During my keynote talks one of the MQ’s I discuss is communication. This means the ability to use language as art. Having the ability to expand ones vocabulary, for instance, has the effect of implied intelligence. Knowing how to vary your tone, volume, and pace allow you be clearer with your intended message.
Another dimension of communication is understanding how clients wish to be communicated with. Today I had a discussion with a friend, Larry, who suggested that an awareness of how to communicate can be as important (or at least close) to what you say.
As an example, let’s say you are dealing with 60+ clients/prospects. Chances are really strong that these folks are not texting, likely are not avid Blackberry users and will be unreceptive to this form of outreach.
Conversely you may have a Gen X or Gen Y client that is a Skype user. For them this might well be the preferred method of communication and your ability to recognize and honor that is a memorable home run in their book.
The litany of ways to communicate with client is long indeed. Snail mail, email, text, phone, email, Skype, Twitter, Facebook and the other dozens of other social networks makes the job of communication, memorable communication, tricky indeed.
Anyone remember Bic Click pens and white lined paper?
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I’m loving the fact that you are using these “new” communication vehicles (not that I’m surprised that you are) to help deliver your message and to allow people to have visibility into what is going on in the world of ShoreSpeak. As a self proclaimed geek, I enjoy seeing colleagues of mine embrace them as well.
I look forward to the day where my main contacts at the accounts that I support start branching out into these new communication vehicles.
However, I have struggled with the decision as to if I should extend those vehicles to my contacts in cases where I know they are on Facebook (for example) by doing a simple search. Is that a breach of work versus personal?
Some of the coaching I have received thus-far is that I should not use these vehicles because it will come off as unprofessional. But, my feeling is that people join networks like this with the expectation that others will find them.
What’s your take?
Ryan,
This raises some interesting questions.
What is the boundary between business new media and social new media, especially as it relates to our conservative industry – financial services.
In some instances the lines are blurred.
LinkedIn and Plaxo seem to be perfectly acceptable. In fact I get requests for connections from folks that are using their business email addresses.
On the other hand, almost none of my business contacts are live on Twitter – yet.
You’ve given me great food for thought for another post!
I think we are still early in the business cycle of these types of lines of communication. I’d compare it to e-mail. When e-mail first came out, it was used primarily for inter-office communication. Now it is a viable way to communicate to a lot of the world.
In my opinion, sites like Twitter and Facebook, etc haven’t evolved enough to be considered for professional correspondence. Perhaps they will become accepted one day, but they are not main stream enough yet.
Now there may be an exception to the rule – the 24 yr old billionaire internet genius, etc. Using these services with those clients may actually be necessary, but not for the average client.
However, the part that would prevent me from using these services would be compliance. It is bad enough to have to get e-mail approved and all the record keeping that goes along with written correspondence. I would hate to have to go through all that with these new services. That’s why more often than not, I’d rather call the client up on the phone and have a conversation with them than send an e-mail. So in my practice, I will be using Skype long before I start using Twitter, Facebook, or any of the other social networking websites.
Brian,
You raise an excellent and important point re compliance as it relates to new media and retail securities reps. Your point about the early stage of business acceptance re social media is spot on.
It does seem to be just a matter of time (years) before the regulators address this issue. In the meantime the fact that your conversant enough to comment and to use technology such as Skype places you way ahead of the pack.
If you are interested to know more about social media in a corporate setting visit Ron at http://www.ronamok.com. He is a new media evangelist (really) and an original podcaster. My comments scratch the surface – his go 6 feet deep.
Rob