Let people stand for your association, bill or industry
Promoting an association, union, society or other members-only group? Use members to demonstrate the benefits of membership.… Read the full article
Creative communications
Check out these human-interest stories [Examples!]
Let customers, clients, kids & more make your point for you
When Allstate Foundation launched a teen-driving summit to help reduce the number of teenagers killed in car crashes, the company’s PR pros started the press release like this:
Seventeen-year-old Lauren Hashiguchi of Beaverton, Ore.,
… Read the full article People like human-interest stories because they …
… are easier to read, according to the Flesch Test
What makes one message 46% easier to read and 520% more interesting? Human-interest stories.
Compare this excerpt, from Life …
Except in the field of surgery, control of pain is still very much in the primitive stages.
… Read the full article What’s the impact of human-interest stories?
Show readers one person — not 1,001
Quick! Would you rather spend $10 million to save 10,000 lives from a disease that caused 15,000 deaths a year, or save 20,000 lives from a disease that killed 290,000 people a year?… Read the full article
What is prewriting? Get ready to write
Plan your message in Step 1 of the writing process
“The hard part” of writing, says playwright Tom Stoppard, “is getting to the top of page one.”… Read the full article
How many quotes in press releases?
Put a quota on quotes
You’ve read the kvetching about overdoing corporate quotes:
“Sprinkling quotes is one thing. Hosing them on is another.”
— John B.
… Read the full articleWhy CEO press release quotes suck
Reporters hate PR quotes
What’s the least important element in a release — less important even than the dateline or the boilerplate?
Quotes, say one in four reporters surveyed in a study by Greentarget.… Read the full article
What is the purpose of a metaphor?
Metaphor is like Elvis; it shakes us up
Why metaphor?
Metaphor is a literary device that helps readers understand, pay attention, remember and act on messages.… Read the full article
How metaphors work to persuade
If crime were a wild beast, we’d be more likely to cage it
If crime were a virus infecting our city, would we treat it differently than if it were a wild beast preying on our city?… Read the full article
Why is a metaphor effective?
People learn through metaphor
When my grandfather first saw a car, he didn’t think “automobile.” He thought, “That’s a carriage that moves without a horse — it’s a horseless carriage.”… Read the full article