Blogs and other online writing platforms allow people to write as much or as little as they want.
However, it shouldn't be about what 'they' want but about what the reader wants.
A well-known blogger recently wrote a very long piece making good, but very few, points.
I'd like to know how long the average reader persevered. I read to the end and wished I hadn't.
I was tempted to add the dismissive tl;dr (too long; didn't read) comment. But, since I had read it, that wouldn't have been fair.
I realised that genie is out of the bottle and online writers feel they can do what they like, but now that most of us are online, it means that we have to fight for the right to be read.
And one way to earn that right is to respect the reader's time.
October 02, 2015
September 28, 2015
September 23, 2015
September 17, 2015
May 13, 2015
Help the reader and help yourself
No-one needs to tell you that the reader is the most important person in the world to a publication.
Conventionally, the journalist is responsible for maintaining this focus. Sadly, a great deal of journalism these days, especially online, is 'churnalism' in which barely disguised press releases take the place of reader-centric writing.
There is another way. It probably won't win me many friends among my journalistic peers (although it could save their financial bacon) and that is to ask vendors themselves to write reader-focused and informative, non-selling, articles about their specialist subjects. In my case, the readers being focused on are those responsible for technology in law firms.
The trick is to have a good editor who will help the contributors to get it right - i.e. send it back with recommended changes, seek clarifications and corrections or simply give it a light polish. Having handled a couple of dozen pieces for LawTech magazine, I'm amazed how few had to go back for a rework.
Let's come back to the journalists and their 'financial bacon'. The document properties of one or two of the pieces revealed that they were ghost-written by freelance writers. If vendor staff are too busy to do the writing and publications are too strapped to pay decent rates, this represents a good 'halfway house' for a writer. They're not involved in writing 'puff' pieces, the vendor gets a mention and a web address in the magazine and the reader gets some solid information which contributes further to their understanding.
To add a little colour to what I've said above, here's my latest editorial from LawTech magazine. It also introduces Tom Foremski and his Every Company is a Media Company philosophy.
What a terrific bunch of people we have writing for us this month.They are all experts in their various fields and, despite the majority working for vendor organisations, they’ve all made a real effort to talk to you and address your needs. It’s not easy for them; they must feel tempted to give their products and services a little mention in every paragraph. But they’ve resisted heroically. The result is a collection of articles, which we hope you find interesting and informative.
Yes, each is written by someone who knows his or her company better than any other, but show me someone in a senior position that doesn’t have wider experience of the marketplace. Most bring a broader perspective, and it shows. You will find that some articles overlap others but these different points of view will all help to round out your own perspectives.
We are not here to guide you in a particular direction but we hope that by laying out these different viewpoints, article by article, issue by issue, that you are better placed to make your own tough decisions about which strategies to pursue and what sort of vendors you’d like to work with.
For me, it’s a great honour and privilege to be able to take this fresh approach to publishing. No one who’s been aware of changes in the media over the past fifteen years can fail to have noticed a rise in the “Every Company is a Media Company” sentiment. This phrase was first coined ten
years ago by Tom Foremski, a former journalist who left the Financial Times after 30 years to found the Silicon Valley Watcher blog. He’s seen first hand how important it is for companies to share their knowledge, usually through their own online media. He has helped many companies achieve this by applying strong editorial standards to the process.And this is where we come in. We’re an independent publication with a strong editorial ethos that believes in giving the experts a chance to engage with a carefully selected audience. And that’s you.
Thank you for reading LawTech magazine.
We have some great issues planned for the future. The feature themes for the coming year are detailed on the website. The backdrop of ‘security’ and ‘cloud’ will always be there, but if there’s anything else you’d like us to cover, please drop me a line.
David Tebbutt
Editor - LawTech Magazine
January 04, 2015
November 13, 2014
November 05, 2014
November 04, 2014
telescope or epocselet? Which way are you looking?
How often do you glaze over when someone enthuses about a product or service because you don't "get it"?
They blast off without the faintest idea about your circumstances, your needs or your desires. Result, a baffled story-teller and a semi-comatose listener.
In extremis, it's the religious zealots who knock on your door. But milder forms exist - the Facebook enthusiasts who are always trying to shove some dodgy philosophy down your throat - usually through pictures or video links. (Recommendation: 'unfollow' them - they stay in your friends list but you're spared the distraction.)
Sadly, these zealots exist in business too. Some organisations are so wrapped up in their own inventions that all their publicity and promotional activities are inward-looking. Self-obsessed, if you like. And this goes for the company spokespeople too. Anyone who says 'we' more than 'you' is likely to be guilty of this.(By the way, you can get a chart of where you stand, by doing this quick assessment - it takes just a couple of minutes.)
Once you start putting your prospect first (in the same way that all good journalists put their readers first) your story will emerge as something your prospect wants to hear or read. Something that promises to, and will, deliver a desired value. This will lead them to your physical or digital door and, if you continue to play your cards right, you'll have a new customer.
Common sense? Yes. But, in decades of dialogue with vendors of all kinds, I've discovered that many actually fail to make that bridge. They pay lip-service to the principle, but their words let them down. When consulting (often with Martin Banks and, more recently, with Dr. Bill Nichols), we've found ourselves using the term 'looking through the wrong end of the telescope' to describe this inward-looking approach.
We've even created a website called epocselet.com (that's 'telescope' backwards) as an umbrella for our disparate but aligned services. Our focus is firmly on executive management and we'd be delighted to act as guides or sounding boards in the discovery, articulation and sharing of your stories. Use us as little or as much of us as you like.
The journalist's mantra 'know your audience' can be applied equally in business. Change 'audience' to 'prospect' if you want, but the principle applies to anyone trying to influence anyone else, whether a prospect or an intermediary. If you're in business, you may have multiple audiences but, at heart, you're trying to move the same stories through to the ultimate audience, your prospect. You may be trying to influence internal staff, analysts, bloggers, journalists and the many social media cascades. In every case you need to ask yourself, "what's in it for them?", in order to refine the basic story to best effect.
Written baldly like that, it seems like common sense. But sometimes it's hard to change your perspective without independent and objective help. It's not my place to tell you where to go for this. Anyone intelligent who understands communication skills, your marketplace and who has no axe to grind will be able to help you.
But I have to mention that Bill, Martin and I - solo or in various permutations would be more than happy to help you if you're interested. You'll find more about us and our services at epocselet.com
July 29, 2014
David Tebbutt
David is a writer, editor and trainer. He's closed this blog.
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