A Plug For Women: And the Businesses They Run And Why They Work

Last month MediaPost blogger and self proclaimed “serial entrepreneur” Kaila Colbin raised the question in her March 23 post, “Do we need more women in technology?” stemming from a panel discussion on Women in Leadership, she had recently attended. Her answer was not necessarily – even if volumes of data continue to show a tech-sector gender gap and that in the second decade of the 21^st century it remains the politically correct rallying cry. What’s needed instead, she says, is greater diversity, “diversity of gender, of viewpoint, of life experience, of worldview.”

Colbin goes on to say: “The answer is for us to realize that we are each limited to the maximum perspective our meager experience affords us, that there are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in our individual philosophies, and that by inviting in those who see the world from a different angle, we can broaden our own vision.”

Forgive me for saying so, but doesn’t that sound a little lacking and unfocused?

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t mean to come off insensitive. Diversity is important – even nonspecific calls to that end aren’t totally useless as they remind us that the bringing together of wide ranging backgrounds can sometimes illuminate solutions to problems that weren’t first apparent and illustrate that in the end we’re all just people working to reach a goal. But I kind of feel like Sesame Street’s “We All Sing with the Same Voice” 1982 song hits the same notes. (Pun intended)

Instead, since this is my blog, let’s break a little ground here and go against the grain a bit to give a plug to women – not just in the tech sector – but elsewhere too. We do need more women in the workforce. Why? Because data shows that for a combination of social, societal and psychological reasons, women-run businesses are more successful.

A recent Illuminate Ventures Whitepaper found that high tech women-run businesses: “are more capital efficient” – or in non-technobabble speak, they spend money wiser and use one-third less capital to achieve the same revenue results.

Another translation: women-run businesses get more sh*% done with less. The report also found that companies with women in top management positions achieve 35% higher return on equity and a 34% better return to shareholders.

CEO and writer Margaret Heffernan, on her 20-first website, has researched the topic further, collecting not only data about successful women-run businesses, but attempts to answer why the statistics are what they are. Whether it’s the biological child-rearing instinct toward nurturing, or societally-imposed assumptions, women, according to Heffernan, have turned these stereotypes on their head and are using them as skills of empowerment – a defense mechanism common to many marginalized groups. She goes on to say that women have been found to be more flexible in term of working hours, they want to make “difference” as well as make money, (which can inspire staff), are more likely to be involved with community activities and they tend to offer good health care plans and retirement packages.

Increasingly women have become our society’s juggernaut, tasked with not only raising a family, but earning an income vital to the family’s survival. While traditional male-female roles have blurred, it’s women by and large, which have had to shoulder a greater burden. But time and time again as our plate of responsibilities have grown, we’ve met and exceeded the challenge.

The US may still struggle with a tech-sector gender gap, but with women holding some 58% of all professional jobs in the country and making up 57% of undergraduate degrees, I’m confident the information technology industry is bound to get the digital memo sooner than later. But hey, it’s men we’re talking about. Perhaps they’ll have to ask for advice from Siri first.

We all know what gender she really is.

Why ‘Good’ Press Releases = ‘Bad’ Journalism

The following article by Vanessa Horwell, Chief Visibility Officer of ThinkInk, originally appeared on Marketing Daily on 3/15/12. 

When writing news stories, editors advise young reporters to do the following: stick to facts, don’t opine, place important/newest information high, answer the five Ws, have a solid lead and conclusion, spell names correctly, use conversational language, meet deadlines and hit the word count.

It’s a formula for success that reporters of all ages rely on. More than that, however, the tips speak to the professional evolution of storytelling found to be most effective at getting points across, with a 150+year history.

Seems like a simple formula, right?

Then why do so many press releases I read —  and some I am required to write — fail to meet these standards? What’s changed in the communications industry that allows for the writing and distribution of such abysmal drivel? And why don’t the rules governing quality storytelling apply to many of today’s releases?

PR is NOT the Dark Side of Journalism – But Some Clients Might Work for the Death Star

Whoa. Three questions in one paragraph — and a possible clichéd Star Wars reference subhead. That, too, may violate a writing essential — that a story can be about one thing and should avoid clichés like the plague (cliché intended). Coming from a public relations angle, I can tell you that it’s not as simple as pitting agenda-pushing poor-writing PR professionals against reporters.

Too often the challenge lies with our clients and their expectations. Yes, as their communications team, it’s our job to direct conversation, to craft proper messages and distribute that message through the media in a concise, accurate and compelling manner. But like journalists, we too can’t always claim the moral high road. Clients pay our salaries, just as advertisers pay (or used to pay) journalists. Sometimes we just have to do what we’re told. Most times, we just have to “make it work.”

Press Release Dos and Don’ts

Of course, “making copy work” is not like making copy sing —  a nod to the lyrical and rhythmic flow of quality writing. An off pitch release (Not the PR pitch) “creates” news rather than telling something newsworthy. Ask yourself — if you didn’t work for company X, would you read it? If the answer is ‘no,’ then you’re already in trouble. The solution: clients need to be honest about their announcements. Writing a release about something that may happen in six months is not newsworthy. That’s about as useful as someone planning to be rich by summer.

At most, that’s the kind of company “news” that meets Twitter post standards or a short email blast to client investors. It does not require an 800-word release that causes journalists’ eyeballs to glaze over or public relations professionals to struggle through 17 drafts of a document that has failed to capture the “essence of the company story.” Sometimes what clients say just isn’t that important. Clients need to have the humility and presence of mind to know when to shut up — or at least respect when their PR staff tells them to.

Press releases also fail because of their language. If you’re writing a release in English, then write in English — not gibberish. Is some jargon necessary? Yes. But too much and a press release can bury its own newsworthiness.

Print This: PR Professionals and Journalists Play the Same Game on Different Teams

How’s that for a newsworthy press release? But even if we play on different teams — journalists dig for the news while PR professionals push what they’d like to be considered news — the rules of the writing game should not change.

Modern journalistic writing evolved from the rigors of changing technology – the telegraph. At a penny a character, brevity was far more important than expressive prose. Combined with the fear of technology failure, reporters were taught to write and report news as if readers only read the headlines and first paragraph. (Sound familiar?)

Today’s hyperactive news cycle and extreme mobile connectivity is the outgrowth of these technological realities. PR professionals, emerging some 50 years after Samuel Morse’s invention, really do know what good writing and storytelling is about.

If only we can teach clients that same lesson, perhaps the PR vs. journalism professional stalemate will be broken –- and great press releases will equal great journalism.

The following article by Vanessa Horwell, Chief Visibility Officer of ThinkInk, originally appeared on Marketing Daily on 3/15/12. 

What Are Words For?

by Vanessa Horwell

What are words for, when no one listens anymore?” Do you remember that song? It came out during the same era of “Video killed the radio star.” Okay, so I’m a child of the late 70s/early ’80s, that prehistoric time when TVs had no remotes, when a huge VCR (remember the Betamax?) sat in the Hi-Fi center along with ABBA and Dr. Hook LPs, and a computer was something on which you played Atari Tennis or Pac-man.

Back then, we all learned to write in the same cursive script. At my school, we used a fountain pen with blue-ink cartridges that leaked all over your fingers, a constant reminder of the toils of the written word: Grammar was sacrosanct and there were no distractions in the classroom with iPhones, texts or IMing, only boys and passed notes. Back then, we didn’t mess around with language to create new “isms” to suit a campaign or a whole new line of marketing buzzwords that would eventually be so passé, they became offensive.

It was a simple time, I admit, but we communicated with clarity. Real words, devoid of BS and convoluted meanings. We didn’t have to create a paradigm shift to evangelize the next generation of social media influencers who would start deploying SMM platforms to strategically position thought leaders to take it to the next level. We didn’t need to apply a holistic approach to Web 2.0 enhancements that would enable enablers to join the conversation and engage their audience by retweeting and Digging. We didn’t even need to realign ourselves with a new media landscape to garner attention, augment a comprehensive results-oriented process that would deliver stellar ROI and increased awareness on a sentiment index to measure positive feelings out there in the blogosphere.

Nope, back then we didn’t have to worry about using forward-thinking, innovative, disruptive technological advancements to deliver increased brand affinity and build synergistic partnerships that would transcend the status quo and bring about a sea change in performance-driven, cutting-edge, high-impact, integrated solutions with location-aware abilities to deliver best-in-class results. And we never once worried about the power of integrating scalable platforms to stimulate online conversations led by social media disciples who were eternally cautious practitioners of pre-populating devices and dashboards to solidify infrastructural advancements that would engender loyalty and strategic alliances.

We didn’t even have to think outside the box to break through the clutter.

Know what I mean?

What I actually mean is that we’re losing the meaning of our words. From the sublime to the ridiculous, truly. Our parlance is being reduced to symbols, acronyms and a series of hyphenated verbs-come-adjectives, as more people forget the communications basics: Say what you mean with clarity, brevity and intelligence. Instead, we’ve worked ourselves into a frenzied mash-up and indeed breakdown of “impressive” words.

Dumb, Dumber and Dumbest?

At the heart of every sales pitch, press release or marketing campaign is a message, one that is supposed to communicate an inherent and useful value for a product or service. For many, this act of communicating now requires oral gimmickry or just plain stupidness. Shame on us. It’s taken thousands of years to create such a complex linguistic machine, and less than 30 to kill it.

It’s not just English, or Americanese, however. The Real Academia Española is also facing challenges as the Spanish language adapts itself to absorb global language trends and cultural changes.

I agree that verbose writing is just as much of a turnoff in any language, but in our quest to sound more clevererer, bang out more messages faster, tweet and Facebook ourselves to oblivion, and send out communiqué littered with grandiose-sounding words, we’ve both devalued our language and the meaning of the words we use. And become a lot more brainless in the process. When we’ve reduced any number of words to WTF, OMG and LMFAO, which have entered a multi-generational lexicon and are creeping into regular business correspondence, what’s left?

Anyone got a new word for that? Perhaps you’ll find one in a game I created called BS Bingo. Feel free to send me your suggestions, too.

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