Success Principle #12 - The Words We Choose to Use Make a Difference
March 19, 2007
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The Problem
The other day I was cruising around some top quality bloggage when I happened across Kent Blumberg’s place. Kent talks a lot about leadership principles, which is why I keep an eye on his blog.
Anyway he was talking about a great leadership idea that the Japanese use that’s having trouble catching on over here in the States. Kent’s theory that because the Japanese word for this principle sounds funny in English, the entire principle is being resisted, even though it is a good, sound idea.
I left a comment over there suggesting that “Maybe the goofy word thing is why some businesses are reluctant to embrace blogging. Probably sounds to them like some kind of medical condition.”
Kent’s Brilliant Reply
Kent agreed with me in the following comment there. In the process of responding to me Kent wrote two sentences that absolutely jumped off the screen at me. Here is what he said.
When I tell people I write about leadership, strategy and performance and have published over 150 articles on my website, they go, “Wow!” When I tell them I blog, they look for someone less weird to talk with.
Think about that for a moment.
Kent can say two different things that really mean exactly the same thing. But each of those different descriptions of what he does creates entirely different responses from the person he’s talking to.
The words we choose to use make a difference. They make a huge difference in our success.
Our words are genuinely powerful. They can build up or they can destroy. Or they can simply be so much noise, signifying nothing, as Shakespeare said.
Take It Away Now
Here’s what I am taking away from that little bit of brilliance Kent was kind enough to share.
Weak Communication Effort: I am a Business Blogging Consultant.
Stronger Message Sent: I help businesses improve their internet communications and have over 420 articles about business communications and success published on my own web sites (and various other places) that are read by hundreds of people every day.
Some things to think about when you are in a position to talk to someone unfamiliar with blogging about what you do.
-
Niche - Even if you consider yourself just a hobby blogger you still are an expert on your area of focus. Look for a way to communicate that to folks.
Number of posts - To the overwhelming majority of non-bloggers web publishing is a great mystery. Letting them know how many articles you’ve published in your area of interest will help cement your expertise in their minds.
Number of visitors - Even if you are not a TechCrunch, Engadget, or a problogger.net you still have an audience. People are reading what you write. Sharing those numbers will cause most non-bloggers to raise an eyebrow.
Search Engine Rankings - When you Google your name, your blog title, or a subject keyword, do you rank highly? If you’ve been blogging a while are the tons of entries that point to you and your material? If so, share that with people.
When we learn to frame our message in terms others understand we will be more effective in our communication. And more effective communication will make us more successful.
Chris,
Thanks for the kinds words and the link.
I love your revised self-description. It still takes only ten seconds to get your message across, and will open rather than close doors.
Good suggestions about number of visitors and Google search results. I need to add that into my introductory statement.
Kent
Hey Kent! I’m always looking for better ways to get the message out. Thanks for getting me thinking in that direction.
It is still amazing to me how positively folks respond when they actually begin to understand everything that is wrapped up in that simple, silly sounding word blogger.
Hi Chris,
Marketing is part of the problem, but IMO the big problem is that the nature of blogging (sharing ideas, helping other, collective thinking) is a contrast to the corporate culture (don’t make waves, be competitve by keeping knowledge to yourself, etc’).
This is why behind-the-firewall-blogging is not picking up.
Yoav, you make a good point. In spite of that there are some seriously huge corporations that are embracing blogging in a big way, both for internal and for external communications.
Do you think the same holds true for small business, say under 100 employees?
Chris,
Kent’s two-liner is classic. Thanks for sharing it.
In January I was talking with the +/- 43 year- old president of a company headquartered in Belgium. When I mentioned my blog, the response was: “What’s a blog?”
And this person doesn’t leave home–or sit at home–without a laptop, cell phone, PDA, and Blackberry.
I still don’t know where my response came from. But I recall hearing my voice say: “Oh, a blog is my tool for publishing business and consulting articles on the web so my clients and other interested people can read them.”
A few days later I noticed that person’s IP address on the stats.
Go figure.
Blogging is a free form of collaborative thinking and companies can get unbelievable benefits by embracing blogging, so naturally, there are some SMART companies that work hard to adopt blogging.
The problem is that embracing blogging is not as easy as you might think. Blogging is blooming on the web because the internet has a built in reward structure for bloggers. We meet people that can help us with our business. We get paid for advertising. We get recognition for writing/doing smart/interesting stuff. This reward structure doesn’t exist in companies today. In-fact there is a kind of an anti-reward structure for blogging.
So for internal blogging to thrive, companies need to set a reward structure for bloggers. This is not dependant on the company’s size. And not a simple thing to do.
I apologize for the lecture, but this is the stuff I write about in my blog. You might say that I wrote more than 6 articles on the subject
Words Enhance Technology…
…
Steve, Excellent example! When we can boil down what we are trying to communicate into one clear concise sentence that actually gets results like you did we know we’ve done a good job!
Yoav, no need to apologize! I totally appreciate when folks are willing to freely share what they know.
Interesting idea. How bigger companies can reward their employees for blogging…
Words to ponder on as any writer strikes a balance between the still keening of the right words to say, and the potental to blather your readers into oblivion..
Chris, what a great response! I love the two-line thing, too. Starting to give me a handle on answering the question about “what I’m doing with that blog”. Thanks for shakin’ me up today!
Thanks for this article Chris. I am getting tired of explaining to people what I write. Now all I have to tell them is that I write articles published on the internet, and that I’ve had over a thousand published in the last twelve months and that I’ve had over forty thousand readers this year already. Cool.
Their gaping mouths should wipe away their glazed over eyes. It’s all about effective communication and promotion.
[...] is worth reading all of the article written by Chris - it’s called The Words We Choose to Use Make a Difference. Don’t forget to read the comments too as these add value to the article. Wednesday March [...]
David, you are right. The proper balance can be a challenge to achieve. (Congratulations on jumping onto the blogwagon! You are off to a great start!)
Robert, Glad to oblige! You know me, love to get folks thinking.
By the way, the link in your name is broken for some reason. For those of you who want a treat, check out his blog Middle Zone Musings. Good stuff.
Trevor, Don’t you just hate when you “get” something that is amazing but have trouble explaining it to others in a way that they see it?!
You are definitely a prolific and effective communicator. Keep writing!
And I love the new theme you’ve got! It feels cheerier. Good choice.
[...] Chris even wrote an article on his own blog about what the comment means. [...]
Ack! It’s so obvious! Recently, I’ve found myself describing WordPress as a website building tool–because that’s what it is.
But I didn’t realize that I was avoiding the problem word so people could get beyond their preconceived notions of blogging as a highly limited media.
I still don’t think anyone has successfully harnassed the power of blogs yet. But I sure want to be ready when they do. And I am working hard to figure out ways to harnass that power for the vision I believe in (faith and work).
You made me chuckle, Mark. I’m not sure blogging is quite nuclear fusion, but I agree that we haven’t seen it reach its full potential, yet.
Hey, I have seen bloggers create some really nasty, near-nuclear fallout! : )
[...] And I am constantly learning improvements in my communications. In fact, just this past week I was reminded that the words we choose to use make a difference. [...]
You are right about “blog” being a funny word and how that turns conventional business people off. I actually wrote a post on how I hate that word and a marketing professional left a comment about that point.
Hey John, your Blog is a Hideous Word is a great post.
I’m not so convinced that the word will die as readily as some of your commenters are, though. It wouldn’t bother me if it did. But I suspect it may be here to stay.
A great article, many thanks.
Communicating the correct message is very important. Often we overlook the fact that our audience need to be able to understand the message and we need to check that the understanding has been made. Choosing our words is important, it is important to use words that the target audience understand.