We have so many different technologies available these days that make communication easier: telephones, mobile phones, email, voice mail, and texting. Social media sites such as Twitter help everyone stay continually informed of our every move and activity. It seems that we are always engaged in some form of communication. Often we are over loaded with messages, tweets, and emails from friends, family and even strangers. But what is the result of all this communication? Do we now communicate better than we did before all these options were available?
Social media requires a great deal of time and effort. We are always connected to social media and we also feel the need to consistently update our status. Yet haven’t we also become more lazy about our communication style? Has our overall communication style become more “tweet” like as a result?
How many times have you dashed off a quick email to a friend or colleague or even a client, only to find that the message was misinterpreted and you had to do some damage control afterward?
I’m not advocating abandoning all the new technology by any means. It think it’s wonderful. But I do believe that we have become lazy about our communication style. If you look back to the time when all this technology was not available (when was that anyway?), I think you would see that people took more care in the way they communicated with each other. Certainly, there were more face to face business meetings. Now you could say that technology saves us time and can help us to be more productive. No argument there although I think I spend more time now communicating to more people I don’t know instead of focusing my communication where it would have the most impact.
I think that’s part of the lesson here. It is important not to communicate the same way to everyone. Businesses grow based on building relationships with people. If you ignore the personal aspect of communication, how do you develop these relationships in a meaningful way? Sure it takes time. But if you focus your efforts on personally communicating to key people, I think it will have a positive effect on your business.
Think about the way you currently communicate with your colleagues and clients. Would it behoove you to pick up the phone occasionally or meet in person if possible to solidify the relationship?
When you send out emails, take the time to review your content before you hit the send button. Make sure that your message is clearly stated so there is no misinterpretation. Perhaps follow up an email with a phone call or meeting.
The content is certainly an important part of the communication, but not all of it. We need to be aware of the fact that there is also a softer message in the manner in which we deliver our communication which can dramatically affect the content.
You are reaching out to another person and building a relationship.
It’s difficult to do this with a “tweet”.
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