by Philip Anast | Jun 23, 2021 | Blog
A recent cyberattack on a fuel pipeline has hospital and health system officials rethinking what they need to do better to protect their own networks from breaches and the huge consequences that can result.
For communications professionals at such institutions, rehearsing such crisis scenarios and what should follow can be the difference between saving a reputation or seeing it destroyed.
The ability to respond promptly to disasters or damaging reports can build confidence in constituents that the organization is on top of the crisis and is a leader in its sector.
One thing to consider is that crisis plans should make very clear who is responsible for what. Here are some suggestions to keep in mind:
Prepare in advance with inputs from the organization’s functional areas. The time to plan for a crisis is long before it hits. A well- thought-out crisis plan is designed to help an organization communicate internally and externally with clear, succinct, and timely direction.
The goal is to minimize confusion and maintain confidence amidst whatever crisis may occur. Opinions vary and emotions are strong when the stakes are high, the book Crucial Conversations tells us. The time for addressing conflicting perspectives is in the preparation phase of a crisis plan, not during the crisis itself. While there will undoubtedly be differences of opinion in one’s approach depending on the circumstances, a detailed plan rehearsed with key players and influencers can minimize disruption when things get tense. Still, even if things get heated, the book’s authors tell us to leverage the power of dialogue with absolute candor and deep respect for others’ viewpoints to realize the desired goals.
Identify stakeholders. Designing an effective crisis management plan also requires an understanding of stakeholders and their roles. Stakeholders are all those who have an interest in the outcome. For a health system, the list is generally long and can include patients, governments, administrators, board members, and clinicians. Each might need slightly different things during a crisis, which is why each stakeholder should be considered a separate audience.
Identify a communications chain of command. Crisis plans should – in advance – identify all of those who will be involved with managing a crisis, what areas they are responsible for and who is ultimately responsible for making decisions. Then, all of those involved should receive the training they need to be effective in their roles. For example, specialists from all functional areas of the organization should be available to lend their expertise should the need arise, and executive spokespeople should receive media training.
Create real-world tools that can be modified later. One of the most valuable things to have in a crisis is a head start. Messaging, scripts, and spokespeople should be prepared in advance. The communications team or the company’s PR firm can later assist in adapting standard scripts to specific situations based on the event and fallout.
Ensure that crisis management messaging addresses various aspects of the crisis. When communicating bad news or another type of crisis, it is imperative that the organization’s spokespersons do the following:
Elaborate with the “what” – explain what happened with concise language, together with the organization’s position on the issue
Educate with the “how” – explain how audiences should respond to the situation and how the organization is responding
Engage with the “why” – explain the impact the situation has on operations so that impacts are not blown out of proportion
By giving thoughtful consideration to the development of a crisis management plan, organizations are more likely to be able to recover from bad news. In some cases, they might even exit the crisis with stronger brand relationships.
by Michelle Ponte | Jun 9, 2021 | Blog
In the 1994 book Bird by Bird, author Anne Lamott dispenses advice legendary among writers on how to write a draft worthy of hitting send. Her key gem (and the only piece of advice I recall after nearly 30 years): “Just write a “sh***ty first draft.”
That short sentence is the mantra that informs every article, case study, white paper, and…er, today’s blog post that I create. Writing on command can be challenging, especially for marketing, PR, and media relations professionals who produce copy on deadline about complex healthcare topics. There are times when that first sentence just won’t come to mind, making us fall prey to believing we have writer’s block.
However, after writing for a living for 20+ years, I no longer believe in so-called writer’s block. Why? Because that tired phrase suggests I don’t have control of the writing process. Hundreds of well-received articles, reports, and other papers would suggest otherwise.
What I finally figured out is once I write those first 100 throwaway words (okay, 200 or 300), I need to trust that the creative process will kick in sooner—rather than later—and lead me to a final, polished, client-worthy draft.
Even so, the writing process is never as easy or linear as we would like it to be. If I still can’t produce quality work after writing that terrible first draft, as Lamott suggests, I know it’s time to stop and redirect as quickly as possible. I find there are two primary reasons why writers get stuck, which are relatively easy to fix with the right approach.
Zero creative inspiration. You just came off a 12-hour writing jag, and now it’s time to do it all over again with a 2,000-word byline. While you may have a strong command of the topic and direction, you are getting stuck with the lead, introduction, or headline. This is a common stumbling block for writers because this is where your words need that spark to draw in readers. When this happens, I stop, switch gears, and do activities that will inspire creative thinking.
This typically involves browsing publications from other industries. A few of my go-to pubs are Fast Company and Wired, both of which have punchy headlines, good pacing, and well-structured articles. I also read current healthcare news for inspiration and comb through a desktop folder of well-written articles and reports I have saved for this specific purpose. I may even listen to an audiobook for a few minutes or do push-ups and squats next to my desk. The activity doesn’t matter, it just needs to help you shift from an analytical to a creative mindset.
No direction, and it’s due end of day. You have three interviews to sort through, conflicting directions from the client, and the outline in your head is spinning out of control. Been there, and yes, there is a solution. Take another look at the assignment memo or creative brief for clarity. If it still doesn’t make sense, rewrite it in your own words until it does. If guidance wasn’t provided, quickly write a creative brief for yourself that includes a one-sentence objective and three key takeaways (one sentence each).
Still stuck? Take it next level and write a one-page outline resembling the basic four-paragraph essay you learned in high school. The four-paragraph essay includes the headline and four paragraphs with topic sentences (the intro, two middle sections, and a conclusion.) After you have committed to this outline, add more paragraphs under each of the four sections and give them topic sentences as well. Drop chunks of information into each paragraph, finish that bad first draft, rename it, and move into the writing zone.
I also write down ideas in my notes app on my phone as they occur (knowing I will never remember them later), usually after a shower or before bed when I am more relaxed. Some of my best writing starts this way. Finally, I keep an editorial cheat sheet crammed with writing goodies, including a list of words and phrases I can grab and use to polish that final draft.
Need more tips to fix your writer’s block? Check out this blog from my colleague Morgan Lewis.
by Brandon Glenn | May 26, 2021 | Blog
As artificial intelligence (AI) continues its inexorable march towards consuming more and more jobs previously done by humans, it may be a question of when, rather than if, humans become the new horses.
Think, for a minute, about how absolutely essential horses were to the economy 200 years ago. With much of the economy still industrializing and dependent on agriculture, horses were vital to the farm work that produced the world’s food. With no automobiles, horses also played a critical role in transportation, delivering goods to market and enabling humans to travel in coaches or by horseback.
Horses were so important that the U.S. equine population grew six-fold between 1840 and 1900 to more than 21 million horses and mules, according to a report in Foreign Affairs. Then came the internal combustion engine, replacing horses with cars in cities and tractors on farms. The U.S. equine population plummeted to 3 million by 1960, a drop of 88% in just 60 years.
For decades if not centuries, a related debate has loomed, ranging from “The Grapes of Wrath” to “2001: A Space Odyssey” and many others: Will technology replace and make human labor irrelevant? (Given that McKinsey reported five years ago that “currently demonstrated technologies could automate 45% of the activities people are paid to perform,” this is a subject that should be a concern for all workers – and that was five years ago!)
Now, with the rise of AI in marketing and public relations, the “Are humans the new horses?” question has begun to hit a little closer to home for PR professionals. Today, we may use AI software for routine, manual, time-consuming tasks such as transcribing interviews. Tomorrow – as AI gets better and smarter, which it most certainly will – we may use AI to write press releases, product descriptions, website copy and the like.
Once AI gets good enough to do that, it will likely begin to take human jobs. Sure, companies will still need some humans to feed information into the AI software to help the software write a press release, but assistance from AI will mean that companies need far fewer humans to produce the same amount of output.
Already, we’re seeing some examples of PR and marketing AI software – just not the kind that is sophisticated enough to take human jobs in a significant way. Copy.ai promises an “end to writer’s block” by helping users “generate marketing copy in seconds.” (I signed up for a seven-day trial and played around the software a little bit to write a product description; it seemed pretty good.) Similarly, Contilt pledges to “put the power of AI at your fingertips” by using software to generate article drafts and do research. No doubt there are plenty of similar startups today, and there will plenty more in the future.
These companies like to sell their AI as tools that will help humans do their jobs, better, which is true enough in the beginning. Then the AI gets smarter, and it begins to approach, but not meet, humans’ ability to edit content or draft a byline, for example. At this point, we’ve started on the slippery slope to where AI’s “good enough” work product becomes so much cheaper for companies to produce than a human-written article, that “good enough” becomes the industry standard for all articles and human writers start to lose their jobs. What a time to be alive!
So what’s a concerned PR professional to do? Data scientist Michael McBride offers three points of advice:
- Don’t get cocky: In one notable survey, 90% of responders thought that up to half of jobs would be lost to automation within five years, but 91% didn’t think there was any risk to their job. Don’t fall into the “It can’t happen to me” trap. It can.
- Make a process map of your job (extreme kudos to anyone who actually does this!): Create a process map that “visualizes the set of decisions and actions that make up your day-to-day life.”
- Double down on soft skills: Professions that require a tremendous amount of empathy and human interaction are among those least likely to be automated.
The good news is that, as it stands in 2021, there are still PR jobs available. Humans haven’t become horses – yet. Nonetheless, prepare for the coming onslaught of AI as if your career depends on it, because it probably does.
by Chris Nerney | May 12, 2021 | Blog
There are hundreds, maybe even thousands, of healthcare podcasts available to listeners in 2021. There even are podcast networks devoted exclusively to healthcare topics. For healthcare professionals, these podcasts can provide valuable information. They also offer a platform for healthcare pros to get their messages across as podcast guests.
But how do you get on a healthcare podcast as a guest? In some cases, you may be asked. Daily and even weekly podcasts that use an interview format are always recruiting guests. It’s an endless process. Further, they are constantly looking for episode ideas. So while waiting around to be invited as a guest may pay off, you should consider pitching a topic for which you are an expert to podcasts you want to be on. Even if they say no initially, that will get you on their radar screens.
A great thing about podcasts is that almost anybody can launch one. A bad thing about podcasts is that almost anybody can launch one. And while the terrible podcasts tend to flame out quickly, there are ongoing healthcare podcasts that struggle to retain an audience through most of an episode, often because (I’m just being honest here) they’re boring.
The point is you shouldn’t jump at a guest opportunity simply because one was offered. If a podcast sounds amateurish or induces sleep, appearing as a guest will do you little good. Then there’s subject matter. If you, an oncology expert, are asked to be a guest on a podcast about the revenue cycle, you should politely decline (and the podcast should find a new producer). Make sure the podcast is a good fit relative to subject matter and overall vibe.
An easy way to determine subject matter fit is to read descriptions of past episodes. Can you imagine the audience you want to reach being interested in those topics? In terms of a show’s vibe, can you picture yourself having a stimulating conversation with the host or hosts? If the answer to both is “yes,” go ahead and book it.
Whether you’ve been recruited or successfully pitched yourself for a healthcare podcast, now that you’re going to be a healthcare podcast guest, you have to prepare. If you haven’t listened to any episodes of the podcast for which you’re booked, now’s the time. Does the host seem informed and prepared? Does conversation flow freely or are there painful silences? Understanding the dynamics of the podcast enables you to 1) visualize your own performance, and 2) develop strategies and ideas for the episode.
Once you’ve listened to a couple of episodes, all you’ve got to do now is show up and knock it out the park. Just kidding! “Winging it” frequently ends poorly, even if you are a legitimate expert or thought leader.
It is imperative that you and the podcast host/producer communicate clearly about the episode’s topic and beyond the tentative title. A good podcast team will send you a preshow form to fill out that helps align participants regarding the episode’s content. However, do not wait to be contacted. If you don’t hear from anybody within a week of the recording date, send the host/producer a list of questions you can be asked or an outline of points you want to cover. Make sure they acknowledge receiving it.
In addition to boredom, nothing chases away a podcast audience faster than bad audio. Though some podcasts will send guests a microphone prior to their appearance, I’d recommend buying your own mic and headphones – especially if you think you’ll regularly be guesting on podcasts. You don’t have to spend more than $100 on each. (Here are good guides for mics and headphones. USB mics plug into a computer and are vastly superior to laptop mics, which make you sound like you’re trapped in a box.)
When the big day arrives, you’ll be sent a link by the podcast host/producer to Zoom or another videoconferencing platform such as Riverside.fm, SquadCast, or Zencastr. Click on that link and you’ll likely be dropped into a “green room” where you can check your video and audio. (Many podcasts will use video for the recording, even if the episodes are released only in audio.)
And the show has begun! If you and the host are well-prepared, all you’ve got to do now is be your engaging, insightful self. Focus on the conversation and not the fact that you’re doing a “show.” This will help you be more relaxed and in the moment, as you naturally would be in a conversation that wasn’t being recorded.
You also need to be yourself plus. Amp it up a bit, go to 11, show some passion for your topic. You can’t get your message across if listeners are drifting away. Remember, to a large extent a podcast is a performance. Avoid monotone and project personality and humanity. That will make listeners remember you and get you booked on more podcasts.
Here are a few other quick tips:
- If you’re asked an open-ended question, try to keep your answers relatively concise. Don’t ramble or excessively repeat yourself.
- Use the host’s name in conversation. Write it down beforehand or make sure to note it on your computer screen.
- Prepare a summary to use at the end of the episode that ties together your main ideas and messages.
- Don’t talk too fast and don’t be afraid to pause for a second or two before answering. The podcast folks can cut out excessive dead air.
- If you stumble over an answer, just say, “Let me try that again.” Then pause and give it another shot. They’ll cut out the false start.
- Prior to the show, prepare stories that are relevant to the topic and that you know well. That way you can whip them out at the right moment. Listeners (and podcast hosts) love stories.
- Silence any devices that could make distracting noises during the recording.
When the show is wrapping up, make sure to thank the host (by name) and listeners (and to include any calls to action.)
Once the episode is published, promote it. Podcasts love a good guest, but they love a ratings hit even more. If you or your organization has a large email list or social media following, let everyone know about your appearance on the podcast (and include a link).
The right healthcare podcasts can help promote your organization or establish yourself as a thought leader. To fully leverage these opportunities, you need to be prepared, be yourself, and be willing to promote the episode when it’s released. Do those things consistently and healthcare podcasts will be fighting to book you.
by Jodi Amendola | Apr 28, 2021 | Blog
As many readers of the Amendola blog are probably aware, I lost my mother, who was my inspiration and guiding light, to COVID-19 the night before Thanksgiving last year. It was difficult for my family as well as me, especially because I believe it was unnecessary.
She should have been there to celebrate the holidays with us and would have been in my opinion had it not been for some missteps in her care.
As part of my process of dealing with this unexpected loss, I wrote a story about her that appeared in the Arizona Republic. If you’d like to know more about the details, along with my thoughts about what you should do to advocate for your loved ones should they be in the same unfortunate circumstances, it’s all contained in that article.
It’s what happened next, however, that I want to address today.
Shortly after that article appeared (and was re-posted on Facebook), I began to receive the most touching and beautiful comments, messages, and emails. And I’m still receiving them.
Some were from friends, of course, expressing their sympathy for my loss. Many, however, were from strangers who had gone through a similar experience and found a sense of kinship in sharing their grief as I had shared mine.
It was a stark reminder of a basic principle we, as marketing and PR professionals, should keep in mind: PR in general, and thought leadership in particular, works better when you make it personal. A topic, incidentally, I also explored in my latest Forbes Agency Council article.
The most effective thought leadership comes when the person behind it is passionate about the subject matter. Yes, you can write in a detached away about something technical, conveying information and/or data that is worth sharing. But while it informs, it usually doesn’t move people to action.
For that you need a human element. And nothing is more human than sharing something personal.
It can be a story from your childhood, your teen years, or your time as an adult. It can be about something funny that happened to you, or something sad, or something that contains a mix of emotions you can’t even sort out yourself.
Or it can be about a person who means a lot to you. Like my mom did to me.
The important thing is that it is a little glimpse behind the façade we all tend to put up in our business encounters to cover our true selves. In other words, it’s real.
Organizations often talk about creating an emotional connection to their brand during branding meetings. But then they’ll do everything they can to hide anything that seems remotely raw or real.
To me, that approach makes no sense. Sure, you don’t want to air all of the organization’s dirty laundry in your marketing and PR efforts. But what’s wrong with showing your human side?
The point is a person or a company can be open and honest about their feelings and reactions to events without falling into the rabbit hole of controversy. The key is to focus on the parts that are universal to the human experience.
We all experience joy and caring. We all experience excitement and wonderment at one time or another. We all experience grief and loss.
That doesn’t mean we experience it in the same way. But we do share those experiences to some degree.
The more willing organizations are to take a stand and tell stories about themselves, their employees, their customers, and everyone else who is connected to them, the more “real” they will become in the minds of their key audiences. And the more successful they will be in creating a brand image that is unique and memorable.
I know it’s not always easy to tell these stories. We can all feel a little exposed when we offer these types of details about ourselves.
When I wrote about my mom it was like going through it all over again.
Yet as I see the reactions continue to come in I know I made connections with people I’ve never met, and probably never will properly meet. Isn’t that what marketing and PR are really all about?
by Morgan Lewis | Apr 14, 2021 | Blog
Writing is drudgery for many people, which is part of the reason our clients let us do some of that writing for them. Often, the hardest part is just getting started, even if you write for a living.
As I’ve described before in this blog, at the start of a writing project we may become overwhelmed by all the information we want to include in our written content, or unsure of how we want to start, and it leads to procrastination and more stress. We end up either missing a deadline or we rush to put something out that could have been better.
The best recent advice I’ve seen about overcoming writing procrastination comes from an anecdote in the irreverent best-selling self-improvement book, “The Subtle Art of Not to Giving a F*ck: The Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Better Life.” In the book, author Mark Manson recounts a story of a novelist who had written more than 70 books. The novelist’s advice for how he is so prolific, according to Manson: “200 crappy words per day, that’s it.”
Of course, Manson points out, the novelist rarely stops at 200 crappy words because the action of generating those first few paragraphs motivates him to keep going. Even non-professional writers get in a rhythm and it can be as difficult to stop as it was to get started. The 200 crappy words almost serves as a warmup to the real workout of writing 1,000 or 2,000 words.
How to Get Started
Sometimes, however, even getting those first 200 words down is challenging; that is where research can be a big help. Simply going online to research the topic, even if it is something you are already very knowledgeable about, can be highly motivating because you will likely learn new information that will help support your content. Other times, research can reveal that a competitor or other thought leader has already written pretty much the same article or other high-value content. Don’t despair. You can read similar articles or content and then look for gaps in their information or it can inspire a different, fresher angle for your article, white paper or eBook.
The opposite dilemma can also occur. Sometimes there will be so much research and information, and so many topics you want to cover, that you cannot imagine how you will assemble it all into a coherent whole. Here is where outlining can help to get you started and keep moving.
The outline doesn’t need to be the precise order of the final draft; it is just to get ideas down. Simply list the topic heading you want to cover in a section, such as COVID-19, and under that heading list all the relevant ideas you want to include (e.g., effect on elective/preventive care, growth of telehealth, reimbursement changes from Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, etc.). Once you begin the bare-bones list, you will find that you want to add more and more detail and can begin to envision how the finished content will be structured.
From Outline to Draft
As opposed to writing an article from beginning to end, an outline lets you preview if the finished piece flows logically, if there are potential gaps of information, or if sections should be shortened. Recognizing these deficiencies in the outline stage saves writing, cutting and rearranging time in the long run. Once the outline is completed, writing the full draft simply means expanding each item in the list to full sentences and paragraphs. Depending on how detailed the outline is, writing the full draft may take much less time than expected.
With the full draft completed, the real hard part of writing begins: editing. Reading and re-reading what you wrote, cutting and rewriting for clarity is not as much fun as putting all the words together, but is perhaps the most important part of the process. Since editing means you are close to the finish line, that may motivate you to keep going.
Everyone Needs an Editor
Have you ever heard of Maxwell Perkins? Me neither. I found him through a Google search. Have you heard of F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway or Thomas Wolfe? Me too. It turns out Maxwell Perkins edited all of these authors, and even convinced Wolfe to cut 90,000 words from the final draft of one of his novels.
I mention Perkins to point out that even the best writers need editors. Editing is not just for proofreading for typos, grammar and misspellings, either. Rather, an editor’s value is providing high-level, constructive feedback about the content, structure and readability of the content. Most importantly, the editor needs to look at the content through the eyes of your intended reader. Is it relevant to them? Will it make sense? Does one idea flow logically to another?
Just Write
So the next time you need to write, gather your information and just start writing. Whether it is full sentences or just a list of topics and ideas you want to include in the content, the act of getting 200 lousy words on the screen will save you stress and time in the long run – and likely result in a higher-quality finished project.
