I remember the good old days at Hallmark Cards, when I was responsible for the company’s gorgeous, glossy employee magazine.

Period.

Yup, I wrote and managed one quarterly publication.

Occasionally I’d pitch in to help a colleague who produced the daily employee newsletter. I’d write a book chapter or brochure now and again. I believe I remember making a horrible video once.

But the gist of my job was to produce four magazines a year. That came out to about 20 publications over the course of my five-year career at Hallmark.

I know folks now who produce that many pieces a week.

Overwhelmed by assignments

And that’s one of the problems with communication today. (Oh, my A-Rod, did I just type that? What am I, 90?)

But it’s true: One of the problems with communication today is that communicators have far, far too much work to do to do anything well. That leaves us with two options:

• Resign ourselves to lives of mediocrity. Oh, we’ll get everything done, all right. But none of it will be very good. And that will make us very, very sad. (Not to mention exhausted and cranky.)
• Perform communication triage.

(Here’s a tip: Choose No. 2.)

Communication triage is actually pretty easy to perform. Conveniently, it takes three steps:

• Prioritize. Sort projects into A, B and C pieces — or essential, nice to have and frankly, doesn’t deliver much value.
• Allocate resources. Invest in A projects, develop templates and other tools to streamline B projects and let C projects die (or kill them).
• Sell your plan. Planning and metrics are excellent alternatives to your third option, which is doing daily battle over priorities and resources.

Improve approvals

Want to master the art of managing the approval process?

• Invite Ann’s team in to handle a special writing or editing project.
• Work with Ann to polish your writing skills in one-on-one writing coaching sessions.
• Get dozens of tipsheets on managing the approval process at RevUpReadership.com.
• Find Ann’s out about Ann’s next “Develop an Approval Process That Doesn’t Drive You Nuts” teleseminar.
• Read Ann’s “Develop an Approval Process That Doesn’t Drive You Nuts” handbook.

About Ann Wylie

Ann Wylie is president of Wylie Communications Inc., 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. Wylie is the author of RevUpReadership.com, a toolbox for writers, and Wylie’s Writing Tips, a free e-zine. She has earned more than 60 awards, including two IABC Gold Quills, for her work.

Copyright © 2010 Ann Wylie. All rights reserved.

by Ann Wylie, president, Wylie Communications Inc.

I don’t know about you, but any campaign that includes a Myers-Briggs-type personality test for cats is a winner in my eyes.

But will identifying five feline personality types put you on the fast track for promotions, raises and bonuses? When layoffs loom, will the boss say, “Yes, I know we have to let 80 percent of our people go. But she’s the one who helped us figure out that Gigi was a Bossy Cat and Mimi was a Scaredy Cat”?

No.

It takes more than creativity — let’s face it: It takes more than communication — to help you become a player in your organization.

It takes bottom-line business results. And that’s what communicators at Purina Cat Chow delivered in their Public Relations Society of America’s (PRSA) Silver Anvil Award-winning campaign, “Way of Life Experience.”

In 2004, the 25-year-old brand was losing market share to its competitors, specifically Iams, whose scientific positioning had helped it gain ground. The folks at Purina decided to go beyond diet to position the brand with a whole-cat approach that included exercise, dental hygiene, emotional well-being and companionship.

Enter the Purrsonality test, tour and attendant publicity efforts.

Communicators could — and did — report PR results, like placements, impressions and event attendance. But the real results measured the bottom line:

The campaign helped Purina Cat Chow post a 2.7 percent increase in market share to lead the dry cat food category.

Want to be a winner? Instead of measuring whether communication occurred (placements, impressions, attendance), measure what happened because communication occurred.

Want more inspiration from organizations that measure and move bottom-line performance through communication? Check out PRSA’s The Business Case for Public Relations case studies. You’ll find profiles of best-in-class PR programs that have achieved bottom-line business successes.

Bottom-line communications

Want to master the art of developing communications that help you achieve bottom-line business goals?

• Read Ann’s “Setting SMART Goals and Objectives” handbook.
• Get more tipsheets on creating communications that get bottom-line business results on RevUpReadership.com.

About Ann Wylie

Ann Wylie is president of Wylie Communications Inc., 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. Wylie is the author of RevUpReadership.com, a toolbox for writers, and Wylie’s Writing Tips, a free e-zine. She has earned more than 60 awards, including two IABC Gold Quills, for her work.

Copyright © 2009 Ann Wylie. All rights reserved.