Think Like a Reader

To reach readers, avoid writing in the first person

Stop We-We-ing on the reader

It feels so good to talk about ourselves.

Talking about yourself activates the same pleasure centers in the brain as food, money or sex, according to Harvard neuroscientist Diana Tamir and her colleague Jason Mitchell, whose research on the topic was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.… Read the full article

Second person writing works for all audiences

Use you in marketing, employee comms — even PR

You. It’s a power tool of communications.

The second person increases readability, boosts opens and clickthroughs and is the most retweeted word in the English language.… Read the full article

How to persuade like Dale Carnegie

Steal writing tips from the author of How to Win Friends and Influence People

I was coaching a communicator for a California health insurance plan the other day.… Read the full article

Move from event to impact in PR writing

Focus news stories on MOI

Screenwriter Nora Ephron long remembered the first day of her high school journalism class.

Ephron’s teacher announced the first assignment: to write the lead for a story to appear in the student newspaper.… Read the full article

Is the juice worth the squeeze?

Fraction of Selection model shows how readers choose what to read

Every day, your readers get way too much to read. In fact, according to a study by USC’s Annenberg School for Communication, your readers are bombarded with the data equivalent of 174 newspapers — ads included — every single day.… Read the full article

Who’s ‘Me’?

You can’t write a WIIFM without the M

If you wanted to keep teens from smoking weed, what message might you communicate?

One health organization, reports Guy Kawasaki in his book Enchantment, used the message that young people who smoked weed were five times more likely to engage in sex.… Read the full article

‘Say Goodbye to the 60-hour Work Week’

Steal techniques from this great WIIFM copy

You know that the topic is never the topic: The reader is the topic.

You’ve acknowledged that readers don’t care about “us and our stuff”; they care about themselves and their needs.… Read the full article

What do employees want?

It’s all about me, says Roger D’Aprix

What information do employees seek from their organizations?

According to communication consultant Roger D’Aprix, author of Communicating for Change: Connecting the Workplace with the Marketplace, they want answers to these questions:

What’s my job?

… Read the full article

Write in verbs, not nouns

Your conference name is not a benefit

Remember Verb, the superhero on “Schoolhouse Rock”? He was great because he could do so many things.

His theme song went like this:

I get my thing in action (Verb!)
To be, to sing, to feel, to live (Verb!)
That’s what’s happenin’

I put my heart in action (Verb!)
To run, to go, to get, to give (Verb!)
(You’re what’s happenin’)

Well, guess what? … Read the full article

Avoid fake benefits in persuasive writing

No ‘Pat yourself on the back for choosing us’

“Clean your face,” demands a hotel soap wrapper. No, YOU clean YOUR face! I want to respond.… Read the full article