Perspective in Communications

As a a communicator, I am fascinated by information flows in the world today.

I’ve always been interested in sensemaking; understanding how different people make sense of what we do and say, based on their own life experiences, upbringing, social standing, wealth or health.

One theme that keeps coming up for me is that of “PERSPECTIVE”.  

After a 2-3 years of working in isolation due to the pandemic, and in my case, a little longer as I’ve been working remotely and across international borders since pre-pandemic days, I realised that what we lack these days in communications can be perspective, especially when audiences are remote.  They don’t benefit from company “vibe” that you get in an office or by sitting in the canteen at lunchtime. They might not even get out of the house much or spend much time in the city anymore.

By perspective I mean the ability to frame what we see/hear/understand in the context of what’s normal or what’s commonplace. Algorithms in social media feed us more of what we like (or more accurately, what keeps the ad revenues of the social media platforms healthy), but we lose perspective.

For example if you always click on funny videos, you’ll get fed more funny videos, and you might think all everyone does these days is make and share funny videos. But if you could actually see every single post or comment that every one of your contacts posted for the next hour, you’d find it’s not all funny videos. Likewise, if you walked down the street, you’d find lots of people neither watching nor posting videos at all!

For internal comms, remote staff are going to be very dependent on the communication we send them.

Have you thought about the impact of perspective in communications? How can we help staff in organisations maintain perspective and avoid getting a distorted view of reality?

Why you should think about deleting the dissenters if you really want to engage with your fans

Some think social media has become a slightly toxic place to hang out. But I don’t think it needs to be, if only brands, celebs and politicians would start to manage their accounts properly. Here is my six-step plan to dealing with negative comments and trolls.

Social media, when it was launched, was a brilliant tool for democratising communication. It gave everyone a voice and made everyone a publisher. Unfortunately somewhere along the road, something went a bit wrong.

However, I think there are things that brands, organisations, causes, celebrities, politicians could do to make social media more enjoyable again for all of us.

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PR, Marketing & Communications: Boom-time extravagance? Or survival essential?

When things get difficult in business, owners usually look for ways to cut costs. PR, Marketing and Comms might appear to be likely candidates for the chop, but I think cost-slashers should start elsewhere if they value business survival.

When things get difficult for businesses and income takes a nose-dive, business owners usually look for ways to cut costs. They will often start with the fixed-cost overheads in head office.

PR, Marketing and Communications (especially Internal Communications) are sometimes seen as non-essentials that can be dispensed with in an emergency or financial squeeze. You will not be surprised to learn that as someone who works in this field I have an interest in proving to you that cost-cutters should look elsewhere if they value the survival of their business.

So if you are a CEO or business owner, here is why I think you should hold onto these functions and why I think your ability to ride out the storm depends on it:

Continue reading “PR, Marketing & Communications: Boom-time extravagance? Or survival essential?”