Create Snappy Sound Bites

New teleseminar shows communicators how to write moving quotes and memorable quips

Jan. 25, 2010 — A good sound bite can help you support your points, give your story a human voice, change the pace of the piece and add creativity and color to your copy.

“Unfortunately, quotations in press releases often sound as if they were manufactured by a computer, not spoken by a human being,” says Ann Wylie, president of Wylie Communications Inc. “Quotes can be the most boring — not the most interesting — parts of your copy.”

A new teleseminar aims to help writers transform their quotations from blah to brilliant.

Program details

What: “Create Snappy Sound Bites,” a one-hour teleseminar (http://bit.ly/6Xs3Sv)

Why: To help communicators write sound bites that journalists and bloggers want to publish — and that reader want to read

Who: Presented by Ann Wylie (http://bit.ly/60rAFt); sponsored by the Public Relations Society of America (http://www.prsa.org/)

When: 3 p.m. Eastern time (2 p.m. Central, 1 p.m. Mountain, 12 p.m. Pacific) on June 10

Where: Register online (http://bit.ly/6Xs3Sv)

In this program, Wylie will share tips on how to:

• Make quotes crisp, clear and concise, and how to avoid overquoting, hiccup quotes and an irritating “bumpety-bump” formula that lulls your readers to sleep.
• Peel back your quotes to make them tighter and more interesting. As Mark Twain said, the best sound bite is “a minimum of sound to a maximum of sense.”
• Write a colorful, quotable quote, and watch it get picked up by the media.
• Write attribution like a pro and use some simple tricks and rules of thumb that will give your writing polish and authority.
• Find and craft testimonials. “What others say about you and your product, service or business is at least 1,000 times more convincing than what you say, even if you are 2,000 times more eloquent,” says Dan Kennedy, author of “No B.S. Sales Success.”

Quotes:

From workshop attendees:

“Since the seminar we have all seen better results from our work that has been going out. Reporters have been responding quicker to our press releases and pitches and we’ve had increased coverage of our current west coast company event.” — Karen Halesky, Public Relations Associate, ING Direct

“An excellent teleseminar on enhancing writing skills and creating punchy sound bites that increase the likelihood of media using quotes.” — Joan Lister, president, HealthComm

“This information provided some valuable insight to the mistakes in our writing styles. Because this is something we do regularly, we may have gotten bored or lose our focus. This definitely helped me get a fresh perspective on my writing and what to do to make it more productive.” — Ashley Jennings, Beaumont Convention & Visitors Bureau

From the PRSA professional development director:

“Ann’s insights are especially valuable because she has worked on all sides of the communication ‘desk’ — as a corporate communicator, in a PR agency, as a magazine editor and as a consultant. Her workshops are always extremely well received by our members and other writers.” — Judy Voss, PRSA’s director of professional development

More information on sound bites

See Ann’s resources on writing sound bites.

About Ann Wylie

Ann Wylie is president of Wylie Communications Inc. (http://www.wyliecomm.com/), a training, writing and consulting firm. She works with communicators who want to reach more readers and with organizations that want to get the word out. Her workshops take her from Hollywood to Helsinki, helping communicators at NASA, FedEx, Motorola, H&R Block and other organizations improve their skills. She’s the author of a dozen learning tools, including  RevUpReadership.com (http://bit.ly/KJ2t3), a toolbox for writers; and Wylie’s Writing Tips (http://bit.ly/6JgZLJ), a free e-zine. Her work has earned more than 60 awards, including two IABC Gold Quills.

About PRSA:

The Public Relations Society of America (http://www.prsa.org/), headquartered in New York City, is the world’s largest professional organization for public relations practitioners. The society’s members represent business and industry, counseling firms, government, associations, hospitals, schools, professional services firms and nonprofit organizations. Chartered in 1948, PRSA has 116 chapters throughout the United States and extends services and professional development to the student level through the Public Relations Student Society (PRSSA) with 209 chapters on college campuses throughout the country.

For more information, contact:

Ann Wylie
Wylie Communications Inc.
816/997-8753
Ann@WylieComm.com