A Green Holiday - Communi-Creator Style

To All Communi-Creators:

I hope you are having a Happy Holiday Season in whatever way you choose.

To honor the holiday in the local tradition I am recycling two posts from last year, for which some readers developed a particular fondness. Both are about memes - the holy grail of product development, PR and advertising. For a concept to become a meme it must be an idea, symbol or practice which can be transmitted from one mind to another through writing, speech, gestures, rituals or other imitable phenomena (thank you Wikipedia).

Consider the popular website LOLCats. Didn't even exist a few years ago and now the "language" created by these friendly felines has permeated water-cooler culture across North America, parts of Europe and elsewhere. In addition, the Cheeseburger Network, who owns the site, has since launched a dozen other equally time-killing websites and is now a multi-million dollar enterprise thanks to their creative (and somewhat silly) CEO.

It takes a certain savvy and no small amount of good luck to generate these cultural phenomena. Some are clearly unintentional - like the popularity of Oolong the bunny, seen here on the left. You may recall this popular photo of Oolong with a pancake (or other items, mostly food based) on his head. I have received this image in way more emails than should be considered socially acceptable. Oolong had his own website and was even written up in the New York Times.

Other memes are the result of an intentional effort, like the aforementioned LOL Cats.

To wit . . .

The first blast-from-the-past-post confirms one of the most recognizable "cultural" icons in the world is actually a meme generated by a multi-national corporation and their desire to sell sugary drinks year-round.

The other shares the origins of a holiday meme which is occasionally dangerous, enjoyed by multitudes, supported by many - though no one really knows why. Here's why.

THE POINT: When creative icons or ideas are communicated well they can evolve into memes - thus generating "earned media" for companies and "15 minutes of fame" for individuals. Neither of which is a bad result.

An Example of What To Do.

To All Communi-Creators:

This is a great presentation.

No bullet points. Dynamic. Entertaining.

This is an example of what you should do when presenting so that your audience stays engaged, and your message is delivered clearly. Note the use of repetition to encourage recollection of major themes.

THE POINT: A good example is an awesome thing.

Tell Stories. Deliver Content.

To All Communi-Creators:

When you deliver a presentation, create an ad or convey a message - I want you to tell me a story.

Virtually every religious text on the planet uses allegory as a teaching tool. Nearly every teacher in every classroom will use an anecdote to educate at some point. Since the days of Aesop and his timeless fables fiction has been a conduit for teaching fact.

Consider - which would be more compelling, a reporting of basic product features, combined with statements of fact supported by screenshots of the system? Or, a story about a fictitious user of that system, where the audience shares the product experience and  sees "first hand" how it solved a problem for the user? At the end of each the details, the specifications, the benefits are all delivered - but the second method was more interesting, more compelling and more likely to be recalled by the audience.

In a recent review of Nancy Duarte's new book "Resonate," Forbes editor Bruce Upbin provides this summary of her key points regarding presentations, "Don’t be too cerebral. Tell stories. Figure out what the audience cares about. Create common ground with them. Move back and forth between opposing ideas to create energy. Deliver facts but put them in context and make them shocking if possible."

Good advice.

However, simply telling a story is not enough. You need to tell an interesting story. Scott Simon, the Peabody Award Winning host of National Public Radio's Weekend Edition goes one step farther and says, "you can tell a story with vivid analysis and breathtaking detail, but if not one is listening, why are you talking?"

Good point. So, to assist in your efforts you can learn a few storytelling tips from Scott here.

When it comes to business communication use the same fundamentals found in storytelling to deliver your message to your audience. Set the scene, create interesting characters, give the audience someone or something to care about - and use the traditional story arc to deliver your content in an engaging way. In the end any experience you create for the audience will be far more effective than any dry report you could ever deliver.

I am your audience - tell me an entertaining story and not only will I listen to you, I'll remember what you said.

THE POINT: As stated by Alan Kay, vice president at Walt Disney, "in a typical boardroom . . . we're all just cavemen with briefcases, hungry for a wise person to tell us stories."

Bad Spelers Untie!

To All Communi-Creators:

What's worse than a missed spelling mistake or word-o which gets published?

A missed spelling mistake or word-o that gets published in five foot high letters.

While such errors in a presentation are temporary (thankfully the next slide is just seconds away) the shame seems to endure forever.

How often do we switch "to" for "too" or forget which witch is which?

And is that witch over "their"? Or is she over "there"?

Did we mean to say we should unite, or untie?



Simple mistakes, which once made, suck the professionalism right out of your presentation. It doesn't matter how well you present or how brilliant your conclusions are - you are henceforth from the moment the error appears on the screen branded as "the one who did not spell check".

So damaging. So embarrassing. So why does it happen?

It happens because we rush. We rush to make a last minute edit and spell something wrong. We rush when reading through our slides and so our mind seemingly inserts the word which should be there - and so we don't see the incorrect word which actually is. We rush. So we make mistakes.

While rushing is sometimes unavoidable - last minute changes do happen, we can avoid most mistakes by simply giving ourselves time to do the job right. Just as we must allow time to rehearse, we must allow time to review and edit our slides.

To maximize the value of the time you have - here's a tip. Instead of reading your slides properly, read them in reverse. From bottom to top and right to left. This will force you to see each word as a word and not as part of a sentence. This will help prevent word-o's (which, by the way, are properly spelled words used in a grammatically incorrect way given their context) as well as other all-to-common careless errors caused by rushing.

THE POINT: Everybody makes "misteaks", but public humiliation can be avoided if we allow enough time to catch them.

Product Demonstration as a Wasted Opportunity.

To All Communi-Creators:

In the last week I have both presented and been presented to in the genre known as "the product demonstration". The presentation I delivered ended with a woman shouting a marriage proposal from the back of the room.

I couldn't believe it either. But it actually happened.

The presentation delivered to me was a bit different. It lasted just over an hour, only about 15 minutes of which was relevant in any way to anyone in the room. The balance was wasted time consumed by the presenter rambling on and on about their corporate history, their team's skill set and a range of product features which have no relevance to our company's business whatsoever.

So, what was the underlying, fundamental difference between these two events? Why did one end in a proposal for marriage and the other result in the audience begging for the pain to stop? Simply this, one speaker (me) understood their audience and what the audience wanted out of the presentation, and one speaker (the other guy) did not.

By tailoring my presentation to my audience I made maximum use of the opportunity and met their expectations. Because I told them what they needed to know, because I made my message relevant to their needs - I was rewarded. The person who presented to me did not align their message with the audience's needs and therefore wasted everyone's time, including his own.

What did I do to assure my presentation would align with the audience's needs? Simple. I asked what those needs were. I called in advance of the presentation, thanked them again for the opportunity to present and asked them what in particular would they like to know? They told me, and appreciated the fact I inquired.

Had the other speaker inquired as to our needs we could have told him we'd already researched his company, we were confident in the skills of his team and were most interested in viewing a particular set of features. Had he done this, his message would have been more on target and the results of his presentation would have been very different.

THE POINT: Don't waste a valuable opportunity by delivering the wrong message. Ask your audience what they want out of your presentation - and then deliver just that.

OK in the UK.

To All Communi-Creators:

I spent the last couple weeks across the pond in England, mostly in London and the surrounding areas, but also spent a few days in the lands of Shakespeare - which was inspiring. All in all it was a wonderful time during which I learned three things:

1. If you're not careful it's very easy to start faking an English accent.

2. That may not be a bad thing as proper articulation and pronunciation is the key to effective communication, especially with those who do not speak their words the same way you do.

3. Colloquialisms are local.

Regarding points one and two . . . This was the interesting thing about my time in England, I met travelers from many shores and though all of us were able to speak the same language - the many subtle variations in the way we spoke the language occasionally made communication cumbersome. While good listening skills certainly helped, being cognizant of this fact and subsequently speaking slowly and pronouncing words properly made it easier to get my message across.

Regarding point three . . . What I call "leftovers" others call "take-a-way". What I call a "pet peeve" others call a "pet ache". The use of these colloquialisms were fun to sort out, but when presented in reasonable concentration mitigated effective communication.

THE POINT: When communicating across cultural boundaries, even in the same language, pronounce properly and be aware the message you send may be received differently.

The Spaghetti Slide.

To All Communi-Creators:

This is, no joke, an actual PowerPoint slide depicting the complexity of U.S. military strategy.

It first appeared in Kabul during a presentation to General Stanley A. McChrystal - who was at the time leading American and NATO forces in Afghanistan, and who upon seeing it commented, "when we understand that slide, we'll have won the war."

The New York Times just ran a great article about the use of PowerPoint in the military, and the program's overall shortcomings when dealing with complex ideas.

THE POINT: Some concepts just can't be "PowerPointed".