How can I Structure My Content? You realize your audience may respond best to more than one exposure to the message in more than one medium. You decide to send an email with the information in the message, make an announcement at a department meeting, and post a note (based on the email) to the internal community Facebook page. Now you have the challenge of structuring the content Take a look at this draft of the proposed email message appears below... Communication Workshop - November 2 - Message (HTML) Format Text Review File Message Insert Options * cut Calibr (Bod 11 Copy Paste Format Painter Clipboard Address Check Book Names Names Zoom Follow Up ! High Importance Low Importance Tags Attach Attach Signature File Item Include Basic Text Zoom To. Customer Relations Distribution Subject: Communication Workshop - November 2 To All Customer Relations Employees: Please mark your calendars for 2:30 p.m. on Wednesday, November 2, and plan to attend a two-hour workshop on Effective communication Skills, facilitated by Fiona Barnes of MSA Consulting. The workshop will be held in Training Room A Those of you who attended Fiona's session on CyberEthics know how engaging her presentations are. Wednesday's session will cover the basics of the communication process. It will also offer effective communication strategies that you can use on the telephone, in writing, and in meetings. Because communication is so important in our work every day, management is expecting everyone in the department to attend. Employees from other departments are welcome, too. Please respond before 5p.m. on November 1 by replying to this email. Thanks, Dale Levitz, Office Manager ABC Communication dlevitz@abccomm.com Analyzing: 1. What content appears in the email that was not included in the original flyer? Why is that content useful? Composing: 1. Is this email organized as a direct or indirect message? Why? 2. Is the information in the email organized effectively? Explain? Evaluating: 1. In evaluating content, are there additional persuasive points you could add? 2. Does this email message use clear and concise wording as well as professional tone and style? 3. Would you keep the current subject line, or would you revise it? Why? Suppose your employer asks you to inform everyone in the customer relations department about an upcoming workshop on communication skills. You quickly create the flyer below and post copies on the break-room bulletin board and in the cafeteria. You send a copy in a document as a file attachment to all employees by email. Although your department includes 60 people, only 4 people attend. How could you improve the communication ults? Communication Skills Workshop Wednesday, November 2 @ 2:30 pm Training Room A What is the Desired Outcome? Although your supervisor may have simply instructed you to tell the employees about the workshop, a desired outcome was implied. Your supervisor wants most employees to attend. Merely informing employees that the workshop exists will not make them attend. You need to persuade them. What Content Does the Audience Need? What will the audience need to hear to make them want to attend? To answer this question, you need to analyze the audience and anticipate their questions and objections. All 60 employees from customer relations are busy. They also believe they are good communicators. They are, after all, in customer relations. They will attend a workshop only if they are required to do so, if they believe it will be fun. Here are some questions that will be on their minds when they hear about the workshop and some possible objections they may have to attending: Is this workshop required? How long will the workshop last? How will I benefit from attending? Will my manager be upset if I don't attend? Possible objections the Audience May Have: I have too much work to do. I don't need to attend. I studied communication in school. A workshop won't help me get promoted. Which Medium is Best? You realize now that a flyer was not the most effective way to communicate about the workshop because some people simply walk past flyers without reading them. Furthermore, many people do not open email attachments without a compelling reason to do so. MEDIUM ADVANTANGES DISADVANTAGES Face to Face one-to-one conversation) Allows personal explanation targeted an individual Provides for immediate feedback in the form of nonverbal cues, such as facial expresionk gestures, and posture Is efficient for disseminating in to many people is wally permanently documented recorded Meeting several people) Disseminates information to many people Provides for immediate feedback Is documented by minutes Can be dificult to schedule Issime consuming - takes employees y from wigned duties Telephone Text Message. Instant Message Memo printed body within the Letter Formen letterhead and the mailed mailed to me ide the Allows personal explanation targeted an individual Istime consuming if individual calls need Allows short messages to be delivered to be made to several people voicemail if individuals are not the . 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May provide for feedback (wiki) Allows you to communicate to community of people who have lined with Requires the audience to access the site you and expressed an interest May not reach the audience Allows interactive communication May reach unintended audiences Is easy to keep up to date Disseminates information to many people is not effective with audiences who have simultaneously Timeline Encourages de Requires the audience to access the site Is easy to lep up to date actively request messages be sent to them Allows interactive communicatie May to reach the audience Provides a complete and Newsletter (printed hardcopy, deed mila attachment) Website Social Media Networking Websites (e. Facebook, LinkedIn Social Media Wikis, Blogs, and Mireoblog (e- Twitter, Weite)