What Does Your Audience Need?
Communications Lessons from the Oracle of Omaha’s Latest Shareholder Letter
This Week …
Quick updates:
The EO Report has surpassed 300 subscribers! Thank you + hip hip hooray!
Michaela Sims, D.C. lobbyist extraordinaire, suggested the articles should be numbered. Good idea, Sims!
So, here we go:
The Berkshire Hathaway Shareholder Letter is out: Warren Buffett shares a masterclass on how to deliver what your audience needs.
Clarity Rating Scale: What happened with the AT&T Outage?
Welcome to Omaha’s new AGENCY!
1. Deep Dive: How Does Warren Buffett Stay Hyper-Focused on His Audience?
Understanding the specific needs of your audience is, of course, mission critical. An extraordinary example of this practice is found in Warren Buffett's approach to communicating with Berkshire Hathaway's shareholders through his famous annual Shareholder Letter.
The annual letters are not just financial reports; they are masterclasses in audience-centric communication. By dissecting Buffett’s recently released letter, where he embeds his communications philosophy, we see how he hyper-focuses on the needs of his audience:
Establish a Clear Writing Goal:
“To the Shareholders of Berkshire Hathaway Inc.: Berkshire has more than three million shareholder accounts. I am charged with writing a letter every year that will be useful to this diverse and ever-changing group of owners, many of whom wish to learn more about their investment.”
Know your exact audience: (EO Note: It can’t be “everyone.” No, it can’t be.)
“Writers find it useful to picture the reader they seek … At Berkshire, we have a more limited target: investors who trust Berkshire with their savings without any expectation of resale.”
Find your Bertie:
“In visualizing the owners that Berkshire seeks, I am lucky to have the perfect mental model, my sister, Bertie. Let me introduce her. … In short, she is nobody’s fool. So, what would interest Bertie this year?”
Ensure transparent and clear disclosures from all levels of the organization:
“We cherish their presence and believe they are entitled to hear every year both the good and bad news, delivered directly from their CEO and not from an investor-relations officer or communications consultant forever serving up optimism and syrupy mush.”
(I’ll save analysis on the “syrupy mush” comment for another day!)
Buffett tailors his message to meet the shareholders’ unique interests, concerns, and levels of expertise. This approach is not by accident but a deliberate effort to ensure that his communications are not only informative but also engaging, relatable, and accessible to each shareholder.
Read this year’s Berkshire Hathaway Annual Letter and every letter since 1977.
2. Clarity Rating Scale: Outage at AT&T
On the Hot Seat: According to CNBC, early Thursday, tens of thousands of AT&T customers across the U.S. reported widespread service outages and were unable to use their phones without access to WiFi. The outage raised concerns that AT&T had been hit with a potential cyberattack. The company said service was restored to all affected customers shortly after 3 p.m. ET.
How did AT&T handle crisis communications?
The Good:
This website was set up for updates. The information, although brief, is succinct and clear.
A timely statement was released on Thursday: “Keeping our customers connected remains our top priority, and we are taking steps to ensure our customers do not experience this again in the future.”
A coordinated release of information on X on the AT&T News account and reshared by the AT&T account to the channel’s 915k followers. The first post directs people to the webpage above with updates. Nice.
The Hmmm:
Three days later, yesterday, the CEO apologized in a letter to employees and AT&T apologized to customers, **I think**, by text.
I received the text above at 8:11 p.m. CT last night (interrupted Money Heist binge-watching)
Is it spam? Is it real?
Should AT&T text people after 8 p.m. on a Sunday night?
I argue it’s too brief. If you can send one text, send two with more details, like will I get a credit that is mentioned in the CEO’s message? Share the statement URL? Send people to the webpage with updates?
Writing brief messages is a challenge, but can I get a few more details on what “commit to doing better” means?
During the entire crisis from Thursday to this morning, there were a total of 4 posted messages on X. (See image below) Curious if that is enough?
For example, why wasn’t the CEO apology shared on X?
So, what happened? Was it a cyberattack?
Does this smell like legalese to you?
I can just hear the various departments debating how to write that sentence, and by the looks of it, the lawyers won.
Exercise: Read Stankey’s answer to one person and ask them what it means.
Overall Clarity Rating Score for AT&T outage response: 3
They certainly were on top of the crisis and communicating with media and customers.
Not sure why the apology took three days.
Still not sure why the outage happened, and the answer given makes me think there is more to the story.
The Clarity Rating Scale measures effective communications on a scale of 1 to 5 using this criteria:
1: Blurry, Indistinct
2: Slightly Focused, Needs Adjustment
3: Moderately Focused, Fair Clarity
4: Well-Focused, High Clarity
5: Razor-Sharp Focus, Crystal Clear (Are we clear?)
3. Check it Out: What is AGENCY?
AGENCY is poised to be a global first: a dynamic tech and content-creator hub designed to unleash the potential of the next generation.
More than just a space, AGENCY is a force for good and will empower non-profits with collaborative content creation tools, amplifying their missions and fostering community growth among other initiatives.
AGENCY is an education and opportunity powerhouse fueled by the passion of renowned figures like Jason R. Fischer, CEO of Surreal Media Lab; Ben Gray, former Omaha City Council Member; and Steve Martin, former CEO of Blue Cross Blue Shield.
How does it work? Check it out!
See you next week …
Send me Hat Tips!: Please continue to send me story ideas and wild finds from anywhere!
erin@claritychannels.com