Grammar Hammer: Shall We Dance?

Posted on May 13, 2013 by | Leave a comment

Trying to decide when to use “shall” or “will” in a sentence really comes down to whether or not you’re a stickler for old grammar rules or you’re a grammarian of the people, by the people and for the people. Both words indicate the future tense.

The stickler version: use “shall” to indicate the future when using the first person (I/we) in a sentence.  Example: I shall go to the garden center tomorrow to take advantage of their BOGO deal on hanging baskets. Use “will” when using the second or third person (you/ he/she/they). Example: You will finish raking the yard before you go to the baseball game.

Here’s another way to look at it: “shall” indicates determination or intention; it implies that the action is mandatory.

In American English, “shall” has been replaced by “will” in most scenarios, although it is still found in legal documents. In a legal sense, “shall” indicates an explicit obligation. Go back to any lease you signed for an apartment and there’s probably a sentence that starts with “The terms of this lease shall commence…”

Great orators and speakers will use “shall” to deliver uplifting prose. Everyone had to memorize the Gettysburg Address in school, right? Say it with me, “…that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain – that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom – and that government  of the people, by the people and for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”

“Shall” is also used in polite conversation, especially when offering an invitation.  “Shall we dance?” for example.

Still confused?  Here’s a joke for you:

A foreign tourist was swimming in an English lake. Taken by cramps, he began to sink. He called out for help:

“Attention! Attention! I will drown and no one shall save me!”

Many people were within earshot, but, being well-brought up Englishmen and women, they honored his wishes and permitted him to drown.

This week’s topic was suggested by a reader from New Zealand (yes, it’s official, Grammar Hammer has a global audience), and I thank you profusely for reading.

Have a grammar rule you’d like me to explore? Drop me a line at catherine.spicer@prnewswire.com

Author Catherine Spicer is a manager of customer content services at PR Newswire.

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Content We Love: Backbone of Storytelling

Posted on May 10, 2013 by | Leave a comment

ContentWeLove“Content We Love” is a weekly feature written by a team of our content specialists. We’re showcasing some of the great content distributed through our channels, and our content specialists are up for the task: they spend a lot of time with the press releases and other content our customers create, proof reading and formatting it, suggesting targeted distribution strategy and offering SEO advice. In Content We Love, we’re going to shine the spotlight on the press releases and other messages that stood out to us, and we’ll tell you why. We hope you find the releases enjoyable and the insights gained from discussing them enlightening.

mnr lead

The headline and the lead dive straight into the story.

#Storytelling

Growing up, the phrase “There are two sides to every story” echoed all around.
Being a writer and a content specialist, finding the story is the primordial base where magic exists.

To my delight, the impactful message about a state-of-the-art surgery from Rady Children’s Hospital-San Diego leapt from the page because of how it was written, the visual elements, and the social media components.

Instead of being laden with corporate jargon and a “who/what/when/where/how” approach, the release made waves with great storytelling and more than just the kids took notice.

mnr photo galleryRight off the bat, the story leaps off the pages with video and images of the families. Paired with the technical (and readable) words of describing Early-Onset Scoliosis and how the magnetic rods operate, are videos and images that bring the experience to life.

  • On one side is the incredible feat of the surgery itself, clearly defined within the release. The words are compelling and easy to understand (acronyms explained, processes defined, etc). Yet on the other side is the human element of the doctors’ scope on their young patients and the family scope of their loved ones.

The images give a face to the message. This is not just an ordinary surgery; this is a surgery for Tommy and Anthony.

Images increase visibility on releases because humans are inherently intrigued by visuals. Including an image on your release is placing a bull’s eye target, which instantly attracts the line of vision.

Stop your audience in their tracks with powerful imagery.

And much like the magnetic rods, this release continues to grow.

The tale also took to social channels to spread the news.

Tweet: .@radychildrens performs groundbreaking growing rod surgeries for early-onset #scoliosis http://prn.to/10afja8

  • With search engines showing social results higher and higher, it is 100% in a company’s best interest to involve social sharing of news.

Much align to a story, there are two sides to social media: the share and the conversation. Social Media sites are buzzing with shared information (thoughts, ideas, articles, etc) to a collective group and these same sites are abuzz with conversations about the information.

In one swoop, the story transcends from viewership on news’ sites to the online social feeds. Not only is the message shared to a bigger audience, the conversation has started with just one tweet. From a tweet can come a retweet, a conversation, and a connection. Cool!

When penning a press release, reflect on the story it is telling. Add those great images and share the great news via social media. Share your story to the world!

Big thanks to Rady Children’s Hospital-San Diego, San Diego Center for Spinal Disorders, and Ellipse Technologies for showcasing the backbone to storytelling!

http://www.multivu.com/mnr/61604-rady-children-s-hospital-san-diego-ellipse-magec-early-onset-scoliosis-eos

Author Emily Nelson is a Customer Content Specialist for PR Newswire. Follow her adventures on www.bellesandawhistle.wordpress.com or on twitter www.twitter.com/emilyannnelson.

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PR in China: Does Your Brand Translate?

Posted on May 8, 2013 by | 2 Comments
Click to access our free white paper on media in China.

Click to access our free white paper on the media environment in China.

It’s surprising that so many companies use English when communicating within China, even though the official spoken language of China is Mandarin, and the official written language is Simplified Chinese.  It’s not hard to imagine the negative effect this language disconnect has on campaign results,  and the reason is simple – most Chinese journalists and consumers use internet search as their primary research tool, and they are searching in their own language, even if they speak English.  Any communication not in local language will not be seen.  Think of it this way – if you are searching for a computer do you type in “Lenovo” in Google or Bing, or do you type in 联想?  The same logic applies to users and consumers within China.

Don’t forget the SEO angle

Another point to consider is your target audience will most likely be using search terms that have to do either with a problem or a solution.  To be included in results, your keywords will need to address at least one.   If you have key words or phrases in your release or documents in English instead of Simplified Chinese, your communication will not show up in organic search results.

Just as your keywords are carefully thought out and researched, the translations should be researched just as thoroughly.  In most Asian languages, the keyword itself differs from the rest of the world.  Your product names and technical terminology should be in widely used characters – creating your own “Chinglish” term may be catchy, but unless you’re a name brand with a large advertising budget you will not get the results you wish.

Branding in Chinese

Lenovo's Chinese homepage displays the brand in both Chinese and English.

Lenovo’s Chinese homepage displays the brand in both Chinese and English.

Even your company name should be in Chinese.  Decide upon the proper characters you will use during your branding process.   If you have a local PR, branding agency, or local marketing support, put this into their hands, and listen carefully to their suggestions.  Once you decide upon the characters for your company name, stick to them going forward.  If you change them for any reason, it will require a full re-branding.  Lenovo’s Chinese home page is a very good example.  The English brand is there, along with the characters they chose for local branding.

Where to get help!

There are several agencies and consulting services outside of China that will do all the research and character creation for you.  These services can be pricey, but if you are serious about successful communication in China, they are an excellent investment, and will give you the best ROI.

If you do not have the resources for a branding consultant or agency, find a good translation service that you can trust to accurately translate your company terms.  The best ones will give you several suggestions for you to choose from, and perhaps even do some research for you.  If you do not know of any services, PR Newswire will be happy to give you some recommendations.  Next, you’ll need to check trends on each of the suggestions and pick the one that matches your needs best.   There is a free keyword index on index.baidu.com that you can use to check trends on specific keywords, but the Baidu paid keyword tool is the one I prefer.   I find the results to be more accurate due to the wider search results.

Once you have your product, technology and company names in Chinese characters, then you can start working on your marketing and communication materials.   That doesn’t mean you can’t still use your English brand names and technology terms – it is acceptable to use both the English and the Chinese characters for company name and keywords on your website and your printed and online marketing material.   For press releases that will be posted on third party news sites, as well as paid advertorials, use Chinese only for best ROI results.

Following these steps will help you increase your visibility and return on your brand’s investment in the important Chinese market.   Whether your audience is B2B or communicating in-language will dramatically increase your online visibility.

学一门语言，就是多一个观察世界的窗户。To learn a language is to have one more window from which to look at the world.

Author Colleen Pizarev is PR Newswire’s vice president of communication strategies and works with our clients on crafting global communications campaigns.

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Is a Paid Placement Right for Your Campaign?

Posted on May 7, 2013 by | Leave a comment

There’s been a lot of buzz in the communications industry around the idea of using paid placements (also referred to as “strategic placements),  yet misconceptions persist about what this term actually means and when they are appropriate to use.  In a nutshell, a strategic placement is a 30 or 60 second stand- alone video in a newsbreak format that is used to provide news content during breaks in scheduled programming for TV or radio.  Video produced from B-roll and Satellite Media Tours (SMTs) as well as Radio Media Tours (RMTs) can also be repurposed into scripted packages for strategic placement on national or local TV and radio. 

When to use a paid placement? 

To increase the audience for a broadcast campaign: Impressions are often king in the broadcast world, but in some cases, satellite or radio media tours (“SMTs” and “RMTs” respectively) may not  garner the number of impressions that clients often like to see.  To increase the return on the investment in broadcast production, we always advise employing a multi-faceted approach so that content can be seen and heard on a variety of mediums.   Paid placements can often help get air time on cable and network affiliates that are often unattainable otherwise, and can be a great way to increase your audience ‘footprint.’  For example, CNBC, CNN, Fox News Channel, Headline News, and The Daily Buzz are just a handful of typically coveted networks where content can be easily placed with the paid approach. 

To Target Local Markets or Demographics: Some initiatives have a local focus, with coverage wanted regionally, for example a bank that has only east coast branches. By utilizing paid placement, content can be placed in specific cities, states and/or on major national networks – adding a niche targeting approach.  Add a statewide radio distribution and impressions skyrocket.

Targeting a specific demographic? A cluster of cable outlets can be selected to further refine goals.  For example, content geared toward women can be placed on ABC Family and Lifetime, video devoted to entertainment can be placed on Comedy Central and Discovery, and Lifestyle related content can be placed on networks such as Food Network and HGTV.

THE BOTTOM  LINE?

Broadcast paid placements can be a great addition to add to any multi-tiered broadcast approach. In addition to helping to boost impressions,  paid placements can be used to target specific cities, states and regions and deliver  the message to the right demographic.

Want to explore new ways to tell your brand’s story and to reach new audiences?  We’d be happy to chat with you about creating a video or a designing multimedia distribution strategy that will increase discovery of your brand’s messages.  We’d love to hear your ideas, and help turn them into reality. Contact us for more information.

Author Risa Chuang is Director of Media Relations for MultiVu, a PR Newswire company.

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Grammar Hammer: I Could Care Less

Posted on May 6, 2013 by | Leave a comment

carelessWhen this was suggested for a topic, I hadn’t given much thought about the difference between saying, “I could care less” versus “I couldn’t care less.”

If you tell someone “I could care less,” is that telling them that you don’t have an opinion on the matter, or a self-righteous way of saying you might be able to care less, but can’t be bothered?

How much do we care about things? The outpouring of support for victims of the Boston Marathon bombing means that we care an awful lot about those who were affected. This past week, PR Newswire’s parent company, UBM, organized the Business4Better conference in Anaheim, California, which means that we care a lot about helping connect non-profits with corporations and seeing the tremendous things that can come from the right combination of idea + resource.

Locally, the big topic in my world is the shutdown of the main artery I use to get to work for two weeks while they film the next Captain America movie. How much do I care? Meh, I could care less about the inconvenience I’ll endure for two weeks, but that would take too much energy. However, I couldn’t care less about the inconvenience, provided Captain America himself personally picks me up and transports me safely to work each day.

Telling someone “I could care less” elicits a powerful response as a grammatical peeve, primarily because of its illogical nature. You’re trying to convey that you don’t care at all.  What you are actually saying is that it is possible for you to care less, you’re just not going to put forth the effort. Harvard professor Stephen Pinker argued that the emphasis given to whether you could care less or couldn’t care less would tell the listener whether you were being ironic or sarcastic.

So, is it grammatically incorrect to tell someone you could care less? No, but if that’s something you prefer to say, I couldn’t care less.

Have a grammar rule you’d like me to explore? Drop me a line at catherine.spicer@prnewswire.com.

Author Catherine Spicer is a manager of customer content services at PR Newswire.

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Content We Love: 2013 January-March in Review

Posted on May 3, 2013 by | 2 Comments

ContentWeLove“Content We Love” is a weekly feature written by a team of our content specialists. We’re showcasing some of the great content distributed through our channels, and our content specialists are up for the task: they spend a lot of time with the press releases and other content our customers create, proof reading and formatting it, suggesting targeted distribution strategy and offering SEO advice. In Content We Love, we’re going to shine the spotlight on the press releases and other messages that stood out to us, and we’ll tell you why. We hope you find the releases enjoyable and the insights gained from discussing them enlightening.

News. Content. Engagement.

The many reasons for sending press releases mirror the many types of releases we see here at PR Newswire. From January through March, we have seen a variety of compelling messages that captured our attention.

Social media campaigns, captivating headlines, riveting infographics, and compelling videos took center stage throughout the beginning of the year and the world took notice. These are some of the releases from January, February, and March of 2013 that we absolutely love.

 01. Pop Culture Pets: Veterinary Pet Insurance released the top names for our furry friends and the tale (or tail) leads to Twilight for inspiration.

 02. Riveting Headline: American DG Energy Inc. passed “go” in our books with this captivating headline. The energy agreement started its 15-year sentence at a county jail and served a conversation on social media channels to discuss it.

 03. Big Nominations: Kino Lorber’s release wins an award in our book for showcasing a video and pictures to accompany the big news of an Oscar nomination. From a beautiful film to a beautiful release, we applaud you!

04. Digital Love: Social media reigns supreme in recent survey from Match.com highlighting the technological advances to dating past and present. Will #tweetups and a digital date be next?

05. DIY Wedding: Michaels Stores released a budding romance for 2013 with the top DIY wedding ideas. While we were fawning over the ideas (and pinning the pictures), the video perfectly complimented the message. DIY puts the merry in merriment.

06. #GoAndSmellTheRoses: Around the world in minutes, Travelocity’s roaming gnome urges all to take the vacation of a lifetime. The new campaign features great visuals and an official hashtag. Inspired for travel, we all want to #GoAndSmellTheRoses

07. Free Food Madness: Shooting hoops isn’t the only thing on the menu for Outback Steakhouse. To celebrate March Madness, their bracket-tournament was for a free juicy appetizer.

Kudos — and thanks — to the organizations listed  for the pleasure of reading your phenomenal releases and allowing us to spotlight your stories.

Author Emily Nelson is a Customer Content Specialist for PR Newswire. Follow her adventures on www.bellesandawhistle.wordpress.com or on twitter www.twitter.com/emilyannnelson.

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Social Influence on Business Strategy: Empathy is the Secret Sauce

Posted on May 2, 2013 by | Leave a comment
This post originally appeared on the Business4Better Blog.

Ed note: Today is the second day of Business4Better, a new event produced by PR Newswire’s parent company, UBM plc., designed to foster partnerships between non-profits and corporations. As I was scanning the blog posts recapping the first day, I spotted the post below and decided to share it with you.  It’s an interesting illustration of the degree to which social influences have permeated business decision making and strategy, and the importance of empathy to an organization’s success.  - SSReconciling a balance sheet or analyzing data for the next great product is not the only metric that drives the success of great companies. Rather, the secret sauce has to do with empathy for the world around you.

It is not just business for better, it is better for business, says Dev Patnaik, CEO of Jump Associates and author of Wired to Care who opened up the Business4Better show here in Anaheim.

He implored businesses to reconnect with their humanity and gave examples of companies that are doing this today. “When we are fact-based and living our lives with PowerPoint data, we are only bringing in a part of our brains every day to work, says Patnaik. “You have to have that connection and get out beyond your walls and spend the time in the real world.”

Harley Davidson is a company that embraces these ideals. “The minute you walk into Harley Davidson headquarters, the parking lot is overflowing with Harleys, the building smells like leather and the company keeps the connection to the world around them. There is an authenticity. We are them and they are us,” said Patnaik.

Patnaik also compared the culture of Nike and Reebok. Nike is a culture of athletes and Reebok is a culture of MBAs that sell shoes. Great companies have a gut sense to know what is right, the passion to leap on something new and the courage to stick with something shaky; he added.

Some view empathy is a lovey-dovey word but Nike and Harley Davidson are hard charging places, he said. “When you care about people more than yourself, you will innovate and grow. You will have a sense of mission and reason to come into work every day.”

Kelley DamoreAuthor  is Chief Community Officer at UBM Tech. 

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