Public Relations & Social Marketing Insight

As businesses lean more heavily on video conferencing, there is often a disconnect between what is communicated and how it is communicated. Things can occur over the course of a face-to-face conversation that can compromise the entire dialogue. 

While the communicator's words and use of inflection are two of the more obvious things to pay attention to, often, however, the old adage rings true: actions speak louder than words. Micro-expressions unnecessarily shift the focus away from what’s being said to what’s being hinted. The following are some of the finer things to look for in your next video conference so that you can avoid all the inevitable awkward pauses....

Attention! Here is an invaluable guide for creating content that gets noticed. So if you want to engage, enthral and entice, read on...

Tom Barton, UK head of communications at IT business and consulting services company Capgemini, says a question he is asked nearly every day is “Can you help us produce great content?”. His number one rule is to think about your audience. “Picture a person reading your writing and ask yourself who they are and what they want to know. It is unlikely they are going to be too dissimilar to you, so try to make it personal. Making it great is making sure it is useful to your reader. And for it to be useful, it must be clear and provide something practical to take away, whether food for thought, or a tip which can be implemented easily. It should also be unique – don’t write something that’s too similar to content found easily elsewhere.” To make sure your content is king, follow this expert guide....

There’s so much content crossing my feeds these days, I would welcome anything that might save me time while helping me grasp complex quantitative information. I wish more organizations would adopt infographics as a way to provide that ability to comprehend what data means in a glance.

What’s that you say? We’re swimming in oceans of infographics?

Not so, and the fact that just about everyone calls them infographics doesn’t make it so....

[Shel Holtz searches vainly for the real thing - JD]

The entrepreneur’s challenge is to effectively communicate their value proposition, not only to customers, but also to vendors, partners, investors, and their own team.

Especially for technical founders, this is normally all about presenting impressive facts. But in reality facts only go so far. Stories often work better, because humans don’t always make rational decisions. Most people care the most about the things that touch, move, and inspire them. They make decisions based on emotion, and then look for the facts that support these decisions.

Thus, it behooves every entrepreneur to learn how to craft stories from their personal experience and the world at large that make an emotional connection, as well as tie in the facts....