claremunn.com » Communication

LEARNING PATIENCE FOR EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION

clare munn — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 08:49:11 +0000

Over the past few months I’ve been quiet with myself and with the typewriter. Instead of blurting out my thoughts, I’ve sat on them and waited.

Not sure what I’ve been waiting for but tonight I realized that’s just it… we wait for something and really, it’s within us already, so we are waiting for the moment we uncover our truth.

Tonight I was asked what my practice is. My answer came immediately, without thought or script. “My practice is being awake daily. I remain in one aspect with harmony with my child – I continue to always notice the color of the wind, and the smell of the light. I see and feel the street, and only then do I notice the people and only then do I notice the cars and buildings. So, I suppose my practice is to feel before seeing.

This does not mean I have a calm mind. Far from it. My mind has the ebb and flows of a dish washer at times, but I do know how to turn off – its just choosing when to. So, how does this help with my communication? Well as I see it, if we listen more intently, we communicate more effectively. If we communicate more effectively, we stay awake more truthfully as we are seen and therefore feel worthy of seeing.

Good night and thank you.

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ROI of Social Media & Today’s Economy along with our FAT THINKING.

clare munn — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 14:56:17 +0000

My brother and I believe, “Social Media is a Philosophy.” With that said, there are very few cases showing a philosophy having a finite ROI. Philosophies mostly only become finite when the methodology is carved out from the philosophy and templatized/put into process and action.
Therefore, to have a “traditional” ROI set of expectations on Social Media is virtually impossible.
Having said that, I do believe there is one definite fact that carries through for all Social Media practices. I believe the biggest ROI element is that it makes us save time and money as we PAUSE. It makes us start asking some questions. Having been brought up in a country where I experienced war, sanctions, booms of wealth and bigger booms of recession, I am now fortunately a resourceful thinker. As tough as this has been for everyone I know, this recession is at least enabling us to pause and THINK resourcefully.

Yes, as innovative and generous as the US are as a nation, we’ve been FAT THINKERS. We’ve become rather lazy with our thinking. We even have cars parking for us for goodness sakes. Our arms are fat. Our brains are fatter.

So, back to Social Media – our business is busy. We have and continue to be approached a lot as people are ready to think more resourcefully. Ready to truly put what they learned at school about integrated marketing into actual practice. Interconnecting dots is for a lean brain. We can all do this.

The ROI of Social Media:

Asking questions leads to better informed answers and solutions. This is always an immediate time and money saver. Access to real time information and knowledge and being able to act on that information and knowledge, is the new competitive advantage.
Measurement is key. Here we talk about measurement against objectives, not against resources.
Interconnecting the dots is definitely an exercise for leaner thinking. Fun though.

For additional points, call us and help us understand your business and initiatives and we can help you figure out the relevant ROI framework for your specific business case.

Contact: info@tcgagency.com or Michelle Smith at +415 864 1431

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CQ – Social Media’s Value Proposition

clare munn — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 15:34:58 +0000

I have always been a big believer in EQ and IQ, and as I got older I realized I needed a bridge between the two, and therefore have called this CQ. C is for Connect or Collaborate or Communicate.
It’s one thing having emotional intelligence as it allows one to feel, be intuitive and aware, and it’s another to have intellectual curiosity and intellectual capital.
However, neither necessarily mean you have the ability to communicate your intuition/feelings or your intellect effectively. And if you aren’t effective in the communication around either EQ or IQ there is is no outcome for sustainable connection or collaboration.

I believe social media allows us to have all 3: IQ, CQ and EQ. A circular, dynamic, mobile and participatory conversation with the ability to interconnect with other conversations through push and pull abilities. Therefore creating relevant and timely communication.

Yes, I like CQ. Do you? I am in the midst of writing a book on this subject, if you’d like to comment, the best comments/thoughts will be included in the book with your permission and name reference.

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What’s with all the excitement?!

clare munn — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 18:39:24 +0000

I received an email from a good friend of mine last week. Since she has had a baby our communication has been spotty. She has no time for IMing, Skyping, Facebooking, etc. So, it was great to receive a long email, full of real-life details (and not one full of the usual platitudes: ‘I’m well. How are you?’). By the time I got to the end of her email I learned the main reason she had been out of touch: She had been waiting for more ‘exciting’ news to share with me.

And immediately it struck me how my communications of late with various people across my social networks tend to have a frenetic quality about them (mine included). A lot of people reporting about their latest exploits: Hawaiian vacation, latest blog entry, newly purchased gadget, etc. Even the banal doesn’t escape commentary:

“Just woke up from a much needed nap!”

“Going to lunch!”

“Took me two hours to get home. Traffic was horrendous!”

Has the frequent use of social media altered our state of consciousness? Are we all as bubbly, excited, and productive as we project to be? I know I’m not!

And the ubiquitous exclamation mark! I dare you to go one week without using one! I double dare you!!

In the constant back-and-forth that is a part of our daily e-communications and with the ever-expanding net of our social networks (those of you with over 1,000 Facebook friends or Twitter devotees, I don’t know how you do it!), how else can we express ourselves? Does the very medium of social media necessitate short (and sometimes trite) bursts of communication?

Yes.

As our face-to-face time dwindles, I do wonder how the nature of our communication style will continue evolve (and some argue, decline). Yet, I love being connected to friends, friends of friends, and even total strangers. What I do miss, though, is communicating ‘old-school’ style, where it’s ok to just be—without the pressure of broadcasting up-to-the-minute status updates on your life.

In a recent guest post on Chris Brogan, How to Keep Your Conversations from Turning Into Broadcasts, Jacob Morgan makes some valid points about what it means to participate in the social media space without the constant use of a bullhorn.

Maybe there’s a need for a new social media site, one called: ‘How are you…really?’

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Social Media

Alasdair — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 16:24:44 +0000

Social Media has everybody talking, but are they all talking about the same thing? Social Media is such a vast subject, with many different nuances, disciplines, approaches and reference points.

What do we use social media for? I asked a sample of people, male and female between the ages of 16 and 40. Here are some of the answers.

To share pictures, videos, links and posts with friends.
To connect to friends and family.
To find out stuff.
To keep in touch.
For entertainment. Etc.

Perhaps the most interesting answer came from a 16-year-old female. (I will call her Emma)

“I don’t use social media for anything specific. It is not like I set out to use social media, it just exists. It is a part of my life. This is a dumb question. You don’t ask people what they use a telephone for. I could list a thousand instances where I would use a telephone, but really everyone knows that a telephone allows you to talk to people over distances. Well social networking allows you to do this better. It is a fuller experience.”

Emma’s answer makes sense to me. Social media allows us to communicate with people in ways we never thought imaginable. It provides us with easy to use, intuitive tools that cross over multiple learning styles, allowing us to be a part of that communication. We don’t think about how this happens, we just accept it. Providers of these tools think for us. We want to run with these tools from the offset. We accept that it can exist in real time, that we can mix sound with visuals, with text and participate in multiple dialogues. We do not only accept it, we now expect it.

Right? Well, these are our expectation. These expectations are what a handful of social media sites have engrained in us. But this is not always the case. So many social media providers don’t think for their users, they don’t even talk to them. They get fixated in the technology. This is pretty dismal for a discipline that is all about people and communicating. The how is important I agree. There is a need to have world-class technology in order to supply a world-class service, but that technology needs to be applied correctly, with understanding and after dialogue.

When we think social media, we need to think people and connections. If we understand our audience, I mean really understand the audience and then marry that understanding with our objectives, the right technology, applications and tools will follow.

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