Sandy Dempsey featured me in the “reader profile” in the latest issue of her email newsletter, The Dreaming Cafe. In the profile, I got the opportunity to tell you a little bit about how I’m living one of my dreams… (Thank you for the opportunity, Sandy!)

If you’re not already a subscriber to The Dreaming Cafe, I highly recommend you go to Sandy’s website and subscribe now: www.thedreamingcafe.com.

As I mentioned in the reader profile, Henry David Thoreau said, “Do not lose hold of your dreams or aspirations. For if you do, you may still exist but you have ceased to live.”

So, let’s all continue to dream on…! Until next time, take care and thanks for reading! 😉

Kathy Magrino

The fall semester at Rider University starts in just a few weeks. In preparing to teach my students about writing for social media, I came across an interesting tool: Twitter Grader from HubSpot. The tool is designed to help us measure our influence on Twitter. The Twitter Grader site says, “Twitter Grader is a free tool that allows you to check the power of your twitter profile compared to millions of other users that have been graded.”

It’s easy to use and also offers some tips and suggestions. I entered my Twitter user name (@kathymagrino) and got a grade of 97.5 out of 100! It’s good to know I’m doing things right — The Write Way 😉 — on Twitter!

Try Twitter Grader for yourself and let us know your grade. And please share any suggestions or tips you might have to help us all “make the grade” on Twitter by posting your comments here.

Until next time, see you on Twitter and take care!

Kathy Magrino

In the spring of 2009, I started using Twitter (@kathymagrino) and was thrilled when my first “#FollowFriday” (or “#FF”) recommendation came from Alex Blom (@AlexBlom). Since then, Alex and I have been collaborating on a new business adventure that we’re launching soon. (I’ll keep you posted here as things happen, so stay tuned!…)

But, in the meantime, this week I’m being featured in Alex’s “#FollowFriday” blog — a feature that he posts each week. He created this type of feature outside of Twitter (where the whole “#FollowFriday” craze started) because he says he “decided there is little value in doing a flat Follow Friday. Listing 7 names without saying who they are, what their skills are and why it is important is not how I like to approach things.” I agree — and I’m honored to be his “#FollowFriday Number 7.”

Thanks for this, Alex, and for all of your #FollowFriday endorsements over the past 18 months! And to everyone else, thanks for reading my blog — and I hope you’ll follow me, too, on Twitter: @kathymagrino.

Until next time, take care!

Kathy Magrino

I am in the beginning stages of the preparation process for my fall classes at Rider University (COM106 Writing for the Communication Professions and COM107 Persuasive Writing for the Media) and I came across a video on YouTube — an interview of Katie Couric offering her advice on what makes a good interview. (Watch the video by clicking here.) Katie’s comments back up what I tell my students when we’re learning how to interview people to obtain good quotes and information for our writing projects:

• Prepare your interview questions in advance and try to anticipate responses to help you predict and prepare your follow-up questions.
• Make your subjects feel comfortable when they’re talking with you — you’re guaranteed to get better answers when they’re more relaxed.
  
• Listen when interviewees respond to your questions and be able to pick up on important points to emphasize or expand upon.

In my classes, we’re learning how to write feature articles and news releases, but good interviewing skills are universal and they’re needed for all types of writing projects. Do you have any tips or techniques that you can share with us? Please post your comments here.

Thanks for reading this post and, until next time, take care!

Kathy Magrino

It’s been over a month since my last blog post — my blog definitely fails my own blog “fitness” test, at least as far as the “T – timing” goes! (Check out Is Your Blog F.I.T. to see for yourself.)

So much has been happening over the last month: summer session classes ended; the little league baseball season went into the championship games and day-after-day tournament games for my son’s team; new business has been streaming in (thankfully!); and summer distractions (the beach and sunshine, etc.) seem to abound.

Over the next few weeks, I’m taking my time getting things done. I know that the hectic pace of the fall will be here all too soon. I know that my blog will be here ready for the next post whenever I’m ready to write it. I hope you’ll be here, too!

Until next time, I hope you’ll take your time getting your things done, too!

Kathy Magrino

A bad presentation or speech is like a donut — the central part (your audience) is missing.

To write a good presentation or speech, ALWAYS focus on your audience. (Actually, it’s a good idea to focus on your audience or readers for all your writing efforts!) I shared these tips with my students at Rider University earlier today and now I’m sharing them with you.

How to write a good presentation or speech:

Before you start outlining your presentation, ask yourself these questions:

1. Who is my audience? (Try to describe them in as much detail as possible — and “get inside their heads” if possible.)

2. What does my audience want, or what are their expectations and needs?

3. What does my audience like, dislike or fear?

4. Why did my audience invite me to speak?

5. How is my message important to my audience?

When you have the answers to the questions above, writing your presentation can be as simple as following these four steps:

1. Start with a “hook” to get your audience interested in what you’re saying. Effective “hooks” include:

– Telling a compelling story that’s interesting to your audience.

– Asking a question you want the audience to try to answer.

– Sharing an interesting or startling statistic your audience may not know.

2. After your hook/introduction, answer the “WTF” question for your audience. The “WTF” question can be translated from “What the f*@#?” to “What’s in it for me?” Your audience is asking themselves why they should care about your presentation. So, TELL THEM and give them reasons and lots of details.

3. Conclude your presentation or speech by hammering home your message(s)! Use any of these proven techniques:

– Show examples of success.

– Share “testimonials” — positive messages people have said about your subject.

– Not persuading? Use repetition. Simply repeat the key message(s) from your speech.

4. Finally, at the end of your presentation, always give some “takeaways,” like action-steps or a call-to-action telling your audience what they could or should do next. And, don’t forget to THANK your audience for their time… it’s just good manners to do so.

Do you have your own tips to share? Let us know by posting your comments here. And, THANKS for reading this post! 😉

Until next time, take care!

Kathy Magrino

This is a repeat of a popular blog post I wrote late last year — and it’s worth repeating now because I’ve recently rediscovered the value of brainstorming for creative solutions and ideas in my own life and business. I hope you can discover the value of brainstorming, too! 😉

“Brainstorming” encourages us to think creatively or “outside the box” — and in life, in general, it can help us tackle daily challenges. Whether you’re brainstorming alone or in a group, the same basic steps (outlined below) apply. And, remember: There are no restrictions! Brainstorming can be — and should be — FUN!

1. Review the facts, then consider the facts in new and varied combinations.
2. Make a list of random words, ideas, phrases — anything that comes to mind – as you’re reviewing the facts and considering the ideas. (Don’t rule anything out! List everything you think of, no matter how “crazy” it may seem.)
3. Think about your “audience” or the people involved in whatever you’re brainstorming about (for my students, the audience would be the people who are going to read the ad, or hear the radio advertisement or see the tv commercial, etc.). Think about how these people’s lifestyles can/do relate to your ideas — and don’t forget to write down everything that enters your mind… Keep telling yourself that anything is possible!
4. Find analogies and relationships – you can consider what you’re brainstorming about and think about how it might be used differently, or what it would be like if it were alive, or relate it to a completely different type of item/person/movie/song… whatever.
5. Continue to develop your ideas by asking key questions: Who?… What?… When?… How?… Where?… Why?…
6. Don’t be afraid to link together and connect ideas by following your intuition, gut feelings and hunches… and simply continue to be “free” as you brainstorm all the possibilities.

Brainstorming can be a good exercise to develop your problem-solving skills… and you might be surprised by the successful outcome of your brainstorming efforts! Have fun… and good luck!

Until next time,

Kathy Magrino

This post was previously published earlier this year, but I’m sharing it again now. Students in my COM106 – Writing for the Communication Professions summer session class at Rider University will be commenting on this post this week…

Purpose. Audience. Style. Tone. (Easy to remember as “P-A-S-T,” an acronym I share with my students…) Whatever you’re writing, by considering these elements, you’ll be able to organize your thoughts and kick-start your writing efforts.

Purpose — Ask yourself, “What are my objectives for writing this piece?” Your answer will help you outline a path to reach your goals and determine your purpose.

Audience — If I could have figured out an acronym that started with an “A,” I definitely would put “A” for “audience” first. In my opinion, knowing your audience — the people you want to reach or connect with through your writing — makes the whole writing process much easier. Pretend you’re talking to this person or these people. In your writing, “talk” directly to your audience, using words like “you” and “your” and other conversational words and phrases, which brings us to the “S” in “PAST”..

Style — To be effective, the style and structure of your writing piece needs to meet your audience’s expectations — or it needs to cleverly attract their attention. At times, a conversational style is appropriate, but sometimes it’s not.

• If you’re writing a news release to send to journalists and editors, they’ll expect you to structure your news in an “inverted pyramid style,” where the most important news and information appears in your lead paragraphs, followed by the less important information. Also, news releases should be written in the objective third-person (without “you” or “your”…).
• If you’re writing a page for your website, it’s good to be conversational, but you’ll also want to use a “chunk” style with quick headings and sub-heads and bullet-point information.
• Sometimes an “unexpected” and creative style or structure will get more attention for your writing. On BusinessWeek.com, the authors of Social Media Will Change Your Business structured the article as a series of blog entries, which the authors were writing about in addition to other social media.

Tone — Determine how formal or informal your writing needs to be, depending on the audience and purpose. This is the “tone” you should use in your writing. If appropriate, don’t be afraid to use a casual, conversational tone, one that “talks” directly to your audience. Also, it’s okay to use technical words and acronyms if you’re sure your audience will understand — but only if your audience will understand what you’re saying!

Consider the “P-A-S-T” and move forward with your ideas and writing efforts. If you have any ideas or considerations that help you kick-start your writing, please share them with us by responding below. Thanks for reading this post. Until next time, take care!

Kathy Magrino 😉

I did not need to read the article in a recent issue of the Social Media Examiner, 7 Ways to Use Psychological Influence with Social Media Content by Rachna Jain, to learn that we are better learners when information is presented to us using different modalities, especially those that require us to interact with each other. For my students and myself, I try to take a multi-sensory approach to teaching and learning in my classroom, and we see and experience great results.

Some examples: When my students write, I encourage them to read their writing out loud to hear what they’ve written. Not only is this a great way to proofread our own writing, this process involves different pathways in our brains, encouraging us to remember and learn what we’re doing. The same goes for in-class presentations in front of an audience (in our case, classmates). When students are required to pair “visuals” with their writing, either using video or PowerPoint slides, etc., they’re learning more — and we are all entertained. And, using visuals is another opportunity to “impress” the audience (and ourselves) with the messages we’re trying to process and learn.

What impressed me most from Jain’s article was this “Cone of Learning” from Edgar Dale:

See how impressive visuals can be?! 😉 Until next time, let’s try to use all of our senses and take action to learn!

Kathy Magrino

This semester, my students at Rider University have been doing lots of presentations in our classes. I’ll be sharing these tips for preparing presentations with them, so I thought I’d share them with you, too:

1. Know your audience! Before you start writing, try to “get inside the heads” of the people you’ll be presenting to — your audience. Know their likes and dislikes — and try to know what will grab their attention.

2. Don’t forget that you’re writing for an AUDIENCE, not for readers!

(Generally, readers have the luxury of taking their time with words and concepts…) An audience likes to be “entertained.”

3. Use repetition. Don’t be afraid to repeat key messsages, concepts and benefits to hammer home the messages you want to convey.

4. Be organized. Follow a logical progression — I usually create an outline or “map” for a presentation’s journey, from start to finish.

5. Be consistent. Use the same writing style and the same design throughout the entire presentation — everything should match. Sometimes, this is difficult when several people are working on the same presentation. Make sure you get together beforehand to merge your parts into one cohesive presentation.

Follow these tips, and you’ll be on your way to a good, professional presentation!

Until next time,

Kathy Magrino