The Shoestring Inferiority Complex: How Trying to Keep Up Can Get PR Pros Down

One Saturday afternoon not long ago, I found myself gawking out my front window as my neighbors carried in their new plasma TV. I felt that wistful pang of envy. Why can't I get a plasma TV? PR departments working on a shoestring budget are largely represented by the public and not-for-profit sector. For these organizations, the feeling of having to make do and having to do without is a fact of life.

Austin, Lisa. Communication World Bulletin (2006). Articles>Business Communication>Financial>Public Relations

Shoestring Public Relations 101: Ideas to Get Your Creativity Flowing

Whether you work for a nonprofit, a corporation or an agency, you've likely at some time been assigned to a PR project that has next to no budget. When this happens, you may feel you are up against the impossible, but don't despair. You can deliver a highly successful campaign on a shoestring—but it requires some creativity.

O'Brien, Cathy-Anne. Communication World Bulletin (2006). Articles>Business Communication>Public Relations

Short and Sweet: Better Cookie Cutter Proposal  

Multiple proposal production has the goals of credibility, accuracy, consistency, and speed. Producing a large number of proposals is enabled by standard formats, a team approach led by technical communicators, standard processes, top management commitment, and process management.

Reilly, Annette D. STC Proceedings (1997). Articles>Grants>Proposals>Business Communication

Should Businesses Embrace the Blogging Phenomenon?

When news reports announced that Apple Computer was suing unnamed individuals (presumed to be employees) who had allegedly leaked information about a prototype Apple product to several blog news sites, it raised a number of questions. What does the lawsuit mean for freedom of expression and the role of journalists who serve an information-hungry audience? How will the courts balance the fundamental right of freedom of expression against a company's claims that trade secrets have been violated on a blog?

Blackshaw, Pete. Communication World Bulletin (2005). Articles>Web Design>Business Communication>Blogging

Should Writers Be Held Accountable for Web Page Performance?

Ask print direct response copywriters if they are held accountable, and they'll say yes. That was my own life for 15 years. I wrote direct mail packages and was judged not on my past reputation, but on the performance of each piece I wrote, one mailing at a time.

Usborne, Nick. Excess Voice (2006). Articles>Business Communication>Marketing>Writing

Signaling Corporate Strategy in IPO Communication: A Study of Biotechnology IPOs on the NASDAQ    

A clear corporate strategy communication can be a signal to financial analysts and public investors at the time of an initial public offering (IPO). This study examines IPO prospectuses of 57 biotechnology firms listed on the NASDAQ between 1997 and 2002. Using regression analysis, this article shows that the clarity, intensity, and consistency of the corporate strategy signal are not strong enough to affect the 1st-day initial returns. However, consistent communication of a prospector strategy negatively impacts 30-day initial returns, whereas consistent communication of a defender strategy positively impacts 30-day initial returns.

Gao, Hongzhi, Jenny Darroch, Damien Mather and Alan MacGregor. JBC (2008). Articles>Business Communication>Financial

Six Rules for Transforming Your Brand: The Carter Holt Harvey Experience

Australasia's leading forest product company, Carter Holt Harvey (CHH), transformed itself in under three years from slumbering giant into a high-performing, innovative business leader based on values of performance, leadership and innovation - and won an IABC Gold Quill award in the process. Here's CHH's story in brief and rules learned along the way.

Stuart, Dellwyn. Communication World Bulletin (2003). Articles>Business Communication>Marketing>Case Studies

Six Steps to XBRL

XBRL is reinventing how we transmit and use data in business. XBRL is not just for SEC companies: Small businesses and practitioners alike could soon be using XBRL to submit information to bankers, the IRS, and other agencies. XBRL will become a part of every CPA’s practice.

Phillips, Mary E., Tammy E. Bahmanziari and Robert G. Colvard. Journal of Accountancy (2008). Articles>Business Communication>Financial>XBRL

Six Survival Techniques for a Communications Pro

A top-level corporate communicator tells how to improve odds of survival and success.

Writing that Works (2006). Careers>Business Communication>Communication

Six Tips for Effective E-Mail

Who to target with your email, how long it should be, and what should and shouldn't go in it so that it can be an effective means of communication for you.

Hayhoe, George F. IEEE PCS (2008). Articles>Business Communication>Email>Podcasts

Six Tips for Effective Self-Appraisals

Thorough, ongoing documentation is the key to well-written Self-Appraisals that increase your perceived value within your Company and impact your performance rating.

ULiveandLearn.com (2005). Careers>Writing>Business Communication>Assessment

Six Ways to 'Sell the Boss' on Outsourcing White Papers

Calculate the time of the manager and your time to do edits. Determine the cost to the company based on average salaries. Chances are it's costing MORE than if it was outsourced.

Stelzner, Michael A. WhitePaperSource (2008). Articles>Business Communication>Outsourcing>White Papers

Skimming Is Important

Business documents are read in an irregular manner. Techniques have been developed to aid the reader of paper documents in navigating through those documents.

Bricklin, Dan. Good Documents (1998). Articles>Writing>Business Communication

Smart Marketing Enhances Credibility and Creates Customers

Today's business climate is kinder to those who understand and act on the fact that there are numerous ways to communicate positive attributes.

Juergens, Tom. Boston Broadside (1992). Articles>Business Communication>Marketing

A Solution to Writing Winning Sales Proposals and Other Sales Documents

This article explains how we built a solution to producing sales proposals and other sales literature for our own company using an affordable content management solution.

Pratt, Ellis. Cherryleaf (2003). Articles>Business Communication>Single Sourcing>Documentation

Some Assembly Required: The Latourian Collective and the Banal Work of Technical and Professional Communication    

In this article, the author uses the critical vocabulary developed by Bruno Latour in his recent work Politics of Nature to offer an alternative way for technical and professional communicators to approach and articulate their work. Using the Discovery Channel's Mythbusters to explore Latour's vocabulary, the author argues that positioning technical and professional communication as more than transmitting and translating, but instead as the collecting of articulated propositions about the common world in service of the common good, thoroughly grounds its practice in rhetorical theory. Such a positioning also ascribes value to technical and professional communication without reinscribing the false dichotomy between science and politics.

Rivers, Nathaniel A. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication (2008). Articles>TC>Business Communication>Theory

The (Staggering) Cost of Information Overload

Recently, I was waiting for a meeting to begin at a 500-person professional services firm. An item on the bulletin board caught my eye. It was a memo from the CFO. If everyone in the firm could spend an hour less per day managing e-mail, he said, it would make a difference of US$2 million a year to the company.

Boyd, Bill. Communication World Bulletin (2005). Articles>Business Communication>Management

Stand and Deliver

You've got thirty seconds to sell your work to the well dressed nemesis who's paying you. Handle the next few moments gracefully, and the project will be one you can be proud of. Flub an answer, and you can kiss excellence goodbye. Are you prepared? Can you deliver?

Sleight, David. List Apart, A (2007). Careers>Consulting>Business Communication

Starting the Journey Toward Corporate Social Responsibility

The growing emergence of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in the marketplace begs the question: What does it take to get there? How do companies make the leap from deciding to embrace the values of CSR to creating a culture around it? Read comments from several CEO's who discuss actions that companies have taken in order to incorporate CSR within their agendas.

Cunningham, Cori. Communication World Bulletin (2004). Articles>Business Communication>Public Relations

The State of Corporate Citizenship in the U.S.

The Center for Corporate Citizenship at Boston College and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce teamed up to deliver the first survey of American businesses of all sizes on "The State of Corporate Citizenship in the U.S." This survey was designed to gain a baseline from which to measure biennially the progress and state of corporate citizenship first in the U.S. and then globally. It is the first corporate citizenship survey in the U.S. to include small and medium-sized businesses and the first to gather information on business efforts in low-income communities.

Communication World Bulletin (2004). Articles>Business Communication>Public Relations

"Stepping Lively": Reformatting the Gap Between Student Writing and Professional Writing    

Teachers of technical writing are urged to use computers not only for influencing the process of writing but also for designing and formatting the product of writing. Engineering students at a Midwestern university now submit final drafts of senior projects in commercial-style formats, thus increasing their range of skills in the act of preparing final written products and adopting some conventions of communicating in the workplace. Reformatting student writing to mimic commercial-quality writing not only increases the scope and responsibility of writing instruction, but also better prepares students to adapt to communication situations in the workplace.

Kumpf, Eric P. and Joseph T. Emanuel. Technical Communication Online (1996). Articles>Education>Writing>Business Communication

Steps to a Successful Interview: Follow-Up

Send a thank-you note for every interview. It can be an email, a handwritten note on good-quality (neutral color) stationery, or a standard business letter.

O'Keefe, Karen, Rebecca Forrest and Jean Fudge. Between the Lines (2007). Careers>Interviewing>Correspondence>Business Communication

Steve Slaunwhite, Author and Copywriting Pro

In this interview, Steve shares his insight and tips on successful copywriting and freelancing.

Hartsock, Nettie. WhitePaperSource (2006). Articles>Writing>Business Communication

Stories that Sell: Writing Case History Articles  

Grab readers. Make them want to read about your product. No, not by writing sparkling prose in a brochure or flier, but by showing your product or service solving a problem -- as told by a real user. A unique blend of journalism and promotion, "case history" articles offer benefits for everyone. The user gets to look like an important expert. Your company or client gets its product or service shown in a good light. And the publication where the case history is published gets an article that will appeal to its readers.

Bronakowski, Cathryn, Peter Dossing, Barbara Spaeth and Sam Sutherland. STC Proceedings (1995). Articles>Business Communication>Marketing>Case Studies

Story Scrapbooks: Tools for Engagement

Thank heavens for big sisters—especially mine. I was over at Franca's house sipping hot chocolate and catching up on life. While we spoke, she was assembling another one of her family scrapbook masterpieces. We started talking about her work—she is an international marketing and publication relations consultant. As we discussed the internal communication challenges one of her clients was facing, I had a flash of brilliance. What if we helped the client put together a story scrapbook and then used it to facilitate conversations around the organization?

Gargiulo, Terrence. Communication World Bulletin (2006). Articles>Content Management>Knowledge Management>Business Communication