No matter how chaotic the new digital landscape feels, if you have a message that needs to be heard, it's no longer enough to simply open your mouth.
We live in an age of countless ways to share our ideas, our frustrations and nauseating photos of cute kittens, yet we feel increasingly isolated and unheard. So what does it take not only to be heard, but to influence others?
Amid the endless ways to communicate we often forget that communication is a transaction - a process - that requires four simple things: you (the sender), them (the receiver), a message (the content) and a messaging channel (method of delivery.)
That's it. In any communications scenario these elements define basic communication. Effective communications is slightly more evolved. And it is how it has evolved that should concern us the most.
Despite what some think, communications may appear as simple as sending a package through the mail. But it's not. In this example, the postal service is bound by law to deliver what we send. And more often than not, packages and letters are opened at bare minimum.
Apply that same thinking to email and things come out differently. We're faced with e-mail guardians, high volumes of options, and an overabundance of choices about the terms on which people wish to be reached.
Frankly, how we manage to get ANY messages across is a miracle. Thankfully,science has examined this system of controlled chaos and so far, here's what we know:
- To be an effective communicator requires a deeper understanding of how the digital landscape shapes us, the formats for our message, and how we select the right channels to get that message to others..
- To be effective requires us to accept certain truths about modern communications and the way in which universal symbols, shared code and comm-channels are constantly shifting.
- How we participate in the process is dependent on our unique communication style, particular triggers, and the role we play in the network at any given moment.
In this series, we will take a closer look at three positions within the larger communications question:
- Digital dialogues101: basics
- Prepare Yourself: How to Adapt to Moving Targets
- Know Your Role: how to uncover your digital communications style
It would be helpful for you to address in this series (or perhaps another) how one determines on a quantitative basis whether one's communications are effective. Certainly merely reaching and being read by the target audience is not enoough. In short, what data can be collected to help determine the effectiveness of our communications?
ReplyDeleteLSS:
DeleteVery good points.
First, how do we know we are communicating.
Feedback is our way to confirm something on our person or outside ourselves. To confirm, we ask a friend "do I look fat" or feel for the light switch in a darkened room. It helps us to receive confirmation (tactile, visual aural, etc) when making decisions. This a type of a closed loop system.
Closed Loop in Marketing is slightly unique. I'll cover this more, but here's the punchline: It's easy when you send out an email on behalf of a brand, but what comes next is what matters most.
(Related: neuromarketing, social triggers, sales funnel)
As you note, knowing your effectiveness means knowing the "measure of you impact" A hot top can also be a contested one. And it's a HOT TOPIC right now.
Only a year or two ago, social strategists could avoid the metrics discussion. Fast forward a click: 2012 marked the tipping point as the field, and the socio-financial savvy of the corporate CMO evolved.
Remember we're experiencing the shift from looking at ROI and instead considering ROE... (huh? "E"?
The "E" is for experience....and sometimes it's used for "engagement" but it refers most often to experience.
Every day we are shifting and evolving as marketers. That's the New Normal!
.....Well - thank you. I may just have written bit and pieces of my post thanks to you. And Thank you for being the first to "jump in" to social stream!
More! More! More!
Socially Yours,R.
Twitter: @robbarcia
Thanks.
DeleteGlad to hear that the science of marketing/communication has advanced to the point where meaningful data on this point can be collected. I look forward to learning more. For too long marketing plans have been justified based on soft qualitative analysis rather than hard quantitative analysis.
Sounds like you have not only experience but some frustrating stories to share.
DeleteIn the end everything - including the absence of meaningful data - is meaningful. Sometimes by asking what the data cannot tell us, we learn more then by looking at the actual results.
In the end, what matters is that we are willing to ask - willing to inquire - and always asking ourselves what we are truly meant to see BEHIND the data. The result may surprise us.
I appreciate your feedback and look forward to hearing from you again.
Socially Yours - R.
Twitter: @robbarcia