LISTEN LOUDER
There is a particular kind of communications advice that seems to be everywhere these days: More.
More social media. More content. More clicks and likes. More impressions. More influencers. More video. More visibility.
When something isn't working, the knee-jerk instinct is often to turn up the volume. More visitors! More points! More thumbs up! More comments! There is a very Charlie and the Chocolate Factory sense to the demand - sweeten it up, be more provocative, add more color, more shine.
Sometimes that's exactly right. If you're selling a product, launching a new service or trying to get someone's attention in a crowded marketplace, reach and repetition can be incredibly effective.
But public opinion is different.
People aren't simply waiting to be persuaded. Most are plugged into channels that give them a steady stream of information they've shaped through their own interests and engagement, and they're pretty comfortable with it. That's why they may experience your "more!" and "louder!" as nothing more than smoke and mirrors.
People are savvy. They bring experience, skepticism, loyalties, assumptions and a pretty good sense of when someone is trying very hard to convince them of something. Lucky for them, the tool they're using most of the time lets them remove what they don't want with a twitch of a finger.
Sometimes, when we see the same polished message everywhere, the reaction isn't, they must really know what they're doing.
It's, who is paying for all of this?
Or worse, what are they trying to sell me?
More communication can create more awareness, but it doesn't necessarily create more trust.
That's why I think good communications strategy starts with some basic questions. What are we trying to accomplish? Do people need more information? Do they understand the issue? Do they trust the organization? Is the problem the message, or is it the thing behind the message? Are we talking to the people who can actually influence what happens? And if we are, are they hearing us?
I love that when putting together communications documents, I get to pick the little icons that signal the theme I want to write about. For communications, sometimes that is a megaphone and a mouth, or a box with sound waves emanating away from it. But just as often, it's an ear.
Communications is two-way.
And this is the part I think we sometimes forget. A wonderful truth in modern times is that sometimes the answer is not more. It's actually to stop yelling for a minute to figure out if your audience is listening.
I've spent much of my career working on issues where the audience isn't simply making a purchase decision. They're deciding whether to trust an organization, support a policy, accept a change, believe a leader or give an institution the benefit of the doubt.
They're often wondering, will this one be different? Or, haven't we done this before? Or, why this when this other thing is a far bigger problem for me?
Those decisions are complicated. They are rarely made because someone saw the same message 17 times.
Good communications isn't always about being louder than everyone else. It's about being understood and being credible enough that people are willing to listen.