Last evening, during one of our learning sessions, Cameron Brenchley, a past Education Department staffer who now works for ASCD, shared his thoughts on what works in advocacy. His focus was on looking at how to communicate best as an advocate, and a portion of his sharing was focused on leveraging social media tools to effectively get a point across.
One of the ideas that Cameron shared is the title of this post. He shared that the world of digital sharing is incredibly volatile, and while tools like Vine and sites like Medium are not living up to expectations, others, like Snapchat, have greatly exceeded them.
When it comes to latching onto social media, we have to be ready for anything.
And, despite that, as Cameron mentioned, regardless of whether a tool succeeds or fails, the same principles that have made communication effective in the past, will continue in the future.
So, what are some of those ideas? Here are a few:
· Listen First, Then Speak. Honor the ideas of others before you speak your own.
· Become Nimble With Your Communication Tools. Understand that while a tool may come and go, the importance of communication will always be there.
· Tell Stories, Don’t Just Give Information. We all have stories to tell, and stories are infinitely more interesting than information alone.
· Don’t Give Up. Communication isn’t always easy, and it doesn’t always land the first time or the second (or even the third). We need to keep trying. Always.
The fact is, communication isn’t going anywhere. As the basis to relationship-building, it is here to stay. So, regardless of whether we’re active users of social media or not, we need to make sure we are always focused on keeping communication going.