social media | Up Front Communication

Death by email

Dec 5, 2012 Posted by sergy@upfrontco.com Getting the message across Comments Off

The Unclutterer had an excellent post a few days ago regarding uncluttered email communication.

It’s funny how a system that supposedly increases productivity and streamlines communication needs strategies for dealing with communication pile-ups. Heavens knows I’ve fallen prey to email clutter; my inboxes are horrid messes filled with emails that will never be read more than once, messages that I still haven’t replied, ancient discussion threads, and other sins of electronic communication.

Erin (The Unclutterer) highlights some of the most important points I relate to my own clients regarding effective email communication. Her article goes into detail, but I will provide my own summary here.

Of the utmost importance is determining whether or not email is the appropriate medium at all. Very often a huge amount of time gets wasted sending emails back and forth when that same issue could have been resolved with a five minute phone call. Picking up the phone does cause some people anxiety – I’ve written about my own phone anxiety before – but for heaven’s sake, pretend you have a spine and just pick up the phone. It isn’t as scary as you think it is, and will save you time, effort, and stress in the long run.

Next, understand exactly what it is you are email about. Pick one or two specific issues and stick to those topics. If you aren’t certain what it is you are addressing, it might be better to pick up the phone. Maybe you need to sound off on a few different ideas. That’s a perfectly acceptable reason to contact someone, but that process is usually better when done in real time.

Third, keep your email concise and to the point. Unless you are writing a social letter to your friend, don’t use it as an opportunity to chat. When dealing with business, attention and time are valuable commodities, so don’t waste either with pointless pleasantries Be polite, and then show respect to your reader by addressing the issue without needless embellishment or tangents.

Finally, write an adequately descriptive subject line. It is with staggering frequency that I see business emails with no subject line, with banal and unrelated subjects, or even with subject lines that were rendered obsolete several exchanges ago. Your reader should know precisely what it is they will be reading about with a quick glance at the subject line prior to clicking on the email. That way they can plan how they are going to go through their email list and get their head into the correct context before even opening the message. This makes a huge difference in sparing time and energy in our daily communications.

Apologies to Erin for ripping off the subject of her excellent blog post, but the content was so similar to what I cover with my clients that I couldn’t resist bringing it up here again. If you haven’t yet seen the Unclutterer blog, check it out. She has lots of excellent insight into organization that can create a very real difference in both your home and business life.

Interaction hang-ups

Nov 19, 2012 Posted by sergy@upfrontco.com Technology Comments Off

During a presentation I was delivering last week, one of the attendees asked what to do about communication methods that we dislike. Specifically, he was wondering about how to handle modes of transmission that make us uncomfortable – things like email, texting, telephone, and the like.

The multiplicity of communication methods we have available at the moment make it seem like we can cherry-pick which style of contact we choose to use. In reality, this is pretty lousy business practice. Different methods have different strengths and weaknesses, and regardless whether they are intuitive for us on an individual basis, we need to learn to make use of them all.

Understanding why a certain method doesn’t work for you is extremely useful; it’s worth taking the time to figure out what aspects of that mode make you uncomfortable. Once you know why, let’s say, email gives you the heebie jeebies, you can start to find ways to mitigate that problem. Telephones have been my personal bugbear for some time. Like most teens, I spent an aggravating amount of time glued to one. Once email became the de rigeur mode of communication among my peers, however, I started to hate the phone with a passion. Ringing telephones would send my heart rate through the roof, and by the time I was out of university and in the workforce, I’d do just about anything to avoid a phone conversation.

Eventually I figured out that the main reason for this aversion was the fact that I can’t see the body language of the person on the other end. This drove me batty. I rely quite heavily on that kind of info, and when it was stripped from real-time conversation, I became anxious. Email gave me time to ruminate over the message and its nuances and craft a more thoughtful response. Phones demanded that I give a response on the spot without having a pretty big chunk of info about the mental state of the person I was conversing with. This was not a problem when I was a teen – I spent so much time on the phone that listening for vocal cues instead of physical cues was easy. I had simply forgotten how to do it.

Once I figured out why I disliked phone conversations, I could focus on the benefits. One five minute phone call could resolve something that would take hours over email. Phone conversations were more intimate and friendly. They improved relationships; clients often expressed considerable pleasure at having me call and talk to them than simply corresponding via email. In order to get over my discomfort with not being able to see the other person, I now focus on nuances my conversant’s voice. I make a concerted effort to call people instead of emailing them or sending them messages via FaceBook. Phone calls are slowly growing on me again.

If you dislike email, what is it about the email that puts you off? If it’s the technology or interface that trips you up, spend some time learning how to use it more effectively. If you feel that you never know what tone the other person is using, try reading the emails out loud a few times with different expressions to hear how it might sound out loud. Is texting bothering you but your clients insist on it? Treat it like a pager – if your client sends you several messages, use it as a cue that they want you to call them. Figure out what you need to learn or do to make using the technology easier, and then focus on the benefits to make it a pleasure instead of a pain.

Is Twitter really a communication strategy?

Aug 13, 2012 Posted by sergy@upfrontco.com Connecting Comments Off

I’m on the fence about this one. In several online groups I belong to, issues surrounding social media communications strategies abound. There are endless LinkedIn discussions about how to improve your corporate Facebook or Twitter presence, how to humanize your company with Instagram, how to develop a social brand, and how to attract “real” followers instead of ghosts and bots. There is a huge amount of effort put into the maintenance of these online presences. More often than not, I’m left wondering if the payoff is work it.

Facebook has become a very popular marketing platform on which companies can make coupon or sample offers to the public, often in exchange for the individual clicking the “like” button on the company’s Facebook page. Company advertising and announcements will then be incorporated into the individuals News Feed, purportedly exposing them to more advertising than they would otherwise. Is this really effective? I’d love to hear the metrics on difference in sales and profits that this advertising strategy takes. I for one, have Liked many a company’s Facebook page. I’ve done it to get samples, freebies, high-value coupons, and to enter contests. I then proceed to hide the company’s updates from my News Feed so that I don’t get bombarded with additional ads. Once I receive the thing that I want (and in the case of coupons, I only get offers for products I buy anyway), I immediately Unlike the page. Rinse, wash, repeat. So far, my buying patterns have not changed. But how many people do respond positively, becoming regular consumers of the product?

The same goes for Twitter. There are some fascinating things going on with that particular platform. Professionals are having public discourses, opinions get exchanged, celebrities of various degrees experience foot-in-mouth syndrome, news bits get passed on. I do follow a couple of individuals/companies, primarily because they regularly post links to interesting business articles. A lot of the tweets, however, are completely irrelevant and I end up ignoring them for weeks at a time.

One of the local TV stations has been running internet ads featuring various young professionals and hipsters going on about the fabulousness of social media. One of said hipsters is a young woman in a headband and 1980’s style aerobics gear stretching on a yoga mat. At one point she says “I get all my news from Twitter . . . it’s about conversations.”

But is it really? Are Twitter and other social media platforms that encourage status update and single sentence summaries of our state of mind really about conversations? I’ve heard people make that claim before, but I’m not entirely sold on it. Certainly back-and-forth exchanges do take place, and can be interesting (or fascinating along the vein of a 15-car pileup). But can these exchanges, with the planning and posturing that is afforded by asynchronous responses, really be conversations? I don’t know. They can be fun, for sure. They also provide a way to give glimpses into personal states of mind through thought-of-the-moment type posts; this can humanize a professional and let their audience or clients see a more personal side of them in a controlled manner.

All of this can add a dimension to our perception of other people, but does it really work as a communication strategy on its own? Regardless how enthusiastic I feel about a social media platform at any given point in time, I’m always left asking that question. In the absence of other, meatier communication channels, can Twitter stand on its own as a way to connect with your audience?

I’m not sure. I don’t know if I’ll ever be sure. That being said, I’m going to start up an Up Front twitter account anyway – for all of those thought-of-the-moment bits that drift through my brain.