Key Communicators are...Key

People talk to people...and those people talk to other people...who talk to others...and so on and so on and so on.

The holy grail of any professional communicator is generating positive word of mouth communications.  We all know that people find messages from their friends and neighbors to be more trustworthy and worthy of consideration than messages from ads or other "professional" communications sources.  Word of mouth messages are seen as trustworthy because they are filtered through the opinion of a disinterested third party.  The thinking is "I trust Becky and if Becky is giving me a message, that message must be trustworthy!"

The challenge, from a professional communicator's point of view, is that the very factor that makes word of mouth so desirable makes it very hard to manage!  To someone who is used to developing style books,  overseeing every comma and semicolon of an organization's communications, and who's mantra is "stay on message," this is difficult to accept.

You may not be able to control the message when it comes to word of mouth communications...but you can influence it!

Developing a key communicator network of key opinion leaders in your community or industry is one way to let the grapevine work for you.  The concept is simple.  You identify those individuals who are opinions leaders within your target audience.  These are the people that other people listen to and believe.  These are not always just the community or industry leaders.  They might be the hairdresser or PTA Mom or the blogger whom everyone listens to in order to find out what's what.

Once you identify who you want to be in your group, you invite them to join.  You tell them that as they are the opinion leaders of the industry or community, your organization will be providing them with extra information on your organization.  The only thing you ask in return is that they participate in some future survey or focus group once or twice a year that allows you to collect THEIR opinions on what people are thinking about regarding issues important to you.

You supply your key communicators with additional information about your company, your issues and/or your industry.  It is important that you provide your key communicators with accurate, realistic data.  Don't try to "spin" your key communicators or you will lose them.  However, if you provide them with real, trustworthy information, on a reliable basis, amazing things can happen.

This works for a few reasons.  First, being recognized as a Key Communicator is an honor to most people.  Better yet it is an honor that comes with few obligations!  Second, you are giving your Key Communicators something that they truly value, access to unique information.  Since they are communicators, they should value being able to share information with their various contacts.  Access to the information you are providing them increases their stature as a communicator.  Third, if you are doing this well, this works because you are not putting any caveats on their access to the information.  You are not even suggesting that they go out and share the information.  You are sharing it with them because you feel that they would find it interesting.

Once again, the frustrating part of this is that you, as a professional communicator, cannot control the message or the flow of information.  You have to just put it out their on faith that it will do your organization good.  And you may never know what good it does, but every once in a while you get confirmation that the process makes sense.

A week or so after my school district celebrated a rare referendum victory, I was talking to a community member who was in my Key Communicator group.  She was congratulating me on the referendum and started talking about how some people in the community had had misunderstandings about the referendum.  She proceeded to tell me about a couple of neighbors who told her why they planned to vote against the school district and then shared the arguments she told them in favor of the school district.  Her arguments, coincidentally were taken almost directly from a referendum fact sheet I had sent our Key Communicators.  This Key Communicator, without even realizing it, had helped promote the district's point of  view.  I became a committed believer in the power of Key Communicators at that moment.

Know Your Stuff

I once had a salesperson make an appointment with my boss and myself to tell us about his company and the product that he felt we could use.

He was on time, well dressed and did the required small talk very well.  But when it came time to give the presentation, he couldn't get the PowerPoint presentation on his laptop to work.  After watching him struggle with trying to get things to work for 10 minutes or so, it was clear that he couldn't give the presentation without the PowerPoint crutch.  He asked if he could reschedule the meeting.  We declined.

If you are going on a sales call or making a presentation, know your stuff.  Things happen with technology.  If you aren't prepared to move forward without laptop assistance, you aren't prepared. Be prepared!

Make 'em Laugh, Part 2

Today's post is the gift of a smile!
You can find more of Hugh MacLeod's cartoons at GapingVoid.com

Public Speaking is NOT Open Mike Night

Many "experts" on public speaking, right after they tell you to picture the audience in their underwear will tell you to start with a joke.  It loosens up the audience, they say.  Makes them like you and more receptive to you and your message.

The problem is, telling a joke to a large group of people is hard!  There are lots of reasons for this including the subjective nature of humor, the importance of delivery, the wariness of most audiences these days when a speaker sets out to tell a joke, and the fact that most jokes have only a tenuous relation to the topic of the speech.

I like to use humor when I give a presentation, but I rarely tell a joke.  Rather, I prefer to make a comment on my presentation or the circumstances of the event.  I like using situational humor because it shares an observation with the audience, which helps to create a connection.  Wry or slightly sarcastic comments can come off as more natural and spontaneous than set jokes.  I do usually plan these comments, but I don't always use them.  I try to read the audience and judge how well such comments will be received.  There is nothing more disheartening than making a comment that you expect will result in laughter and instead getting silence.

You should ONLY use humor in a presentation if you are comfortable with it. Don't feel that you have to tell a joke.  Also, if you do decide to use humor, you should NEVER make jokes that are disparaging or degrading to someone else.  More often than not, those types of jokes are alienating and will work against you as a speaker.  I tend to use self disparaging comments, where I make fun of myself, which for some reason often gets a laugh.

And for the record, I have never pictured an audience in their underwear.  I am pretty sure that would make me forget where I was in my presentation!

The Lament of the Luddite: Frozen out by new technology

I consider myself technology friendly.  Really I do.  But I am also on a budget, so I don't have all of the latest electronic toys I would like to have.  I haven't really missed them, but in the last week a couple of things happened that made me wonder just how much of a Luddite I have become.

I was at a presentation at which the presenter gave QR codes as links to her presentation slides and tip sheets. Very cool and very of the moment.  However, for those few of us who have not joined the Smart Phone revolution (as I wrote about here) QR codes are just funny looking square patterns.  I could not link to her materials.

Shortly after that, I got this month's issue of FAST Company, a magazine that I highly recommend.  It is a fun, thought provoking publication and always has something in it that I can use at work (and in this blog!)  This month's issue of FAST Company had a cover sheet proudly proclaiming that I could now get the magazine on my tablet device.  Unlike smart phones, I have never even considered getting a tablet.  The promotion cited all of the additional content I could get on my nonexistent device.  Which made me wonder why I am being short-changed because I only experience the publication in its archaic paper format.

My point is that as companies rush to meet the surge of new ways we can access content and information, they should make sure to remember those of us who are a little slow on the uptake.  Don't let your loyal customers or subscribers be frozen out by new technology.

FINE Communications

I sometimes get asked to define "good" communications.  Defining communications is a bit like defining good marketing or good art.  It is hard to put words to but you know it when you see it.

Unfortunately, when I give that answer, almost no one is satisfied.  While there are many different definitions of communications, most don't seem to include all of the elements that I consider important.  So, in the interest of keeping  people who ask me about communications from walking away muttering rude things under their breath, I cobbled together a workable definition.

In my opinion, good communications should be FINE communications:  Familiar, Interactive, Newsworthy and with Everyone involved.

• Familiar: For communications to be effective, you need to communicate to your audience in a language and using a medium that they use and are familiar with.  We all know people to whom it is useless to send an email, because they never check their email.  Similarly, you can talk to me all day in Portuguese, but you won't do much communicating because I am not familiar with the language.

• Interactive: Truly excellent communications is always two way and interactive. We have all heard the old adage that we were given two ears and one mouth because we should listen twice as much as we talk.  There is a lot of truth to that.  The best communicators are ALWAYS those who connect the most with their communities, constituencies and audiences.  The only way you can do that is by listening to them and hearing what their issues and concerns are.

• Newsworthy:  For communications to happen, the receiver of a message has to value the message enough to accept it and process it.  The message has to have value to that person.  It has to be newsworthy to them.  It is important to remember that newsworthiness is determined by the receiver of the message, not by the sender.  It doesn't matter how important a message is to the sender, if the receiver isn't interested, it is not received.   Also, our definition of what is newsworthy varies significantly depending on the situation. While virtually everything my 4 year old nephew says is newsworthy to me, if a coworker said the same things, it would not only NOT be newsworthy, but would be a cause for concern!     

• Everyone involved:  For communications to be effective and to have impact, it must reach an audience.  As we discussed above, first  the message must have value to the receiver and they must accept it.  Good communications is not a spectator sport.  Both the sender of the message and the receiver of the message must be actively engaged in the communications any communications to happen.  Furthermore, communications is most effective when it spreads.  For that to happen, the receivers of the message need to become the spreaders of the message.  They need to believe enough in the importance and newsworthiness of the message to pass it along to their communities, to their contacts.  Everyone needs to be a part of the communications.

If you can get these four elements working in your communications, everything will be just FINE.

The Answer is Leverage

Communications is like breathing to most companies.  They know that they need to do it to survive, but they don't give it a lot of thought (except when something goes wrong!)

One of the reasons for this is that most companies or organizations don't see communications as their primary function.  They sell cars, make steel beams or educate children.  They don't communicate as their primary business, or so the thinking goes.

Because of that mindset, these companies often don't invest much in the communications function within their organization.

The problem is that in reality ALL companies are communications companies.  Selling cars is ALL about communications.  Making steel requires coordination with suppliers and customers not to mention shareholders and boards of directors.  Teaching is, well, 110% communications: to students, parents, colleagues, administration, licensing boards, the community, grantors, evaluators, and just about everyone else!

So the reality is, while organizations don't invest like they should in communications support and infrastructure, they do a whole lot of it.  Which means that they expect and need a whole lot out of those communications resources they do have.

Hence the age old questions that is heard in marketing/PR/communications offices throughout the land...How can I do ALL of that with just this amount of resources?

The answer is leverage.  Leverage your efforts through partnerships.  Mobilize everyone else in your organization to serve as informal spokespeople.  Develop a Key Communicator network of opinion leaders that can help you get the word out about your organization.  Take advantage of existing platforms to help broadcast your messages further than you can on platforms you have to build and/or fund.  In other words, get EVERYONE you can involved in helping to spread your message!

Leverage can help to expand your results without expanding the amount you spend (in time as well as money).  Leverage, when done well, can appear effortless but seemingly work miracles.

If communications is like breathing, then leverage must be like shouting.  At the top of your lungs.  Without losing your breath.

Happy Earth Day

On this 42nd Earth Day, I wanted to suggest a few things we communicators and marketers should consider:

• I think that it is a good thing to consider the environmental impacts of the media decisions that we make. I think it is valid to consider those impacts, along with the effectiveness of reaching your desired audience, when mapping out your media choices.  It is also valid to publicize the fact that part of your decision was made altruistically, with an eye to your organization's impact on the world you operate in.
• A lot of our media options require electronic equipment (smart phones, tablets, laptop computers, etc.) to create and to experience.  As you upgrade your equipment, please remember to be responsible with how you dispose of your old equipment.  Electronics and electronic media recycling is becoming more prevalent, although admittedly not convenient in most parts of the world.  Please take the time and effort to 
• find a reuse for your phones or computers when possible, 
• find a responsible recycling venue that will keep all components out of landfills, and find a reuse for as many of the components as possible.  
• Don't be afraid to initiate efforts.  Communicators have traditionally been heavy users of paper and other resources.  We can have an even larger impact on the environment if we can figure out ways to prevent from using the resources in the first place (electronic meeting minutes, web conferencing instead of traveling to a meeting, etc.) 
• Celebrate the environmental and conservation efforts that are going on within your office and organization.  If we all start talking about it more, "being green" and Earth Day will become less a matter of special focus than a way of life.

It Takes a Community...To Spread a Message

"Community has little to do with proximity."
                                                                                               Aaron Starkey

Mr. Rogers called it the Neighborhood.  Seth Godin calls it Tribes.  Tribal Africans and US politicians refer to it as a village.  Regardless of what you call it, humans form connections.  We are social animals and will form communities in most of the things we do.

Communities, as Mr. Starkey points out, has little to do with physical proximity.  Rather community, or tribes, teams, neighborhoods or affiliate groups, share a proximity of experience and/or beliefs.  Backyard chicken farmers, retired Marine sergeants, and 1977 graduates of Adlai E. Stevenson High School are all communities for one reason or another.

These communities have many advantages. Among those advantages is that they aid and abet communications.  Communities, because of their shared experiences or beliefs, usually share a language and a lingo of common experience.  This language is often unique to the community.  I can mention "The Big Gun Award" and other 1977 Stevenson High School alums will know what I mean, without explanation.  (If the Marine sergeants think they know too, I guarantee they are thinking of something different!)  This common language helps to speed communication within the community.  Members can talk in a kind of shorthand.

Communities can also help speed up the spread of a message.  And help it to spread beyond where you can take your message personally.  Members of your community already understand your message, the implications of it and its inherent importance.  Since we all belong to many communities, when community members start to share your message, invariably they share it with members of other communities they belong to.  This helps spread your message to others you would not have been able to reach on your own.

Communications are possible without communities.  Your communications are just more effective and have a greater chance of having the desired impact if you are communicating from within a community.  Compare the street corner preacher and the pastor of a church with 1000 people in the pews.  Both have a chance of getting their message to someone within earshot, but who do you think has a better chance of generating a positive response?

Small Business

Entrepreneurs come in all shapes and sizes.  They all share one thing...commitment to a dream.

If you've seen this short film Caine's Arcade about a remarkable young entrepreneur, you know what I mean.

If you haven't, be prepared.  You will be moved to smiles and possibly tears.

Business Poetry

In honor of National Poetry Month, here is an amusing poem from Evan Elpus, describing things that are all too familiar in the world of business...

Anthem of Frustration

You've rung the Melbourne offices of No-One's Ever Here;
Please leave your name and number and then kindly disappear,
For our laws' writ rules king and twit in east, west, south and nor'ward,
and fosters strife in modern life; Nothing Is Straightforward.

No doubt you know our other show, called Nothing Ever Fits,
Who, in their turn, as all soon learn, sell incomplete spares kits,
That lack the one important part to re-start car or tractor,
And at which stage, cause further rage, when we insert this factor;
-That all shall be discovered only once the shops have closed,
So nothing ever, ever, ends as cheaply as supposed.

An allied gang that makes a bang is Not At This Address,
Who trade as ' We've Moved Premises', but where and when's a guess;
For, though they've gone to Station Street, you're really none the wiser,
You think they're still in North Box Hill ? Try Station Street, Mount Isa!

This mob'll kill yer; sound familiar ? They're Out At A Meeting.
Elusive, they're conducive to a lot of overheating.
They won't come back till you've jacked up, and on your homeward trip;
-As you leave town, they get beamed down, in pairs, from Mother Ship.

And if, in Swanston Walk, a cork falls easily to hand,
Then use it! Please don't lose it, since here too, we're in command;
Our Never Any Dunnies group works hard on private fears,
So by the time you've read this, stuff is pouring out your ears.

And I'm caught short with this report, and better end it now.
As ' Out Of Order' manager, I maintain a sacred vow;
Ensuring what in theory works, but functions not in deed
Should always, always, always coincide with greatest need.

Copyright; Evan Elpus

Tax Day

I know that it is politically and socially impractical, but wouldn't it be interesting if paying taxes could be discussed as a patriotic responsibility, along the same lines as voting and military service often is, instead of the painful obligation it is today.

A lot would have to change for that to be possible, but I wonder how it would change our national and political dialogue.

How we talk about things makes a difference in how we view them.  Taxes are no different.

Good ideas

"Good ideas alter the power balance in relationships. That is why good ideas are initially resisted."
                                               --Hugh MacLeod, Author


Yesterday, I wrote a post about how organizations, with their resources and support staffs, should be nurturers of creativity and risk-taking.  
You can read it here.  


Maybe Mr. MacLeod has figured out why they usually aren't.

The Organization Man as a Risk Taker

In an idealized world, societies should promote and protect risk taking.

A farmer in a society can take a risk by planting a new type of grain that may provide better yields.  If it fails, the society -- neighbors -- help to keep the farmer and her family from starving until it is time to plant a new crop.  By herself, the farmer would not have this opportunity, this luxury, this ability to take risks and test something uncertain but possibly better.  Without that luxury, the farmer and society would progress at a much slower pace, if at all.

The same should be true for corporations.  Providing a secure place to conduct R&D, to explore new ideas, to try projects that are unique and off the beaten path, to kill projects when they aren't working, to take a chance against all odds seems to me should be a primary purpose of a corporation.  Corporations should be about soft landings for dreamers, non-conformists and risk takers.

That is not the picture of an entrepreneur most of us have.  The popular literature likes to paint the entrepreneur as someone who maxes out their credit cards and converts the garage to a mini factory on the hope and the prayer that their venture will work out and make them rich.  Like our farmer, there are very few who are willing and able to take such risks with their family's future without the safety net of a society, or a corporation.

Rather, I am suggesting that ideal environment for nurturing entrepreneurial drive should be the corporation.  With all of those resources, with all those support people and systems, the risk-taker wouldn't have to waste time fending off collection calls or waiting in line for government cheese.  The primary purpose of an organization should be to foster creativity and non-conformist thinking and developing the marketing advantage of uniqueness and nonconformity.

Unfortunately, that is not how a many of our corporations and business organizations actually look.  Conformity is encouraged.  Next quarter's bottom line, if not next week's, is often about the only horizon the organization man is allowed to look toward.

Imagine how different things could be, if the button-down organization man could loosen his collar from time to time and take a risk.  A company sponsored and supported risk!

Is Voter Turnout a Communications Issue?

Yesterday,  someone commented on my March 21st post on local elections with this question:
"I am active politically at the local/state level. We have had declining voter turn-out over the years so that the last city council election garnered less than 10%. I used to think that those elections would have higher participation for exactly the reasons you mention - council & school boards being so close to home. any thoughts on this?"

After responding, I continued to think about this issue.  I suspect that low voter turnout, in part, is a communication issue.  Venturing a risky step into political blogging (just for today, I promise!) I wanted to expound on some of my thoughts.  Please join in on this discussion if you want to add to the discourse!

I suspect that there are several reasons for the decline in voter turnout.  

• I think that many "could be" voters stay away from the polls because they question whether or not their vote makes a difference.  I suspect we will see a significant drop in the percentage of people voting in the national election this fall (as most states saw during the primaries) because there has been a lot of attention paid to Citizen's United issues.  "I don't have millions to contribute so how can I change things" is how many individuals are viewing things this political season. 
• Related to that, many erstwhile voters question what impact, if any, one candidate will have over another.  If you view all politicians with the same suspicion-colored glasses, they all look the same and then why take the time to go to the polls?  
• While they were set up to make it easier for people to vote, I suspect that the preponderance of options like Early voting and Absentee voting can be intimidating and confusing for those not fully engaged in the process. It also has the impact of lessening the special aspect of Election Day. 
• When I was growing up, I remember hearing leaders of all shapes, sizes and political flavors talk about the importance of getting out to vote.  I grew up believing it was EVERYONE'S civic duty to vote.  I don't hear that from our leaders nearly as much.  Voting no longer is held out as a sacred duty of citizenship.  
• It is harder and harder for politicians and political parties to cut through the communications barrage we are all subjected to every day.  With an ever-increasing number of communications venues and an exponentially increasing number of message that most of us have to contend with every day, it is hard for your voice to be heard.  It is hard for McDonald's and Chevy, who can market 24/7/365.  Imagine competing with that with an uncertain source of funds and a limited time frame.  On top of that, try communicating complicated policy issues and positions in a 30 second ad or a two minute "news" story.  Perhaps that is why candidates and PACs turn toward negative ads.
• Negative ads.  Proponents say they work.  But they work not by bringing out your voters but by discouraging the voters of the other guy.  

More specifically on local elections, 

• I think it comes down to people not realizing the impact that local elected officials have on their day-to-day lives. There are fewer and fewer independent, local media sources to tell us the value of those local elected officials.  When all you have is national and regional media, who is covering the city council meeting?

As any good marketer knows, in order to get people to act, you have to move a prospect through certain steps of interest and affiliation before you get them to consider taking action.  I suspect that our political system, used to a bygone era when stronger party affiliations provided automatic interest and affiliation to a candidate.  They still have to adjust to a new political reality in which more and more voters identify themselves as being independent and even those who identify with a party are more willing to cross over to vote for a candidate or an issue that captures their imagination, their interest and their affiliation.

In the end, voter turnout is tied to interest in the candidate and the system.  For some of the reasons I suggested above and many others, eligible voters have lost, or never obtained, that interest.  From time to time an issue or a candidate will fan those flames and generate new interest, and new voters.  Ronald Reagan  in the 80s and Barack Obama in 2008 both come to mind.  And both of those candidates were touted as being Great Communicators.

Planning for Crisis Communications

There is an old saying that there are two times to plant a tree: twenty years ago and today.

Preparing for crisis communications is not much different.  There are two times to start preparing for crisis communications: a year ago and today.

Jim Dunn has written a very comprehensive article for this month's National School Public Relations Association (NSPRA) newsletter that you can read here.  While I plan to write more about this in future posts, I wanted to summarize his four tips to remember.  In a crisis situation:

• Deliver a simple message with a single, clear voice
• When talking with reporters, use CPR: Calm Prepared Relaxed
• Practice the crisis plan BEFORE the crisis
• Develop a professional network that can provide you with support you during a crisis

I think it is important to note that half of these things can be accomplished AFTER a crisis occurs.  And the other half (the first two points) are a lot easier if they are prepared for ahead of time!

The Bigotry of Mass Marketing

When marketers use mass marketing tools like national television ads they market to the majority.  They have an excuse for not representing "minority" groups like people of color, gays, non-Christians or even women in their advertising.

As marketing becomes more customized; as mass customization becomes more and more common and cost effective; it seems to me that this bigotry of mass marketing no longer stands up.  Marketers no longer have a viable excuse for not reaching out to the various demographic groups that make up their base of customers and potential customers with specific and tailored messages.

Thinking about how to effectively customize your marketing message to the different groups of constituencies in your market is a greater challenge of the new marketing paradigm than figuring out whether to start a Facebook fan page or have your CEO write a blog.

Certainly, there are many issues that marketers must consider when reaching out to a specific group versus marketing to the masses.  For starters, it is harder to find a genuine voice when communicating with segments within the total market.  The literature is filled with advertising missteps by advertisers that simply translated their mass market messages to another language to somewhat disastrous results.  Chevrolet, for instance, learned the hard way when they tried to market their popular Chevy Nova in Latin America that "No Va" in Spanish meant "No go." That is not a very good branding message for a car!

I think that many marketers find it difficult to reach out to subgroups without coming across as pandering and disingenuous.  The problem usually is the result of marketers trying to take short cuts.  A company that truly understands its customers and understands what their needs and interests are, will understand how their products and services meets those needs and interests.  From that point it is a short distance to a marketing message that works within that market!

A company that is still stuck with "mass marketing mind" tends to think of all its customers as the same.  Cultural, gender and lifestyle issues aren't factored into marketing messages because they aren't considered at all.

I guess, in the long run, the message is that social media seems like its cheap, easy and fast.  It seems like a great antidote to shrinking marketing budgets and tighter markets.  But one of the true powers of Internet based media is its ability to customize mass messages almost down to the person.  And customizing mass messages isn't fast, easy or cheap.  It takes knowledge and understanding of the many facets of your market.  It takes the resolve to get to know and understand your market to a degree and a level of detail you've never done before.  It takes a firm, unshakable desire to move away from the ineffective bigotry of mass marketing.

Make 'em Laugh!

Marketing is about making connections.

Studies have shown that most people make purchase decisions emotionally and then sometimes rationalize those emotional decisions with facts.

So it stands to reason that if you are a marketer or a salesperson and you can get your target audience to respond emotionally to your message -- you make them laugh, or cry, or feel nostalgic -- then you have a better chance of making that connection.

It seems to me that a good strategy is to have a message that communicates the emotional impact and benefits of the product or service but with enough details that the potential customer is able to act on the purchase decision and enough facts for them to justify it.


Some other posts to my blog that you might enjoy:
Read the Label: Pay Attention to the Subject of Your Messages
Could I have a few moments of your time?

5 reasons to write a (nearly) daily blog

I recently participated in an online discussion on how frequently a blogger should post to their blog.  There were a lot of very intelligent and insightful answers as to the optimal timing of posting blogs.  Some people in the discussion has theories as to which days of the week and what time of day a blogger should post in order to optimize readership, rankings, etc.

It got me thinking about whether I was right to try to post to my blog so often.  I realized that I had a whole different framework for why I post to my blog as frequently as I do.  Here are 5 reasons I try to post to my blog daily.

1. It focuses the mind.  Trying to come up with something to write that is relevant to the topic of your blog on a frequent basis focuses your thinking on that topic.  After a short while, you will be surprised where you get the inspiration for post ideas!  I have gotten inspiration for blog posts from conversations, newspaper articles, books, other blogs and a tea bag.
2. It is great writing practice.  Writing every day is a great way to improve your writing.  Writing every day with the knowledge that someone might actually be reading what you post is a great way to improve your editing.
3. It forces you to read on your blog topic.  I found that one of the greatest challenges in trying to write a somewhat intelligent blog about marketing is that I wanted, from time to time, to be able to cite some authoritative sources.  I also needed to come up with daily topics.  This has me becoming a more diligent reader of marketing articles, books and blogs.  It also has me reading non-marketing materials and finding the marketing perspective.  
4. You discover new ideas.  Partially because you are reading (or scanning) more, you are exposed to more opinions and thoughts.  Sometimes those new opinions and thoughts are your own. 
5. It gets easier the more you do it.  Really.  It doesn't get easy, but it does get easier.  Like any sort of exercise, after a while, you find your stride. You find your writing voice.

None of my reasons for doing this blog frequently have anything to do with search engine optimization or maximizing "likes."  I am writing this blog because I enjoy it.  I work hard at writing something that is enjoyable to read and occasionally insightful or inspiring.  

If you want to stretch your wings in an area of interest, I would recommend writing a daily blog.  Do it for reasons that are important to you.  If you do, you find many benefits.  And if you stick with it you will find your audience too.  

The Timelessness of the Internet

Internet Curmudgeon time. 

I know that the Internet is forever, but that doesn't necessarily mean  that everything that everyone writes online is timeless.

Why does it seem to be so difficult for writers or search engines or web designers (or seemingly anyone) to attach a date of original publication on pages?  All I want is to be able to tell the timliness of blogs and essays that I find in doing internet research. 

I was recently doing some research and found a report that seemed to nicely meet my needs.  Then, about 5 paragraphs into the document, there was speculation about how President Bush would react to the issue.  A seven year-old document has much different relevance than one written in the last few weeks.

This doesn't seem like a hard thing to do.


Some other posts you might enjoy:
Primary Elections and Local Ads
After Midnight
Put a Stamp On It 

Clear Away the Mist: Focus on the Clarity of Your Message

"If there is a mist in the pulpit, it's a fog in the pew."  
                                                                                               Theologian Howard Hendricks

The idea of communications is to share a thought or a message from one person to another.  Sometimes we do this one on one in a conversation; sometimes the message gets amplified through media or circumstance and becomes one to many communication.  Sometimes the message is delivered TO the audience, other times it is part of a dialogue.

Regardless of the size of the audience, the media used, the goal of the communications (making a sale, presenting a point of view, finding out if you should pick up milk or orange juice) clarity of the message is the key.  If your message is clear, you stand a better chance of your audience receiving it as you intended.

The thing about message clarity is that it is ALL in the eye, or ears, of the beholder.  Just like customer service, it is the perception of the receiver that matters.  Good intentions don't score points in football or in communications.  Your message has to be clear to the receiver of the message for it to be a clear message.

This is where Mr. Hendricks' quote becomes relevant.  One of the things that speakers CAN do is to be clear about the message they want to deliver.  If there is confusion in the mind of the speaker as to what the message is, you can be guaranteed that confusion will be multiplied by the time it gets to the listener.  Think of the children's game of Operator.  As a message gets passed from child to child, it becomes more and more divorced from the reality of the original message.

There are many other things that a communicator can do to improve the chances that his or her message will be received with clarity.  Those will be topics of future blog posts.  For today, for the purposes of clarity, I am focusing on just one piece of advise:  Be clear about the message you want to deliver and you increase the chances that you actually will!

A Small Group of Thoughtful, Committed Citizens

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”
                                                                  ― Margaret Mead

I want to tell you about a small group of incredible people.  They are on the verge of doing something quite remarkable.  In the spirit of full disclosure, I know some of this group quite well.  Some of them are long time friends. One of those long time friends is my wife.  Regardless, what this handful of people have done over the last 7 years is truly special.

About seven years ago or so, a group of friends started talking about their love of the natural areas around where they lived.  Quickly, the thoughts of this group of conservationists, scientists, community activists and citizens coalesced around the idea of trying to get a national wildlife refuge dedicated in the area that they love.  They called it Hackmatack National Wildlife Refuge, the native american word for the tamarack trees that grew in the area.  The small group became larger as they started talking with people and sharing the dream.  Then the group began to work their real magic. 

What they did then was talk about their dream.  They talked to everyone and anyone who they could.  Altogether, I would not be surprised if this group gave over 1000 speeches to garden clubs and conservation groups, to municipalities and to Rotary clubs.  They went pretty much anywhere and everywhere they had a few people who were interested in hearing their story.

And as often happens when you tell a heartfelt story with honesty and candor, people began to listen.  And to sign on as supporters.  They talked to local, state and federal politicians.  They talked to US Fish & Wildlife and found them willing to study the area.  Now they are on the verge of having a national wildlife refuge in their back yards.

Whether it is trying to protect natural land, launch a new product, or break into a new market, I think Margaret Mead had it right.  Watch out for those small groups of thoughtful, committed citizens.  They can work wonders!

If you are interested in learning more about the proposed Hackmatack National Wildlife Refuge, click on this link:   Hackmatack  or US Fish & Wildlife

If you want to show your support for this fantastic project, please click here: Send your support