Dare To Share – globally involved
Dear worldwide communicators,
This post is dedicated to the most beautiful and engaging idea in the last year.
Visiting my Facebook page, I found http://www.facebook.com/pages/100-De-Oameni-De-Afaceri-Curajosi100-Daring-Business-People/108367582566182?v=wall
Please, visit the page and keep spread it! You may find below a few words about the idea.
“100 Daring Business People” is neither a top, a bunch of statistics nor an article rich in numbers and graphs. It is a book about one hundred anonymous persons. With prosperous businesses. People for whom stormy years and all sorts of temptations kept them amusing, willing to talk and, above all, “vertical”.
The book’s author wishes to remain anonymous, using a pseudoname. Why? Because the author likes discretion. The book is based on a simple principle which states that you have to offer something before you ask for anything. And the author is the first to offer an example and will offer this adventurous trip for a very small price: Eur 1 and 75% of the sales are to be donated to a non profit organization which is committed to support entrepreneurship.
With the help of this book, the author encourages each and every of us to be involved and directly contribute with an extreme small amount to actively support people’s ideas.
“100 Daring Business People” will be sold online, in both Romanian and English, at the very moment this Facebook page will reach 500.000 fans.
Dare To Offer!
I found I’m a ghostwriter, for free… Out of the blue!
Sorry, but it’s time to say things as they are.
It’s ok to be a ghostwriter as long as you agree with this and get paid for it. It’s a job. But when you write something, you put your name on it and suddenly somebody else takes your lines and sign them… Well, it’s not only copy-paste. It’s like you think I’m stupid and you’re smart. At least, you can tell me you like my lines and you want them. Maybe we can agree a price or maybe I like you enough to offer them as a gift.
We have a lot of possibilities to get things right! Let’s not think everybody is stupid, but us. Be smart enough to make me give you everything you want for free, but don’t try to think I’m stupid before you even spend more than 1 hour talking to me.
Thank you.
Cristina
The first dream. The first project. A fresh breath.
Well, it is true: time is one of our best friends. We were pretty away for some time, but we had something nice to start: our first dream. Our first communication project.
It is about Camara Bunicii (Grandma’s Pantry, in English). You can visit it at http://camarabunicii.wordpress.com/. It is in Romanian only, at this very moment. You can find here a lot of interesting products starting from pickles ending with jams or different sorts of spices. It is absolutely delicious! They are handmade, no additives, the prices are correctly designed… And we have some orders, by now! Which is great! This gives us power to continue.
At this moment, we decide to keep the blog only and track its future for the business. Later on, we will start a brand identity story.
Hope you like it!
Cristina
Welcome back, Your Communicator!
Your Communicator, like most of you, had a great holiday. Long, relaxing and energizing.
It’s time to get back to work. Our first step was to create a Facebook fan page. Feel free to visit it and, of course, like it as you like our entire concept.
Professional posts starting soon.
Cristina
Free the words inside you! Free your imagination!
I definitely prefer original writing, even when talking about business communication though originality is not an easy and handy path and, surprise, you may find out that people are not very attracted to innovation when talking about business communication. I promise you a more detailed discussion on this topic sometimes in September.
Originality, in this aspect, interferes with a very good ability to use the language in which you want to communicate. I design messages in both Romanian and English. A lot. Though Romanian is my native language, sometimes words come easier in English. Funny, ha? You may ask why. Well, the answer is simple: on one hand, English has been always present in my usual language habits (though I started to learn it when I was 10) and on the other hand, after many hours of hard exercise, I am able to surpass a very important line when talking about communicating in other language than yours: when I speak or write in English, I am able to think in English, too. I don’t write a text in Romanian and than translate it, for example.
The ability to naturally use a language comes from the permanent desire to learn. And I can tell you: learning is a continuous process. I still find out interesting things regarding English, as well as Romanian. Discover the freedom to use words and expressions, but first of all:
- understand the importance of using a thesaurus which is one of the most valuable asset a communicator has;
- learn to design conceptual maps which is a strategic tool for any message architect;
- continuously exercise your skill: write your thoughts if you don’t have any material; speak in front of a mirror if you don’t have audience. Never stop doing this!
Cristina
Who does create communication barriers? Part II
In designing smart messages, you should also consider other two types of barriers: semantic and physical.
If emotions, perceptions and selectivity are related to our state of mind, these two are strongly connected to the words we choose to communicate.
Not only avoiding unclear messages by using jargon, for example, but using your skills in making the difference between connotation and denotation is vital. The word “profit”supports a great difference in terms of meaning in the investor’s mind in opposition with the client’s brain.
As physical barriers, the most important thing you should know is that words do not exist by themselves. They are not independent entities. They exist because they are expressed in different ways according to different situations.
When talking abount writing a message, well, barriers are everywhere: your text may be hard to be read, the paper could be cheap and therefore its quality may affect the message, the printer may be in low ink etc. These are barriers that may change the entire meaning of a a great message. Try to imagine a poor text combined with poor printing conditions. Nobody will ever read it!
Barriers exist and this is something we have to accept. Try to avoid them as skilfull as you can, never stop exercising your writing. My long experience as a business writer taught me a valuable thing: a professional business writer follows a precise schedule every morning:
- first hour (8-9): reading news about his/her industry trends
- second hour (9-10): reading news about his/her area of expertise (business communication, PR, sales, marketing etc.)
- third hour (10-11): exercising the writing skill
Schedule your time, keep yourself informed and improve your skill continuously.
Start being a great business communicator!
Cristina
Who does create communication barriers? Part I
I have to admit that we are all part of the big guilt of poor communication, when appeared. It would be a lack of objectivity and honesty, let’s say, to imagine we do communicate fast, easy and efficient all the time. More than that, there are crisis situations when barriers are the only tangibles inside the communication effort – imagine the impact of a poor communication strategy even if we are talking in terms of business, relationships or marriage.
We do create barriers therefore we have the full responsibility to create those ways to avoid or surpass them.
Always rememeber there are many types of barriers, not only the psychological ones, which are most common in different stories.
Psychological barriers include, first of all, our emotions and perceptions. Imagine that a clear announcement could create a large set of emotions and perceptions due to our various ways to see things. You may simply imagine now what a distaster an ambigous message can create.
Many authors indicates selectivity as a psychological barrier, too, which comes as a result of the large access to information. At this point, consider “time” as the only element your communication effort will be considered for. Create the right message, at the right time, for the right people and everybody will remember your words forever!
And before any attempt to write, it’s vital to clear an aspect: prepare yourself as a professional communicator and:
- write down clear objectives;
- analyse your target;
- design an effective structure.
Always remember you are not the only trying to transmit a message. You may have a partner in your communication project or many. Still, each and every person represents the sum of many factors: education, family, society, habits and so on. Moreover, you should also know another thing: people tend to remember positive or negative news. Neutral is nothing!
Design smart messages!
Cristina
Beyond communication theories – people and barriers
Nowadays, communication for business organizations is tremendously important as companies are expanding, hierarchies are getting more complex and persons inside them need to perform more specific jobs.
Effective communication inside the business environment is not important for the oraganizations only, but for the employees themselves. They will understand that well performed communication offers them the ability to naturally understand and work with others. More than that, powerful communication is the main road to persuasion. You’ll be able to persuade your boss you work efficiently by writing a good report, for example.
It’s a fact that we all communicate more or less. Still, this doesn’t make us communicators and more than that, business communicators. Effective business communication consists of a strong knowledge base including grammar, style, vocabulary, business general notions, your industry jargon etc. The combination of all these ingredients results in a recipe for your very own business communication needs.
Always keep in mind that communication, like any other aspect in our life, is imperfect and we are not always responsible for this. Despite our skills, there are some barriers we must be aware of so we can avoid mistakes.
Are you aware of these barriers?
Cristina
The fatal copy-paste “strategy”
Because of the nature of my work, I witnessed a lot of the so-called communicators trying to copy other people ideas and then pathetically paste them for their needs. Yes, it is a shame, but unfortunately sometimes it works. It works because innovation is a long way process whose results are not to be seen in the next 24 hours or even within the next month. And, most of the time, shareholders ask for profit, not for innovation. And, most of the time, profit comes from copy-paste strategy. Innovation asks for time and patience. Who has them?
When talking about business, copywriting is the first target for “copy-pasters”. You certainly could see similar advertising campaigns in competitors products and services. It’s definitely about lack of innovation, but it is also about the movable human resource and the head hunters who connect similar businesses through professionals. It is a fact that many professionals seek for perfect communication and they find out too late there is no such perfect communication, ending up in experiencing copy-paste. “We have a dead line and you come up with nothing.” The next question is “what did others?”. The answer is simple: duplicate my competitor’s profile even if it doesn’t fit my business model. Do you feel the danger? We start differentiate our products from our competitor’s by lowering the price. A lower price makes the customer happy in the first instance. But then a question arises inside his/her mind: what if a lower price is the direct result of a lower quality? You start designing costly surveys and then campaigns just to convince your client the opposite. You’ll find yourself in the middle of a struggle with your confused vision and budget limitations and you’ll try to find out where the mistake is hidden. “What did I do wrong?”
Well, it is not hidden at all! It is here: the copy paste strategy failed. Instead of innovative thinking you preferred your competitor’s path.
Find the communicator inside you and start designing your path!
Cristina
Learn how communicators work
A few days ago, I had a very interesting exchange of ideas with one of the best PR persons I’ve ever met and we unanimously decided: we do have a pleonasm when talking about “top communicators”. Communicators are definitely “top” as we can not imagine the act of complete communication but in terms of highest level of performace.
As an experienced communicator and, I hope, future contributor to Your communicator, you will be able to help future communicators or simple people in need of a professional advice. You have the opportunity to develop a useful tool for any of us.
As a future communicator, you may find out here that your prior experiences in writing, if any, are not enough to become a professional in business writing. Becoming a professional involves not only skills, but hours of hard work, failures, lack of inspiration. So, skills are not the only requirements to accomplish targets. Always remember: skills without strategy are useless even if we want to write down no more than two sentences for our manager.
Never expect masterpieces at all times! The writing process involves inspiration. Our muse sometimes falls asleep when we less expect. Have a break, do something different, more relaxing and then try again. Also consider having a good sleep. It is well known it helps the creative processes as many ideas come when aslept.
Be open minded and think out of the box. Follow patterns and rules only when needed and avoid making them your religion. Step out of the crowd! Original writing, even when talking about business, will add value and personality to all your communication efforts.
Good luck!
Cristina
