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sergeant-spoons · 3 years

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7. Honor Doesn’t Beat Around the Bush

Bernadette Noel

Taglist: @thoughpoppiesblow @vintagelavenderskies @wexhappyxfew @50svibes @tvserie-s-world @adamantiumdragonfly @ask-you-what-sir @whovian45810 @brokennerdalert

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Berni had resided in the United States of America for less than a week and she was already quite unimpressed with its inhabitants.

But no, she couldn't say that about the whole country. Just a few certain providences in Georgia. It was only fair, really, to narrow that down to one town. Maybe a certain sector...

Fine, fine, it was this one goddamn private that was getting on her nerves so much this morning-

"I just don't get it!" he griped. "We already gotta take orders from Sobel, now a fuckin' girl?! And she ain't even American! No way in hell am I listening to anything that crazy lady says-"

"Prove it, then."

The man jumped a good foot in the air, his head nearly- nearly -rising above her own as his buddies began laughing. A sharp glare from Berni promptly shut them up. Apparently ignorant to her presence behind them for the last minute or so, they'd listened in silence to their comrade's tirade, and that was their only saving grace.

"Prove it," she repeated. "Quit your bitching and moaning and go jump in the river."

The young man glanced to his buddies, hesitating, unsure if she really meant it.

Berni jabbed her finger down the hill so sharply she felt a twinge catch in the joint of her elbow.

"That's an order, Private!"

He hurried off meekly, his chin bowed so low to his chest she could see the first hint of his shoulderblades past his collar. Turning back to his friends, she raised an eyebrow, arms firmly crossed across her stiffened torso.

"You might want to go after him."

"Why's that, 'm?"

"Wouldn't want him to drown that watch, would we? Looked fairly pricey, from what I could tell."

One of the men quickly took off, but the other hesitated.

"He didn't mean any harm, ma'am."

Berni glanced aside, beating back a smile. "I know, Private. It's not about my honor, really. If they don't learn to respect me- or at least listen to me -now, how can I trust them to on a battlefield?"

To the captain's surprise, a smile broke across the stranger's face and he offered her a handshake. She accepted it after a beat of consideration, having not expected the gesture.

"Private George Luz, at your service, ma'am. The fella you sent runnin' into the river is Frank Perconte. Don't you worry 'bout him, he'll come around. You'll see. Oh, and that skinny guy wavin' at him from the shore- that's what we call 'im."

"Skinny?"

"Yes'm. We've all got nicknames around here. Mostly by my reasoning." His smile flashed into a smirk for just a second as he tapped the side of his head, indicating his ingenuity. "If you'd like, ma'am, I could think one up for you-"

"That's quite alright," she waved him down. "Go make sure Perconte doesn't hurt himself in the river. I've seen lesser men throw glass bottles in there before..." For a moment, the regret of her command, given in a flash of temper, crossed her expression, then she blinked it away. "Go on, then."

"Yes'm."

"And Private?" When Luz looked back over his shoulder, she volunteered, "'sir' works just fine."

He saluted her, the first and only of his trio of pals to do so, then he took off to catch up with his friends. Berni was glad of his smile and courteous manner despite her conduct toward his friend. Considering what she'd heard, only in flits of rumors and whispers of jokes (mostly uncouth), the commanding officer of Easy Company was disliked by private, sergeant, lieutenant, and fellow captain alike. She supposed she needn't worry- Bernadette Noel couldn't possibly be worse than even the smallest offenses perpetrated by Herbert Sobel.

Ah, splendid- here was the man now. For who else would stand so rigid, glowering like a tired mountain ridge, the double silver stripes of a captain pinned to his pristinely-kept collar. It seemed just Berni's luck to encounter two unpleasant sorts in quick succession upon her morning stroll this morning. Then again, the first fellow wasn't so bad, and she had a feeling he wouldn't mind her much after she spoke to him in a cooler temperament. The man who stood before her now, arguing with flashing eyes and a gap-toothed growl in a wrinkled uniform, seemed as though he might spit on his detractor as soon as haul her off to CP with some bogus, damaging report.

Berni did not like the look of him one bit.

"Pardon me-” The greeting was at most a formality. “-Captain Sobel?"

The man turned in the middle of his tirade, his words falling off so abruptly she got the impression they'd vaulted over a cliff's precipice, never to be reclaimed again. It seemed she'd guessed right, as the unpopular CO of Easy scanned her up and down, seeming unimpressed. The woman behind him immediately took the chance to doubly flip him the bird with such ferocity she nearly jabbed herself in the chest. Berni was glad she did- for one, he deserved it; for two, it meant she didn't have to do so herself behind her back. In her distraction, she hesitated, and Sobel seemed to take offense.

"What?!" he snapped, leering at her like a livid lemming.

No, that's an insult to lemmings.

"Speak, woman!" he barked, and she stood up straighter. Had just one of her girls been present, they'd have known the hardening of her gaze from dusky silver to steel meant a storm was brewing.

Sobel, on the other hand, lacked such warning.

"I regret to inform you-" A quick tilt of the head, pursed lips, gritted teeth. Berni tried not to smirk, but the look on the young woman's face, leering quite proudly over Captain Sobel's shoulder broke her resolve.

"No, I take it back. It brings me great satisfaction to inform you of my station."

There, a flash of a smile, crooked, biting. This unfamiliar officer either had a real vendetta against Sobel or a pension for drama- the twinkle in her eye made Berni think the former, mixed with a lurking love of mischief.

"Captain Bernadette Noel." She neglected to add the customary 'at your service', causing the woman behind Sobel to look away, barely managing to withhold a snicker.

The sole Brit of the trio raised her hand smartly to her forehead, gaze still as sharp as the alloy they so resembled in color.

Her American counterpart did not follow through.

"Captain," she declared, "do you dare to not show a fellow ranking officer the same respect she offers you?"

Sobel, albeit slowly, returned the salute. She ricocheted her hand down and he copied the motion as quickly as he could, then stepped back with a curt nod and beelined toward the faded yellow building behind him. His female subordinate, he quite nearly pushed out of his way. Berni would have called him out on his audacity had the young woman aggrieved not laid a hand on her arm. The look in her fathomless eyes said 'not worth it', so Berni loosened her fists, letting out a long sigh to cool the irritation in her chest from flaming into ire.

"Git."

"Hah!" A snort of amusement. "I don't like him much either."

She offered a handshake. Despite the double standard Berni now presented by requiring a salute from Sobel but ignoring the lack of one from her new associate, she accepted it.

"Corporal Hennessy Honor Corsair," she said with that same half-crooked smile she'd flashed over Sobel's shoulder, "nice to meetcha."

"The same to you, Corporal." Berni, too, found herself in better cheer.

"Oh, please-" Corsair waved a bit more broadly than was necessary for her intended emphasis. "-everybody 'round here with any brains- which excludes him-" She meant Sobel, a jive at which her companion stifled a laugh. "-calls me Hen."

"Hen?"

"One o' George Luz's ideas," she allowed.

"Ah, I should've guessed."

"Mhmm." She nodded sagely, as if Luz's nicknaming techniques were something to revere. "Thought Hennessy's too long for idle chatter. He ain't wrong."

"If you're Hen, then I'm Berni."

"Excellent!" chirped Hennessy Corsair, and Berni rolled the name around in her mouth once before settling on the proposed nickname. "You got no idea, Berni," Hennessy declared as they turned down the road, "how glad I am to see you an' your crew."

The captain realized, a certain respect amid her forming opinion of the corporal, that she had simply followed her lead without a second thought. She had a commanding presence about her, one Berni was familiar with and yet slightly intimidated by.

"And why is that?"

Hennessy threw up both hands with a youthful enthusiasm quite contrary to the politeness of her greeting. "'Cause you're all ladyfolk!" She grinned. "It's a breath o' fresh air, lemme tell ya, from all the junk in the trunk I see flashed 'round here."

She certainly talks frankly.

"Can't stand these bastards hootin' an' rockin' their hips at me every which way." A shrug as she brushed dark, disheveled strands of hair off her forehead. "I say that fondly, o' course. Our boys're good ones."

It's excellent.

"What're you doin' here?" The slight swagger in her step, paired with the easy slump of her shoulders, absent near Sobel, came to Berni's attention as Hennessy seemed to grow more comfortable around the other (more amicable) captain. "Missed the big introductions last night, was workin' through dinner."

"We're pilots." Berni couldn't help but smile, fondly thinking of the passion, drive, and skill that brought her and her girls here. "Perhaps the best," she declared, "on either side of the pond."

Hennessy offered a low, impressed whistle. "Damn." Another laugh, again of the grunted variety. "So you'll be flyin' the planes our boys'll jump right outta?"

"That's right."

"Goddamn."

A moment of silence, then Berni ventured one of the usual niceties in colloquial conversation: "Where are you from, Hen?"

"Philly," Hennessy declared, puffing her chest out, "born an' raised. A proud city for a proud little girl to grow up in."

"Sounds... charming."

"Eh, not really." A laugh. "Y'know, you sound like my Ma. Always tried to get me to lose the accent, talk all fancy like her." Hennessy poked Berni's arm. "She was a Brit, if ya can believe it."

"Was she really?" The captain offered a small, almost wry smile. "What was she doing all the way over here?"

"She was on a tour for some singin' lady, doin' backup dancin' an' all, and met my Pops on the road. The rest, as they say, is hist'ry." A devilish smile- fetchingly so -came upon the corporal's visage. "D'you think you'll end up like 'er?"

"As in..?"

"Meetin' some fella here in the States, fallin' in love, that sort o' thing?"

Berni laughed, and they both knew her mirth was aimed at the suggested notion, not her comrade. "No way in hell."

"What makes ya say that?"

"I've got my girls to look out for. Besides, I'm not the settling-down sort."

"Sure ya aren't." Hennessy's eyes twinkled, and Berni found she could not be even the slightest bit offended at the easy dismissal of her certainties. "I betcha half our American 'blokes' are better'n your Brit ones by a mile an' a half."

The captain teased- "A meter, you mean." -and the corporal made such a show of rolling her eyes her head went around with them.

"Mark my words, one of our boys is gonna win that hoity-toity heart o' yours."

"Mhmm," Berni hummed skeptically.

"How 'bout we make it a bet?"

"Alright." She turned and extended her arm. "If you're right, you can be the Maid of Honor at the wedding."

"An' plan half o' it?"

"You've got yourself a deal, Hen."

Hennessy grinned. "An' you, Berni, 'ave no idea what you've signed up for."

"You're mad."

"Nah, just crazy."

At Hennessy's flamboyant wink, Berni realized she understood the discrepancies between their English dialects and so shared in the hearty laugh her companion now gave.

"So how about that bet? The inconceivable day I'm some Yank's bride is the day you get to choose the décor and shit."

"You're on," Hennessy declared, shaking Berni's hand with vigor; the gesture, in some cryptic way, cemented itself in each's spirit, the finality that sealed their camaraderie as fast and faithful friends.

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*Screencap of Sobel credited to the marvelous @tvserie-s-world. 💕

#bernadette noel #bernadette noel ficlet #bernadette noel 7: honor doesn't beat around the bush #there goes my flight #band of brothers #band of brothers oc #band of brothers oc ficlet #band of brothers ficlet #hbo war show oc ficlet #hbo war oc ficlet #oc ficlet #hbo war show #hbo war #oc fanfiction #hbo war show oc #hbo war show ficlet #hbo war oc #hbo war ficlet

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alanajacksontx · 5 years

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Three fundamental factors in the production of link-building content

One of the most overused phrases in content marketing is how it is an ever-changing landscape, forcing agencies and marketers to adapt and improve their existing processes.

In a short space of time, a topic can go from being newsworthy to negligible, all while certain types of content become tedious to the press and its readers.

A vast amount of the work we do — at Kaizenand many other similar agencies — is create content with the sole purpose of building high authority links, making it all the more imperative that we are conscious of the changes and trends outlined above.

If we were to split the creative process into three sections — content, design, and outreach strategy — how are we able to engineer our own successes and failures to provide us with a framework for future campaigns?

Three important factors for producing link-worthy content

Over the past month, I’ve analyzed over 120 pieces of content across 16 industries to locate and define the common threads between campaigns that exceed or fall short of their expectations. From the amount of data used and visualized to the importance of effective headline storytelling, the insight is a way of both rationalizing and reshaping our approach to content production.

1. Not too much data — our study showed an average of just over five metrics

Behind every great piece of content is (usually) a unique or noteworthy set of data. Both static and interactive content enables us to display limitless amounts of research which provide the origins of the stories we try to communicate. However many figures or metrics you choose to visualize, there is always a point where a journalist or reader switches off.

This glass ceiling is difficult to pinpoint and depends on the type of content, and the industry or readership you’re looking to appeal to, but a more granular study of good and poor performing campaigns that I performed suggested some benefits of refining data sets.

Observations

A starting point for any piece of research is the individual metrics, whether it is cost, type, or essentially anything worth measuring and comparing. In my research, in the content campaigns that exceed our typical KPI, there was an average of just over 5 metrics used on each piece compared to almost double in campaigns with either a normal or below satisfactory performance. The graph below shows the correlation between a lower number of metrics and a higher link performance.

An example of these findings in practice can be found in an infographic study completed for online travel retailer Lastminute.com that sought to find the world’s most chilled out countries. Following a comprehensive study of 36 countries across 10 metrics, the task was to refine these figures in a way that can be translated well through its design. The number of countries was whittled down to just the top 15, and the metrics were condensed to have four indexes which the rankings were based on. The decision to not showcase the data in its entirety proved fruitful, securing over 50 links, covered by the Mail Online and Lonely Planet.

As an individual who very much enjoys partaking in the research process, it can be extremely difficult to sacrifice any element of your work, but it is that level of tact in the production of content that distinguishes one piece from another.

2. Simple, powerful data visualizations — our analysis showed highest achievers had just one visualization

Regardless of how saturated the content marketing industry becomes, we are graced every year with new and innovative ways ofvisualizing data. The balancing act between originality in your design and an unnecessarily complex data-visualization is often the point on which success and failure can pivot. As is the case with data, overloading a piece of content with an amass of multi-faceted graphs and charts is a surefire way of alienating your users, leaving them either bored or confused.

Observations

For my study, I decided to look at the content that contained data visualizations that failed to hit the mark and see whether the quality is as much of a problem as quantity in terms of design. As I carried out the analysis, I denoted the two examples where one visual would incorporate most or all of the study, or the same illustration was replicated several times for a country, region or sector. For instance, this study, from medical travel insurance provider Get Going, on reliable airlines condenses all the key information into one single data-visualization. Conversely, this piece from The Guardian on the gender pay gap shows how it can be effective to use one visual several times to present your data.

Unsurprisingly, many of the low scorers in my research averaged around eight different forms of data visualizations while high achievers contained just one. The graph below showcases how many data-visualizations are used on average by high and low performing pieces, both static and interactive. Low performing static examples contained an average of just over six, with less than one for their higher-scoring counterparts. For interactive content, the optimum is just over one with poor performing content containing almost nine per piece.

In examples where the same type of graph or chart was used repeatedly, poor performers had approximately 33 per piece, with their more favorable counterparts using just three.

It is important to note that ranking-based pieces often require the repetition of a visual in order to tell a story, but once again this is part of the balancing act for creatives in terms of what type and how many data-visualizations one utilizes.

A fine example of an effective illustration of the data study contained in one visual comes from a 2017 piece by Federica Fragapane for Italian publication La Lettura, showcasing the most violent cities in the world. The chart depicts each city as a shape sized by its homicide rate, with other small indicators defined in the legend to the right of the graphic. The aesthetic qualities of the graph give a campaign, fairly morbid in the topic, an extended appeal beyond the subject of just global crime. While the term “design-led”is so-often thrown around, this example proves how effective it can be to integrate visuals effectively through your data. The piece, produced originally for print, proved hugely successful in the design space, with 18 referring domains from sites such as Visme.co.

3. Pandering to the press — over a third of our published links used the same headline as our pitch email subject line

Kaizen produces hundreds of campaigns on a yearly basis across a range of industries, meaning the task of looking inward is as necessary today as it ever has been. Competition means that press contacts are looking for something extra special to warrant your content’s publication. While ingenuity is required in every area of content marketing, it’s equally important to recognize the importance of getting the basics right.

The task of outreach can be won and lost in several ways, but your subject line is, and will always be, the most significant component of your pitch. Whether you encapsulate your content in a single sentence or highlight your most attention-worthy finding, an email headline is a laborious but crucial task. My task through my research was to find how vital it is in terms of the end result of achieving coverage.

Observations

As part of my analysis, I recorded the backlinks of a sample of our high and average content and recorded the headlines used in the coverage for each campaign. I found in better-performing examples, over a third of links used the same headlines used in our pitch emails, emphasizing the importance of effective storytelling in every area of your PR process. Below is an illustration in the SERPs of how far an effective headline can take you, with example coverage from one of our most successful pieces for TotallyMoney on work/life balance in Europe.

Another area I was keen to investigate, given the time and effort that goes into it, is how press releases are used across the coverage we get. Using scraping software, I was able to pull out the copy from each article where a follow link was achieved and compare it to the press releases we have produced. It was pleasing to see that one in five links contained at least a paragraph of copy used in our press materials. In contrast, just seven percent of the coverage within the lower performing campaigns contained a reference to our press releases, and an even lower four percent using headlines from our email subject lines.

Final thoughts

These correlations, similar to the ones discussed previously, suggest not only how vital the execution of basic processes are, but serve as a reminder that a campaign can do well or fall down at so many different points of production. For marketers, analysis of this nature indicates that a refinement of creative operations is a more secure route for your content and its coverage. Don’t think of it as “less is more” but a case of picking the right tools for the job at hand.

Nathan Abbott is Content Manager at Kaizen.

The post Three fundamental factors in the production of link-building content appeared first on Search Engine Watch.

from IM Tips And Tricks https://searchenginewatch.com/2019/04/15/three-fundamental-factors-in-the-production-of-link-building-content/ from Rising Phoenix SEO https://risingphxseo.tumblr.com/post/184250019165

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