Using a human voice (rather than an institutional one) is among the surest ways to stand out from the crowd, deliver a fresh-sounding message, and enhance your credibility. And that voice—personable, direct, empathetic—comes naturally to most of us; it’s the way we converse. So why don’t more organizations use it?

Robospeak Rules
For many organizations, the chief impediment to using a human voice is that they’re trying not to, for one or more of these reasons:

They believe that complex prose laden with buzzwords makes them sound credible. But that’s rarely the case, and it’s never true when communicating with nonexperts, who simply won’t understand the point of the communication.

They think using the same marketingspeak everyone else is using makes them sound cutting edge. But it really makes them sound like the same old, same old.

They worry that if they veer from the generic voice of their field, someone will find something objectionable in it. That’s probably true, but savvy organizations don’t market to everyone, and if a human voice is properly targeted, the humans meant to hear it will respond.

They fear that if they make direct statements, they’ll be held responsible. This is a sign that the organization can’t deliver on its marketing promises. When a direct statement makes them feel uncomfortable, organizations that care about credibility ratchet back the claim; they don’t rewrite for plausible deniability.

Finding a Human Voice
Communications that sound like a human wrote them tend to have one or more of these characteristics:

They are written by a human, as opposed to a committee of humans. Writing by committee is almost always lifeless. The more people you allow to change copy based on how they would write it, the more bland (or muddled) it becomes.

They are written for specific humans: A human voice is person to person, not person to general category. Show your audience that you know them—speak to their concerns and interests. And don’t be afraid to use you.

Humor: This is a challenge to do well, but if you have—or can hire—a writer who is genuinely witty, people will love you for it. See Daily Grist (www.grist.org) for a great example of serious issues treated with a sense of humor.

Everyday language: You don’t have to limit yourself to a Dick-and-Jane vocabulary, but pasting chunks of technical documents or reports into external communications is no way to engage outsiders. Again, think of your audience—if you were actually talking to someone in your target audience, how would you express the concept?

Keep these characteristics in mind when you plan and review content for your Web site or other communications, and you’ll be on your way to connecting with your target audience. First published in the January 2008 Words That Work.

Most organizations have an internal language—a patois of professional jargon, insider concepts, and in-house categories. And it should stay internal. Alas, too many broadcast their group-speak to an uncomprehending public through websites and collateral materials that attempt to persuade but often baffle.

It reminds us of a famous Far Side cartoon in which a man is earnestly lecturing his dog, who hears only “Blah blah Ginger, blah blah blah….” When your org chart defines your website’s architecture, when you use terminology that’s not widely recognized outside your organization, when you describe your products or services from your perspective rather than your target market’s perspective, your audience is likely to hear only “blah, blah, blah.”

Internal language seeps into external communications so often because it’s difficult to catch yourself using it. Few of us can switch automatically from insider to outsider language—it takes conscious effort. But it’s worth it: People usually won’t tell you they don’t understand your terminology, they’ll just make assumptions. If they don’t find information in the expected place on your website, they’ll assume it’s not there. If a word has a common meaning that differs from a particular meaning within your organization, they’ll assume the common meaning.

So make sure your message doesn’t get lost in translation: speak your audience’s language.

First published in the February 2008 issue of Words That Work.

You’ve got it all going on: carefully crafted position papers, an e-mail activist network, troubling statistics, an encyclopedic Web site, a passionate staff. So why haven’t you changed the world yet? Maybe your key audiences don’t care—or don’t care enough.

After all, they’re not nursing your particular outrage hangover every morning. They have other problems. Tap into those, and you can make people care. While you’re at it, engage their hearts as well as their minds. Provide food (not medicine) for thought. And give skeptics a reason to believe.

What’s in it for me? Sure, doing the right thing should be its own reward, but it never hurts to sweeten the pot. If you’re promoting legislation, get to know key legislators’ interests, and relate your interests to theirs. Spell out how the issue touches the politician’s voter base—and get the affected voters to help you make your case.

Trying to rouse an apathetic public? Show them how solving this problem will save their kids from harm, improve their job opportunities, or otherwise rock their world. If people know how your issue relates to their lives, you’ll get their attention.

That story made me cry. Move people emotionally, and you’ll move duffs out of chairs and dollars out of wallets. If you can tell real people’s heartbreaking or inspiring stories in an honest way, you can motivate activism.

Best of all: get people to tell their own stories. Amnesty International has motivated a worldwide army of letter writers by bringing them harrowing first-person accounts by prisoners of conscience. Encourage human connections and you’ll get a response.

Reading can be fun! You have to educate people; you don’t have to make it painful. Lively, fat-free backgrounders make it easy for people to learn about your issue—and you’ll keep them engaged long enough to persuade them. Dull, difficult, or insubstantial material pushes away everyone who isn’t already convinced. Why would you want to do that?

That’ll never work. … No, wait, maybe it will. Sometimes people don’t care because they don’t let themselves. Maybe they’ve volunteered or contributed before and seen no results. Maybe they don’t want to get engaged in a struggle with no end in sight. Maybe they’re just cynical.

You need to prove to them that they can make something happen—and that you have made something happen. Talk up your successes everywhere, all the time. In this context, bragging is good. Don’t be afraid to tout small victories—they show people how each step takes you closer to the goal. Profile volunteer or activist achievements. And demonstrate that you have a viable plan—share your strategy (in everyday language) and provide evidence that it will work.

People won’t care because you tell them to; they’ll care because you touch them where they live—and because you leave them no excuse not to.

First published in Words That Work, February 2006.