Stevie Wonder - FOR YOUR LOVE (Acapella)

Effective Communication: The Masters Way.

It has been taught and discussed in professional meetings/conferences that organisations do not exist in a vacuum, human and material resources are needed to effectively achieve set goals and objectives. I have over time come to the realization that effective communication plays a vital role in the smooth running of an organisation/project/policy/ ... you name it.


In what ever one sets out to do as a vocation, career or a job; be you the employer or employee; as long as you are in the business of reaching out to people, you need to be able to communicate effectively your products and services in the best way possible.

Communication is not completed until the message is received by the other person. Most of us pay more attention to delivering the message, which is the easy part, and overlook the 'receivability' of the message, the hard part.  Communication is hard work.  Drawing inspiration from the communication style of my master and Saviour Jesus Christ {He used parables, made reference to the past, spoke eloquently, touched lives with his words, had excellent choice of grammar and His words will never pass away}   . I implore serious minded people to harp unto the following rules - and soar into success:

          

• The very first step one must take before sending out a message is to organize their thoughts well. There are many slips between the other person's ears and your lips; since the recipient(s) of the message will be interpreting it in their own brain, its necessary to KISS (Keep It Short and Simple) in the best possible way to avoid distortion.   

• Some speakers deliver the whole speech without spelling out even once what they want from their audience.  Then they feel unhappy when they don't get the results they expected from their speech. Oh! yes. You are well read and want to impress with pedantic statements, forgetting that people are not mind readers. if you are to pass a message to target audience, try using 

• Remember the saying, "Nobody cares how much you know, unless they know how much you care."  When they feel you really like them, they make an extra effort to understand what you want. Your message should either be solving a problem or at least the nearest solution to an issue. 

• The rule of Interacting.  There are two ears and one tongue, spend twice more time in listening than in speaking.  The more closely you listen to others, the more effective you would be in communicating your ideas to them according to their frame of reference.  It is by listening close to them, that you will know how they think, what their favorite expressions are and how you can completely attract their attention.       

• When you show how your target audience will directly benefit from your message, you are very close to sinking deep into them. To do this, you must clearly highlight the rewards of your offer, and explain how they will improve their life. For example, instead of explaining that a new product is more efficient, you might emphasize how much time or money the customer will save. 

• You also need to be aware of your non-verbal signal. The spoken word is but a small component of communication, it constitutes of only 7 percent of the message, the other 93% is non-verbal.  If you mean to assure people of the authenticity of your statements, but your face, body and your voice is conveying, "you are just dull,"  which means of communication do you think will get conveyed?  Match your gestures,  body language, voice tone, and other non-verbal behavior with your words.

• Walk your talk.  Match your actions with your words.  If you say something and then do another, your action will be received as the real message and not your spoken words.  

As our faces are different, so are various preferences for both communicating with others and interpreting the communications from others.  Numerous models have been developed which describe how to recognize an individual's preferred style of communicating and what strategy to use in communicating most effectively with them. Whatever style you end up using, never fail to communicate without taking into cognizance the Masters way.

  

TV Ads: Doing It Better.

Finally the blog bug has caught up with me. I have been reading and commenting on other peoples blog and have deemed it fit to bare my mind on MY own blog.


For the last three(3) days, my 2yr old son has become so obsessed with the GOCOMPARE commercial http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rvqzx1bA488&feature=BF&list=QL&index=3 running on television stations around the UK. The obsession is so much that I began to wonder if its the song, or the character in the advert that has caused the attraction, for a child of his age would not go to the internet to find out what the advert was selling. 


The point is this: why spend so much money on adverts that doesn't clearly spell out the features of the product or service. Why cant creative agencies come up with clear-cut options rather than promote complexities. Advertising can also serve to communicate an idea to a large number of people in an attempt to convince {not confuse} them to take a certain action.


More worrisome these days is the manner at which cosmetics adverts are done. There is a lot of nudity at display. C'mon guys, if you must sell your products via TV commercials, please please please!!! save the future by taking away the naked bodies from the screen and stop invading public spaces, such as schools, which is a form of child exploitation.


I challenge copy writers to think out of the box and come up with beautifully thought strategies/propaganda techniques that will positively attract attention, engage minds, trigger emotions, and change what people think. All of which can lead to sales. Or votes. Or clicks.


Lastly, guys lets be honest with our vocabs{keep it real}. If the product temporarily deals with the issue, then do not go OVERBOARD by saying it solves the issue. so many people have been misled by these adverts and the Ad agencies should be blamed.


"Any activity becomes creative when the doer cares about doing it right, or better." - John Updike