Gravy in a shampoo bottle?
Helen Reynolds
Unboring comms training that taps into your creativity, grows your confidence and helps you make a powerful impact
Hiya pals,
There's some kind of glitch going on with our email provider in the past few weeks - so if you've had any issues with:
Service announcement over, on with the BYN!
On the?menu this week:
(BTW, if you're new here, you can familiarise yourself with the lore of the?Big Yellow Newsletter thing?is about by?browsing some?back issues .)
Comms Creatives Content of the Week
CCCOTW comes from?Instagram Stories?by the TSA (US Department of Homeland Security) posted last Wednesday.
The TSA are great at making important (but potentially boring) info fun and tailored to a social media experience.
Using Stories on Insta gives us super useful engagement tools at our fingertips - like the Q&A function used here.
TSA ask?the audience if they have any Thanksgiving travel questions, then answer?them succinctly?using engaging visuals and stickers, and the tone is beautifully playful.
Lots of us work for organisations where?we get asked lots of weird and wonderful questions, and the answers to these are what will interest and engage our audience.
Take the question to TSA: “Can I bring a live turkey on a plane?”, for example.
You may not have any intention of bringing a live turkey through airport security, but you’ll still be interested in the answer to that question!
More ordinary or frequently asked questions are probably things your audience will?easily look up on the website if they need to.
That stuff is is?bit dry, not so interesting.
But the more unusual ponderings - 'do I have to pour?gravy in a shampoo bottle?;?'is cranberry sauce a liquid or?a solid?' - that's content gold!
Comms tip:?
Remember that most people's primary use for social media is for a moment amusement or to temporarily distract ourselves from our painful or dull days.
If you want to build a relationship with your audience and get better social media engagement, make it easier and fun for them to talk to you.
Sometimes brands try to be engaging by asking general?questions on broad themes about your service/product/policy?(e.g. 'What can we do to improve security at airports?').?
These types of questions an feel tough to answer, or even like interview question!? And they tend to prompt lower engagement because they're about you, not the audience.
You'll usually get a better response by asking questions that are:
Like TSA does here, by making it about Thanksgiving.
And don't be afraid to be playful in how you interact with your audience. ?
Comms courses?coming up
View more comms courses coming up:?take?a quick look at the course calendar
Get your 2025 calendar
It will probably not arrive before Christmas is you buy it? - but it will be worth the wait as a New Year treat!
Not a bad a gift for yourself or a comms friend (if said person likes my hamfisted drawings).
When your work bestie?steps in...
Comms Cartoons
"Won't take long..." Famous last words.
Cool comms jobs
Each week, Caroline and I scout about for great jobs and share a selection of them on Linkedin.?
Brands don't pay us for this, it's just a curated list of jobs we think you'll like.
Oh, and they've ALL got salaries listed .
It takes much longer than you'd think to compile this every week!
Here's?a list of potential fresh beginnings:
Got a lovely job you'd like us to consider for inclusion in the weekly roundup??Drop us a message on Linkedin, or post it into our Facebook group . ?
My email inbox is always stuffed to the brim with stuff I need to catch up on, so be sure to message us on the Linkedin company page where one of us on the team will see your message more readily.
Bye for now,?creative comms pro, Hel x