Strategic Communication and Emerging Media

Have you ever been accused of being an overthinker?  Never?  Really? Me either……  Just kidding!  It happens all the time, no biggie, I no longer take offense to it.   Somehow, it pays off.  I suppose you have to utilize the traits you come by naturally.  For instance, at work, I’m often asked to structure an email or proofread a letter before it goes out and all the while, poked fun at for changing and re-wording things.  “Didn’t you just say the same thing, but a different way”, I’m asked. Uh, yeah Felecia and that’s exactly why you asked me to do this. If I just typed up whatever was on my mind and sent it out to other professionals without wording it kindly, it would come across as harsh or unkind.  You have to think not only about what you’re saying and how the message is intended, but how someone else could read it and if they are going to take offense to it. Ya gotta look at this stuff from many different...

Is it just that time of year, or am I the only one who feels like they’ve been hit by a bus recently? This weeks topic has had my mind running in a million different directions and I’ve loved it, but I have had zero time to sit down and formulate or organize a single thought.   Leadership and vision.  What a crazy concept that the two must go hand in hand.  I love this. Of course a leader needs vision and any vision needs a leader.  It makes perfect sense. Leadership without a vision is merely management.  How have I not realized this before now? It’s kind of beautiful when we pick up on those blatantly obvious things, isn’t it?  Every great leader has had a vision. Martin Luther King, Steve Jobs, Ronald Regan, John F Kennedy, Winston Churchill, Nelson Mandela all had a beautiful vision and without that vision would have been great leaders whose name you would have never known.   For example, if Martin Luther King ...

Alexander the Great said that “An army of sheep led by a lion is better than an army of lions led by a sheep”.  Ever wondered what he meant by that? A lion is an excellent leader, so a group of sheep led by a lion will be far more successful than a whole group of lions led by a sheep.  Lions lead, sheep follow.    Leaders come in many shapes and sizes.  They lead in many different ways. But, what makes a leader a great leader?  What makes a leader a lion? A few years ago I worked for a gentleman (let’s just call him Mr. D).  Mr. D commanded respect when he walked in the room. I mean, you knew he was the boss when you met him.  He had a loud boisterous tone, he spoke in a manner that never questioned, but implied you were to listen and obey.  It was rare that I ever had any run-ins or even conversations with him because he also preferred to stay in his office sitting behind his desk.  He was never engaged. He was ...

Y’all, this week has been a mess! Bronchitis hit hard early on and with all the steroids, antibiotics and cough syrup (let us not forget the joys of halloween mixed in there as well) I have been running on fumes. With that being said, let’s see what we’ve discovered in this weeks studies of social media, viral videos and personal brands. Recently, I was asked to join the Board of the ‘Northwest Alabama Reading Aides’, a local non-profit agency that assists adults who have little to no reading skills. I was honored to be offered this seat at the table after a couple years of off and on referrals to the organization. At the first board meeting, I learned that their social media accounts had a total of 109 ‘likes’, they were surviving on a budget that was less than my annual salary and the entire board was a group of baby boomers. Is there anything wrong with a group of baby boomers? No, not at all. They are a lovely group of people who deeply care about others and want to serv...

Many moons ago, I worked in the wine business.  A sweet little boutique wine shop in Birmingham, AL nestled just off the busy and bustling Hwy 280.  It was a classy and upscale shop, serving majority high-end clientele and the random wineo who happened across the shop by accident.  It was a pleasure to work for such a wonderful person and it was a breeze to sell product as delightful as the wines sold in this shop.  As the shop manager, my job was to know how all the wines tasted and what they would pair well with so that I could effectively sell them to consumers.  The shop owner would send me home with hundreds of dollars of free wine each month. I have to say it was definitely a perk. A large part of my job was to taste the different wines, share the wines with friends and return to the shop to sell the wines.  It was all face to face word of mouth. All employees would stay for the after hours wine tastings as well so that they were able to ...

Hey there everyone, this week we’re looking into the Diffusion of Innovation theory.  Basically, this theory claims that when something new (product or idea) comes about there is a certain sequence of events that happen.  It describes or explains the hows and whys of what makes this product or idea spread. Rogers (the main man who got this thing started back in 1962) tells us that we each factor into one of five different groups.   We begin with the innovators, these are the folks who are steady ready to find and try out all the new things.  They do not need to see from someone else if this idea or product works well, they are the ones who first test it.  This group only makes up about 2-3%. Let’s look at online banking. This actually began in the 1980’s. A very small percentage of people (the innovators) took to this idea and even paid a monthly fee to have the service (while most of the population believed this idea would fail)....

For as long as I can remember I have wanted to help others.  As a child, I imagined I would grow up and know exactly how to do that.  What I learned is that it is surprisingly more difficult than I could have imagined.  There is no room for your comfort zone if you want to make a change in the world. At least not for me, what about you?   Have you wanted to make a difference and don’t know where to start?  This may surprise you, but I have found that it all begins with the right communication.  In order to make any change, any difference in the world, you have to be able to communicate your thoughts and ideas with those around you. Once you learn the different approaches to communication, how to implement those styles with different people at the right times and how to spread that information to reach the largest number of people, you can do anything.  (Even change the world). This task was much more difficult 30 years ago.  W...