“Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.”
Abraham Lincoln

I recently joined a volunteer team of Northwest Arkansas business leaders to teach a class on interview tips and skills to an amazing room of job seekers and the participants shared that one piece of the advice stood out- Preparation.

Preparation is one of the fundamentals of strategic thinking. And when is it more important to be strategic than when working toward your next career goal? In jobs-skills training there are three key elements of preparation prior to an interview:

• Assess yourself – from your personal presentation, what you wear and how you speak, to the experience and skills that you possess-you need to know yourself. Be ready to relate your experience and expertise with the requirements of the position. You might think you do not have project management experience, but after assessing, you see that volunteering to head up a charity committee includes managing a team of 12, budgeting, reaching a goal and reporting results.
• Research – know the company, competitors and industry where you are interviewing. An employee who educates themselves and seeks out information is invaluable. Show your interviewer that you possess this ability.
• Plan ahead – competition for jobs is fierce. Think through the interview from arrival to completion and have a plan.
• Scout out the interview location in advance – being late to the interview will not put you ahead.
• Be organized during the interview – bring fresh copies of your resume, a pen and paper.
• Have your questions ready – focus your questions on topics like the company and how this position contributes to the goals of the organization. Questions are an opportunity for you to engage in meaningful dialogue on the position and your abilities that would recommend you for the role. This, however, is not the time to ask what the company can do for you.

Sharpening your axe in advance will give you confidence during the interview and show your potential employer that you are prepared to be an accomplished member of their team. So to everyone currently on the job hunt, best of luck as you begin the next phase of your career- prepared.

It’s Friday afternoon and I had a really interesting inbound cold-call from Matthew with http://locamoda.com/ He introduced me to a product they have named Wiffiti. So, I went online to check it out.

I have to say I’m usually pretty up-to-date on the SM side of our business, but this was a pretty interesting tool that according to Matthew and Locamoda, is a communications application that enables people to send messages directly to screens in live locations (digital screens) and online simultaneously.

They also say, organizations have used Wiffiti on large screens at their events and on their blogs and social networking profiles. So I set up a wiffitti test page to see how it works. Check it out and comment, please note that the tags I set up are feeding the river of news. 

Click http://wiffiti.com/clouds/1254 or in the lower right hand corner if you want to see it full screen, you can comment by TXT too if you like…BTW, I put a “G” rating on it, but who knows what the world might have to say about public relations. Have a good weekend!

One trait of a good public relations practitioner is being a great storyteller. We communicate on behalf of our clients every day and have the opportunity to tell their story by carefully crafting messages through media materials, speeches and feature stories. 

While each of these methods may ultimately convey the same overall message, how the information is delivered to the reader varies. A news story, for instance, dives directly into the four W’s and gives the reader an immediate and clear picture of the news. Feature stories, on the other hand, draw the reader in with vivid images, emotion or by stimulating the senses, delivering the news as a secondary component to piquing the reader’s interest.

See if you can tell the difference.

ABC Company has built more than 100 ponds on private land this year to secure access to water for its operations. The company says the ponds are an innovative alternative to using the state’s natural water sources. 

OR

Call it what you will; a fishing hole, a swimming hole or just a place to skip rocks on a lazy afternoon. To Ben and Tracy Walker, it’s a dream come true. Most summer days you’ll find this young family of four splashing in the cool, clear water of their four-acre pond, picnicking on its tree-lined shore or teaching their children how to cast a fishing line.

Did you notice how they vary? The first example goes straight to the facts while the second is delivered as a human interest story, pulling the reader in with words that make the story come to life.

 These tips will help you build a better feature story:

• To be a great storyteller you must first be a great story knower.
• When interviewing someone, take note of your surroundings, their personality and their features. Incorporating these elements into your story sets the stage and paints a clear image of the characters in your piece.
• Use descriptive verbs and nouns rather than adverbs and adjectives. This is where the writing gets fun and really allows the reader to connect to the piece.
• Incorporate similes and metaphors.
• Write in third person with first person quotes.
• Use direct quotes and use them often.
• An informal tone is acceptable in feature stories unlike in news stories.
• Side bars and photography are great additions to features.
• End your story with a quote or with words that allow the reader to visualize where your subject may go from that point on.

A good feature story not only educates the reader but creates meaningful interest in the subject at hand. It’s an engaging and creative way to share your story.

In case I piqued your interest in the Walker family, I can tell you they plan to enjoy their pond for years to come telling me, “We’ve already begun dreaming of things we can do here, occasions we will celebrate and all of the memories that have yet to be made.”

One of my favorite storytellers is Arkansas’ own Pulitzer Prize-winner Paul Greenberg, editorial page editor of the Arkansas Democrat Gazette. Paul is one of the most respected and honored commentators in the U.S. You can read some of his most recent stories here: http://www2.arkansasonline.com/staff/paul-greenberg/.