Sometimes in our quest to get a message out quickly, we lose site of some of the key elements of what makes that message meaningful to its intended audience. It’s easy to get in that “Just the facts, ma’am” mode without taking a holistic look at the overall message. That got me thinking about the anatomy of an effective message. Like human anatomy, a message has many layers that are all interconnected to one another and should connect back to the heart of your organization. The skeletal frame of the message is the who, what, where, when, why and how. Answering those questions is key. But there’s more to an effective message than that. Here is a checklist you can use with some key questions to ask yourself when you write a message.
Function: Is the goal to inform, persuade, take action?
Clarity: Will the message make sense to the target audience? Is it vague? Might it be read another way? Did you remove jargon?
Flow: Is it logical? Do all of your points relate to one another?
Connectivity: How does the message relate to the big picture? How does it relate to the company’s vision, strategic priorities, employees’ jobs?
Vitality: Did you bring the message to life through examples, stories or visuals to resonate with employees?
Purity: Is there too much information? Did you stray from the key points? Anything you can eliminate?
Voice: Does the tone “speak” to your intended audience using the voice of your brand?
Checkup: Did someone representing the intended audience review before you send it out?
It’s a cardinal sin but I still see it all the time: photographers shooting interviews of someone against a white wall. The white wall sometimes is built of bricks, which adds the sophisticated texture of a street alley. Others shoot against a green wall, technically known as a green screen. The weather forecaster lives against the green screen. He’s looking at a green wall behind him, not a wall of expensive, consultant-approved graphics, maps and numbers.
Some companies will produce a video for your business by placing you against a green screen. It’s pretty easy. Just stand in front of the green screen, talk for a minute or two about your company and watch your logo or other video magically appear behind you when you receive the final product. This approach also might save you some green.
You would never promote your business as a cookie cutter company. You stand out from the competition. You find ways to set yourself apart. Why play the role of weatherman and stand in front of a green screen like 30 other businesses did before you?
Green screens serve their purposes, but telling a business’ story is not one of them. Shoot your video at your business. Find an interesting background. Get visual. Show your place in action. What happens behind the scenes? Who are the characters who make your company click?
If your job is standing around in one spot all day with nothing more than a PowerPoint presentation, maybe you can justify green lighting a green screen video. But I bet even that type of boss has something more interesting to show potential customers.
An HR manager in a satellite office sends an email to employees about changes in building security stemming from a corporate office mandate. The tone of her email is hostile and employees feel like children being chided by a teacher. They didn’t do anything wrong but the email makes them feel that way by including warnings about things to avoid – all starting with “DO NOT…”
The tone of employee communications directly reflects the relationship an organization has with its employees. And in this case, the HR manager’s email indeed reflects the employer/employee relationship and a lack of established tone or voice of the corporate brand. (Turns out, we have never seen any evidence of an established brand voice for this company.)
Writing Tone
The tone of your communications piece is as vital as the content of the message. With so many different communication channels in the world today, including emails, memos, newsletters, social media posts, it’s easy for ideas and intentions to be misconstrued. If it can’t be shared with the world, don’t even put it in writing and send it out. Here are some helpful points to keep in mind. The tone of your business communications should be:
Accurate – Review all statements and facts for accuracy before sharing them.
Professional – Avoid personal remarks or inappropriate comments.
Positive – Avoid disparaging remarks, negative comments and using ALL CAPS which often comes off as yelling.
Polite – Don’t include rude requests or make demands. Treat others like you would want to be treated.
Open – Be as open as you can be in your communications. Being vague or unclear can cause miscommunication or start rumors.
Consistent – Sending mixed messages can make you appear disorganized or dishonest. If there’s a change in message content, it’s important to address the previous communications in your new piece.
Clear – Jargon, slang and acronyms are okay if you are sure that your audience will understand your meaning.
Before you push the send or publish button, review the tone of your piece to make sure that it represents your intentionsand is consistent with helping to build a compliant culture that achieves your company’s strategic priorities and objectives. Also, ask at least one colleague to review your piece before you send it.
Does your company have a distinct writing tone that reflects your brand’s characteristics? What steps does your company take to make sure communications reflect it?
Subscribe via email to our blog, join us on Facebook & follow us on Twitter.
The job interview is the face of your employment brand to prospective employees. It can either breathe life into your brand or extinguish any sparks that attract an applicant to your company in the first place.
A woman gets a call for an interview with a company where she applied for a job. She asks the recruiter who calls her what the title is of the person who will be interviewing her. The recruiter doesn’t seem to be certain. Red flag no. 1. She also asks the recruiter if she will interview with anyone else and she is told no.
Now it’s interview time. There are a total of six people sitting around a board room table waiting to interview her. Red flag no. 2. They say their names without any explanation of what they do. Red flag no. 3.
The woman who appears to be heading the interview (the only person the applicant thought she would interview with) gives a bare bones overview of the company.
The people around the table take turns reading awkwardly-worded questions. Red flag no. 4. The first question is one that appears to be out of sequence: Give an example of when someone in the same room said something that was unpopular and what was your reaction?
The interview continues and some of the questions include several questions in one. And sometimes the interviewers seem to be confused by them. Red flag no. 5.
The woman leading the interview indicates they are pressed for time and have to finish. There is barely time for the applicant to ask questions. What number red flag are we on here? At this point she is left with more questions than answers. On the way back to the lobby with the interview leader, the applicant asks a question to determine this person’s role. (She didn’t have time in the interview and the woman never volunteered information about herself.) She confirms the applicant’s suspicion: She isn’t even an employee – she is a consultant! Red flag no. … Oh forget it.
The applicant walks away from this experience with a bad taste in her mouth. The more she thinks about the interview, the angrier she feels about the whole thing. She is turned off. The interview extinguished any interest she had of working for this company.
She describes the process as robotic. The questions didn’t give her a chance to get to her experience and the essence of who she is. She didn’t get to know much at all about the people interviewing her. She didn’t get a feel for the culture and what makes the company a great place to work other than its cafeteria and on-site fitness center.
What should this company have done differently? Trained their employees to interview or at the very least provide some guidelines. Offer key messages that reflect the employment brand. And those awkward interview questions! Sure companies have key competencies or success factors they seek in their applicants, but clearly worded interview questions could have done a much better job gauging the desired skills.
Please share your thoughts. What does your company do to ensure the job interview process is an authentic reflection of its employer brand? Do hiring managers have the tools they need to conduct effective interviews?
Subscribe via email to our blog, join us on Facebook & follow us on Twitter.
Part 3 in a series: Keith speaks to the Phoenix Public Library’s Leadership Academy participants about why if you put on way too much makeup, he may Tweet about you.
Part 2 in a series: Keith spoke to the Phoenix Public Library’s Leadership Academy participants about embracing and responding to social media comments that are not always positive. Here is some of what he said:
Keith spoke to the Phoenix Public Library’s Leadership Academy participants on the topic of “Innovation in 21st Century Organizations.” Wow! That’s a mouthful. But here is some of what he said about social media.
A marketing coordinator pitched me a story about a doctor who had appeared on Good Morning America (GMA) and other popular TV programs. (I assume the “other popular TV programs” were news broadcasts, not reality TV or primetime sitcoms.) I had heard of Good Morning America. That’s a national broadcast. That’s pretty cool. I get it.
The marketer put his client’s past appearances in the very first line of his pitch. So I also assume he thought a Good Morning America mention was his strongest selling point to immediately grab my attention and persuade me to read more. Actually, it’s not uncommon for PR pros to try to impress reporters with a resume of appearances. But information such as this never really impressed me. It made me hesitate and ask myself a question: Do I want to air a story that’s already been aired?
When you pitch clients, I figure you’ve already ensured they won’t put viewers to sleep or talk in a language forcing us to consult our dictionary app. It’s not important to me the client already passed that litmus test with Good Morning America. It’s not important to me GMA considered the client’s story newsworthy. What I do know is when TV producers and managers hear the story already aired elsewhere, they often make a face as if tasting bad medicine. Sometimes they’re willing to swallow it. Sometimes not. But when I looked down a conference table of cynical journalists, I didn’t want to hear “Yes. I saw that story on [fill in the blank.]
Maybe a GMA appearance deserves a mention somewhere in the pitch but not the first line. And maybe not at all. I’ve lost count of the number of times marketers or clients themselves tried to seal the deal with me by name dropping previous appearances. Instead they sealed their fate.
The pitch for the client with the GMA appearance under his TV belt actually was successful with me. But that’s because the issue was new and fresh, not because I was wowed at the very chance of being in the presence of someone who appeared on a national stage. Choose carefully when deciding when to name drop. Most journalists understand they’re probably not your first. But they like to think they are. And often the last thing they wish to hear is you shouting out someone else’s name.
Tell us what you think. Do you name drop? How well does it work?
Subscribe via email to our blog, join us on Facebook & follow us on Twitter.
It’s a cardinal sin but I still see it all the time: photographers shooting interviews of someone against a white wall. The white wall sometimes is built of bricks, which adds the sophisticated texture of a street alley. Others shoot against a green wall, technically known as a green screen. The weather forecaster lives against the green screen. He’s looking at a green wall behind him, not a wall of expensive, consultant-approved graphics, maps and numbers.
