Communication Skills: Increasing Your Personal Presence Online—Part 2
Personal presence has much to do with perception. Those perceptions created with a few keystrokes online may last for a decade or a lifetime. Never take your online personae lightly.
Give Information, Plus Insight
Whether you’re blogging or tweeting, think tour guide. Consider past situations when you’ve been fortunate enough to have an experienced tour guide––possibly through the Smithsonian, the Louvre, or another center of interest. Guides don’t just function as signposts: “Here’s an eighteenth-century military uniform.” “Turn left and then walk straight ahead and you’ll see the Mona Lisa.”
Instead, the tour guide provides intriguing anecdotes about historical figures, illustrations of how equipment was used in past centuries, and statistics to put past feats into perspective so that you can compare them with a current frame of reference. The tour guide’s insight elevates the information from dry to dramatic. Serve your followers on the Internet in the same way. Aim not to be just a signpost to this or that article, book, or video, but a savvy person with opinions about what you’re sharing.
Ask Provocative Questions
Value comes in the form of a thought-provoking question as well as a declarative sentence. Think how many people have pondered the age-old question: “If a tree falls in the forest and nobody is there to hear it, does it make a sound?”
Granted, you won’t get very far with stale questions such as this one. But try tossing out a thoughtful question about a current trend, asking for opinions on a controversial issue or policy, or asking for suggestions for solving prevalent problems. The BP oil spill generated thousands of suggested solutions—some of which brought significant recognition and financial reward to those who offered answers or piggybacked on others’ thinking. The current election process will, no doubt, produce other provocative questions in an effort to influence voters.
Make Your Writing on the Wall Clear and Crisp—and Go for Clever
Not everyone is a born novelist, poet, or rapper. So that “clever” criterion may be a stretch. But you can learn to write clear, crisp, correct comments and questions. Your writing represents your face on the screen and your attention to detail on the job. I’m not talking about a typo. If you have clumsy thumbs and you’re tweeting from your cell phone on a jerky elevator, you may miss a key. Rather, I’m talking about misused words, nonsensical phrasing, ungrammatical sentences, and other grammar goofs that raise eyebrows and cause confusion. Such things create an image in the minds of thousands of “friends” and “followers.”
Avoid Sounding Hysterical
If you want to avoid sounding like a 16-year-old, drop the emoticons and avoid the overuse of exclamation points. ☺ Forget it! Got it? No emoticons! No TWEETs that YELL! And TEXTS? What about texts? Those, too!!! No, I’m not hyper, angry, or on speed. Really!!! I’m just over 19! 
Feel Free to Mix Business With Pleasure
Even if you’re interacting on behalf of your organization, make it personal. Otherwise, your firm could hire a computer to send out automated responses. If your firm sells widgets, your comments don’t have to be limited to widgets. Think wider. A comment about the excellent service you received from the local supermarket—along with insight to make it relevant—certainly has its place in social conversation. Your opinions, recommendations, and commentaries that provide insight into people’s personal or work lives add value. Just don’t bore us with drivel about your dining room chairs.
Dianna Booher, an expert in executive communications, is the author of 45 books, published in 25 countries and 19 languages. Her latest books include Creating Personal Presence: Look, Talk, Think, and Act Like a Leader and Communicate with Confidence, Revised Edition. As CEO of Booher Consultants and as a high-caliber keynote speaker, Dianna and her staff travel worldwide to deliver focused speeches and training programs to address specific communication challenges and increase effectiveness in oral, written, interpersonal, and organizational communication. www.booher.com
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