A colleague sent this to me and I thought I'd share it with you.
Here is how you set up the "readability" option for Word documents.
In Word, go to:
Tools
Options
Spelling & Grammar
Down in the "grammar" box, check "Show readability statistics," click OK
You're set. Now, anytime you're done running a spell check of a Word document, a box will pop up that will show your the readability stats, including:
Percent of "passive sentences" (you want the number to zero or at least very low)
Flesch Reading Ease, which is the readability on a scale of 0 to 100 (you want the number to be high)
Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level shows you the grade-level of reading for your document (Hemingway is usually grade-school level, newspaper articles should be junior-high level, WRI reports should probably be about high-school level or arguably lower)
Doing my part to share the viralosity of this video (it seems to be posted on quite a few blogs).
BTW - you can follow Stephen Colbert's tweets at twitter.com/stephencolbert . . . though the question remains as to whether this profile is real or just another opportunity for a no-name to ride into the twitter limelight on the coattails of gregarious punditry.
Attended a meeting today at the PR firm Waggener Edstrom where the topic was how to make major organizational transition work seamlessly. Working with brands like GE Healthcare, Mastercard International, Microsoft and T-Mobile USA, Waggener Edstrom uses storytelling and strategic communications to facilitate the adoption of new ideas.
Given the recent election, I was interested in hearing what they had to say on successfully navigating the waters of change.
Two initial points:
There are two types of transitions: Well-planned and sudden. The main difference between the two is the transition timeline.
Transitions offer an opportunity to tell stories.
When communicating transition, keep in mind the following:
Keep concern levels down by focusing on the idea that "there is not as much change as you think." While the way an organization functions may change, the organization will continue to move forward.
Don't let the story become the transition only. Manage calendar of coverage of the transition with coverage of other organizational outputs. Look at calendars for both internal and external coverage.
Don't present an obituary. Focus both on looking forward and looking back. It is a continuing evolution. Don't try to scrub history - you will lose credibility if you don't provide an accurate picture of what came before as prelude to where you are going.
Own the digital building blocks. Create and own as much content as possible so you can strategically disseminate and redistribute messages through different channels. Also, the better you know the content, the more disciplined you are in defining and sharing the message.
Remember your audience. Think primarily about how your target audience receives information. Create content for target audiences that can extend to others. Create advocates for your information who can carry your messages to others.
Establish a communication calendar. Set periodic tick marks for artificial coverage points - moments in time that trigger "write the story now."
Drive confidence without having carefully crafted platitudes. People have filters built up.
At times you should consider radical translucency rather than transparency. Think about the shower curtain metaphor - would you rather a transparent or translucent shower curtain? Translucent provides enough information. Transparent too much.
What we need is a metrics taxonomy that is easier to understand and explain. Perhaps simple and descriptive enough that we could skip the need for explanation altogether. I propose the following three terms:
Exposure - to what degree have we created exposure to materials and message?
Influence - the degree to which exposure has influenced perceptions and attitudes
Action - as a result of the public relations effort, what actions if any has the target taken?
The problem with trying to determine ROI for social media is you are trying to put numeric quantities around human interactions and conversations, which are not quantifiable.
In this post, Jason includes an interview with Katie Delahaye Paine which is highlights the difficulty of measuring ROI in social media:
For several years, I've been using the following stairstep graphic to visualize how we are trying to engage people in the online space.
You see, World Resources Institute is all about turning ideas into action. We work at the intersection of environment and human needs to provide solutions for a sustainable world.
The basic idea of the following visualization is that we move people from satisfaction with us in general to ownership of our ideas (which then become integrated with their ideas).
I guess it gets down to value - who values us and our content. Value can be shown in many ways and the more engaged a person becomes the more valuable we and our work become.
And the quickest way to create value is to create relationship.
Some basic metrics that work for me to date include:
But the more I look at the above visualization, the more I see an essential element is missing.
You see, it is one-way. What am I - what are we - doing to impact others.
This approach seems like a hammer hitting a nail until it is fully engaged in the crossbeam.
It doesn't take into account that this - all of this - is a conversation. And not just a two-way conversation.
It is a multitude of voices where anyone can contribute something meaningful at any time. Where in the level playing field any voice can suddenly offer something real, meaningful, inspiring, and motivational - sometimes in a single tweet.
In a way, it's like a lottery where the odds are in your favor. Everyone keeps contributing in the hopes that they will gain something, and everyone gains small wins on a consistent basis.
But you have to play to win. And the more people play, the more people will win because the jackpot is higher and the odds improve.
Yet that doesn't even capture it, because at some point we need to sit back, evaluate and say, "Wow, what just happened here?" Taking time to do that and capture the story is a valuable metric indeed.
