10 August, 2006
Your Attention, Please focuses on reaching distracted audiences
New book aims to help communicators conquer information overload.
Your Attention, Please (Adams Business Press) is a new strategy guide for communicating to the reluctant consumer – and employee – already overwhelmed by overflowing email, millions of web pages and 24/7 news proliferation. Co-authored by communication consultant Alison Davis and journalist Paul B. Brown, the book is due out in September.
Adjusting to the times
“I’ve been around long enough to remember when you could send a
message out to employees, and they’d actually stop and read it,” says
Davis. “People were starved for information about the company.” She
points out that that time came before the internet, the ubiquity of email
and the availability of corporate information from a wide range of sources.
“Increasingly, we see people tuning out and not even opening their emails. They’re not checked out; they’re just overwhelmed.” Your Attention, Please is designed to help communicators of all stripes reach their overloaded audiences.
“Employees approach internal communication with the same expectations as external communication. You don’t get a break because you have a small budget and limited staff,” says Davis. “You’re competing for employees’ time, so you better be a disciple of external media and borrow from it shamelessly.” She suggests taking cues from Madison Avenue, Hollywood and the internet.
You’re competing for employees’ time, so you better be a disciple of external media and borrow from it shamelessly.
Some do’s and don’ts
Davis names three common mistakes she sees communicators make over and
over again. “People are still writing too long and that’s
a huge mistake. Too much communication is created from senior management’s
point of view rather than the individual’s. And there’s
no life or "voice" in much of what goes out to employees – it’s
just not interesting,” she says. When it comes to “do’s
and don’ts,” Davis offers
this advice:
- Make messages about the individual and answer these questions up front: “Why should I care and what should I do?”
- Read a range of popular consumer magazines and/or their websites for examples of successful communication.
- Avoid trying to put everything including the kitchen sink into your communication. Employees don’t need a graduate-level course in what you’re talking about; they can’t absorb it and important messages get lost.
- Don’t try to control the audience’s communication experience. Make communication easily navigable so people can scan and skim to find what they want.
For more information on the book, visit www.yourattentionpleasebook.com