Most people are familiar with cartoonist, Gary Larson. One of my favorite Larson cards cleverly illustrates the importance of communicating in the language your audience understands. An owner is talking to his dog as the dog looks quizzically back at him: What He Says to Dog “Stay out of the garbage! Understand, Ginger? Stay out of the garbage!” What the Dog Understands “Blah blah blah blah blah GINGER blah blah blah blah . . . .”

This same principal of knowing your audience holds true if you are the Chief CoMOJOcations Officer at a startup. For the past few months, Stephanie and I have been carefully tailoring every document, presentation, summary, PR release, e-mail pitch, cover letter and post-it note that we’ve written, mailed, e-mailed or…sometimes trashed, to its specific audience.

Each time I sit down at my laptop, I need to think about the demographics and psychographics of the person(s) who will be reading my “eloquent prose.” If I am writing for the media, I know that a technology writer/editor will read my press material very differently than the assignment editor at a local news station. If I am drafting an e-mail to a group of homeowners requesting them to participate in a focus group, I need to hit their hot buttons and use a familiar yet professional tone that will appeal to them.

When I’m on the phone talking to the media, I only have 30 seconds to convince them that the MojoPages story is appropriate for their listening, viewing or reading audience. I have to know the facts and, just as importantly, know how to communicate them most effectively. It’s not just what you say; it’s how you say it.

When talking with the media, you need to do your homework: know the reporter’s style, past work, deadlines, preferred format for receiving information, etc. A good publicist must know how to talk the talk and know his audience(s) like the back of his hand. For months, I’ve worked behind the scenes to get the details finalized, the messages finely tuned and the target audiences clearly identified.

During the last two company meetings, I took nearly 4 hours of the team’s time to discuss our key messages, our boilerplate, our name, the title and description of the video documentary series, each MojoPages’ team member’s title, etc. Let me tell you, our team is incredibly bright and talented…but this exercise was like pulling teeth. Everyone had an opinion and no one was shy about expressing it. We spent 2 ½ hours on one paragraph.

But it is all worth it, as the company has finally been able to begin reaping the rewards of those efforts. We have standardized everything from prefixes to punctuation and will have coverage in the San Diego Business Journal, 944 Magazine, San Diego Metropolitan…and more.

I’ll continue to share the media coverage with you as the issues become available. In the meantime, I’m interested to get your feedback on the articles thus far. Did the stories educate you about the company or its key players, entice you to visit the blog, elicit a sense of intrigue of what’s to come? Let me know.

They say that, “The Devil is in the details.” No wonder I’ve lost so much sleep and feel like hell…but in a good way.

Ray

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