The Communication Barriers You Put In Front Of Your Readers

The Communication Barriers You Put In Front Of Your Readers Without being aware of it, you are building communication barriers that make it impossible for your readers to enjoy what youve written. Blogging advice such as just write or write regularly isnt bad advice to get someone going with content marketing, but it is only the starting line. As you keep blogging, you start to pick up an understanding of the other considerations for your writing that go beyond merely writing regularly. Regular content creation doesnt do you any good if youre creating communication barriers that your readers arent able to get past. Five posts a week that dont get read are worse than one post a week that does.  What communication barriers are you creating in front of your reader that might cause this? What causes people to not read what youve written? You Prefer The Clever And Obscure Your goal is clarity, not cleverness. Its hard to resist the urge to be clever, because it feels creative, edgy, different.  But readers want clarity.  Being clever for the sake of being clever is something only you enjoy, and not your readers.  Readers want unique, original, fresh, exciting–but too often clever veers from this and is more about you showing how witty you are. Readers dont want clever, because most of the time clever is confusing.  Readers dont want to feel dumb and unintelligent. They dont want to feel like that third person in a conversation who is missing out on all the inside jokes. They dont want to feel as if you are writing to exclude when they dont understand your jargon, your metaphors, or your references to pop culture that you assumed everyone knows. This avoidance of cleverness seems counter-intuitive when we are told to grab onto on trends as a method to get traffic.  Capitalize on trends, yes, but use them wisely. Provide explanations and context, without assuming your readers know what you are talking about. Understand that clever trend-based content is not evergreen and has a short shelf life. Your goal in writing is one of clarity, not cleverness. Readers want to understand what you write.A recent example of assuming readers would understand trends involved the infamous  Richard Sherman interview  (following the Seahawks victory over the 49ers). Blogs began using that incident as fodder for their post headlines and content. Dont Go All Richard Sherman On Your Readers the headlines said, or Why The Richard Sherman Method Of Content Marketing Doesnt Work. Maybe youre not from the U.S.A. Maybe you dont follow the NFL. Or maybe youre like me who didnt know who Sherman was, didnt see the interview, wasnt online for a few days when it happened, and was confused by the sudden influx of Richard Sherman-themed blog posts in my RSS reader.  I didnt read a single Sherman-themed blog post. I had no idea who they were talking about, and figured it wasnt a post meant for me. Capitalize on the trend. Use the obscure reference if you need to. But always provide a brief explanation or a link to where the reference is explained. If your post relies heavily on your reference being understood, youd do best to explain it up front and set the stage or just accept the gamble youre making on who will get it. The drive to use overly obscure or overly trendy references leads to the next communication barrier: proving how smart you are. You Have To Prove How Smart You Are You may be smart, but your reader doesnt want to feel stupid. What you are trying to do with your content is communicate with your reader so they understand what you want them to understand. You are not writing to impress them. You are writing to empower them, so they leave feeling like the know something new. If you are writing to impress people, stop writing and leave the room. Not a single person there likes you. Writing that is meant to impress people, to show them how smart and talented and wonderful you are, how many amazing things youve done, how cool you might be, how traveled and enlightened you are, is tedious and often preachy. Its the content marketing equivalent of the braggart who makes everyone look at his vacation photos. It is similar to the Dilbert cartoon character known as the Topper, a fellow who always has to be the best of everything. You are writing to teach, to inspire, to make laugh, to encourage, to help. You are not writing to build yourself up or make others feel less about themselves. If you cant explain it to a six year old, you dont understand it yourself. Albert Einstein If you write to impress, no one will read. People want you to help them, not help yourself. You Confuse Personal With Self-Indulgent Ive seen several blog posts which list self-indulgence as a reason readers dont stick with you, and thats true. We just talked about how you should not seek to impress people. However, the admonition that readers dont care about you or your life, and are only interested in whats in it for them, is not exactly true. Its all about how you go about using your own experiences. In some cases, your personal experiences and personal story are part of whats in it for them, if you handle it right. People are asking whats in it for them, but they will listen to you use personal experiences if they can get there through the path you already took. People want to know, from you, that: They are not the only ones with this problem. They are not the only ones who feel this way. They are not the only ones who find something funny/sad/angering/scary. That someone like them found a way out, a solution. That someone like them found success. That someone is listening to them. Your personal experience and life examples can encourage readers that they are not alone, not abnormal, that the things they struggle with are valid and that they can still succeed. Self-indulgent is writing about yourself and bragging. Being personal is writing to connect with another person and help them solve problems. Being personal is always acceptable. You Mistake Informality For Crudeness Content that is conversational feels more human. Ive appreciated the conversational approach to content over the years, and I dont mind slang or even a swear word here or there. There is power in language, and a linguistic slap in the face once in a while is a necessary jolt. Unfortunately,  the idea of friendly, casual, and conversational language has become fairly crude. Casual and informal conversation doesnt have to mean crude. #BetterBloggingThis is a sensitive suggestion to make. Opinions vary on whether this is bad, whether its powerful, whether its all about keeping it real, or whether its judgmental. Regardless, I suggest thinking long and hard about how you write when it comes to trying to be informal and using crude language. Perhaps that is how your conversations go, and that is how the people around you communicate, or that is how the other bloggers in your niche talk. Maybe you dont care if people leave your list because you didnt want such sensitive, easily offended people anyway. Fair enough. But lets be honest about why youre doing it: 1. You think by being shocking, youll stand out from the huge crowd. More than once, Ive just left a blog post which, had all of the unnecessary crude words been removed, would have been quite good. After a while those words lose their shock impact and start to serve as little more than an exercise in unnecessary adjectives that should be cut for the sake of tight writing. Reading such posts goes beyond Im offended!! and into this person cant write. Unfortunately, this kind of shock is short-lived, and readers who stuck around are quickly desensitized to the language, no longer seeing it, and you are left right where you started. And, youve lost the ability to shock them, which is something that could have been used once in a while for worthwhile effect. 2. You have a weak idea and are trying to hide it behind shocking language. Ive been the writer in this scenario, and it feels very powerful to just throw it all in a blog post, especially a rant, and think youve written something powerful, but crude language often shows up because we dont actually have a strong idea with facts or ideas that matter and were trying to hide that flaw in our post. Some writers, it seems, want to create a controversial blog post not through challenging topics or ideas, but through a surface treatment of language. Shocking language seems like a good way to spice up a dead post, get noticed, get debate going, or hide the weakness in an idea. The reader is so taken off-guard by language that the paltry idea isnt even noticed at first. You Dont Rage Against The Expected It is very difficult to write something new and unexpected that no one ever has written, and do this three or four times a week. I know this. Sometimes I pull it off, but sometimes I put my best into a post, shake my head, and just accept that while it was a good post, it wasnt all that unique and that Ill try again the next time. You should want to be unique for your readers sake, not just to stand out from the crowd.  Your reader is tired of the same stuff. There is no shortage of blog posts with similar titles promising all kinds of things that get readers to check them out but, sadly, upon reading, have the same tired points and conclusions.  The internet is replete with blogs full of promises, exclusives, secrets, and schemes vying for your attention. How disappointing for readers to arrive at a much ballyhooed destination to find nuthin new.

Marking Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Marking - Essay Example That is  it’s an activity aimed at making the commodity available to the consumer and on the other hand, making a profit for the specified organization. It involves coming up with a product design that will be desirable to the consumer, promotion of the product to make it well known to the people and finally, coming up with a price to let the potential clients know about the product (Bellis, 2013). How Syco conforms to the definition in that:- It has established a good relationship with the film and music market making it an award winning company. By advertising in their television and internet, it makes new products known. And setting music and movie prices SWOT analysis (COGHILL, 2003) Strength It has a great team of marketers. Good appeal to the mass due to their expertise. X Factor won an Award hence became popular. It holds copyright for several films. It has international facilities that are of great quality. Weakness Limited to Europe and U.K market. Creativity in the music and film has gone down. Opportunity New media and digitalization. Increase in broadcasting. Rise in the regional media. Threats Cycle time for common movies and song has been declining. The costs of rights to own movies and songs have been rising. PEST analysis (COGHILL, 2003) Political Heavy taxation by the government in music and film industries. Change of government may also change the laws appertaining to music and film industry like copyrights. The government may also restrict a particular group/age of people who may be talented. Government can also promote music industry by providing relevant infrastructure. Economic The level of government spending increases reducing the amount of disposable income. Inflation has reduced the value of money Provision of job opportunities has been a challenge. Low level of disposable income for individual. Fall in exchange rates among different countries Social Some culture restricts certain type of music and movies due to pornographic c ontent. Some movies are restricted to a certain age of people especially those who are adult. Technology More inventions have come up in the field of music and films. Infrastructure development due to innovation and inventions hence new equipment. SMART Objectives (Using SMART Objectives, 2012) By the end of 2014, the firm should make a 14% profit. It should be able explore new market in Middle East and Africa by the end of 2014 (Word count 500) Assignment 2 Market research Market The Syco Company has an established market for film, music and television. This is as a result of operating as a joint venture with several companies hence increasing their market share. It has set up a joint venture with Nigel Hall. This branch aims at looking for market niche in television production. In order to gain a wide coverage the manager is aiming at getting some of the qualified staff from London. Competition Competition in music television and film industry is actually on the rise. Several comp anies have emerged with increased film productivity. More regional televisions have also come up to target a specific group of people like the youth. Companies like Sony, Harry hills, Nigel Hall, Pudsey Collars. These companies have come up with unique talent that poses a stiff competition to Syco. Furthermore, they have also come up with more advanced entertainment closet. In response to this stiff

Organizational behavior (research analysis) Assignment - 2

Organizational behavior (research analysis) - Assignment Example To ensure that all the employees are up to date with the company values, I would organize annual events whereby the employees will be reminded on the core company values. Internal conflict resolution has been found to be more effective as compared to external methods such as courts. To come up with a good conflict resolution strategy, I would seek the opinion of the employees on workplace conflict guidelines. Conflict resolution should begin at the departmental level so that small disputes are handled before they blow up (Taylor, Rebekah, and Pamela 24). Every department should have a conflict mediator who will be trained on conflict mediation. Although training would be expensive in the short-term as compared to hiring mediators, it will be worth the cost since no new wages will be incurred in the future. Department managers will be trained as conflict mediators. Integration of management skills and conflict mediation will help solve conflicts wisely. Ineffective communication problems are bound to cause havoc in a working environment. As the new manager, I will ensure that communication channels are effective so as to avoid misunderstanding. The structure of the organization will be altered so that communication will be easier. Every department head will communicate directly to a central manager whose main function will be coordinating the different departments. The central manager will pass information from department to department and hence no cases of departmental misunderstanding will arise. According to Taylor, improper communication in departments is the root cause of conflicts in organizations (Taylor, Rebekah, and Pamela 56). He argues that a central communication point helps solve communication problems. Fair evaluation is defined as the process of determining an individual’s job-related actions without favoring or discriminating them. Fair evaluation also means that the employee’s

Nightingale's Nursing Theory Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Nightingale's Nursing Theory - Essay Example Her work and contribution to the nursing profession and medical care started thereof. As a reformist and a nurse, she became active in reforming the laws for the poor and was adamant in changing the conditions of the abysmal infirmaries or hospitals of that time. Among her most famous contribution was at the Crimean War. Ford (n.d.) discloses that Nightingale together with a group of nurses headed on to Turkey to help in the terrible conditions of the wounded British soldiers. With Nightingale's leadership, the nurses worked relentlessly to improve the living conditions of the wounded soldiers. It was in that same time that she was famously dubbed as "The Lady with the Lamp" by the British soldiers as she worked day in and day out to help them. She was also the first person to use statistics in the medical studies such as the high child mortality of those times. Nursing theories are the concepts and theories behind the nursing practice. Technically, Florence Nightingale never constructed a nursing theory, but her works and journals during her lifetime were treated by her predecessors as such. Her contemplations and deliberations on the apt standards of nursing were exquisitely described in her work entitled "Notes on Nursing: What it is and what it is not." Here, Nightingale's (1860) theory on nursing evolves around the concept that the patient's recovery is highly related to the conditions of his environment. The environment of a patient has a direct effect on his recovery or his deterioration. According to Nightingale, "Nature alone cures." With that she stresses on the healing properties of the physical environment of the patient; fresh air, light, warmth, cleanliness and a suitable diet. The environment not only refers to the physical aspect but also to the psychological and social environment surrounding the patient. Healthy communication with the patient and healthy environment keeps the patient's mind active and stimulated. Here Nightingale stresses that communication should be soothing and a form of therapeutic aid to the patient's suffering. How the nurses interact with the patient, may it be verbally or non-verbally also plays a role in the patient's recovery. They were to give comfort and ease the patient's suffering. She adds that there is a need for social awareness or social education on the disease of the patient, his family or the immediate people of that environment. The primary purpose of Florence Nightingale's nursing theory is to give nursing professionals indications on how to be effective in their chosen career. That is, nurses are there to control the environment and give the patients their basic needs to aid patients in their healing process and achieving their former strength. Nurses are not only to be focused on controlling the environment for the patient, but also in disseminating helpful information about the important aspects of the disease to the patient, the family and immediate community. Within Nightingale's nursing theory are the assumptions that are significant to applying the theory. First and foremost, Nightingale stresses on the need to understand that a disease is a reparative process. An inflicted goes through the natural healing process and those sufferings are indications of the body healing itself. The patient then

Frightening Incident Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Frightening Incident - Essay Example The incident, which I am going to relate, is an on-the-job incident in which I saved my friend from a big injury. The injury would have made him disabled for his whole life. My friend and I worked in my uncle’s sugar mill in New Orleans a couple of years ago. We had summer holidays at that time. We wanted to spend that time in a useful way. Therefore, my uncle suggested me to join his sugar mill to pass the time and get some professional experience. I also asked my friend to accompany me. My friend agreed and we started working. We worked in that mill for 3 months as sugarcane chopping machine operators. Here, I would like to mention that a number of processes take place that convert raw form of sugar into the usable form. Sugar cane chopping is one such process in which large moving gears chop the sugarcanes. Operating the chopping machine is not an easy task. One needs to apply force on the paddle through hands to keep the gears moving. Therefore, managers of sugar mills usu ally hire more than one operator to reduce the workload. Each operator operates the machine usually from 60 to 90 minutes in each turn.

Should Community College increase its tuition fee Essay

Should Community College increase its tuition fee - Essay Example Some of the key players associated with the issue of college fee increment include the institution, the taxpayers, the government and students. Measures put in place by various governments has weakened the ability of most institutions to produce the required results to both taxpayers and students. In most cases, colleges have lost the ability to attain the required student capacity. The other stakeholders being the institutions stakeholders and students also play a significant role in ensuring that the cost accrued per completion of one’s learning is favorable and the money does not attract higher taxations. Typically, taxpayers put in an average of $56000 per degree expecting an average amount return of almost twice the initial investment. The unavailability of sufficient fund allocation acts as a diminishing factor since it only allows a limited number of students to attain education given the tough economic outlook. Community college education also spurs opportunity for mobility integration which is essential since it reduces the dependency rate of students on their parents. Moreover, community colleges effectively rely on government funding so as to get their resources therefore making them non-profitable and they end up having the highest enrollments. Implementing implement decisions that will ensure a reduction of community college tuition fees is rather important in fostering improved achievement amongst colleges. Through policy implementations, the public policies should always aim at increasing resource allocation to community colleges and cutting down on expenditure. The policies are significant in ensuring a reduction on the cost of education while enhancing strengths of community colleges in performing its initial mandate which is to serve students in the community. Community colleges can introduce short term courses to increase efficiency. This will significantly assist some students

Sociological research-there is a relationship between social class and Essay

Sociological research-there is a relationship between social class and crime - Essay Example ade great strides in proving that social class has a direct correlation with crime due to the social controls of a capitalist government† (Jones, 2004). Social conflict theory focuses on why governments make and enforce rules of law and morality then why an individual violates the law. The primary goal of Social Conflict is to examine the relationship between the ruling class and the process by which deviance is defined and controlled in capitalist society. The government creates laws and rules to maintain the power and position for the power elite. Centering on a view of society in which the elite class uses the criminal justice system as a means of controlling threats to its status. Conflict theorists do not argue that the poor commit more crimes than the rich, but they are certainly arrested and punished more often. A natural frustration exists in society in which a high value is placed on being rich and attaining the American dream, but this dream is unattainable for the ma jority of the citizens. A deep hostility develops among the lower class toward a social order that they can not participate unless it’s by illegal means. Thus, the legal system is designed to guard the position of the upper class by any legal means necessary. â€Å"Conflict theorists seriously contradict the long-held presumption that the American system of law and justice is humane and fair to all citizens.† (Senna, 2003) It really is not a surprise to any of us that it is the poor and disadvantaged criminals who end up in the coils of the criminal justice system. But it would be a mistake to make accusations about the nature of crime by blaming those individuals who end up in our police cells, courtrooms and prisons. This does not mean that crime in the US or any other part of the world is committed by the poor and disadvantaged. Nor does it mean that disadvantage is the cause of most crime. â€Å"But some of the grossest victimizations are concentrated among the poorer members of