Good communicators strive to be persuasive and to be opinion leaders. That’s why they like to write articles for newspaper editorial pages. Such articles are called op-eds and they are a unique and powerful communication tool. Using journalism’s formula for the 5 W’s and the H (Who, What, When, Where, Why and How), here are the basics on op-eds.

WHAT is an op-ed?

An op-ed is an opinion piece that appears on the page opposite a newspaper’s editorial page – hence the term op-ed. The opinion pages are usually at the back of the first section of the newspaper.

WHO writes op-eds?

Op-eds can be written by executives and leaders in almost any field. Often, they are ghost-written by communications professionals and appear in print under the byline of a CEO, government official or other opinion leader.

WHY write and publish an op-ed?

There can be many reasons to seek publication of an opinion piece. Your organization may want higher visibility, especially among decision-makers in industry and government. Politicians read editorial pages and so do business people, advocacy leaders and others interested in public opinion and government policy.

Your organization may want to influence public opinion and/or government policy. You may be in a crisis situation and seeking to get your point of view out in the public arena.  The page opposite a newspaper’s editorial page is a good place to do just that.

WHEN do you submit an op-ed piece for publication?

Timeliness is essential. If there’s a news event or a controversy that directly impacts your organization, be ready to write fast and act faster. I have worked for organizations that procrastinated and labored over an op-ed for so long that the media had moved on to a new topic. They were no longer interested in the subject we were concerned about.

WHERE do you place op-eds?

It’s best not to set your sights on the Washington Post or the New York Times. Big dailies like these receive hundreds of submissions every day and your chances of getting published are very small.

You can still have impact in regional and smaller dailies. Try your hometown newspaper, which is automatically more interested in local businesses, government and nonprofit offices.

I have found the best way to get an op-ed published is to ask for an editorial board meeting. Take your CEO or top leader and a communications representative. Editorial writers and sometimes reporters will be at the meeting at the newspaper. Have an op-ed ready to leave behind after the meeting.

HOW do you write an op-ed?

Keep it at no more than 750 words. Open with your strongest point and use the rest of the piece to back up your major assertion.

Keep your sentences and paragraphs short and use active verbs. Close with a re-statement of your major argument and give a call to action.

Today started out great. I went to my regular Friday morning Rotary meeting and the speaker ‘s PowerPoint presentation wouldn’t come up on the screen.  Something about his laptop was low on battery power and he didn’t have a cord long enough to reach the electrical outlet. I wanted to stand up and cheer.

Why, you ask, would that be a good start to my day? Because anytime a speaker can shed the PowerPoint crutch, the better chance he/she has of really communicating with an audience.

When people think of giving a presentation, they automatically start planning PowerPoint slides.  They rely on the visuals to contain their talking points and as speakers, they can slip into the shadows when the lights are dimmed. Much less threatening.

I have to say, last week’s meeting started out great, too. The speaker didn’t have a PowerPoint show. Instead, she had a really interesting, funny speech about how humor is beneficial to our health.  She told stories, she talked about Rotary and did everything she could to engage us with her words. It was one of the best speeches I’ve heard at my club.

The moral of the story? Ditch the PowerPoint and spend more time on your words. Look for ways to connect with each audience by speaking to their interests.  Add a little humor and do your best to make your presentation interesting. Boring an audience should be against the law.

Picking on Mitt Romney

I don’t have anything against Mitt Romney other than he gives bland speeches.  He tends to get wordy when he’s trying to make a point.  And he never says anything memorable. It’s all vanilla.

Chris Seck opines in The Record that Romney’s background as an English major and his speechwriter’s training in the humanities may explain his lackluster performance behind the lectern.

No Comment

It used to be (maybe it still is) that when you said “No Comment” to a reporter, it was a red flag.  Something dishonest or illegal was going on and you didn’t want to talk about it in public.

Now we have some new ones that raise the antennas of journalists who are looking for deception or manipulation.  Like: Chief Financial Officer Joe Blow is resigning “to spend more time with his family.”  If you want to get a journalist on the trail of why Joe Blow is really leaving, say something like that.

Journalists know when they’re being manipulated.  (Take it from me. I used to be one.) And they appreciate it when executives and other leaders are real with them. Think Warren Buffett, who isn’t afraid to say exactly what he thinks. Think Ron Paul, who isn’t afraid to speak his mind, either. Authenticity is a powerful tool, as the Gotham Research Group discovered.

Last fall, I couldn’t help but notice the superior marketing strategy of the Susan G. Komen for the Cure campaign.  As part of Breast Cancer Awareness Month in October, the signature pink ribbons were everywhere – even in very unlikely places.

The organization was at a Dallas Cowboys game, raising awareness and funds for research to wipe out breast cancer. Komen founder Nancy Brinker was at the opening coin toss, standing on the field with the Cowboys team captains.

Game show hostess Vanna White did a Wheel of Fortune promotional NBCCam on behalf of the Komen foundation.

And most surprising of all – to me at least – was when Delta Airlines gave a commercial for the Komen campaign on a flight I took from Boston to Paris. I had never seen anything like it – an airline partnering with a cause for in-flight promotional marketing. I was impressed. This had all the earmarks of a prize-winning and highly successful branding campaign.

But then came the Planned Parenthood debacle of last week and Komen, which had been flying high, was making a crash landing. Its leaders are still sifting through the rubble trying to determine what went wrong, how to clean up the mess and how they can avoid such a fiasco in the future.

Meanwhile Planned Parenthood, which has taken a PR beating in recent years, got a big boost in donations and some vocal support in the media.

Blogger Mike Duerksen wrote a really nice analysis of this PR case study for the NonProfitPR website. He astutely points out that organizations not only need a crisis communications plan, they need one that includes social media strategies. Social media – Facebook and Twitter – were where the firestorm developed for Komen.

I encourage you to watch both Nancy Brinker’s video and the MSNBC interview with Cecile Richards, head of Planned Parenthood, and draw your own conclusions about how the two organizations have communicated during the crisis.

For her part, Richards wisely chose a conciliatory tone, hoping to repair the damage done to the Komen-Planned Parenthood relationship. Brinker focused on defending her organization’s decision.

In the end, the Komen foundation reversed its plan to cut off funding to Planned Parenthood for health screenings. But the mop up continues. It will be interesting to see how Komen handles the aftermath.

Mitt Romney’s recent spate of verbal gaffes have reminded me of why I have always regarded interaction with the news media with a healthy dose of respect – and some fear and trembling. As Romney has ruefully learned, even the most practiced and polished speaker can utter a statement that will sound bad and take on a life of its own.

Romney seems almost robotic in his delivery sometimes, as if he has practiced his responses too much. But despite his obvious preparations, you’ve seen him make one damaging statement after another.

These gaffes are being played and replayed and used against him by the media and people in his own party. Inevitably, they will be used against him in the presidential campaign this fall if he is the ultimate nominee.

His most recent comment, “I’m not concerned about the very poor,” is another in a series of self-inflicted verbal mishaps.  I have to wonder how this has happened. I know Romney’s had media training – every serious presidential candidate gets schooled in this skill.

Aside from that, I can tell he’s had media training by the way he handles himself. He has key messages he wants to convey and no matter what he is asked, he harkens back to those messages in every response. That is media training 101.

So why would he say something like that? If you watch the entire interview, you’ll see that Romney turned the gun on himself after essentially answering the question the newscaster asked him.

The “poor” statement was offered in the context of “by the way.” It was an add-on. Romney thought he was going to make the point that he is for the common man/woman. But he ended up saying too much. He should have stopped before “by the way.”

I think there are two simple lessons here for people who are in the public eye and who are asked questions by reporters and the public. First, don’t volunteer information. Answer the question and be sure to get your key messages in. Make simple statements and keep them brief.

Second, as a general rule, it’s a good idea to stay away from negative statements. He could have bypassed the whole issue by saying something simple like: “My focus is on the middle class and making sure they have jobs.”  Veering into what he’s not concerned about just left him open for criticism.

I had a business meeting via Skype today, a first for me.  I’ve used Skype before for personal calls, but this was the first time I have used it in a professional setting.

It is an amazing tool – easy to download, easy to use and the visual quality is remarkable.  I think in the near future, this type of visual communication tool will be used more and more in the workplace. Here are a few tips for putting your best face forward when using Skype.

Look your best

Even though you may be sitting at a desk and looking into a laptop camera, dress as you would for any professional in-person meeting.  And that means full dress – not dressing from the waist up. You never know when you might have to stand up and reveal those sweats or undies.

I wear makeup when I’m on a video cam. I usually wear makeup anyway, but just a light dose of it. Today, I took extra care with it and styled my hair. I perform better in meetings if I feel good about the way I look. I think most people do, too.

Test your equipment

This was a high-stakes meeting, so I did a dry run on connecting with the other party yesterday. I added them to my contact list on Skype, which makes it super easy to establish the connection when the time comes.

Remember, technology always has to be tested before any kind of presentation or communication event.

Be mindful of your surroundings

In most cases, you’ll want either a blank wall or shelves of books behind you.  Put any political campaign signs away.

Move barking dogs and meowing cats to another room and close the door. Turn the ringer off on your landline and cell phone.

Put any documents you need right next to your laptop or desktop computer and have a pen and paper handy for note-taking.

Smile and look into the camera

When I’m thinking, I tend to scowl. Don’t know why — it’s just a mannerism. So I try to remind myself to keep a pleasant look on my face. Video cameras are pretty unforgiving in the way they make you look — just like television cameras.

Also, remember to look into the camera, not at the picture you see on the screen. That way, you’ll be looking directly at the person/people you’re talking to.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Every year about this time, a speechwriter’s fancy turns to the eloquence of one of the greatest orators of the 20^th century – Martin Luther King, Jr. The guy was a master. We can all learn a lot from him and his famous “I Have a Dream” speech.

As Andrew Dlugan, founder and editor of Six Minutes, points out, King skillfully used repetition to make his points.  He not only repeated phrases to good effect, he repeated key themes.

At the risk of repeating myself, repetition is one of a public speaker’s best friends. Learn to use it to hammer home your key points.

Breaking into speechwriting

Apparently, I wasn’t the only one to think about Martin Luther King’s speaking skill this week. His birthday spawned countless articles, including this one from local Professional Writers of Austin.

The shoe was on the other foot for me in this piece. Instead of doing the interviewing and the writing, I was the interviewee. And I gave my best advice on how to write a great speech and how to break into the speechwriting business.

[Notice the mention of using repetition in speeches. But then, I’m repeating myself.]

The Eloquent Woman

I spend a lot of time listening to male speakers – they seem to be on the public stage a lot.  But Denise Graveline, who runs don’t get caught, a coaching business for speakers, has made a specialty of listening to women speakers.

And she has a lot to offer speakers and speechwriters in her regular essays on females who make a difference with the spoken word. Check her out on The Eloquent Woman. You’ll find not only speech videos, but critiques as well.

If you are in the business of public speaking – whether as a writer or a speaker – here are my top five New Year’s resolutions for you to consider for 2012.

Resolve to know your audience

I harp on this a lot, but that’s only because it’s really important. If we expect audiences to listen to us, we owe them the courtesy of knowing something about them.  If we expect audiences to consider our point of view, then we need to consider theirs.

Before you embark on a speech, do your audience homework. Find out the size of the crowd, where they’re from, their demographics and what they might be interested in hearing from you. They’ll thank you for it.

Resolve to tell stories

This is another favorite subject of mine, also because it’s really important. Your listeners aren’t going to remember a roster of facts or a list of numbers. They’re going to remember the stories you tell.  So make sure your stories illustrate the key points you want them to take home.

Resolve to speak without PowerPoint

I should carp on this one more. Many speakers, without a second thought, order up a slide show for their next public appearance. Sometimes PowerPoint is the most effective way to get your point across, but it’s used too often.

If you really want to have an impact on your audience, put some effort into creating word pictures for them. Help them “see” in their mind’s eye the point you are trying to make. This kind of visualization is much more likely to stay with a listener.

Resolve to give your audience signposts

Listeners can follow your words more closely if you give them a map. Good speakers tell their audiences what to expect and then they deliver. They wrap up by reviewing their key points. It’s the old guideline of: Tell them what you’re going to tell them. Tell them. Then tell them what you just told them.

Resolve to use repetition

In addition to telling them three times, use a lot of repetition in the body of your speech. Have a key phrase that you repeat throughout your remarks.

Begin a series of sentences with the same words: “We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender” (Winston Churchill, House of Commons, 1940)

There are any number of techniques for using repetition. Try several. Repetition is a speaker’s best ally for becoming memorable.

It’s 2012 – an election year and fortunately or unfortunately, depending on your point of view, we’ll be hearing lots of political rhetoric.  Those of us who go to political rallies or watch C-Span or are diligent enough to go to YouTube will be able to witness full-blown candidate speeches.

My New Year’s wish for all of us is that we get to hear speeches of real substance. I’d like to hear the presidential candidates seriously discuss the issues we face – like unemployment, gridlock in Washington, the economic crisis, North Korea and Iran, and other important matters.

But we all know that is not likely to happen. We’ll get mostly platitudes and vagaries. The candidates will reiterate the same talking points over and over and we’ll get snippets of what they say on the evening news or on Morning Joe.

For those of us interested in the spoken word and how it is expressed in the upcoming election year, there’s a new blog by Howie Beigelman, former speechwriter for New York Gov. George Pataki.  It’s worth checking out.

As we move into conference season…

…and really, when is it not conference and convention season? But if you’re going to a conference and you’ve been asked to either moderate or participate in a panel discussion, take heed. Failing to prepare is not an option.

Peter Evans, a corporate speaker with extensive experience as a conference producer, has some excellent pointers on how to do a good job on a panel.

For a contrarian’s point of view, check out what Fred Wilson, a New York City venture capitalist says about panel discussions. He thinks they are boring and prefers either making a short speech with Q&A or doing a one-on-one interview on stage. Personally, I like his suggestions. What do you think?

Have you got your elevator speech?

Don’t get caught off-guard when someone asks you to make an impromptu speech. Have your elevator speech – who you are and where you’re going — in mind at all times.  And when you go to a public event, collect your thoughts in advance in case you are called upon to speak unexpectedly.

Ethan Rotman, a speaking coach and trainer, is an expert on giving pop speeches. He has some valuable tips.

This list of best and worst communicators of the year from Decker Communications has some excellent choices.

Steve Jobs

I have to applaud the selection of Steve Jobs as perhaps one of the best communicators in recent memory. I wrote about his 2005 Stanford Commencement speech in this blog – and what a masterpiece of public speaking it was.

I would venture to say that the Stanford speech changed lives – possibly thousands of lives with its message of following your own inner truth. I know for sure it’s had an impact on at least one person – me.

Christine Lagarde

The selection of Christine Lagarde is also an excellent one.  She has a compelling persona and speaks with elegance and simplicity. I like listening to her because she is so articulate. She’s a breath of fresh communication air amidst a lot of foggy language in the human conversation.

Herman Cain

One commenter said that Herman Cain should be added to the list of worst communicators. I would have to agree. When allegations of sexual impropriety surfaced, his response would have earned an “F” in Crisis Communications 101. His denials, finger-pointing and blaming only served to make him look guilty. I won’t even go into the fiasco of his memory lapse on Libya.

If you’re looking to improve your communications/speaking skills in the coming year, I urge you to click on some of the links in this piece and listen to the speakers – both the good and the not so good. You’ll definitely learn something.

Lately, I’ve been making plans to attend the upcoming Ragan Speechwriters and Executive Communicators Conference, March 14-16, 2012, in Washington, D.C. This is a topnotch event – one that I have attended many times because I get so much out of it.

The speakers are the best in the business and Ragan does an excellent job of coming up with timely topics and helpful information. Everyone from the beginning speechwriter to the most seasoned pro will benefit from this conference.

[Disclaimer: This is not a paid advertisement -- but it should be!]

To give you an idea of some of the things I learned at previous conferences, here are a few items:

Stories

Tell a story

Put extra effort into coming up with stories for your speeches. Keep your ear tuned for good stories in casual conversation or while you’re having coffee with a friend.

Remember – people don’t remember everything we say, but they remember the pictures we create in their minds. And stories create mental pictures.

Call audience members

This is something I have done and it really pays off. I find out who’s going to be in the audience and ask them what they’d like to hear from a speaker.

This technique really helps connect a speaker with his/her listeners.

Use mind mapping

An example of mind mapping

I have never been much on outlines. They just don’t work for me. But mind mapping is another thing. It’s an excellent way of organizing large amounts of information.

If you’ve never done mind mapping, here’s a concise explanation.