BLUE ORCHID PR

I think we have all experienced poor communication at some point in our lives, especially with the addition of modern technology into the pot. If you are thinking, “No I don’t think so.” I will provide you with some scenarios that you possibly have run across in your everyday life.

• You’re at work and you get an email from your boss. “I want xyz done and on my desk by 5pm” You get two things from this email, you have been assigned a task and your boss is nicely telling you if you get off at 4pm guess what NOT TODAY (LOL). So you immediately get ready to start your new assignment only to realize the next thing (after you have cussed because you were supposed to go out for drinks later to wash off the hellish work week) your boss included no instructions. Now if this is a task you have done before and you can do in your sleep great, however if it is not. You have just been a victim of poor communication.
• You call your local cable provider because for some reason you see charges on your bill that you know you didn’t make. You put all the information into the automated system (while silently wishing they would dismantle the thing and use it for spare parts in some remote junk yard in costa rica) and wait for a person. The representative gets on the phone and re-confirms your information for security purposes and then asks how they can help. You explain the situation and you are told it will be taken care of. You hang up the phone feeling accomplished. The following month you receive a new bill and it isn’t taken care of, you go through the whole song and dance again only to find that it was not taken care of. You express your outrage to the rep your currently speaking too and demand it to be corrected. The current rep tells you it cannot be corrected because of xyz reason. You tell them that was not what you were told when you called about it on said date and spoke to John Doe. This is when the rep lowers the boom your previous call wasn’t even documented to your account by John Doe. You have been just a victim of poor communication.
Communication is more important than ever now, its how we get things done in life when it involves two parties. I say two parties because if your doing something for yourself; you don’t have to communicate anything, you just do it. However when other parties are involved it takes a bit of information to ensure the exchange is accurate fair and the end result is a positive one.

Poor Communication can come in various forms especially online: Tweets, Text Messages, Emails… the list is virtually endless. The question is how can you correct it? Unfortunately with so many people using these forms of communication it’s hard to effectively and completely eliminate the communication menace. It can however be some what eliminated if everyone took the time to absorb, read, understand and respond appropriately. It would make things a lot easier. Follow up that email with a phone call at a later date. Take the time to spell check that letter to the ceo and take note of the tone you are sending as not to offend. Maybe this particular topic doesn’t need to be sent via text message maybe it would be best left for a face-to-face conversation.

I am pretty sure if we all work towards that common goal there would be a lot less hurt feelings and a lot clearer intentions.

Since the introduction to social media and yes I am taking it back to the old days of the first chat rooms there has been a surge of trending habits surrounding word of mouth promotion from happy and satisfied customers. It would simply start off as a conversation about something (didn’t matter what!) and then the questions would begin “Where did you get that? Or “How much is that?” Or “I have been trying to find one of those where did you get it?” or “What service do you have? “Or “How is their customer service?” A person would generally answer and possibly just possibly the other person would take the information given and buy into whatever it was.

Now that is exactly what happens every minute, of every day, of every week... you get the picture. With the inventions get it now social media apps and sites like twitter and face book the amount of marketing that goes into each company tweet is astounding. There are meetings upon meetings about how they want to approach the public, inform the public, assure the public and eventually make the public their consumer.

All it takes is one friend to tell another friend who puts it on face book, twitter, tumblr, dig, or whatever social media site they are on and then the world knows!  Welcome to the new way of influencing of consumer habits.

There are many types of ways it’s put out there:

The Direct: A person to person or site to site display of products and/or services that tell the person looking hey come on down and see if there is something you like, want, or need.

The Indirect: This one is my favorite, often done by a third party, sometimes they are supporters sometimes they are employees but they submerge themselves into the social media medium of their choice and all they talk about , refer too or push  is that product. When they are questioned they have the latest information but know how to pass it off as a friend talking to a friend rather than a salesman trying to get you to buy.

The Subliminal/Subtle : These are usually done with viral campaigns they give you bits and pieces of a ad, movie plot and then leave you hanging while playing so if it catches your eye , your left wondering “What was that and how can I find out more about it?”  It is also done by miscellaneously (but not really) dropping the information and forgetting about it. The theory behind this is: If they are curious (which we all are) we will dig deeper.

Social media has more of an influence than many would it credit for, think about the last thing that you have bought, I mean really think. Where did you get the information on where to buy it? What it was for? How much it cost? When it would be open to the public?  & why it was so important to have? I am sure at least 1-3 if not all of those questions were answered by a social media site.

So before you scoff at a tweet, fb status or whatever else it is... Think about how much impact it  made before it got to you.