It’s the root of civilized society. It is what lets people connect or disconnect from each other. It’s what is letting you read this blog today! It’s important in business too! Of course, I’m talking about Communication, but what is it exactly. Today I’m going to explore exactly what is communication and why it’s so important to use it well in your business.
Communication at its core is made up of three parts. A sender, a receiver, and a message. I’ll use an email as an example. The email is going from the department head (the sender) to their employee (receiver) about setting up for a meeting (the message). When the employee responds the flow of communication goes in the other direction with the employee becoming the sender and the department manager becoming the receiver.
Communication has flows or directions. There is one-way communication that flows from the sender to the receiver, but nothing flows back. For example, a motivational speech, a radio advertisement, or a tv show are all good examples of one-way communication. There is also two-way communication. My email example is two-way communication because the information flows in two directions. The first direction goes from the department head to the employee and the second direction is from the employee back to the department head.
So why does this matter in your business? It influences how you talk to your audience. Not just the words used, but how they interact with you, your team, and your business and how you interact with them.
Traditionally two-way communication with a business was pretty limited. Unless you were writing a letter or later making a phone call, there wasn’t a whole lot of opportunity to chat with the business. This style of one-way communication with the business talking to the potential customer, but the customer not really able to talk to them back is more aloof. Depending on the type of business it has the potential to make a business look elitist and somewhat untouchable in today’s business landscape if they’re not careful. I will say that some businesses benefit from one-way interaction with their customers and it’s better for them to keep limits on where, when, and how people communicate with them.
With the invention of the internet and then social media two-way communication became more popular and now it is very normal to provide a company with feedback, reviews, compliments, and more via their social media channels. It has the potential to make a business look more down-to-earth and friendly in today’s landscape. Depending on the type of business it can make the business approachable and be a benefit in business.
One of the things that influence your branding is how, when, and where your audience interacts with you. Does one-way communication benefits you more, then go for it, but if it’s going to make your business look unfriendly then stay away from it. The same goes for two-way communication. If it’s going to benefit you more then go for it. If it’s going to make your business look unprofessional then stay away.
Hope you have a better understanding of what communication is and why it matters for your business!
By the way, if you loved this tip and you want tips customized to your business, Grab your FREE 30 minute 1:1 Getting to Know You Strategy Session. Each session is full of tips tailored for your business to help you now. I do a very limited number of these sessions each month and these can only be scheduled through email, so if you want one, email me today! Let’s chat about how branding and design can get your business where you want it to be! Talk to you soon!