Category Archives: Communications

Marketing Attitude

It was my third day of business travel and I was tired but looking forward to a seminar on motivation. About halfway through the presentation, I realized that the longer I stayed the more demotivated I felt. The speaker was engaging, she was actually quite funny, but her material was dated. My table-mates were a bigger problem. They were unhappy co-workers. Their underlying unpleasantness towards each other and their missing colleagues was tangible. It was disrespectful at best and openly hostile at other times. Made me glad I didn’t work with them and wonder if their boss understood the brand they created.

I left the session after an hour and ended up in a conflict resolution lecture. I’ve rarely laughed so hard. It was clever, insightful and I can say without a doubt, conflict has never felt so good. The rest of my day unfolded in a pleasant fashion, but as I was reflecting on the morning’s adventures I couldn’t help wondering about how attitudes, our own, those of service providers and even other customers influence and affect how we perceive brands.

While I was waiting for the conflict resolution lecture to start the woman ahead of me in line gave me a big smile, she turned out to be the lecturer. Her smile was an accurate indicator of the attitude she conveyed throughout her lecture. It reminded me of a study I read on the effects of greetings on shoppers, no not the typical Wal-Mart greeting, but a real greeting, like, “Hi, is it still raining out?” for mall shoppers. The study indicated that shoppers are more likely to report a positive experience if they are greeted and told goodbye. So although they may have a neutral journey through a store, the emotion they experience on coming and going will dictate their impressions.

Of course, the customer’s attitude before they enter a store or a website will also influence their experience. Had I been in a cranky mood when I started the first lecture, I doubt I would have lasted 15 minutes. I also wondered about the experience of customers going into the store of my original tablemates. I couldn’t help but think that their office dynamics would make for an unpleasant environment. Their dislike of each other would dominate the atmosphere, not exactly conducive to a positive retail experience.

So many elements are at play when a brand is being experienced that we constantly have to ask ourselves, what am I’m doing contribute to my brand? Even when we are being vigilant we can get into trouble. On my way home I was standing at airport security waiting to be scanned when one of the security personnel walked up to her colleague and reprimanded him for complaining about something in front of passengers. I wonder what she thought her reprimand in front of me was doing for customer relations? Marketing attitude is something we have to be thinking about all the time. Marketing the wrong attitude can have such a lasting impression, that no matter how good the product, people will be reluctant to engage. The same can be said about marketing the right attitude; it can carry you through even the most unforgiving lapses.

Tips on Managing Brand

Your attitude is your brand, make sure that you are conveying the right messages.
Employees are your brand ambassadors. Their attitudes, likes and dislikes will play into your brand and how your services or products are perceived. Make sure you are properly aligned.
You cannot control your customer’s attitudes, but you can ensure that you are not contributing to a negative experience. Manage the atmosphere you are responsible for and the rest will follow.

Have you had an unpleasant experience work out because the attitude was right or perhaps the reverse is true? Have you had any great experiences that came as a result of great attitude?

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Marketing Attitude

Communications

The Truth About Elevator Pitches

Debra Yearwood 12 Comments

What no one really tells you about elevator pitches is that they aren’t actually pitches. They are not even soft sales lobs. That’s right, no elevator pitch has ever sold a product, got someone hired, garnered angel funding or earned a new client. Is that surprising? Think about it, would you hire someone or spend hundreds if not thousands of dollars on the basis of thirty-seconds of speech? It’s an elevator pitch, not a magic spell.

Your talents as a witch aside, elevator pitches do serve several useful purposes. First and foremost, they make you think about what you do. An elevator pitch makes you dig in and really understand what your unique offering is. More often than not, in addition to giving you more insight into what makes you unique in the marketplace, it also makes you appreciate that you have multiple unique offerings.

An elevator pitch also lets you do something that has become increasingly difficult since the introduction of social media. It teaches you how to deliver a proper introduction. An elevator pitch delivers information about you, or your product or your company neatly and succinctly. It tells your audience the things that you really want them to know in a way that is not weird or time-consuming.

That’s the third thing the elevator pitch does. It teaches you to boil down your message to the essentials. Your pitch answers the question, what exactly do I need this person to know? It gives them nothing more and nothing less. If you can capture their interest with an effective introduction you will earn the right to deliver your real pitch. That’s where the sale happens or the job offering shows up but first, you have to start with the elevator pitch or perhaps if we want to accurately describe what you are doing, the elevator introduction.

Tips for building great elevator pitches:

An elevator pitch is the briefest pitch you can give. It’s a quality introduction that takes about 20 seconds. You can take longer but the longer you keep talking without interaction with your audience, the more opportunity there is for things to go wrong.
An elevator pitch is generally a two or three sentence description. What goes into your pitch is a reflection of what you are trying to achieve.
- New job or client: If you are looking for a job or a client your pitch will cover what you do, what you want to do and why you do it.
- Product or service sales: If it’s a product you’re trying to share information on, your pitch will share the benefits, how people use it and what makes it unique.
Share what makes you unique in the market, what do you offer that others do not?
Describe what you do or what your product does well. Does it save money? If so, then be specific, who saved money and how much. Use explicit statistics that demonstrate that you know your stuff and have a clear understanding of how your product works.
There is no one pitch that fits all audiences. Create custom pitches to serve different purposes.
All pitches should have elements of the following:
- Information: There’s little value to a pitch that is so abbreviated or clever that it becomes obtuse. You want to share something about yourself. The idea is to inform and relate to the person you are talking to.
- Confidence: You should be comfortable delivering your pitch and while you should always be self-assured, you should never be arrogant or boastful. When you brag you’re a bore. No one wants to talk to a bore much less do business with one.
Pitches should be interesting enough to capture attention and make you memorable. Consider what makes you unique. What distinctive features, qualities or facts are part of your original idea or offering?

Once you’ve delivered your pitch, follow through.

Don’t forget that this is an exchange intended to build a relationship. Get to know the person you are speaking to better. The best way to do that is to get them talking. Hook them with questions about themselves. Ask them about their work. How did they get started? What do they like best?
Share your business card. Once you have engaged in an exchange, offer your business card. It’s a great way to create an opportunity for future communications. Generally speaking, don’t ask for their card. Once you offer yours, if they are interested, they will offer you their card.
Follow through, reach out through LinkedIn and get connected. Look for opportunities to provide assistance. Do you know of a book, blog or article that might help that person or that they might find interesting? Do you know someone they would like to meet?

Sample Elevator Pitch

I run a small communications shop called CommStorm that helps entrepreneurs and associations tell their stories. I use my years of political, corporate and association experience to build thoughtful communications strategies. And while I love developing strategies, the best part of what I do is getting in there and turning great ideas into reality.

If you understand what you have to offer, know how to introduce yourself effectively and can do it all succinctly and clearly, then you’ve accomplished more than most and that’s often the edge you need to succeed where others fail. So build your elevator pitch, work on it indefinitely, change it to reflect evolving needs and understand the value of a great pitch.

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Build A Pitch – 3 Online Elevator Pitch Builders

Communications, Management

Visual Meetings – How To Bring Meetings To Life

Debra Yearwood 50 Comments

Several years ago I was at a conference on systems thinking (essentially, understanding how things connect) and during the plenary sessions I noticed that tucked away to one side was a woman busily working on capturing the meeting proceedings in images. I was mesmerized. As the session progressed I kept looking from her to the presenters and I was charmed by the images that emerged. Her blend of colourful figures and words captured beautifully the vibrancy of the conversation in the room. The “Ah ha” moments were carefully displayed with a burst of yellow and orange marker that had a more lasting impression on me than any of the words I’d carefully jotted down in my notebook.

As the conference progressed I’d catch glimpses of the artist as she made her way through all of the plenary sessions and occasionally, the smaller concurrent sessions. I approached her at one point and asked her how I could get copies of her illustrations. She asked me for my card and I happily handed it over. Although months passed I did not hear from her and I kicked myself for not asking her for her card. Then one day a package arrived. It was from the conference organizers and they were inviting me to attend the next year’s conference. Amongst the conference details was a poster of all of the images from the last conference captured by the graphic artist. I was hooked. Although I had fond memories of the event, they had mostly faded, her images brought them all roaring back to life.

Cover of "Visual Meetings: How Graphics, ... — Cover via Amazon

After that experience, I wondered how I could capture some of that vibrancy in my regular day to day meetings. As it happens, I got my answer several years later while attending the same conference. The presenter was a fellow named David Sibbet. David talked about the power of images, he brought us back to those days long ago when we huddled around fires in caves and drew on walls, but he also brought us back to our childhood. Those wonderful colourful books that kept us engaged and made us want to read. Even today some of my favourite life lessons come in the form of blog posts from Susan Cooper, who uses her colourful illustrations to tell important life stories.

We have a very natural affinity for visuals. People love to see their ideas captured in an interesting and interactive way. This is why writing things out on boards is a standing practice of meeting facilitators. Big thoughts are also more likely to be developed because visualization allows you to see natural and unnatural links between ideas. Patterns become more visible and this gives the group an opportunity to get those big picture ideas that help create group momentum. Our memories benefits from using visuals too. By putting things up on a shared board the group can keep track and recall ideas more easily.

So why do we eliminate visuals from our regular meetings? Well the most common response is, “I can’t draw”. David would argue other wise and as I know from attending many art classes over the years, everyone can draw; we just need to be taught how. That’s precisely what David Sibbett does in his two books, Visual Teams and Visual Meetings.

Don’t believe me? Let’s see what you can learn in just a few minutes.

Start with a simple circle. Thinking of mixing something in a bowl—maybe egg whites. Before putting the pencil to paper, try out the motion. Use your arm in the process; it will make a better circle. Got it? Great, you now have a circle.

Add a few brackets and you have a bouncy ball.
Throw some lines beside the circle and it’s moving fast.
Add two dots and a smile and you have a head.
Point an arrow at your circle and you’ve made your point.
Place larger circles around it and you have a bull’s-eye or a central idea.

Getting visual doesn’t require rocket science or a degree in art. We are all natural drawers…stick figures can express ideas too. Introducing colour markers on a white board or giant note pad will easily do the trick of making meetings more engaging. Sticky notes are also a useful tool and can bring colour and shape to visual story telling. When doing a process mapping exercise one organization I worked with used sticky notes to represent each step in a process. As participants added sticky notes, the visual image grew. The ensuing image of multiple sticky notes spread across a wall was a more powerful illustration of the need to cut steps than any conversation.

I have had great success with strategic planning by putting markers and sticky notes into the hands of colleagues. The challenge is not about the ability to draw, it’s the willingness to try. Go ahead, let your inner artist out, you’ll be surprised by what shows up.

Have you ever had to draw to make a point? Have you ever used the back of a napkin to illustrate what you meant? Do you do better when visuals are used?

Related Articles:

http://commstorm.com/time-keeps-on-tricking/

Communications, Government Relations, public relations

Know When To Fold Them

Debra Yearwood 10 Comments

So it’s one thing to reflect on communications from the comfort of your office, but what happens when you do all of the right things and then because of the personality quirks of the person you’re meeting with, things get weird anyway?

A colleague of mine once took a client to meet with a member of parliament (MP) in the ante-room of the House of Commons. The MP was on her cell phone when they arrived for their meeting and waved to them to join her. As they approached she paused in her phone call to tell the client to start speaking. As soon as he did, she resumed her call. The client quite naturally paused again and the member of parliament stopped her telephone call long enough to tell him to continue. When he did, she did too. Eventually, my colleague signalled to the client to stop and they said goodbye to the MP without delivering their message.

You might think that it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know that this is rude behaviour, but sometimes powerful people get so used to being catered to by their staff that they can lose sight of what is appropriate. They are by no stretch the norm, but they are also not as rare as we might like. In situations where your audience is being confrontational or just plain rude, it is best to cut your losses.

Quick Tips:

Try to refocus the meeting on the agenda topics.
Terminate unpleasant or unproductive meetings at the first feasible opportunity.
Do not take the opportunity to yell or make a scene, it may feel good momentarily, but it will most likely hurt you and in the long run gain you nothing.
If you are really annoyed about how you have been treated then share your story if possible. If you can’t, chalk it up to experience. We can learn from good meetings and bad ones.

Communications

Build A Pitch – 3 Online Elevator Pitch Builders

Debra Yearwood 10 Comments

The search for the perfect elevator pitch is something that preoccupies entrepreneurs, students, job seekers and many others. There are probably a million articles online that talk about how to build a strong elevator pitch. With a push towards automation, I anticipated finding dozens of tools that could build the pitch for you and while there are numerous tools that help you to build an attractive slide deck, there are relatively few tools that help you to build a pitch from scratch, here are three.

Pitcherific https://pitcherific.com/

Pitcherific helps you to create different types of pitches depending on your membership. With the free account, you can work on your elevator pitch. Pitcherific starts by focusing you on four elements, the hook, the problem, the solution and the close. Its strength is in helping with the timing of your pitch, providing a framework you complete depending on your objectives and allowing you to practice your pitch with a teleprompter and choice of simulated audience.

The teleprompter function also allows you to test your speaking speed both with the pitch in front of you or with it hidden. It allows you change your potential audience so that you can better imagine how it will feel to deliver your message.

You can also record your pitch with Pitcherific, a great feature if you have to send your pitch to someone or if you want to see how you look in action. If you need help, then Pitcherific allows you to co-edit a pitch online.

From my perspective, an elevator pitch as a quality introduction (See, The Truth About Elevator Pitches), rather than the world’s fastest sales job, so the structure Pitcherific provides is limited. Fortunately, paid accounts can create custom templates and you can adjust timing to suit your needs.

Buzzuka http://www.buzzuka.com/

Buzzuka helps you to structure your elevator pitch based on a series of questions and then generates the pitch using your answers. Needless to say, that can make for some awkward pitches, but you can always edit them once you see how the structure was intended to work.

What I like about the Buzzuka process is that it makes you think about your objectives, your benefits and features and most importantly, your audience. Buzzuka also provides examples of pitches created by other users. What I like less is how much your final Buzzuka pitch sounds like a commercial. If you are pitching an idea in an environment that expects a fast sales job, then this tool is a great way to start, but if you are looking for an elevator pitch to use in most day-to-day environments, then this won’t quite hit the spot.

Pitch Builder https://pitch.fi/

Pitch Builder helps you to build a pitch deck that should take 24 seconds to deliver. It’s a free tool and helps you to build a persuasive message by focusing your attention on identifying the problem, the solution, the market, your plan and proposed deal. It also allows you to add information about yourself.

The challenge is in the number of questions asked and the way the questions are presented. If you actually follow along in most cases your pitch will use up more time then you should. In addition, the slide deck format implies more formality than you would typically have at a reception or in an elevator. The product is in the beta stages, so I expect to see new features or refinements with time.

All three of these online tools have elements that are helpful, with Pitcherific probably being the most useful at this stage, but if your pitch really matters, then nothing is as effective as you. You alone can read your audience in the moment when you are delivering. You alone can adjust and respond. Having a well-crafted pitch is the beginning of the process of engagement, not the objective. Your pitch is about being prepared and understanding your product, service or your own talents well enough to talk about them with ease.

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Build A Pitch – 3 Online Elevator Pitch Builders

Communications, Internal Communications

What Do Work Nightmares Tell Us?

Debra Yearwood Leave a comment

Since today is Halloween, I couldn’t resist taking a look at nightmares. Work nightmares in particular. These night terrors fall into two categories for me, waking horrors, things that happen at work that embarrass or freak you out, such as calling your boss by your spouse’s name during a meeting, (I won’t touch the Freudian implications of that one). Then there are the nightmares where you suddenly realize that you have to give a presentation in 15 minutes on a topic you know nothing about. In this post, I’ll explore the sleeping nightmares and what they are trying to tell us.

Our dreams are messages that we send to ourselves. They tell us what we really think about a person, issue or activity. They are also one of the ways our subconscious tries to solve problems that have been presented to us during the waking hours. Our dreams, even the awkward ones, give us some insight into our own minds.

I once had a dream in which I was in a huge auditorium with thousands of people. My boss was standing on stage with a microphone when he announced that I would be leading the next part of the presentation. Presenting didn’t faze me, nor did being called upon to do the work unexpectedly, the nightmarish bit was that I had no microphone, no slides and no way of being seen or heard. I couldn’t get to the stage and I couldn’t get my boss’ attention to tell him. When I recalled the dream the following morning, it made me laugh…at myself. I’d been worried about my budget and the tools I had for my job. My concern was that I would not be able to deliver on objectives because I didn’t have the right resources. I thought I had resigned myself to working with what I had, but apparently, my subconscious had other ideas and wanted to demonstrate the outcome of working without the right tools.

Looking at your dreams is an opportunity to get to know yourself better, but you can’t be too literal. Just because work shows up in a dream, doesn’t mean the dream is about work. We spend so much time at work that it makes it easy for our minds to call on those elements to send us messages. The opposite is also true. You could have elements of your personal life in a dream that’s really about work.

If you dream about sharpening a million pencils it doesn’t necessarily mean you are worried about dull pencils. You could be frustrated about menial work you have been doing or a repetitive task. The point is, dreams and their interpretation is a very personal thing. The same item appearing in the dreams of two people can have dramatically different meanings for the dreamers. What we see, feel and hear in our dreams is all about us. Remember, everyone in your dream is you.

There is also some research that suggests that the flow of a dream is a reflection of your subconsciousness trying to make sense of the random images flowing through. Have you ever woken up to the sound of a radio? If there is a news broadcast playing, then elements of the news can filter into your sub-conscience before you are fully awake and create interesting and random dreams. This is true for any external stimuli that might leak into your dream.

Interpreting Your Dreams

What’s important to note is that if you have repetitive, stressful or particularly vivid dreams that feel associated with work, you could be sending yourself an important message. Your challenge is to interpret what that message means for you.

One of the simplest ways of analysing your dreams is to start with what is happening around you. Your waking life will be full of clues about what’s causing the dreams, its generally something that has happened in the immediate past, the last day or week. Our subconscious doesn’t usually store things for later review. Something in your immediate world has to act as a trigger.

The biggest indicator of what a dream means for you is how you feel in the dream. Although scary things may be happening all around you, if the dominant emotion you are feeling is NOT fear, then the dream’s intent isn’t to frighten, believe me, your subconscious knows what buttons to push to frighten you. If you’d like a little help interpreting dreams, check out Susan P. Cooper and Cheryl Therrien’s, “Dream Catchers“.

Have you ever had a nightmare about work? Ever come to a realization or a solution based on a dream? What do you do to get rid of scary dreams?

Communications

9 Ways Social Media Does Good

Debra Yearwood

We regularly hear about the destructive power of social media. There’s no doubt that it can create a variety of problems, but social media also has a positive side.

Continuous Improvement Process: One of the most interesting aspects of social media is that it behaves like a continuous improvement process. The algorithms of social media are always assessing and adjusting, which means that as participants we must continuously adapt. Whether it’s changing the interfaces we use to access our favourite sites or changes that make businesses rethink their approach social media keeps us on our toes.
Brainstorming: Looking for a solution to a problem? Try engaging online. Social media is one of the few places where brainstorming actually produces a number of innovative ideas. In addition to the many useful blogs on an array of issues, there are also many brainstorming apps.
Measuring Progress: Social media comes with an array of metrics. Even in its most passive form, it tells us who we are connected to and with whom we have interacted. For business, it produces metrics that can measure performance and it never stops changing those measurements in a continuous effort to better measure.
Free Advice: Not sure what to do next? While everything you find on social media isn’t necessarily helpful or accurate, there is a lot of good and useful information. There are also lots of people who are happy to share their experience and advice at no cost. LinkedIn’s professional groups are a great resource when you are looking for advice or suggestions and the same can be said for Facebook social groups.
Tribes: Social media allows people with similar interests and values to meet and exchange ideas. No matter how unusual your preferences, you can generally find someone online who shares them. For some people, their online friendships are often the only ones in their lives that are supportive, creating a necessary lifeline.
An Equal Playing Field: Social media allows individuals to have a voice as powerful as large corporations or governments. This has gone a long way towards improving customer service and making large and small organizations more responsive. While it may not always work for everyone, it has gone a long way towards building powerful platforms for the little guy.
Better Informed: While mainstream news on traditional platforms like print, radio and television are good at sharing those things the majority of people are interested in, it can ignore critical information for minority communities. Social media allows alternative voices to be heard. It also allows us to focus in on those news stories we care about the most.
Social Awareness: Social media is amazing for gathering and coordinating support in times of need or crisis, like during natural disasters. It is often the first place people go to find out how loved ones caught in disasters are doing.
Keeps Us Safe: Social media is a great tool for focussing attention on organizations or individuals doing harm. Social media was used to bring attention to and undermine the power structure of Joseph Kony. Social media can also help authorities to track and find criminals, such as the Boston Marathon bombers who were identified through posted images from the day of the bombing.

Related Articles:

5 Lessons on Advocating with Social Media

Communications, Government Relations

What was the message?

Debra Yearwood 6 Comments

Imagine planning a message for two months and then forgetting to deliver it. Sound impossible?The following story really happened.

The real estate group had been planning their presentation to the Minister of Industry for about two months. They had prepared slides and organized who would speak first and who would address the series of itemized issues. The Minister was next to impossible to book and so this meeting was considered quite a coup within the organization. The presentation went like clockwork. The Minister and his staff had sat with rapt attention through the slides. The assistant had made occasional notes and the Minister had asked questions. It was, therefore, something of a shock to the group when the Minister at the close of the meeting turned to his assistant while the group was packing up and quietly said, “Why did they want to meet?”

It was no less surprising when the assistant shrugged her shoulders and said, “I don’t know; I assumed they wanted to address the pending legislation but they never mentioned it.”

Since the real estate group was under the impression that everything they said was related to the legislation, though they never actually made the link, they were somewhat dismayed.

Tips

Assume nothing before a meeting. Always clearly state why you are meeting and what you would like from the meeting.
Decide on a facilitator, someone who will lead the meeting and keep things on track.
Be clear on what you specifically would like the person you are meeting with to do next.
Make sure that you are always linking your information back to your objectives.
Avoid jargon, it is difficult to follow and may disengage or confuse listeners.
Ask if there are any questions before you conclude the meeting.
Follow up in writing restating your request and the highlights of your message.

Although the story relates to a failed government relations venture the same lessons can be learned by anyone trying to communicate. Essentially don’t get so preoccupied with how your message is going to be delivered that you don’t spend enough time ensuring that your audience actually gets the message. Imagine taking out a full page ad in a paper your audience doesn’t read or posting an important family message on Facebook and assuming all your relatives will read it.

Communications, public relations

Getting the angle right, your personal brand photo

Debra Yearwood Leave a comment

I was thinking about pictures the other day, pictures of scones to be precise and wondering how I wanted to set the scene for them. What props would work, what lighting would be good, how would I convey quality? It struck me that I was more worried about how the food would look than most people are about the pictures of themselves they post. They weren’t even my scones.

I’m even worst when it comes to people. I will spend ages thinking about how I want board members, senior management or the CEO viewed. I have destroyed images of senior management I thought were in poor taste or inconsistent with the corporate brand. I’ve also used funny pictures of the CEO to convey warmth and humour to staff. The point is, some thought should go into each photo and how it’s used. What is the objective, what message is being conveyed, what audience are you talking to?

I have watched with some curiosity and a little dismay as coquettish, slightly boudoir, images have shown up on LinkedIn. I have a sense of humour, so while I often find them funny they also make me a touch uncomfortable because they really don’t belong on LinkedIn. I can’t help but wonder what the person is trying to convey in a business setting. Here are some tips for what to avoid.

The Boudoir Photo: If there is a feather boa in the image, then don’t use the image for your professional shot. It’s not that I have anything against feather boas but what they call to mind are things like, the Rocky Horror Picture Show and exotic dancers. Unless you are selling costumes or polls for dancing, lose the feathers.

The Angry Woman: Do you know what happens when you hold your phone in your hand and look down on it in concentration as you take a selfie? You get the Angry Man/Woman photo. It’s a photo of your nostrils, always attractive, while you look down your nose at the viewer. How appealing. If you are smiling then it can look creepy or patronizing. If you’re not smiling, you have the perfect Angry Man. If you’re going to use a selfie, lift your hand to head level or slightly higher.

The Location Shot: I’ve seen quite a few “professional” shots of young men at the beach lately. The attire is what you might expect for a beach photo, shorts, and shades. In some really interesting branding choices, the person is not wearing a shirt. The individual is often trying to give me advice. I think they are trying to say, “Look at me, I’m so successful I now live the good life.”

What I see is a guy too inexperienced to know what’s appropriate. Here’s my advice, if it’s good enough for a restaurant, then it’s good enough for your professional photo. No shirt, no shoes, no service. Extend the thought to include that there should be no shorts or shades in a professional photo.

Where’s Waldo: The Where’s Waldo photo comes in many forms. It’s can be anything from a family photo or a corporate shot. What they have in common is that there’s more than one person visible. So now the viewer gets to choose. Is it the guy on the left or right? Where is the subject? If it’s a man and woman in the photo, the poster’s name might give you a clue, providing their name isn’t gender neutral like Kelly, Beverly or Pat. Even if the name does make it clear, why is the other person in the photo? What is the unstated message?

Eye Spy: These are among my personal favourites. It’s really about not wanting to include a photo of yourself so you use one where you are so small that the viewer can’t quite see you. It’s the photo of the Grand Canyon and you’re off to the side like a perspective reference. This is a useless shot and tells the viewer you don’t really get the point of including a photo.

I could go on, the photo with plunging neckline for men or women is a no go, as is the open mouth speech shot. The point is, decide what you are trying to convey about your personal brand with a photo. Do you want to earn trust, their time or just their attention?

I get that people don’t want to be sheep. I appreciate wanting to do something a little different, you can do that without becoming goofy. Above all else, a professional photo is supposed to make you look like a professional, or at least it shouldn’t make you look like a felon.

Some quick tips for good shots.

Use natural lighting. This does not mean squinting into the sun, but it does mean avoiding unnecessary shadows or that shiny-face look that can happen in night shots. Not to mention the red eyed demon that comes with poor lighting.
Focus on the chest up or just head and shoulders. This means you will be the central focus of the image.
Think about how you want to be seen by a client, not your buddies.
Use a professional photographer. When chosen well, they are worth every penny. Consider it an investment in yourself.

How did you choose your photo and why? Do you think your photo matters to your brand? Have you ever seen a photo and thought…what were they thinking? Have you ever seen a photo and thought, brilliant!

Image courtesy of stockimages/FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Communications, Government Relations

5 Lessons on Advocating with Social Media

Debra Yearwood Leave a comment

I initially wrote this post back in 2013, but a number of factors made me think it was worth another look.

The election of Donald Trump and his love of Twitter
The creation of “alternative facts”
Concerns about fake news and
Facebook’s algorithms

If you’re wondering about the last point, then consider that your newsfeed on Facebook is based on what you have liked in the past. This means that all you will see are the opinions that agree with yours. Facebook is working to adjust this, but its worth noting that as brilliant as we may be, alternate opinions are important to have a realistic and balanced view of the world.

Social media has changed the way we communicate and the way we advocate to the government. Messages placed online become living entities fuelled by others. The popularity of these communications tools provides every Canadian with an opportunity to not just express an opinion, but to be heard by thousands of others and possibly generate support for their perspectives. This opportunity has not been lost on legislators and political candidates who quickly created their own profiles in an attempt to reach broader audiences. The challenge, of course, is that like all communications tools, you have to use them with care. Social media does not mean accuracy or the use of facts. It also does not need you to keep a message moving once it starts to roll.

In 2008 when the federal government announced Bill-C-51, which had the stated objective of modernizing 50-year-old health legislation, no one really expected anyone beyond health professionals and other healthcare stakeholders to pay much attention. Instead, what seemed like an army of angry Canadians rallied around concerns that the new legislation might limit the availability of certain herbal remedies. Communications grew so vociferous and hostile so quickly that the movement became a testament to the effectiveness of social media.

Concerns about the Bill came close to hysteria in some instances. One website claimed that the new legislation would give the government the right to invade homes and remove materials without the need for evidence or a search warrant. Another site warned Canadians that a police state would result from the implementation of the legislation. The Health Minister, who was initially dismissive of what looked like a small group of misinformed people, found himself having to explain and defend the Bill in the press and on the Health Canada website.

So while all this people power sounds like great news for the average citizen, you might also want to ask who started the commentary on the Bill. There are no assurances that blogs or the information posted on social networks will be accurate or honest. There is also nothing to prevent people with a specific agenda from generating misinformation or confusion around a given subject.

Lessons Learned

Always take into consideration who is active on the websites you use as resources.
While blogs and social media sites represent a great communications opportunity, they also carry with them significant challenges and some pitfalls. Know who is talking to you and to whom you are talking.
Consider the strengths and weaknesses of different social media sites and use the ones that best fit with your objectives, audience and your time. Once you engage, stay engaged.
If you use social media, do so with the understanding that it requires your full attention as a communicator.
Social media is not a billboard. People can not only react to it, they can take over your message. Sometimes that’s a good thing, so don’t try to control it, but do try to respond immediately when they take your message in the wrong direction.

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