Dahle Communication

100 Posts! What's our focus been?

I sometimes wish that I was as prolific as some other people when it comes to blogging. However, what we have tried to do over the past year-plus is focus on giving you tips on communication as well as giving you some different perspective regarding current events like President Obama, Tiger Woods, Music and Sports.

So, for my 100th post, I wanted to use Wordle (which I previously talked about in this post) to see what our focus has been over this past year. I looked at the top 150 words used (minus common words like the), the top 50 words and finally the top 20 words used. Wordle is great because it lets you see what words you are using. Here were the results:

    

Looking at the breakdown, I am pleased to know that we are adhering to our passion - that of people. I'm not sure why 'something' is as prominent as it is. I might have a tendency to use that word as an adjective too often, which is great to know so I can avoid it in the future. Additionally, 'Presentation' and 'Presentations' are considered two separate words, yet are both in the top 20, which is a good thing. Sadly, 'however' is still in the top 20 - I really need to find a different word to use! 

For the most part, I like what we've done over the past 100 posts. While a lot of public speaking blogs only focus on improving your speeches and becoming a better speaker, I'd like to think we add a little bit to that in our posts. While we do focus on helping people become better speakers and presenters, we've tried to tie in current events and some things that you might not think have much to do with Communication and show how we can learn something (there's that word again) from that experience.

What do you think? Do you like the fact that we look at some different aspects of communication? Would you like to see other areas talked about? Is there a specific topic that we've missed that you'd like to see? Let us know and we'll do our best to accommodate those requests.

Thanks again for reading and commenting - it keeps us going!

Directing the message - Tiger finally speaks

In my previous posts regarding Tiger Woods, I discussed how his NOT talking was hurting him. He was being quiet while the rest of the world was talking - and what the rest of the world was talking about was not good. Sadly, Tiger's representatives were adhering to the old-school philosophy of public relations: that they can control the message.

If you are unfamiliar with that type of logic let me explain. Back in the day before social media and websites like TMZ.com, public relations was all about controlling the message. The PR machines would hold their press conferences when they wanted, they would only release statements that they wanted and they dictated what the newspapers and talk-show hosts would talk about. A good PR person would be able to spin a story and the major media corporations then ran with that story.

 That is now an archaic model. As anyone who is familiar with todays internet will tell you - that just doesn't work anymore. We've seen how certain videos can go viral within hours on youtube, something can take over the trending topics on twitter within minutes and sites like stumbleupon, Digg, Technorati and others spread news at such a fast rate that everyone finds out about it within hours.

It is because of this that PR machines can no longer "control" the message. At best, what you can do is help direct which way you'd like the discussion to go - almost like a discussion leader would do in a group setting. You can't dictate what people will say, but you can at least give them some direction. This is what Tiger should have realized right away - sadly he didn't, so the message went anywhere and everywhere with no direction coming from Tiger.

With that said, Tiger is starting to do some things that are going to help start directing the message more. He gave his apology in a lengthy prepared statement. He gave a 5 minute interview to ESPN and he is going to return to golf at The Masters. All of these steps are starting to direct the message in a way that will help Tiger Woods return to golf. While he will never have the universal respect that he once did, these steps are at least beginning to help the process along.

I will say that the decision to come back at The Masters was a great decision. The Masters is better than anyone at being an old-school style facility. They are a private club that determines who gets in and who is shut out. They can decide which media members will get passes and who doesn't. This means that someone from TMZ probably is not going to get a media pass to this event. Hecklers will be at a minimum and will be swiftly thrown out if they cause a disturbance. So Tiger's first event back - which could have been a disaster - is going to help by being more controlled than other events would be.

Overall, I still think Tiger Woods could have done a much better job with his brand. It is now damaged so severely that he is going to have to create a new brand - and it is going to be very hard to do so. However, his current actions are at least a starting point.

Is President Obama Speaking Too Much?

In 2008, then candidate Barack Obama revolutionized the way campaigns were done. His fundraising on-line, using his organization skills to create OFA (Obama For America - now known as Organizing For America) and his bevy of volunteers helped propel him to the Presidency. However, it was his speech making that defined him. He truly is a gifted speaker who is very comfortable getting in front of an audience and giving an impassioned speech. In 2008, Bert Decker had him as the top communicator in his annual best and worst communicators, Obama accepted the Democratic nomination for President in Denver at a football stadium in front of a massive audience and I was lucky enough to be one of the millions to watch him be sworn into office in January of 2009. 

 However, I think Obama is a little too comfortable speaking in front of an audience. To me, Obama is starting to hit the point of diminishing returns. For those who are not big into economics think of it this way: Let's say you can eat all of the donuts you want. The first one is pretty good - the second one, also good - the third one...well, it was okay - the fourth one you are done, no more please. Diminishing returns mean that after a while, you are no longer getting the same output value from the input. Let me put it this way: Obama's speeches can be very effective, but they are becoming watered down because he is speaking so much.

While I still feel that Obama is an effective speaker, he needs to realize that the power of his speeches are starting to diminish because he is speaking too much. People are starting to not pay attention because they figure they have already heard it and he's just going to repeat himself.

What are your thoughts? Is he speaking too much? Is he doing it out of necessity? Should he decrease his speeches or keep them they same?

Logorama - an experiment in Brand Recognition

If you were watching the Oscars last night or the coverage of them on a variety of shows throughout the past month, you've probably at least seen or heard of the animated short film 'Logorama.' If you haven't, don't worry, you'll want to follow along. The video places you in a world filled with various logos and brand images throughout the world, but mostly the Western World. However, it decides to have some fun with those logos (like having Ronald McDonald on the run from the cops).

While watching the video and enjoying it, I thought it would be a fun experiment to see how many Brands I could recognize. Unfortunately, there were too many for me to count. So I instead tried to count how many I couldn't recognize. Surprisingly there were quite a few that I didn't recognize at first, but there were far fewer than the ones I did recognize.

I think it shows how successful some of the branding has been for some companies that they are so recognizable. Go through the video yourself and see how many you either a) recognize or b) can't recognize. Besides, the video is hilarious (I am not including the full video because I don't have the rights to, but I have included the preview for it).