It’s the holy grail isn’t it? Effective communication. But how do we achieve it? Darren Rowse has written 3 principles of effective communication. Give me a message. Make me care. Give me a way to remember it. Three simple rules. I love it. And although Darren learnt this from public speaker Brett Rutledge, these principles apply to writing as well as speaking. Infact they really do apply to all media and communication channels.
Bob Bly, well-known copywriter, has a unique style of communication. His copywriting is in demand and he’s given us another no-brainer copywriting technique. If you want your website visitor to pay attention to your copy, make it large, boldface type. It works doesn’t it? Didn’t that sentence jump out at you. Good communication doesn’t have to involve complicated techniques and strategies. Simple works.
In writing about writing, Matthew Stibbe has some advice for us on the topic of effective communication. In words spoken not written he says we should write as people really talk and tell stories. I have to agree. Even if it isn’t always good english, writing as people speak gives more meaning, and if you can wrap it up in a story, even better.
If effective communication is so crucial, with all the technology available to us on the Internet, you’d think somebody would have created tools to help us communicate better. Well, they are coming. Erick Schonfeld takes a look at news magazine LMK, which combines news aggregation and semantic filtering technology to semi-automate content creation and publishing. I think everyone will watch with interest to see if automation can generate great content.
But for the rest of us, effective communication still involves skillful use of words.
