such as. Focus on your products, partners and customers. Lane submitted its Year Seven Self Evaluation Report. Utilize partners and customers to tell your story. Put relevant, intriguing information at the beginning of your post. Avoid colloquial language (y’all, ain’t, you guys). The Twitter community has created its own short-form syntax. Try to write in a conversational tone, but remember to be professional too. Vary your sentence structure. © 2020 Public Relations Society of America, Inc. Professional Development Workshops and Master Classes, Discuss new technologies that are changing the way that professionals practice public relations, Interview exceptional communications practitioners, Convey timely news analysis of issues impacting the profession, Analyze case studies of successful PR campaigns with measurable outcomes, Reflect the growth and change in crucial areas of professional development in the form of how-to pieces, Write in active voice. Feature individual speakers or topics before the conference. Include the year of publication and the publisher when your reference a book. Here are 10 public relations principles every PR practitioner should consider as they go through the process of assembling an effective plan. To see what other agencies are doing, go to Government on Facebook. Make information useful by suggesting practical steps or citing convincing statistics or report findings. Let people know about guidelines, such as. ToneBecause Facebook is a platform for people to share what’s going on in their lives, the tone is naturally casual but professional. A reader often sifts through an onslaught of information, skims topics, and browses sites to determine where to focus his or her attention. Smart phone: A cell phone with an integrated computer and other features not originally associated with telephones, such as an operating system, Web browser, and ability to run software applications. Write in first or second person (I, we, you). The Better You Know Your Customer, the Better You Can Position Your Brand, How to Set the Right Goals for Your Business, Humility: The Missing Ingredient to Your Success, 3 Ways for Entrepreneurs to Stay Visible During the Pandemic, How PR Helps Startups Attract VCs Remotely, 3 Qualities Your Content Needs to Earn Media Coverage, How to Do PR When You're Bootstrapped and Don't Have Connections. Where can you differentiate? Be proud, but don’t be boastful. Now more than ever, health literacy matters. 0000001432 00000 n Over the years I have come to include another element for every plan, principles. PR is far more than a vehicle that creates awareness at the end of a product cycle. As a health communicator, you craft health and safety messages that can have a profound impact on the public. For information on Twitter terms, visit The Twitter Glossary. Include links to Web content that offer more detail or supply a phone number or e-mail address, but not e-mail addresses for individuals. ", 4000 East 30th Ave., Eugene, Oregon 97405. (Jefkins 2006). Provide the proper name of the survey, who conducted it and the release date when you cite a survey or statistics. Avoid trendy abbreviations (UR for “you are”). Feature an individual guideline, one that has recently changed or one that is an old standard. Related: Humility: The Missing Ingredient to Your Success. This story was originally published on PR Daily in December 2014. Create your business plan in half the time with twice the impact using Entrepreneur's BIZ PLANNING PLUS powered by LivePlan. 70 0 obj <> endobj Writing well—all the while following Associated Press style—is invaluable in the PR world, but is also useful for any career that involves written communication. Remember who your readers are — and that you are trying to make communications pros better, smarter and more connected through all stages of their career. Always consider your overarching communication goals when developing social media activities. Great PR teams are woven into the fabric of the business from day one. Confused about how many spaces to put after a period? Rework the Web content to make it engaging and brief enough to be successful social media writing.