December 16th, 2012
Blog On: The Power of Words To Build Or Destroy An Image
Jane Hunt, Managing Director, Catapult PR
Never underestimate the power of words. Just a few of them can completely destroy a mood and decimate beautiful situations. Conversely, the right words at the right time can stay lodged in the mind for a long time, creating a powerful rapport that is hard to break, thanks to the word associations that we all carry with us as part of our life legacy and our current consciousness.
Think about the power of Trip Advisor. Visitor comments are only words, but can make or break a relationship between a hotel and its guests and the more graphic the words, the more damage to the brand. The technology to broadcast opinions worldwide may be new, but it is not the technology that breaks the relationship: it is the words used to describe the unpalatable situation that a guest found.
There is nothing new in this and businesses for years and years produced newsletters to powerfully persuade customers, employees and suppliers that their offering was respectable, genuine, ethical and successful. The words in those newsletters contributed massively to their reputation management and one could argue that the demise of newsletters has encouraged some businesses and organisations to take their reputation less seriously – a truly terrifying thought.
Think how a ‘kiss and tell’ can so quickly destroy someone’s image and potentially lose them their job if they are in a position of influence over vulnerable people or children, or a position of trust, as would be the case with a teacher or doctor. A footballer may get away with it, thanks to conforming to ‘type’, but others in positions of authority would not. I can think of an excellent example of this right now, just a short drive away – a figure of authority brought down by a story packed with emotive words surrounding their extra-curricular activities beyond the classroom that destroyed their reputation.
While we may not have many newsletters these days which can match those tomes that I would once have written and produced, such as ‘SWEB News’, the Swinton magazine ‘Orbit’ or even the lady motorcyclist publication, Born Free, we do now have blogs and it is truly amazing how few businesses firstly have a blog and then secondly use it wisely.
A blog’s power is two-fold. It can use the power of words to create and maintain a beautiful relationship with its audience. From there, it can make those words count, using tags that will bring the key words to the top of search engine rankings. Businesses putting across the key words that matter to them should look no further than a blog, if they wish to be seen by their target audiences.
But it is one thing having a blog and quite another making it interesting and engaging to the worldwide web. Here, you need to ensure that whoever is writing it has the ability to bring a brand to life through their words and their selection of vocabulary. They need to be entertaining, as well as capable of delivering words of wisdom to more technical audiences. They may need to be enchanting, funny, even mesmeric at times, so that their audiences literally start to hang on their every word. As the Bee Gees said : “It’s only words, but words are all I have, to take your heart away”.
The trouble with blogs for most businesses is that they don’t have anyone capable of delivering this mix of witchcraft and word wizardry. If that’s ringing true with you, but you do wish to conquer hearts and minds, bring in an expert wordsmith who has the ability to step inside your brand, understand which words matter to it and then weave those into engaging copy that will persuade, inform, entertain and win over your target audiences.
I am already writing blogs for a variety of businesses that recognise the power of words. If you wish to have a quiet word with me about this, even just a whisper, call me on 01253 891114. Perhaps we can start to shout about your brand from the laptop, rather than the rooftops of yesteryear!
