Category: Communication

Holiday Greetings that Make a Difference

Posted on by Linda Anger

You’re seeing it already: the arrival of “Happy Holidays” messages filling your email box, each with some variation of the same message:

Sincerest wishes for hope, happiness and peace during this Holiday Season and throughout the coming year.

It’s canned, it’s boring, and it rarely feels “sincere,” especially when you know it has come to you via an email distribution service, and that you’ve received it only because your email address has been added to a list.

How to Make a Difference

    • Buy a box of holiday cards that fit your business style, to be sent to people on your “A” list.  HAND WRITE a personal message inside: “Dear Joe & Joan: hope your annual ski trip takes you to new heights!” or “Dear Mark: Saw the photo of your new son on Facebook. Congratulations!”
    • HAND ADDRESS the envelopes. Yes, you do have time. Write and address a few cards each day. No one said it has to be done all at once.
    • For the “B” list, buy more cards. Have your administrative assistant create mailing labels. Sign the cards. Really, just do it – you can sign your name to a few at a time when you take a five-minute break from a project, or while you’re watching TV.
    • For the “C” list, write a generic – but not sterile – message, and send it via whatever mail delivery service you use – Constant Contact, iContact, and MailChimp are three options. Just make sure you remove the “A” and “B” list people from this group before you hit “send.”

The Results

If your relationship with your clients is like mine, your phone will ring, or you will find personal “thank you” messages in your email box. Either is an opportunity for a brief, personal conversation that people will remember long after the eggnog is gone and the tree lights stowed in the garage.

Give your greetings the personal touch this year, and carry the practice into the new year.

It will make a difference in your business.

 

Networking Shortage Predicted

Posted on by Linda Anger

Saturday morning, 6 a.m., I’m scanning news articles in my email box. The first headline to catch my attention reads:

Networking Skills Shortage To Continue Through 2014.

“Hhhmmm… that’s curious,” I thought. Networking training is everywhere, and most people I meet are at least reasonably good at expressing the essence of their business. So, how can a number cruncher predict the world would be “short” of networking skills for another three years?

I read the opening paragraph three times before I looked at the news digest banner, and realized the article was about computer networking – routers and switchers and those other mysterious things I simply don’t comprehend.

I admit I was sleepy, and still in my pajamas. Still, this laughable moment had a point.

The headline of the article was appropriate for the venue in which it was published and the article fully proved the author’s point. The disconnect was in my brain. I translated the headline and opening words relative to my own life and experience, and it was a totally silly misinterpretation.

The Moral of the Story?

Miscommunication happens even with what you might think are the most innocent words and phrases. As you write your next article, email, or letter, be mindful of the various ways in which even common words could be interpreted – or misinterpreted. Choose your words carefully, make clarity your primary focus, and take misinterpretation in stride.

And never read the news in your pajamas.

The Death of Traditional Publishing

Posted on by Linda Anger

“I am very happy not to be sitting as the CEO of Harper Collins,” Jane Friedman said in an interview with NPR about her new company, Open Road Integrated Media. “Because as the CEO of a legacy publishing company, you are the CEO of basically two companies: one is physical and one is digital.”

The phrase, “legacy publishing company” twisted in my brain.

Way back at the turn of century, we talked about “legacy” systems —those dinosaur systems that were the grandfather of modern technology but are no longer taught in schools or used in the business world.

Are traditional publishers — those with venerable New York offices and impossible-to-penetrate-without-an-agent walls — the new dinosaurs, teetering on the brink of extinction, slowly being outshone and outsold by their upstart digital children?

Not completely, says Friedman, who once was the CEO of HarperCollins, and now sits at the helm of a company focused on e-publishing. They’ve started off with e-versions of backlist books (I’ve just purchased the uncensored version of James Jones WWII novel, From Here to Eternity, for my Sony Reader), but is moving into what they call “e-riginals,” which are books appearing only in digital format.

I responded to Friedman’s interview with delight and trepidation. Delight, because in my business I turn manuscripts into e-books through editing and page compositing. Trepidation, because while I carry my Sony Reader with me everywhere, I still have shelves full of “dead tree” books that I love to hold, that carry a certain scent, and that I can flip through without pushing buttons or tapping screens. I find that I retain information from print books much more than I retain from e-books, so I read novels in e-format, but reference books, business books, important books, I want in hard copy.

I love technology, and at the same time, hate to see the old ways disappear.

Maybe I’m half dinosaur myself.

How to Be Smarter Than You Look

Posted on by Linda Anger

So there you are, at a networking event or a business meeting, eying a couple across the room. He has a gym-perfect physique, a crisp designer suit, and carefully manicured hands. She has a few extra pounds, a button missing on her blouse, and a hairstyle that hasn’t changed since sometime in the 1980s.

Which of the two is smarter?

The bad news: We are judged by our appearance.
The good news: We are respected for our brains.

Looking smart feels great, is great—but being smart is the icing on the cake.

These five simple practices will boost your “smart” rating:

  1. Boost Your Vocabulary: Crack open that dusty dictionary or thesaurus. Commit to learning and using one new word each day. Bookmark http://wordsmith.org/awad/ in your browser, or sign up for their “word a day” emails. Learn correct pronunciations, spelling, and context.
  2. Ask Questions: Benjamin Franklin said, “Humility makes great men twice honorable.” Focusing the conversation on what the other person knows and asking respectful questions achieves two things: It gives you an opportunity to learn even when you think you already know it all, and it engages the other person in their favorite topic—themselves.
  3. Read Good Books: If time is an issue, carry a book or e-Reader with you—read a few paragraphs or pages while you’re in the waiting room. Commit to reading two or three pages each day, or listen to books on tape. Buy magazines on topics with which you are not familiar—it will help you broaden your knowledge.
  4. Speak Simply: Increasing your vocabulary amplifies your ability to communicate, but obscure words, jumbo words or industry lingo confuse the conversation. Sadly, most American adults read at an 8th grade level. Use simple, ordinary words, and gauge your word choices on the “pomposity factor.” Never use a three syllable word when a two syllable word will do, and never use a two syllable word when a single syllable word gets your point across.
  5. Listen More than you Speak: William Shakespeare said, “All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players.” No one likes a conversation hog. Practice your listening skills, speak simply and concisely, and understand your role in the theater of the moment.

Being smart is the icing on the cake!

 

Sentenced to Death

Posted on by Linda Anger

Technology gives us the ability to post and retrieve information in a jiffy. But, too often, the pearls of wisdom are buried in mountains of unnecessary sentences.

As tempting as it may be to whip out a draft and send it flying across the internet, don’t do it. Your communications will be more powerful, and more clearly understood, if you learn a few tricks used by writers and editors to keep readers from being “sentenced” to death.

3 Tips for Editing and Minding your Words:

  1. Cut Transitions. Get rid of phrases like, “for instance.” Just state your example.
  2. Shorten Sentences. Dividing rambling thoughts into smaller, simpler sentences results in crisper expression.
  3. Helper Verbs Don’t Help. Use the present tense whenever possible. Examine every may, or might, or other “helpers” for relevance and necessity.

The Law of Attraction

The Law of Attraction says those things on which we dwell—and particularly those things that come out of our mouths—become our reality. Every thought we think is a “sentence” we impose on ourselves.

It’s cool that we can choose whether we sentence ourselves to positivism or negativity… and when you put it that way, who would consciously choose the latter?

As Mike Dooley of Tut.com says: Thoughts Become Things… Choose the Good Ones!

 

Four Business Card Blunders

Posted on by Linda Anger

When calling cards first appeared in France during the 17th-century reign of Louis XIV, they were used as symbols of aristocratic position. The higher the position in court or society, the more impressive the calling card, and the more sophisticated the rules governing their use.

Four hundred years later, calling cards are no longer a luxury reserved for royalty, but a business necessity whose roles and rules shift based on culture and fashion. But one thing remains constant: the psychological impact of visual appeal and readability.

Four Business Card Blunders that Lower your Credibility:

  1. No Physical Address. One of the blessings of technology is that we can live and work anywhere in the world… but people are skittish about doing business with someone they can’t physically track down. A post office box is better than no address, and will add a subconscious level of credibility to your business.
  2. Huge Graphics and Tiny Print. Your name and contact information should be the focal elements of your card. If your logo dominates the space and forces a small type size to fit the text in, your card will end up in the trash. Most people don’t carry magnifying glasses.
  3. Single-Sided Printing. You’re paying for the paper, and the back side of your card is valuable real estate. Use it for a larger display of your logo, website address, or specific information on your company.
  4. Obvious DIY Job. No matter how hard you try, a homemade business card can’t compete with professional design and commercial printing.  Invest in a professional design that will support your company image for five to seven years, and a quality paper.

In the 17th century, people kept calling cards as proof that an influential person had come to visit. They were, in a sense, as much a symbol of the recipient’s social standing as they were of the caller’s status. We’re a bit less formal with them now, given the low cost of producing cards and the mountains of them we collect each year. But the questions still remain: What is the psychological significance of your business card? Do people have reason to keep it? Does it serve you in furthering your business image?

If not, perhaps you should give us a call.

The One-Word Difference

Posted on by Linda Anger

When William Shakespeare penned Romeo’s famous line, What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet, he invoked a universal truth —how you perceive a thing is more important and more powerful than the name you assign it.

Most of the time, that is.

But as Frank Luntz, head of the Luntz Research Companies in Washington, D.C. points out, choosing one word over another can make a huge difference in how your company is perceived.  In his book Words that Work, Luntz shares statistics and insights from the political arena that also apply to the business world:

“… by almost two-to-one, Americans say we are spending too much on welfare (42 percent) rather than too little (23 percent). Yet an overwhelming 68 percent of Americans think we are spending too little on assistance to the poor, versus a mere 7 percent who think we’re spending too much.”

As Luntz points out, welfare is assistance to the poor. The difference in public response is in the positioning and phrasing. Welfare has a negative connotation. Assistance to the Poor sounds compassionate and charitable.  His results were similar in a survey regarding taxes to further law enforcement versus taxes to halt the rising crime rate. While the terms essentially point to the same thing, one was viewed as increased administrative costs, and the other as achieving a desirable result – making our world safer.

Back to Business

How your customers view your product or service is directly related to the words and phrases you choose to use in marketing and advertising, just as public opinion is swayed by the conscious word choices of politicians. According to Luntz, for example, accountability trumps professionalism and responsibility because it is the only one of the three that implies enforcement. Learn to weigh the impact of your words and designs carefully, and you’ll soon find that attending to Shakespeare’s question, What’s in a name? can make a difference in your sales, and help you turn thorns into roses.

 

What She Really Meant to Say

Posted on by Linda Anger

What do you suppose Meg Whitman, CEO of eBay, really meant when she said she was “encouraged by the fundamentals that underlie usage growth on the net”?

A)  She believes eBay is more popular than ever
B)  She’s glad Internet technology is growing
C)  She’s happy more people are using the net

In keeping with Ms. Whitman’s language choices, I have to say that I am discouraged by the fundamentals that underlie usage of obscure communications in business. That is, I’m sad that so many business people are more concerned with sounding intellectual than they are with communicating clearly.

Simplicity is the name of the game in getting your message across, and in the end, it’s not what you say that matters. What your client or prospect hears is the critical factor.

Five Guidelines for Clear Messaging:

  1. Avoid words that require a dictionary for interpretation. Few people will bother to look them up.
  2. Use short sentences. Try to keep each sentence under 20 words. Break longer thoughts into multiple sentences.
  3. Make your message relevant. If what you say doesn’t matter to your intended audience, you will not be heard.
  4. Find a clear, concise message and stick with it.
  5. Do not assume your reader thinks and believes as you do.

In the end, language is a tool used to inform and enlighten. The simple choice between one word and another really does make a difference in how your message is understood.

As Dr. Frank Luntz says in his book Words that Work, we need to make people the center of our communication, not the target.