In a larger organization, there are usually more resources in money, time, and people. You have more specialized roles, so everyone can give a little more TLC to their craft. In smaller companies, you’re often wearing multiple hats and are concerned just about getting critical projects done. I currently work in a small to mid-size company that requires both. At times it feels like some people want to spend hours and hours meeting until they feel safe enough to make any sort of decision while others are charging ahead with little thought. I find it more difficult getting people to speed up than getting others to slow down. I never execute a project blindly, but the amount of strategy that is required must take into consideration the level of urgency of the project. That’s when people need to realize they don’t have the luxury of whiteboarding every single thought or feeling.

I’ll give an analogy, and I love analogies. When there’s a hole on a boat, there isn’t time to discuss the best way to fill that hole. You need to get in there and fill that hole based on your gut instinct and your past experience. Once it’s temporarily filled then you can discuss the next course of action with a little more leisure.

There are inflexible people who are unwilling or incapable of working in conditions that are less than ideal. This becomes dead weight on your little sinking boat.

Keep it simple

Think about yourself flipping through a magazine. Would you really stop at something that was text heavy and looks like an advertorial? Likely not. You don’t need to throw every single detail in there, just the essentials. It’s like going out on a first date. Would you really go through your entire dating history? Check please. No second date for you.

Keep it relevant

Sometimes companies drink a little too much of their own kool-aid that they forget what people outside their bubble really care about. So snap out of it and talk to a real person. Or get your marcom person to shake some sense into you. I’m going to continue on with the dating analogy. You wouldn’t talk about how great you are at scrapbooking on a first date. Zzz.

If you want your marcom team to help you with an ad, tell them what you want the audience to do and what you have found is important to them. Do not write any copy. Step away from the computer and get your marcom person a latte.

I love analogies and often come up with oddball analogies to illustrate my point. In this instance I’m going to turn to sports, specifically soccer (my fave). If your team is playing with one or two men short then what do you do? The clock is ticking, and you need to win. You can’t start finding someone to blame. You can’t declare “we’ll never win” while your opponents are running past you. You can’t get fixated on a little hole in the middle of the field that might be hazardous. You can’t wait for the perfect pass in order to get something going. Get open. Run hard. Stick to the plan. If you can survive the difficult game as a team then you can look at your game plan for the next one.

My parents didn’t raise whiners.

I like being creative. I always have ideas about how to solve a problem or do something better. My mind is racing all the time from the moment I get up (even in the short walk to work) to when I lie in bed at night trying to block out the ideas and analysis. This is why I can’t stand yoga and its demand for a peaceful mind.

One day I’ll be able to delegate more of the tactical tasks and be able to dedicate more time to being creative. Unfortunately, I’m currently bogged down with work that I can’t really farm off to anyone and have to filter out the influx of ideas from everyone in the absence of any of my own. I’ve never run out of fresh (but pragmatic) ideas. Right now I’m just trying to get the job done.

Some people have the luxury of only having one responsibility or project, so they can focus on doing it really well. I’m always juggling a million projects and overseeing a million more projects from other people. While I love the frenetic nature of it (I’m addicted to the fast-paced nature of the tech industry), it can be frustrating not to be able to give some marketing programs the proper TLC. You can get a chef to make grilled cheese sandwiches to get the orders out the door, but at some point he’s got to get back to creating new dishes.

Are you waking up every day loving what you’re doing?

So what makes web content good, and what makes web content bad? Below are some of the things I look for when I review web copy.

Scannability

Is the content easy to skim? It helps to have relevant subtitles, short paragraphs, and bulleted lists. Arriving at a page with dense content can be overwhelming and turn away your web visitors. All that good content will go to waste.

Informative

Is all the content there? Will people find what they’re looking for when they get to that page? Sometimes people can fall in love with their content and write what they want to write about. They go on and on and on. They think they’re being clever, informative, and entertaining. Who has that kind of time? Even people who need to find out more about your company don’t want to spend that kind of time reading your web copy. Just be concise and get to the point. You can live out your dream of being a novelist on your personal blog

Easy to Understand

Is the content easy to understand? Granted there are some industry terms that your buyer personas will know, so ignore those people who say you need to write from your grandma. Your grandma would still need to know some key terms if she was your audience. The other end of the spectrum are people who cobble together awkward and complex sentences then justify it by saying their audience is technical. You can still get your point across intelligently without overly complicated sentences. Rarely is it only one buyer persona who needs to read your web copy.

Brand Consistency

Does the content accurately convey your brand? The writing style and tone needs to match the personality of your company that you want to get across. If you have a fun brand then your writing can’t be stiff and formal, for example. Everything you say needs to help build your brand image. If you have a brand that conveys intelligence then the copy you have should make you sound…intelligent.

Flow

Does the flow make sense? Have you buried the important information at the bottom and dedicated too much copy to the less important information? Is the information in a logical order that readers would want to consume it? Have you mentioned something early on that isn’t explained until the end?

Tone

Does the content sound cheesy or salesy? People think that by writing in a “business tone” they aren’t cheesy. It makes me vomit every time I see salesy copy. Basically every press release you read has this salesy tone. I tried to guide the tone by asking the content contributors to think of person X when they write the copy. Write copy that you could picture person X actually saying.

SEO-friendly

Has the content been optimized for search engines? Sometimes it might be tempting to write cute headlines, but for search engines and your readers it would be more helpful just to be straightforward. Furthermore, if you pepper your copy with a lot of internal jargon then it won’t make sense to your readers or search engines. There are some definite tactics you need to take in order to optimize your web copy (that would be a separate blog entry), and it’s one of the key questions I’ll ask in any interview for writers. Everyone likes to throw in their resume that they optimize copy for search engines, but it becomes quite evident who knows what that really entails.

And this is why I’ve redlined a lot of the copy I’ve received. In some cases we’re going to start from scratch. But it’s still useful to have the info on the page from the subject matter experts.

I’m a very strong believer that the subject matter experts don’t dictate the copy that is published on the website. They can review the copy for accuracy, but the marketing folks determine how this information is conveyed in the copy for all the reasons above.

Work ethic

You must be a workhorse…and keep up with my energy. Whatever needs to get done, you’re there to help. However tedious the task, you’ll stay until it’s finished. Even if the task isn’t as glamorous as what everyone else is doing, it’s still important. This allows everyone else to stay on track with their projects. Doing a great job on your tasks and you will be rewarded with other tasks.

Creativity

You’re coming in with fresh eyes, so I’m expecting you to bubble over with creativity. There may be business or technical limitations to why an idea can’t be implemented, but I expect an intern’s ideas to be different and creative at the very least. Give me the wacky, the far out. Again, you’ve got to at least bring ideas that are as creative as mine.

Tech savvy

I’m always surprised when I come across Gen Y marketers who aren’t familiar with technology or social media. They don’t use Skype. They don’t use YouTube. They don’t use Twitter. They are missing out as marketers. If you’re sticking by the security blanket of your pop-up booth, it isn’t a safe bet. I’m expecting interns to know more about this than I do. And I love tech.

I’d actually like to have all our content contributors take this basics course. But only if they’re interested in learning. If people don’t have an interest or don’t have the aptitude to “get it” then it’s a waste to include them. I’ve been in training sessions where I can tell the topic is simply going over some people’s heads.

On that topic, I signed up for SMX Advanced today. It’s in Seattle this coming June. I went to SMX East last year in NYC and enjoyed it a lot. I ended up going to the advanced seminars, so I figured I should be fine at SMX Advanced. I like learning new things at these conferences and always leave feeling invigorated. I find it’s much easier to concentrate by physically leaving the office for a conference instead of logging on to an online conference. If I know the recording will be available later then I will let my work and meetings take precedence. It’s good to get away and chat with other marketing folks.

1. Writing

2. Review and approvals

3. Distribution

Writing

There are some standard topics:

• product
• customer
• partner
• personnel
• event
• etc.

However, they’re not my favourite marketing piece to write since there’s less creativity involved. There’s a standard format, and very few press releases are actually newsworthy. So you’ve got a ho hum topic that’s only interesting to your company. You’ve got to somehow spin it to make it engaging for  wider audience.

Review and approvals

Writing the press release is relatively easy. Juggling the review and approval process is the most difficult part. It requires organization, an attention to detail, and a diplomatic hand. Sometimes you have to nudge your executive team or your clients to submit their feedback to you in time for you to meet your deadlines. The bigger the external party (e.g., client, partner, etc.), the more hoops you’ll have to jump through to get your press release approved. One word: lawyers. Their lawyers won’t care about your deadlines. So you’d better have made good connections within that external party who can light a fire underneath their lawyers, or you’d better have another release in the pipeline you can put out in case that one slips.

What happens if your own executive misses your internal deadline, and your release can’t get out the door? That’s your fault. You can’t just throw it over the fence and forget about it. That press release is your baby, and you’ve got to see it through. If you’re too timid then you risk having your press release delayed. If you’re too aggressive then you risk pissing off your executive.

Distribution

Organizing the distribution of your release can also be tricky, but at least you have more control over it:

• newswires
• other outlets
• company website
• customer and partners
• staff
• etc.

It doesn’t seem that tricky to me until I’m reminded by the inexperienced of newbies to PR. If you don’t have checklists or some system to track things to make it a repeatable process then you will miss a detail. If you don’t read what you’ve actually written and put yourself in the place of your reader (what will they want to know? what will they do next?) then you will make a mistake.

I’m only writing from my experience in private companies. I have worked at public companies but I wasn’t part of the PR engine. Certainly with public companies there is even less room to move and more regulations to monitor.