Tag: Public Relations

Posted in Article, Business, Career, Leadership, Self development

Article: Effective Communication

Posted on by @bravepublicity

Friendships, relationships, businesses and communities are built on communication. Without the ability to communicate, the world will be in disarray, filled with much misunderstanding, breeding loneliness and possibly the exasperation of being misunderstood or judged wrongly.

Effective communication is what makes systems, structures and our relations with others work out smoothly. It is an essential factor for long lasting relationships.
It is such a powerful skill that aids conflict resolution, strengthens bonds between nations, people, and changes the perspective of long standing disputes and disagreements between people or communities.

Life circumstances become better as a result of effective communication. However, the application of this very essential soft skill is based on established understanding and relevance, a skill not many have mastered.

When the value of a skill is established, only then does it appeal to those in need of it. This is so about effective communication.

Does it really hold that much value?
Can it be obtained and mastered by all?
Does it really have the power to resolve conflicts and end long standing wars?

What does “Effective Communication” really mean?

To put to rest some of these questions, let’s explore the definition and attributes that make up the phrase, “Effective Communication.”

Let’s begin with the word ‘Communication’.
‘Communication’ means to exchange information through speaking, writing or some other form of medium. It is also the act of conveying meanings from one entity or group to another, through the use of mutually understood signs, symbols, and semiotic rules.

‘Effective’ means to reach an optimal level, a peak of excellent delivery or performance.

In order words, ‘Effective Communication’ means, exchange of information between parties at an optimal level, where the entities or groups involved have mutual understanding of what is being conveyed and can respond accordingly.

So, effective communication is only established when all parties involved are able to create mutual, accurate and clear understanding of what is conveyed.

Some defining attributes make this possible and without them, it is often impossible to have effective communication and they include these four broad features: Conversation, Sound, Cues and Action.

Let’s examine each of them for more insight.

Conversation

To establish excellent or effective communication. The conversation or message being conveyed needs to be understood by both or all parties involved.
A conversation that is one sided with decisions being set in motion by one party, is an enforcement, not a mutual agreement. Both or all involved must have mutual understanding of the dialogue.

When this is absent, effective communication cannot be achieved and this involves active and attentive listening. This means, listening to respond accurately to the message being conveyed, not just listening to speak in turn.

This is a challenge for many people and organizational leaders, and so the result is, effective communication is never established, breeding dissatisfaction with all involved in the conversation.

In a dialogue, the focal point, challenge or objective must be identified and acknowledged by all involved and then satisfactory solutions and actions can be established.
This is only possible when attentive and active listening is put in play, when conversations and meetings are held.

Sound

Sound gives meaning to a message and strengthens conversations. It is essential in establishing excellent or effective communication, when used appropriately. Sound in terms of the ‘Voice’ and ‘Tone’ of a message, whether spoken, written or conveyed via art or creativity.

The established tone or voice can ultimately determine the meaning of the message being conveyed. It could be deciphered as either compassionate, hostile, mild, suggestive, derogatory, exhilarating, cheerful, gloomy, heated, commanding, weak, strong, assertive, guarded and the list goes on.

Many people, institutions, nations or communities have been able to establish excellent or poor communication, hence developing amazing or terrible relationships as a result of the choice of voice and tone.

This is very critical factor, as interpretation of conversations are often made based on the perceived tone or voice by the conveyor of any message.

Also many great writers have gained mastery of this very important skill in the act of communication, artistically infusing the appropriate voice and tone with their words, creating excellent publications across a genre of books that have stood the test of time and have attracted great readership and rewards.

The ability to identify the appropriate tone or voice for use in various dialogue circumstances or deduce what is being received from others, ultimately helps one understand accurately any conversation. It also helps one identify improvement opportunities for effective communication in active discussions or feedback.

Cues

Cues are so essential in communication and they include verbal and non-verbal cues. These can be easily decrypted from time lapses and body language.

Time lapses, a pause in a conversation, verbal or written (a presence of silence for a period or a written symbol for a dialogue expressed in written words) is often indicative of something, usually an impression or meaning the conveyor wants one to decipher.

Such time lapses could mean disinterest, disregard, a plea for understanding and reconsideration, fear, anger, permission to hear out the other person or party, a gentle nudge towards reflection or appraisal, etc. regarding an already established dialogue or an on going conversation.

Time lapses are typically applied to strengthening an impression regarding information that has already been laid bare by a conveyor.  That pause or silence often carries a weight and has meaning in an ongoing conversation.

In the same vein, the body language of a conveyor or the parties involved also expresses and strengthens the meaning of a message, often combined with or without voiced expressions.

The body language may express, pain, weariness, passion, anger, joy, excitement and a variety of emotions that eventually makes a conveyed message more accurately deciphered.

The entire context and content of such conversations enables one to identify differences and the real meaning that should be deduced from such a dialogue.

Actions

For effective communication, one of the most credible ways of deducing if a dialogue has reached a point of mutual understanding by both parties is by the actions that follow.

If the actions that follow are satisfactory and correspond with the resolutions and agreement by all parties or the conveyor of a message in a dialogue, then one can say that effective communication has been established. If not, what may ensue is a lot of friction and resistance.

Many times, individuals pay attention to only what is being said, without paying close attention to the actions that follow as well. In corporate environments as well as social circles, this plays out all the time. When one pays close attention to actions that follow any conversation, then one can understand accurately what is being communicated.

However, it is important to note that these four (4) highlighted features work in harmony and the application or interpretation of just one or some from an active discourse may lead to wrong conclusions regarding a message or due to poor communication.

But when all of these features are applied in sync, it helps in accuracy, clarity, mutual agreement and ultimately, effective communication.

I hope you found this article to be insightful and helpful.
Thank you for reading.

Article by Opeolu Adeyemi.
Corporate Communications and Public Relations Consultant
Founder, Brave Publicity Ink!

Posted in Article, Business, Career, Corporate Communications, Entrepreneurship, Public Relations, Strategy

Article: Working Virtually.

Posted on by @bravepublicity

Organization and a well rested mind is key to achieving success as a virtual worker or coordinator.

Today’s jobs no longer entail just physical coordination, but also a handful of virtual responsibilities, since a lot of job roles are beginning to get more automated and entail a lot of digital tools and applications for successful operations.

For a person whose sole work entails virtual coordination or for a person who has a mix of both virtually responsibilities and physical responsibilities, some ground rules and balance have to be established in order to achieve success.

Here are seven (7) things to consider:

Structure:

Just like a physical workplace, your virtual work place also needs to be well structured to function optimally.

From the devices needed for your execution, to the resources and tools such as the internet, power supply, your work space and furniture, applications and software that are required to get the work done.

The state of all of these determines if you will experience less stress while working. If these are all in good condition, it influences and enhances the mind’s productivity and reduces the number of hitches that may be experienced.

Coordination and Prioritization:

To stay organized virtually implies good organization and coordination.

From proper naming of files to grouping of relate items or files, to effective and clear communication about tasks to your virtual team, to prioritizing on the urgent and important tasks that need to be attended to before others, etc.

When all of these are properly aligned, it enhances greatly the success and speed of execution of tasks that you may have for each day. Creating a “To-Do-List”, scheduling tasks and setting reminders for your activities will certainly help you achieve better coordination and prioritization. 

Automation and Activities:

Working virtually can be a very huge task, especially when multiple minute tasks are lined up for execution daily.

Many of these monotonous tasks would be more enjoyable if they were automated.

It is very easy to fall into the trap of thinking these things would take very little of our time, however after a while, it can become tiring, especially with others physical tasks that need our attention come our way. It is also very easy to lose interest in the monotonous ritual and we find that some crucial details in communication may become mixed up often or lost when working virtually.

All of these can be avoided when software, applications or structures that aid automation or reduces the daily stress or responsibilities are used. Some of them include cloud services such as (Google Drive, Dropbox etc.), file sharing applications (WeTransfer, Google Drive), Content automation Services (MailChimp, Hoote Suite, Buffer etc.) and any other applications that enhance your workflow virtually.

Third parties and Team work:

Having a strong and reliable team, that understands the work process, the purpose of a project, the urgency of various task and the cooperation required for execution, is very important.

It also helps greatly if the team members are equipped with the relevant hard skills for execution.

This is very important especially for rainy days, when you need the total support of the team or their assistance in getting some things done on your behalf.

To achieve this will require effective communication, sometimes training and a lot of patience as the team grows. In the long run, time with a steady team helps you understand each member, their strengths and weaknesses.
This eventually leads to the establishment of a workflow that empowers you all to work in sync without too many corrections, back and forth conversations or confusion on how to get things done virtually.

Activity follow-up:

Working virtually can many times entail multiple communication platforms and tasks with a variety of people.

As an enabler or driver of a task, it is important to do a regular follow up regarding diverse responsibilities assigned to the people you work with virtually.

This is because as humans who have other needs that require our attention daily, we sometimes forget virtual conversations that require our input or feedback.

So, it won’t hurt to do a follow up or send a subtle reminder regarding tasks and responsibilities. This way, you would be able to meet the timeline assigned to various projects or responsibilities.

Boundaries and the close of business:

It is easy to fall into the “Superman” and “Wonder Woman” trap.

Meaning, getting caught up totally in work without adequate breaks or short walks instead of long hours sitting and other self-care routines.

Many times, we find ourselves working late into the day or night and this could sometimes be a strategy for urgent projects for short periods, but the long run effect of such a work culture is “Burn-Out” and “Ineffectiveness”.

So it is important to draw the line without guilt and set some boundaries and switch off from the work mode, like you would for a physical work place. Effective virtual work requires that these rules and boundaries be adhered to achieve success.

Some of them could include: having a check-out time from work without taking work home virtually and creating a system that accommodates your lunch breaks and other rest periods as required.

Relaxation and mental health:

Sometimes working virtually or remotely can be hard and lonely, especially when your team is located in a different geographical location or if you work alone as a consultant or an entrepreneur.

This sometimes affects your motivation to keep working effectively and consistently. So a leave from work or a period of long rest is always welcomed after a long sessions of work, because it is really important to get refreshed and get the necessary rest required for the long haul.

This time off virtual work, creates room for you to bond with friends, catch up with colleagues or with other more relaxing and fun activities. This certainly is a good investment for sound health (physically and mentally) and enhances productivity at work.

In conclusion, working virtually at optimal performance can be achieved, but not without the required efforts to ensure your virtual work experience and that of your team becomes enjoyable and effective.

The above highlights are only guides that can enhance this process, however, what counts most, is being able to have clarity of purpose and establish a virtual structure that works for you, one that is sustainable and can be replicated.

Thank you for reading.

Article by Opeolu Adeyemi.
Corporate Communications and Public Relations Consultant
Founder, Brave Publicity Ink!

Posted in Article, Career, Corporate Communications, Digital Marketing, Marketing, Public Relations, SEO

Article: SEO Tips for SMEs

Posted on by @bravepublicity

In a highly competitive environment, where bigger and more popular brands dominate various industries.
Such brands combine both SEO and SEM strategies, making the market and playing field for smaller brands a difficult place to penetrate.

However, all hope is not lost and SMEs can still harness the many available opportunities by understanding and using SEO strategies to move ahead and make consistent progress.

SEO and SEM

The term SEO stands for the acronym -Search Engine Optimization, while the term SEM stands for the acronym- Search Engine Marketing.

SEO and SEM help search engines understand better what a person or business represented online via the various online platforms (websites, blogs, social media etc.) has to offer, when someone searches using words or phrases related to such a business or brand.

For examples, when an online user searches using the phrase “Photography studios in Lagos” or “Lagos Photographers”.
Relevant brands are likely to appear in their search results based on some factors that will be highlighted below.

When a search engine returns results, some of them are paid advert and the rest are unpaid results that search engines believe are relevant to the phrase entered into the search box.

These unpaid results are referred to as “Organic” results, while the sponsored or paid advert results are referred to as “Inorganic” results, because they are paid for.

The ability of an SME to harness SEO opportunities will determine if it is able to yield great organic results when there is a search for anything related to its brand.

The Search Engine Algorithms

Search engines have formulations or algorithms that help them order the list of results.
The search engines constantly scour the web for new content and try to make sense of it.
Where your website, blog or communication platforms appears in these results is affected majorly by the words (keywords) you use on your site; as well as other factors such as how many websites link to yours etc.

Search engines look out for the best possible results using some of the following:

1) Popularity: They look at how popular and active a site or communication platform is.
This is why a good following and active communication platform is very important. A dormant website or communication platform will often experience a decline in popularity.

2) Engagement: What other people or sites are saying about them.
A communication platform that is active and has lots of engagements (likes, comments and shares of its content) is likely to rank higher than one with little or no engagements.
This is why regularly putting up engaging blog posts, articles and generally relevant content on your communication platform remains essential and redirecting traffic using links is important.

3) Keywords: They might also consider words on the web pages/ blogs or keywords in the code of a page to better understand the topic or search phrase or word.
When crafting content for your communication platforms, it is important to ensure that relevant keywords that describe your SME or brand, what it offers as a business and what it stands for should be infused and incorporated into your content.

This ensures that your page is recommended to the right demographic and audience when there is a search.A keyword search needs to be performed to ensure you have relevant and treading keywords that can give your communication platform a boost and an opportunity to be ranked higher by search engines.
Some tools you can use to conduct a keyword search include: Google Adwords- keyword planner, SEM rush, KW finder, Keyword tools, Moz’s Keyword Explorer etc.

4) Location: The searcher’s geographical location.
Indicating your SME’s location on your various communication platform remains critical and helps Search engines recommend your pages to people who might find your brand and service offerings relevant to their needs in proximity to the location or address they indicate in their search.

The use of google listings using “Google my Business” is a good place to start, asides the listed location information on your various communication platforms.

5) Device: The devices used by searchers so that they match searchers with the best possible results.
Yes, search engines also consider devices.
In an era, where most people now communicate and work on the go using mostly mobile devices, then it is important that your communication platforms, especially your website or blog remains navigable and mobile friendly.

This is because, when a mobile user finds your page but experiences difficulty in navigation, such a user is most likely to leave your page and move on to one that has better navigation and clarity. Even when you may have the exact services they may need.

All of these components help search engines find the best match for a search by an online user.
It is true that even though bigger brands already take into consideration all these factors to optimize their online presence, as an SME or Small business owner, you can ensure that you also tap into these SEO opportunities and not lag behind.

Applying SEO strategies as an SME may not be the fastest way to grow, but pays off in the long run with organically generated results. It only requires some level of patience and a lot of consistency, even as you continue to adapt and apply the changes that occur in the world of search.

This is because the work of SEO is never done.

Key Highlights

Grow actively and steadily your communication platform with relevant information that keeps your audience engaged. This can be done organically without sponsored content. A slow approach, but one that is achievable.

Encourage the engagement and participation of your audience on your communication platforms.
Sharing insightful information, trivia, giveaways and sometimes, fun activities that help with great engagement.

Use relevant keywords, as well as trending keywords or phrases that are related to your field, what your SME or brand represents and stands for.

Be listed online and include details of your location on your website and communication platforms for identification and recommendations by search engines to an online user during a search.

Ensure your website and communication platforms are navigable and mobile friendly.

Article by Opeolu Adeyemi.
Corporate Communications and Public Relations Consultant
Founder, Brave Publicity Ink!