Let’s get this out of the way to begin with: you are creative! Creativity is a governing force in humanity – an innate function of the mind. It is, at its essence, your outward expression of an inward thought or emotion.
This means that there are two hindrances that can limit your creativity: an internal barrier that limits your imagination and inspiration, and an external barrier that limits your expression or presentation of your creativity.
As an introvert, my ability to communicate didn’t come naturally. I consider this apparent flaw one of my greatest strengths, as it forced me to learn how to strategically present information. This led to a lifelong study of the art of communication.
Regardless of what you do for a living, your ability to communicate effectively is crucial to your personal and professional success. While entire books could be dedicated to this art, I am confident that these few insights will assist you at becoming the master communicator you wish to be.
Freelancing has challenges that are unique to the trade. In my previous article Freelance Advice I Would Give My Younger-Self (Part 1), we discussed the principles of choosing clients, keeping good records, and getting paid for your time. These are more of the lessons I wish I could send back in time to the younger-me:
Experience can be a harsh teacher. Through my experiences as a freelancer and business owner, I have learned many lessons that I now consider priceless – lessons that I unfortunately learned the hard way. While I believe that experiencing challenges for yourself is an essential element to success, I hope that you will learn from my mistakes instead of making them yourself.
Whether it is YouTube subscribers, Facebook likes, or LinkedIn connections, nearly everyone is trying to build a larger network. The skill it takes to be successful at social media is found directly in its name:
Social – the ability to communicate with others.
Media – the ability to use different platforms to communicate.
It is a highly demanded area of expertise, and is one of the fastest growing industries in history.
The methods we use to communicate change constantly. Regardless of what you use – language, letter, phone, poster, email, commercial, or social network – it is essential that you don’t lose focus on the fact that you are a communicator, and you are communicating to people.
Few things in life are more frustrating than the generic message of: “Your call is very important to us. An operator will be with you shortly.” When I have a problem or question, I don’t want to talk to a machine or go through a dozen troubleshooting-pages to get my answer - I want to speak to a human being.
No less wearisome is being forced to communicate with individuals who don’t actually know the answers to your questions, but are using an owner’s manual (which you most likely already own and have consulted) to walk to through your problem.
For those of you who wish to save yourselves time and frustration, I have developed a useful guide that I wish to share with you on “Bot Dodging: How to Avoid Automated Messages”.
Press “0”, “#” or Just Wait:
When you call a large company, you will most likely get a series of automated messages that lead you through a maze of options.
Pressing the “0” key is the most-used option by companies to speak directly to an operator. Other companies have a system which uses the pound key “#” as a shortcut to skip past the available options.
If the “0” and “#” tricks don’t work, try waiting on the line without pressing any options. The automated message may keep prompting you to press a key, but be patient. After waiting for a minute or two, the call will be either be disconnected, or more likely – transferred to an operator.
Keep an Updated Address Book:
There are times when I speak to half a dozen company employees before I find someone who can help me. When you are able to speak to someone useful, ask them for their work number, extension number, work email, and name. Most large companies allow their employees to give out this information, just incase the call gets disconnected. Not only will this help you avoid going through an automated system again, it will help you speak to a competent individual quickly.
Use Online Tools:
Due to this epidemic of machine operators, companies have arisen to help you the consumer find your way to a person. Websites like www.gethuman.com give you a step-by-step guide on how to reach a customer service representative for thousands of corporations throughout America and the world – free of charge.
Use Blogs and Forums to Find your Answers:
Most problems that you encounter, someone else has also. Before you take the time to call or write a company to find a solution to your problem, try going online and searching for a solution.
Include information such as the make, model, product, year, and the problem or question you are faced with, so you end up with a search along the lines of: “2009 MacBook pro audio doesn’t work”. You’ll be amazed at how much information you can find this way. You may have to play around with the wording a bit, but the answers to most of your problems can be found in forums, blogs, or online guides.
Email-pattern trick:
As an added bonus, I’ll include a trick that has served me well over the years.
I have had the privilege to work with many managers, entrepreneurs, and CEOs in my time, each of whom have company emails. They are careful to guard their emails to ensure that customers go through the “proper channels” to get in contact with the company.
However, the mistake they often make is that their emails follow the company pattern. This means that if you know that company’s email account system, you can contact certain person or position directly. For example: if you email an administrative assistant whose email is “MichaelS@companyname.org”, it is safe to assume that the general manager (we’ll name him John Doe) has the email address of: “JohnD@companyname.org”.
It is worth the time to try this trick with a drafted email. If it doesn’t work, simply go through the same channels you would otherwise have used.
Apply these tips to your calls and emails, and they will undoubtedly save you time and stress.
Jordan Driediger
DM2 Studios
Whether it is YouTube subscribers, Facebook likes, or LinkedIn connections, nearly everyone is trying to build up a larger social network. The skills it takes to be successful at social media is found directly in its name:
Social – the ability to communicate with others.
Media – the ability to use different platforms to communicate.
It is a highly demanded area of expertise, and its importance lies in people. The methods which we use to communicate change constantly. By language, letter, phone, poster, email, commercial, or social network, it is essential that you don’t lose focus on the fact that you are a communicator, and you are communicating to human beings.
Who
People should know who you are. Why do millions of Twitter users follow a celebrity who posts few things of substance? That’s simple – it’s because they find that person worthy of their attention.
One of my first experiences with Twitter was with a friend at my apartment in Colorado. I walked outside to check the mail. Out of nowhere, she stopped me and said “Guess what! Mariah Carey is eating a sandwich right now!” Never had I seen someone more excited about something so useless. My friend was captivated by the hollow words, not because how it was said, but who said it.
Your followers want to hear from and engage with a person of value. This doesn’t mean you have to be a celebrity. The most important people in your life right now probably aren’t famous, but they are someone who you respect, whose company and message you value. Be a person or business that your network knows and can engage with.
Just as important in knowing who you are, is knowing your audience. It has become a cliché in business, marketing, and networking to “find your target market” but it is absolutely essential. Are your followers older or younger? Are they interested in articles, or tutorials? Do they want to hear about news, or discounts? Take note any time a particular post you make gets a good response. Keep track of what your followers are talking about, who else they are listening to, and if you don’t know what they want – ask.
What
The most significant aspect of your social networking is your content. What you say, and how you say it, is the indispensable aspect of having social media success.
Post content that matters to your followers - something they can use, or that benefits them. People and business often think from the wrong side of the conversation. A mentor of mine once told me “when in doubt in a conversation, talk about everyone’s favorite subject - themselves”. It may seem vain, but people very much look at the content you are posting and immediately ask the question “what can this person do for me?”.
Your content should educate, inform, or inspire, not based on what you want to share, but what they want to hear. For example: “I just read an awesome quote by George Washington - what a great leader” vs. “This quote by George Washington is inspirational… insert quote here” Can you see the difference? One is based around yourself, the other around your audience. The goal of all this is to make your content shareable.
Making sure your content is shareable, is the biggest tool for your growth. Lets do the math on that, shall we?
If you have 100 followers who each have 100 followers of there own, how large is your potential network if your direct followers decide to share your content?
The answer: 10,000 people.
A good indicator that I use to see if my content is good enough to share, is asking the question: “Would I want to share this to my friends or family?” Don’t fool yourself. Just because you have a particular interest in your product or thoughts, doesn’t mean your network will. Think from your audience’s perspective. Did they just get home from work? Do they want to read a novel, or just the headline? The ability to put yourself in the mindset of your audience is an irreplaceable key to good communication.
Also, never forget to make sharing your content as easy as possible for your viewers. Include links, embed videos, attach files, whatever you are trying to spread, always ensure that your viewer goes through the least amount of steps possible to view and share your content.
When
When and how often you post content varies based on your audience. If you aren’t using one already, I recommend utilizing analytics tools such as Socialbro to help you find out what time and day of the week is best for you to post content.
Over-posting or under-posting can hinder you. Keep in mind there are 2-sides to the coin. I have often heard that too many posts annoy your network and people will ignore you. On the other side, there is the famous saying “out of sight, out of mind”. I tend to lean towards the latter. If you are sharing good content that your followers want to hear, than you can be frequent in your posts. With that, space out your posts so you don’t overwhelm your audience, and they are able to read and interact with each one.
Where
There are dozens of social networks out there, each of which has value. My rule: Go where the people are. There is no harm in expanding to multiple social networks, so long as you can manage them. An often-ignored network is Google Plus (despite it’s hundreds of millions of users). Keep in mind that while some websites and networks are less popular, there is significantly less competition, which lets you stand out much more.
Different people use different media. If you are a photographer or graphic designer, and you are only on Facebook and Twitter, I would strongly suggest that you expand to where your craft is appreciated, such as Instagram or Dribbble.
Get specific with your social networks. For example, one my favorite websites is logomoose.com, a website dedicated to only logo designs – that’s it. Find networks as specific or as broad as you’d like, but keep an open mind about each of them.
Consider areas you haven’t thought of, and forms of content you haven’t used before. Communication doesn’t always have to just be in written form. Consider uploading videos onto Youtube and Vimeo, or images on Pinterest and Flickr.
A mistake I have found in most of my clients is they don’t connect their networks. In the name of all things good and holy - connect them! Your LinkedIn should lead to your Facebook, which should lead to your Youtube video, which should lead to your website. Make one social network or your website your central hub, and along with a solid profile and description on each of your social networks, include a link back to that hub. This in turn can direct them to any and all of your other forms of media you have available, depending on their preferences.
How
I have heard it so many times from people that “you need to manage all those social networks? Who has the time for that?” Truthfully, if you set things up properly, it doesn’t need to be a part-time job managing your social media. Use as many tools as you can find to save yourself time. A website can be coded to automatically share your updates on your social networks. Tools such as Tumblr or Posterous (a personal favorite) let you create one message, and have it automatically post to multiple social networks.
How do you build a large network? - One person at a time. Building a solid network will take time and effort. Often people have to start with their friends and family, and market themselves out in the real work (yes, there is a life away from your computer) in order to get started.
Why
I love social media. Despite Internet “trolls” and “know-it-alls” who insist on correcting my grammar, I very much enjoy engaging with people through social media.
Social media is a powerful tool, a great way to promote your business, get connected with others, and to share your arts and thoughts with the world.
In time, I will be sharing more on the hands-on ways to improve your social media skills, but for the time being I hope you have found this useful… and shareable.
