It’s not what you say or even how you say it, but the method you use to say it
November 4, 2011 11:25 am | Leave your thoughts
With the BBC celebrating 75 years of broadcasting this week, it brought into focus the massive change in TV that we have seen in recent years. From a few programmes a day, we now have zillions of channels to choose from which are broadcasting 24×7 (but some would argue there’s still nothing to watch!).
And the same is true with communications technology. We all know about the proliferation of communications channels with social media and mobiles on top of face to face and traditional telephony.
But this abundance of choice can bring its own perils, because the old adage that ‘its not what you say but how you say it’ holds true but there is now a third dimension…the medium you use to say it.
Choosing to send a Tweet or a text rather than call someone suggests brevity – which some admire, but others will take to mean ‘you couldn’t be bothered’.
Emailing large documents when someone is out of the office might get the information to them but is it in a format whereby they can read it and get to the bits they need. In this case a text message might be better.
And then there is the case of mistaken medium whereby you mean to text someone from your phone but end up Tweeting them instead and what should have been private becomes all too public. In case you are wondering, this wasn’t me, or indeed the classic ‘friend’ but a BBC Radio 5 Live presenter. Thankfully the content of her message to her husband wasn’t anything too embarrassing but I’m sure it amused her 9000+ followers!
Sometimes you need technology to help you, so if you run more than one business, you don’t want to answer your phone with one company name if the caller was expecting to speak to another. Using call whispers is the answer as it announces the source of the call before you speak to the caller, which helps to avoid those embarrassing moments and makes you sound ultra professional.