{"id":4502,"date":"2012-11-04T23:18:50","date_gmt":"2012-11-04T23:18:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/?p=4502"},"modified":"2012-11-05T02:40:43","modified_gmt":"2012-11-05T02:40:43","slug":"the-message-that-connects","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/2012\/11\/the-message-that-connects\/","title":{"rendered":"The Message That Connects"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"\"<\/a><\/h1>\n<\/header>\n
Marshall McLuhan<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 a godfather of 20th-century communication theory \u2014 characterized one of the challenges inherent in\u00a0connecting<\/em>\u00a0when he coined the phrase\u00a0\u201cthe medium is the message.\u201d<\/em><\/a>Seth Godin<\/a>\u00a0hit on it from a different angle in his timely post today,\u00a0<\/em>Get Over Yourself.<\/em><\/a>Given the timing \u2014 the 1960\u2019s, in North America \u2014 many interpreted McLuhan\u2019s theorizing as particularly pertinent to advertising and the increasing reach of mass media. The idea \u2014 that the channel is not just acarrier<\/em>, but part-and-parcel of the\u00a0message<\/em>\u00a0\u2014 has been the subject of countless debates and scholastic examinations.<\/p>\n

On far less lofty ground, marketers, advertisers and media types have for decades hypothesized about McLuhan\u2019s precise inference, and the implications for which medium best fit what message.<\/p>\n

And in the process, we often theorize right over the real point.<\/p>\n

Communication At The Personal Level<\/strong><\/p>\n

McLuhan\u2019s point \u2014 that it is difficult to separate medium from message \u2014 is particularly true the more\u00a0social<\/em>\u00a0the context. This is one of those good-news-bad-news scenarios. Good news for the self-aware.<\/p>\n

The greater the role personal interaction plays in efforts to communicate (or market, teach or lead), the more critical everything about the individual delivering the message. Right or wrong, as subjective and unfair as it might be at times, when it comes to my attempts to connect and communicate at any personal level,\u00a0the medium is me. Or you.<\/em><\/p>\n

To paraphrase my dad \u2014 when what I say does not align with what I do, the message is likely to miss the mark. No matter its profundity or eloquence.<\/p>\n

These days this issue of personal alignment with message is often referenced in the context of personal branding. And there are few issues that impact personal communications, business development and marketing more.<\/p>\n

A Test: Who Is The Message About?<\/strong><\/p>\n

One simple way to test the alignment of medium and message at the personal (social) level is to ask two questions that demand a bit of self-awareness:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Is the communication more about me, or connecting with the intended audience? Hint: to the degree a message is all about you \u2014 your product, your service, your insight or genius \u2014 check alignment.<\/li>\n
  2. If the target takes away only one thing from the communication, will it be about the message, or about the medium?<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Or, as Godin\u2019s post suggests, if the objective is to connect, build relationship, serve and lead, we do well to begin by\u00a0getting over ourselves.<\/em><\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    Originally posted by\u00a0Eric Fletcher<\/a>\u00a0on\u00a0October 31st, 2012 at\u00a0http:\/\/www.marketingbrainfodder.com\/<\/a><\/p>\n<\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Marshall McLuhan\u00a0\u2014 a godfather of 20th-century communication theory \u2014 characterized one of the challenges inherent in\u00a0connecting\u00a0when he coined the phrase\u00a0\u201cthe medium is the message.\u201dSeth Godin\u00a0hit on it from a different angle in his timely post today,\u00a0Get Over Yourself.Given the timing \u2014 the 1960\u2019s, in North America \u2014 many interpreted McLuhan\u2019s theorizing as particularly pertinent to … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[362,256,98,97,32,30],"class_list":["post-4502","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ericfletcher","tag-branding","tag-business-development","tag-communication","tag-leadership","tag-marketing","tag-social-media"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4502","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4502"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4502\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4506,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4502\/revisions\/4506"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4502"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4502"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4502"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}