Dahle Communication

One Year Down - A review of my favorites

 One year ago today I published my first post on communication here at Dahle Communication. I wasn't quite sure how much I was going to be able to spend posting articles or what I would talk about all of those times. After one year though, I have realized that there is a great deal to talk about and I don't plan on stopping anytime soon!

With that said, here are my top 10 posts from the past year. They are not the top ten in views or comments, but what I feel are the 10 bests posts. Best can mean a variety of things, but to me it represents a post that was thought provoking, got some good feedback and has continued to attract interest not only from everyone out there, but me as well.

10. Presentations to watch: xBlog: Did You Know 4.0 - I put this post in the top ten because of how good the video from xBlog is. Its a great presentation that has given me some inspiration and has also gotten me to think about the world.

9. Prezi - A Revolution in Presentations or Just Another Program? - Prezi is a presentation application that has made me re-think the way presentation CAN be done. However, much like anything new, its novelty has worn off some for me. However, I think it is still a great presentation tool that can be added to any successful presenters repertoire.

 8. A Good Story Helps Propel Supreme Court Nominee Sotomayor - Justice Sotomayor's profile has decreased quite a bit since she was nominated and confirmed as the most recent Supreme Court justice. Her rise to fame however allowed the Obama administration to show all of us how to use a story to get your audience on your side.

7. Watch the context of your language - why MSNBC should learn slang - The reason I put this up on the top 10 list is that I am a political junkie. I follow politics a lot and like to follow how candidates and activists use communication - either to their advantage or disadvantage. Sadly, a lot of people apparently need to learn slang, because this issue is still around. Besides, this has quite possibly the funniest clip from The Daily Show ever!

6. Macworld 2009 Keynote - Minus Steve Jobs - All of us know how good of a public speaker Steve Jobs is. So when he didn't present at the Keynote address of Macworld people were concerned - about Steve and the status of Apple. Apple is so tied to Jobs and his ability to present eloquently that unless his successor can follow in his footsteps as a confident speaker, Apple might be in trouble.

 5. Pearl Jam Ten Redux CD - Addition by Subtraction - I put this post up simply for the fact that music is a big part of my life and I have used music on several occasions to prove a point. Other posts include one talking about Allison Krauss & Robert Plant, The Watchmen Trailer, Alice In Chains, Chris Isaak and Muse. Music can teach us a lot about communication.

4. Destroying a Brand the Tiger way - This has turned out to be a huge story. What's more amazing is that is it still unfolding in front of our eyes. By the end of 2010, we might know everything - but I wouldn't be surprised if we didn't.

 3. Are things like Twitter, Texting, Facebook and Blogging hurting communication? - This was one of many posts regarding communication and how it is being affected by on-line media. A lot of people have simply forgotten how important effective communication is.

2. Twitter vs Facebook - Why Simplicity Matters - I have posted several times about Twitter because of its impact on our world as communicators and on society as a whole. 

 1. Mantras versus Mission Statements? How about a Passion Statement - This post got a lot of responses from people about the idea of a passion statement. While reading Guy Kawasaki's book Reality Check, I liked his idea of a mantra instead of a mission statement. However, I like the idea of a passion statement even more - which is why you will find one of our pages on our website titled "About Our Passion"

These were just 10 of the 88 posts I had over the past year. I can't wait for the next year and what communication will have in store for us.

White Noise - are you adding to it?

Today I had a chance to do a lot of searching on the web and catch up to the blogs that I like to follow, got an Alltop page (now you can make your own personal Alltop page), caught up on some news, tweeted a few times, responded to some e-mails, listened to some NPR on the way to work...and still tried to get some work done.  What I realized is that there is a TON of information out there for us to process.  So the question I have for people who are speaking and presenting is simply this:  Are you adding to the white noise that so many of us deal with on a day-to-day basis or are you giving speeches and presentations that are leaving a mark with the audience?

Let's say you WANT to leave a mark with the audience...how do you do that is the next question.  If you want to truly be successful there is a lot of things that you need to do, but here are a couple of suggestions to help you get started.

1.  Set yourself apart with good design for your speeches.

You can do this in several ways.  First off, pick up Garr Reynolds book Presentation Zen or any of the books that are listed on this blog.  All of them contain some great tips on presentation ideas and how you can incorporate great design ideas into your presentations instead of the typical bullet-point presentations that are out there.  Secondly, read some blogs on good design.  There are a lot out there and my blogroll contains quite a few of them, but I would suggest Ethos3 as a good starting point.

2.  Be different

Does this mean wearing a clown suit?  No.  What it does mean is find something that you can do to set yourself apart from the pack.  One suggestion that I have is to use something other than PowerPoint if you are going to give a presentation.  A great new software called Prezi is in the beta phase right now and has great potential to overturn how people present.  If you can get started early using the software before everyone else, you can set yourself apart and be one of the fore-runners in this new technology.

3.  Engage People

This is done on a couple of levels.  First off, when you are presenting you need to engage your audience by talking to them instead of at them.  You can do this by working on your eye contact with the audience and making sure to pay attention to them and not your images behind you.  Additionally, engage them with on-line mediums such as LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook.  Brett Duncan wrote a good blog about this titled "Exploiting vs. Exploring."  Don't exploit the use of these services just to build a name for yourself, but engage people with them.

Those are three simple things you can do to start setting yourself apart from all of the white noise out there: Have good design, be different and engage people.  While there is quite a bit more to it than that, this is at least a start.  

Prezi - A Revolution in Presentations or Just Another Program?

I love StumbleUpon.  If I am bored and want to find something interesting, StumbleUpon is a great way to kill some time and find some new sites that I know I would have missed.  Using StumbleUpon yesterday I stumbled upon a new presentation software that is in its Beta phase called Prezi.

Unfortunately, it is not open to everyone...yet.  When you click on the link to sign-up, they are adding people that either have money or have great ideas...so if you have either, you might get in on the beta phase.  However, even if you can't get signed on yet, you can check out their site to see how Prezi works and some example presentations that have been made so far.

My first thoughts on this new software is simple this:  fantastic!  A new type of software that I can use in presentations that doesn't rely upon the same old presentation formats that have been used for the past two decades.  When you are forced to use PowerPoint, or a similar software, it takes some work to make it look like it is NOT PowerPoint!  Prezi, from what I have seen so far, looks like it is very user-friendly and will allow someone who does not have a great deal of time, or a great deal of imagination, to be able to create some great presentations.

One concern that I do have is that people who find this new software will go overboard with it.  Just like with PowerPoint and other presentation software.  Just because you can add sounds and effects to every bullet point doesn't mean that you should.  Prezi allows users to zoom in and out to different parts of their presentation, have things twist and turn, etc.  While this can be really good, don't over due it.  Again, I say this without having a chance to see the full version of it yet.

I'm excited to see when they release the full version of it for mass consumption.  Until then, I plan to keep checking out their website and their blog to keep up-to-date with the updates and to see how their company is doing.

Travis