Multiply the message, not just amplify the tone
THE MESSAGE IS THE SOUL OF OUR PURSUIT
It’s often interesting when we see communicators no matter wherever they are, whatever the context they fit in, they all have the same concern that the message doesn’t translate into enough action or somewhere it gets lost. We mostly spend all our time, energy, money and more to ensure for our own profit or our ‘success’. Communication succeeds when our message finds it’s champions to multiply. And anything that is worth meaning for the future, multiplies. Relevance of the communications pursuit entirely depends on this dictum. Here are some of the key considerations in making our message truly inspiring:
What is the message?
We have conceived the ‘message’ as a noun. It isn’t. It inspires an action, an essential verb for the brand to live. The message must connect and converse with its recipients and help build a community of trusted and engaged champions. Our message in communications is neither the language, nor the approach for delivery, but the potential meaning for bringing a positive change for the recipient. Only when the recipient sees the visible change, the message becomes more credible. There are very few communicators in our history who could deliver the message positively without a more time-bound visible change. We often craft the message either in our personal branding journey or for the corporate brand we are hooked to with an anticipation that our audience will decipher exactly what we intended at the beginning of the communications process. A lot may be attributed to our ignorance or laziness in ensuring consistency of the intent all through. The message is the soul of communications.
Do our stakeholders communicate our message exactly we did to them, is the chain of thought the same every time? Most cases, the answer is no. They will only when they see enough meaning that appeals, that promises the change in the state of things, mostly positive.
Consistency writes Trust
The smallest startup as well as the biggest conglomerate communicate with their employees, customers, investors, partners, and everyone else. There is no denial to it, but the message largely gets fabricated every time we meet a different stakeholder. That builds distrust and an untraceable discontentment. With of course the evolution of business, professionalism, and the growing urge from every stakeholder for transparency and accountability. The tone, the medium, the context may change with time and space, but what continues to inspire consistency is the willingness to build everything for the brand around trust. As they say “Consistency is key to success”. Remember every leader of whatever fields they represented, what made them credible is the untiring continuity in their pursuit and the passion all through their journey.
Technology isn’t a myth, it is here to stay
When was technology not present in the story of our civilization? The making of fire, the invention of the wheel, the cave arts, the scripts that recorded the message, the digital platforms that exist on the principles of collaboration, all efficiently stay relevant to every time period they existed. These all helped propel growth and endure trust. Of course, the speed of message delivery and expected agility of action has gone up significantly. The legion of leadership in technology has multiplied on the basis of very human principles like transparency, speed, communities based on collaboration and the like. The most social media platforms that we use today are based on these principles. As a communicator, it is important to leverage technologies that not just engage your audience, but those as well that have the ability to record it for our collective future, those that helps us write a well collaborated story by the leaders and their audiences. Technology will evolve as the context changes, so will the leadership in communications, but the essential message transforms like the most meaningful river through the terrains as well as the winds that keep changing. Robotics, artificial intelligence, social media, augmented reality, are all means in our evolution and of course contribute to the life of the message, making it better every time. These are not tools or platforms to amplify your standpoint.
How can the message multiply?
When we send out the message we intend and look forward to a certain impact, an uncertain action. We seek soulful confirmation for the message that we craft and deliver. The message is much more than the perception. It becomes inevitable to ensure that our message travels from known recipients to unknown, from seen audience to those that are unseen, from lives impacted to those that can be touched. Message alone has the power to travel across space and time. The greatest legends, epics, folklores, stories of human and supernatural have all transcended over time and space because they multiplied through their recipients every time it reaches them. Our message has the ability to multiply only when it is honest, connects with the principles of existence well and ensures consistency in creating value for everyone who comes in the radius of it’s influence. The famous saints, Jesus himself had followers who multiplied his message, Krishna through the Bhagvad Geeta encapsulated the principles and purpose of life which resonated with everyone who read it through. In recent times, the greatest revolutions like the Renaissance, the French Revolution, and many more like these were all messages multiplied and hence listed an emotional registration for millions of both known and unknown recipients. Address every soul, every audience well that has the potentiality to multiply your message. The recipient does matter the most in communications as well as the value we create for them.