What is your unified message?
Earlier in the week, Monday to be exact, Colleen shared with us her tips to create a CLEAR message. But what exactly do we mean when we say message? Are we talking about a speech? Your book? Your website? Yes, all of that and more! What is your message then? Everything you say, and even some things you do, are a part of your unified message. What message are you sharing with the world?
Let’s take a look at what we mean by message. Your message is the written or verbal content you share with friends, colleagues, potential clients, competitors, and anyone else who comes across your content. People will come across your message in many different places and at many different times. That’s all fine and good, but you want to capitalize on all parts of your message. That means you need to have a consistent, unified message, throughout. Take a look at some of the places people will come across your message.
Social Media
In this day and age almost everyone is on some type of social media, whether it’s Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn, or any of the many other sites like Pinterest, YouTube, or Snapchat. Everything you do on one of these sites is a part of your message. You’ll never know who’s looking and you want to be sure your message is CLEAR and consistent across all of these platforms. It’s more than just your business profile; your personal profiles can show as much about you as your business profile.
Remember the A in CLEAR message? A = Audience, and one thing to think about – each platform has different demographics and styles. You will need to tailor your message to connect with users of each site. For example, you won’t be able to share a long post with Twitter’s 240-character limit. While your overall message should stay consistent, you will need to make adjustments depending on where you post.
Website/Blog
Another important part of the marketing world in the past 20 years has been the internet. One of the biggest goals of social media is to drive people to your website. Does your message match what your social media is saying? Does your blog hold the same message you want to spread? For example, if your main business is coaching, does your website say you are a coach, does your blog support the people you are trying to connect with? When was the last time you took a look at your website? You may be surprised to see what’s still showing!
One part of your website you want to pay close attention to is your blog. Your blog is a place where you can routinely and frequently update your readers and followers with what is going on in your field. You can use your blog to announce special events, to highlight important changes, or to just give an update. When writing your blog you want to be sure to keep in mind the tips of a CLEAR message. As a frequent writer, you will want to pay attention to how your voice changes. As you know, the more you do anything the better you become. Not saying it is bad to improve your voice, but it is crucial it does not deviate from the unified message you are presenting.
Book
Your book is an important part of your message. The challenge with a book is that it is a longer version of your message. Not only does your book need to be a part of your unified message, you need to make sure each chapter and section match up with the message you want people to hear. A book is a great place to apply the CLEAR message tips. While all five of these tips are important, the two most important tips to pay attention in a book are the L – Language and the E – Edit.
Speech
Have you ever spoken to a colleague at a networking event or stood up in a room to present a quick presentation, or maybe you take the stage at large events with dozens or hundreds of people. Anytime you are able to talk to or in front of people you need to consider the message you are sending. This again is a great place to add some parts of CLEAR, C – Concise and A – Audience; two important tips to be aware of when writing or speaking. Your audience is possibly the most important part here as a bored, distracted, or uninterested audience can easily turn a profitable speaking engagement into a disaster. If you are looking for an example of how your speaking engagements can be integrated in your unified message, check out our Speaking page where we list Colleen’s presentations. You’ll notice each of these speeches relates in some way to our audience.
Where else do you spread your unified message?
See you soon,
Peter Wietmarschen
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