Talk the Talk: Tips for Effective Communication

Agenda

It’s more about listening

Firstly in order to clearly and efficiently communicate with others you must first

understand who they are

Do your research

Understand the environments your target audience operate in

Communicating clearly

Speaking with confidence

Active listening (Ensure you listen (that means don’t talk) and repeat back what

you heard)

Body language

Getting your message across so it can be heard

Knowing your platforms – multi-channel communications world.

Effective communication

It’s is all about LISTENING then

speaking.

The business of living—our work, our

actions, our relationships with friends,

associates, and customers—is

accomplished through speaking and

listening.

It is through language, through those

acts of speaking and listening, that life

really happens—in the side rooms, the

hallways, the relaxed spaces of being

human.

Clear communication is how life is lived

and business is done – possibility is

created through a conversation.

The audience

Whether you are wanting to communicate with one or many

It’s still all a conversation

One way communication is telling, selling, yelling and there is

little place for it in the new world of integrated media

A single message pushed out to an audience will no longer

do the job – that’s not engagement

Understand who you are speaking to

To clearly and efficiently communicate with others you must first understand who they are

Do your research (whether an individual, a company or a target market)

What are their habits? (places, media, work)

What drives them?

Where do they hang out?

Where do they go online?

Build a profile

Your

Customer / Client

What is their profile

What are their media

habits

Identify their

needs and wants

Social media user?

General online

habits

What is their language

What is their style / status

Our inner voice We are essentially in conversations with ourselves

most all the time— conversations about what’s going

well and what’s not, what others think, what we think,

how we feel, the invariable ‘what ifs’, how abouts, are

you kiddings? etc. That voiceover, that running stream

of thinking and history and rumination, is not

necessarily bad—it’s just sometimes we’re so

unaware.

Consider:

Often you think your listening but your not – actually

you’re listening to what you are thinking as a result of

what ‘they’ are saying vs what they are actually

saying.

As soon as they speak you start thinking about how it

relates to you and what you should say next.

Be aware of your inner voice

Often we listen only through the filter of what’s in

our heads, what we’ve already decided.

If you are aware of what that is you have the chance

to change it.

Listening purely to what is being said takes practice

and self awareness.

Listen in now to yours –

What have you already decided about

the person next to you? What are you

thinking about being here?

Communicating clearly

Prepare

What are you trying to achieve in the

conversation?

Be clear on your key messages

What do you want them to be left with?

What do you want them to remember?

Clear, non-jargon based language

Do not make assumptions on what they

already know

Be efficient – don’t use 100 words when 10

will do

Be comfortable in the silence.

Active listening

So, back to the “listening” part.

Bottom line, how we listen is essentially determined by our concerns

Being successful, being liked, wanting to know what’s in it for us, how things will turn out. We can’t really listen to another when we’re preoccupied with our concerns. Listening without those predispositions, preoccupations, and filters has enormous power.

Active listening is creating a space for understanding.

Listening without filters is the staple of corporate success—in the new media, listening is probably the most important factor in the toolbox.

Active listening is what allows others to be heard — it’s where both the speaker and what is spoken come alive, exist, and flourish.

True listening allows others to be great and a new possibility to be seen.

Active listening

Now

Listen to your inner voice

Be aware and let it go

3 mins each way

Actively listen to the person next you tell you why they came

along today

What they are struggling with in communication or want to

improve

That person say about 3 core points.

3 mins

Now speak back to them why

Tell them the main reason and what you heard

Observe only.

Speaking to be heard Now to the “speaking” part.

Speaking is more than just talking, more than the exchange of symbols or information,

more than persuasion or saying what we really think, more than just a vehicle for

describing something.

Through speaking you are able to have people see a possibility in something, a new

way of thinking or doing things, a different future.

In the act of speaking you can reshape the course of events through a conversation.

But you must speak in their language

so they can hear you.

Mimic their image and body language

so they feel comfortable

Be aware of your inner voice.

Speaking to be heard

Now explain to them something you have seen in the

conversation we have had so far that can help them with one

of the core reasons them came along today

What I heard was …. this is what I have seen….

Give each other some feedback also

on how they listened to you.

Body language

Be aware of how you look to people, ask

others how you look and how you occur.

Take this on: Interview 10 people across

your life and practice listening!

Be prepared to adapt aspects of yourself

that shock you.

Be aware of what emotions are going on for

you and how they might show on your face

(& on the phone, even in your written word).

Be aware of your how you stand or sit.

Handshakes, gestures, all have an impact.

Speaking with confidence

Having the confidence to speak up is all about preparation.

Be sure you know exactly what you want to say and the outcome you want.

Know the audience.

Believe in yourself, let go of the inner voice, be passionate.

Such clarity, about what you want to say, how it relates to others, and why people

should believe in your message - drives and fuels PASSION in them .

Allow the silence in the conversation.

Leave them with a powerful reason to take action.

Check your arrogance monitor.

This is engagement.

Engagement

Engagement - don’t preach or sell.

A two way communication.

Speak into a listening, to do this …

First understand what they are

listening for!

So know the brief, know the target

market.

Creates trust.

If you’re trying to engage someone, you

really need to believe in yourself before

what you say becomes believable.

Communicating cross platform

What about the one to many

scenario?

People on average must see or

hear a message 7 times to

remember it.

It also needs to cut through the

1000s of messages we receive

every day

So understand the media and the

style you’re communicating in

Multiple platforms - now we have

to understand how to adapt to each

Multiple Platforms and Channels

Print (magazines, newspapers)

Online magazines & blogs

Outdoor, billboards, cinema

TV: Free to air, PayTV, Digital, Internet TV

Radio: there are 100s of stations in Qld

alone and now digital radio

Branded websites

Aggregate websites

YouTube

iPhone apps

Social media such as

Facebook

MySpace, Google Plus

Linkedin, Twitter

Print media

One to many communication

Advertising

Must be clear on the message

Single proposition

Unique positioning

The level of TRUST in advertising has dropped below 11%

Editorial is more trusted

The best PR’s can write in a style that suits the publication they are

targeting by understanding the audience

Again it’s all about knowing the style, the language and the tone of the

target audience.

Digital media

Websites, mobile apps, email, eNews

Responsive design across platforms, allow for how your

audience wants to receive it – responds to them

Needs to be innovative, be edgy, be different

Highly targeted messaging

User generated content

Be relevant

Don’t over complicate.

Social media

50% of the population use Facebook, and 23% of

them check it more than 5 times daily

10 million Aussies are on Twitter

4 million Aussies have a LinkedIn profile

5 million photos are loaded onto Instagram worldwide

every hour

The power is in conversation, engagement and

support

Know the channel intimately

Don’t be on it unless you do!

Facebook

Posts between 100 and 250 characters

Share photos / images, videos, links, valuable relevant

content that can be shared, competitions

Not just about selling, but should be something that relates

to your brand and to what the audience are interested in

Allows your brand to be more personable

Engage in a conversation

Create relationship

Better to have less fans who are engaged.

Twitter Younger demographic, only 140 characters, use of hashtags

Ok to use abbreviations, ok to repeat tweets

Tweets don’t sell a product but they encourage brand

followers to buy a product down the road

Great to create thought leadership, announce blogs

Great to get a message out to the journalists in your

industry

Live tweeting at events, announcing sales

Customer service opportunity

56% of customers tweets to companies are being ignored yet it is

a opportunity for great customer service!

50% of customers will give a brand 1 week to reply before they

stop doing business.

Linkedin

Business orientated

Professional profiles

Company pages

Jobs and new roles

More formal and more about your business activity

Brands can advertise directly to highly targeted

prospects

Sharing intelligent content - presentations, blogs and

articles

Creates trust amongst those your linked with.

Check back in

So whether it’s one on one or one to many

Never assume people think how you think

Or hear what you hear

Ask them what they heard

Listen and check that it is what you intended

Remember they will have their own filters and internal

conversations going on from the moment you walked through the

door, sent the email, wrote the post or sent out the mailer

What conversation are you having with yourself now?