I have the great privilege of working with many different people inside a variety of diverse organizations. In doing such work, it has become clear to me that these organizations and the people that work there- share one thing in common. Perception is Reality.
You see… whatever their PERCEPTION of something is– IS their REALITY of something.
What does this mean? Are you lost?
Ok—here goes…
Whatever a person “perceives” to be true in the world around them (their perception) is completely true to them (their reality).
All people take in information and then make decisions about the information in different ways. So no matter how a person goes about the process of making a decision– the end result is the same! So think about it from a marketing point of view… the other person now has a “perception” of you in their mind and this perception is their reality.
So the learning lesson we must ponder as we communicate with OR market to others is this:
It is not what “we say we are all about” but it is what “others say we are about.”
Do others perceive you the way you hope that they do? This is a question we MUST all ask ourselves.
The best marketing and communications individuals are those that are able to purposefully and intentionally make the “perception they seek” closely match how they are ultimately perceived by others.
Do you ever think about how you/your organization seeks to be perceived and whether or not this is the reality of how others actually perceive it? Do you realize that the superb new tools available to all of us through Social Media—give us a great way to impact how we market ourselves and control perception and reality?
How do you perceive this post? I hope it matches the reality I was seeking to achieve.
Ryan T. Sauers