Would Your Business Benefit From New Corporate Communication Strategies?

All executives have in common a need, if not a duty, to achieve a degree of administrative skill. This includes public and internal communication, and while it is unlikely a typical executive is “un-skilled” at public speaking and other forms of information processing, the skill level varies widely between individuals. Throw in the many challenges of social and other electronic media, and a fresh strategy could give your organization a decisive edge in the current electronic climate.

The decision to implement new media tactics should not be approached as a sure-fire recipe for success, but hiring the right firm for a communication update could be a meaningful step in development. For an organization that routinely addresses the public or a large employee base, the correct consultant could tailor a development process to uniquely address the needs of your niche.

On the web site, Public Speaking Tips, the article lists several objectives to use to choose the correct regimen to develop confidence in using modern media. Even though our processes go beyond just speaking, using this list may help you visualize your development program. 

A few goals listed on Public Speaking Tips are:

• Master how to tell your personal stories
• Improve your voice and vocal production
• Learn to work with technology
• Be interviewed on TV
• Present before an international audience
• Persuade the audience to specific critical action.

There are many other useful objectives listed. A scenario to stay away from is a robotic approach that concentrates only on the visual, verbal, or audio aspects of communication. What else is there, you ask?

While visuals such as posture and hand gestures are just as important in electronic media as they are in person, they are only indicators of confidence and knowledge, and self-conscious application of symptomatic gestures will not replace your real expertise and experience in business and social culture. Electronic media has its own distance, and it is important to know how to relax within this new world and convey your validity when you are one more step removed from your audience.

Precise use of the “King’s English” coupled with perfect grammar will trigger a predictable response in a presentation, nevertheless, depending on the subject and the audience, it may not be a relevant response. And if this mode of speech and manner seems to contradict the personality or the goals of the speaker, than the response may be directly opposite to the desired one. You need to be confident you can convey yourself through new channels before any strategy will be effective.

A communication strategist, like a good athletic coach, will address the issues of preparation, projecting character and content as well as posture, gestures, animation, or wardrobe.

Business and government executives are motivated differently than dramatic actors, even though those motivations may (or may not) be similar in moral quality and purpose. Public speaking is different than acting.  The public might enjoy a confident actor on TV, but they want the real thing when they face their very real challenges. 

Not all communications are fired with emotion and critical strategy. But if it is appropriate for you to gather a group of people to present an idea to them, then developing technical skills that are right for forums such as TV, MP3, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, texting, Outlook and YouTube are essential, even for minor announcements.

After all, you want everyone in your organization to “get the memo.” Assimilation of minor details over a time can be critical to the success of a project.

A new communication strategy can put all the tools of modern media at your service, and give you important insight on how to use them to deliver your concepts, big and small, to your audience.

Have an important event coming up? Or do you want to design a new communication system for your business?

Let us know.  We can increase your effectiveness with modern tools.

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Executive Media Training – Eliminating the Fear, and More

It’s fairly common knowledge that public speaking is at or near the top of most people’s list of fears. Some even say they fear it more than death itself. Interestingly enough, many people who fear public speaking are high-level corporate executives. For these individuals, some form of public speaking is a critical element of what they do.

How do you suppose they handle that?

Well, a quote I heard some years ago (I don’t recall who or where) answers the question perfectly; “Feel the fear and take action anyway.” That’s all well and good, but wouldn’t it be better, and a lot more comfortable, to go into public speaking situations without the fear? Of course it would. And that’s what executive media training can do.

Here are three ways executive media training can help you and your company:

Build Confidence

A big part of what causes people to be fearful of public speaking is they don’t feel confident. This phenomenon can be found at all levels of a company, including executives.

Someone might know the company and its products backward, forward, inside and out, but when they get in front of a prospective customer, or a group, they freeze. It’s akin to a computer freezing-up. The information is in there – it just won’t come out. A big reason for this is inadequate experience in public speaking. Executive media training provides some non-threatening ways to gain this experience and develop confidence.

Improved Relationships

Human relationships are at the center of every business. Notice that I didn’t limit that statement to just successful businesses. That’s because relationships are at the center of all businesses. If business is bad, it’s undoubtedly due, in part at least, to poor relationships. If business is good, it can be largely attributed to good relationships.

If people in the company are comfortable being themselves as they talk about the company and its products, they’ll be better able to create and maintain lasting business relationships. Executive media training will help them do that.

Speak Extemporaneously

A vital part of public speaking of any kind is the ability to effectively extemporize. It’s one thing to just babble on about something and hope your listener knows little enough about the subject that what you’re saying sounds plausible. But that’s a gamble you shouldn’t be willing to take. The ability to speak off the cuff and have your presentation actually make sense is clearly more desirable. Executive media training helps develop this skill.

Some business owners and executives balk at the idea of making this kind of indirect expenditure. However, communications training in general, and executive media training in particular are more appropriately viewed as wise investments that will pay dividends for years to come.

If you’d like results-oriented help with your marketing and communications strategies, contact us online, or call 702-434-0173.

Simple Tips for a Successful Media Interview

Whether we like it or not, the news media has a lot of influence and can have a positive or negative impact on your company’s bottom line with just one mention. When comments are constructive it is easy to love media coverage, but when it’s not positive, it’s easy to become defensive and want to engage in pointless dialogue with the journalist or media outlet which is a no win situation for you and your company. Whether you have an amazing publicist or not, knowing some basics will help you prepare for your day in the spotlight and have a successful interview.

It’s important to remember the goal when securing a media interviews: 1) Clearly convey your company’s mission and message. 2) Build awareness about you and/or your company, products and/or events. 3) Sell products and/or services. 4) Influence consumer behavior.

 To make the best impression the following are fundamental to your success and opens the possibility for the media outlet to seek your outlook in future articles or segments.

Be Authentic. If you don’t believe what you are saying neither will the audience. Consumers are smart and don’t forget you are still a consumer. Ask yourself, “Do I believe what I am saying?”

Be Present. Nothing is worse than trying to talk or listen to someone who distracted. Make sure you give the interview your utmost attention.

Be In Control of Your Message, Demeanor and Gestures.  A) Tailor your message for the specific audience of the media outlet for which you are speaking.  B) Keep your message to no more than four key points so you don’t confuse the audience. C) Don’t be the fast talking-arm throwing guest who comes across as wacky (think Nadya Suleman, the mother of octuplets and six other children, and her appearance on ABC’s “The View.” Click here to watch the clip.)

Use Everyday Language. Unless you are a theoretical physicist like Dr. Michio Kaku speaking about the complexities of a nuclear meltdown or the space-time continuum, keep it simple.

Do Your Homework.  Check out the media outlet before your interview to get a sense of structure and style and know positions of  your competitors.

Practice Makes Perfect. Rehearse out loud until it rolls off your tongue like second nature.

This is just the basics to help you prepare for an interview and successfully meet communication goals from per-interview to interview. If you would like more information on in-depth training send an email to Adrienne@2girlsconsulting.com