You’re charming as all get out. The life of the conference call. The master of small talk conversations at networking events. You can motivate, inspire, and re-energize the masses like no other.
But your work interactions are shifting almost completely to online communication, and you’re quickly realizing that your email and texting skills are not as winning as your personality. How do you adapt? We can help.
Finding Your Voice in the Digital Age
- Retain your personality. Whether you’re talking with a colleague or client in person or online, make sure you keep true to the real you. Imagine yourself on the conference call; how are you engaging your audience? Capture that same tone, warmth, enthusiasm, and word choices in your online correspondence.
- Speaking of words, keep your online communication actionable and concise. Your recipients will appreciate your obvious respect for their time, because who among us wants to spend ten minutes wondering what an email really means?
- The message you send isn’t always the message that’s received. Texts can be easily misinterpreted. Review your emails before sending and consider how your recipient will read them. Is your implied tone of voice coming through accurately? Does a point need clarification?
- Clear communication is the goal, but being catchy, funny, or entertaining is equally important. The goal is for your emails to elicit positive feelings, and never groans.
- Take your time composing your messages. An unfortunate misspelling or confusing accidental send can really affect your online credibility. Your hurriedness may cause a miscommunication you may not be able to retract. (Also see: The correct usage of “your” versus “you’re,” not to mention there, their, and they’re.)
- Treat a text message like an actual phone call. This means you don’t hit send at one in the morning, or continue to text whether you receive a response or not.
- Know when to end the conversation. It can get awkward really quickly if you don’t properly close out an online conversation. A good practice is to come up with something that clearly ends the conversation, like using their name, thanking them, and using a closer like “Talk again soon.”
Whatever online communication medium you choose, patience and understanding is important. While we may wish in-person meetings were still the norm, clients and coworkers are everywhere; it’s nearly impossible to get everyone you need gathered in one location at one time. That’s why we email and text, and that’s exactly why you need to get great at improving your messages and mastering modern communication — including upping your Instagram game.
If you’d like us to handle your communication between you and your clients, text us. (Just kidding. You can totally call or pop in. We can’t wait to meet you.)