Archiv der Kategorie: Communication

Communication consists of perception, thought models and communication behavior.

Contacts with a difference

With the increasing popularity of social networks, new forms of the contacts evolve. The respective network gives different names to these contacts – contact, friend, circles, follower. The users decide individually on the range and/or size of their net. It reaches from the family cocoon, to traditional circle of friends, acquaintances and colleagues, to like-minded people or fans. The number of contacts goes from a handful up to tens of thousands, in special cases to millions (e.g. Lady Gaga has already more than 30 million followers).

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It is clear that the contacts with the best friends have other qualities than the relationship between Lady Gaga and her followers. One contact is not better than the other, but different. Let’s look at the contacts with a difference.

The number of on-line contacts often exceeds the number of traditional relations that exist without Internet (between 100 and 250). On Facebook, a user had in 2013 on average 342 friends. However, mutual communication takes only place regularly with approx. ten people.

This offsets a little the hype about the social networks. Eventually, the number of relationships regulates themselves to a manageable number by the available time. For the personal assessment of the own network, the contacts can be organized according to two aspects: Type of relationship and Contact strength.

Types of relationship

The type of relationship describes the social proximity and, in a certain sense, the purpose of the relationship.

  • Family/ close friends
    Here you find the direct members of the family (parents, brothers and sisters)and friends, with whom one has certain things in common. Here are the ten contacts that are maintained the most.
  • Friends/ closer acquaintance/ kinsfolk
    Friendshipsand acquaintances result from collective activities (school, study, work, and hobby). The kinsfolk cover the extended family circle (grandparents, grandchilds, uncles, aunts, nieces, nephews, etc.). The number in this group depends substantially on the user. Taking into account the common activities, it could be easily 40 to 100 contacts.
  • Personal acquaintanceships
    You are not regularly in contact with people, who you met personally and with whom you exchanged addresses. However, there is a link due to the personal encounter. This group grows with increasing age and will become over time a three-figure number.
  • Potential mailing list
    Thelargest group is those people, with whom you exchange the contact in the Internet due to common interests or something similar. Also without personal encounter, there is the possibility to contact personally or to send information. The number in this group depends substantially on the individual activities in the social networks. You can quickly develop a four-digit number of contacts. My largest Xing contact has more than 74,000 contacts.

It would be interesting to perform a study concerning the average number of contacts for the different types of relationship.

Contact strength

The second aspect is the contact strength. In this case, you look at the mutuality of the contact.

  • None/ one-sided exchange
    This is about the contacts that consist of a mere confirmation. The partners do not or very rarely exchange messages.
  • More outgoing than incoming
    In this relationship sends one partner substantially more direct messages than the other.
  • Equivalent outgoing and incoming
    This is a balanced mutual relationship.
  • More incoming than outgoing
    In this case one partner receives substantially more direct messages than he/she is sending.

In the first case, it is the natural noise that exists in social networks. The most contacts are the personal acquaintances and the potential mailing list.

Bottom line

It looks like those social networks behave as communities of the past. The core circles are still the visible 100 to 250 persons, with whom we always had a relationship. Regular, mutual contacts are take place with around ten people.

Further links:

Maintained relationships in Facebook

Dunbar’s number

Persistance of social signatures in human communication

The unnecessary blind spot

The bigger a project, the more people are involved, the interim results and milestones are created, the more coordination is necessary and the higher the costs are. A lot of effort goes into the reporting for the decision makers and the committees. Unfortunately, the project team rarely determines the target group profile. These characteristics of the deciders have a large influence on the effectiveness of communication. The resulting, unnecessary blind spot leads often, despite good results, not to an adequate appreciation.

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Many push the fact to the back of their mind that the workload of the project is today less than fifty percent technical problem solving and more than fifty percent communication. The reports have a special function, since they introduce and explain the results. Thus, they contribute crucially to success and failure. Misunderstandings and wrong classifications undermine objectively good results. A main reason for the unsatisfactory presentations is the misconception that a good solution is already sufficient, in order to be successful.
Imagine the inventor of an all-purpose knife for the kitchen that no longer blunts. He shows short videos, in which the knife is used to cut vegetables, fish and meat like butter. As a special effect, he tested his invention under continuous use in a slaughterhouse for four weeks. The video shows butchers ramming the knife several times into pigs and cutting them into pieces, even though the target group consists of housewives, not butchers. With his objective demonstration of the efficiency of the knife, he awakes inadvertently murderous scenarios within the mind of the public. Accordingly, the presentation fails to have the desired effect.

An important element during the preparation of a presentation is the consideration of the individual characteristics and conceptions of the respective target group. This requires an early profiling. The creation of the profile is possible without larger effort, if you use the correct structure (e.g. self-image http://ow.ly/wsIjz).

With the clear understanding of the target group, the following aspects can be achieved.

  • You provide the target group room for their associations, by limiting yourself on information according the interests of the target group. The nominalization of specific activities creates connection points to their everyday experiences, e.g. the cutting of vegetables, the carving of meat.
  • The connection of the results with the experiences and convictions of the target group facilitates them to integrate the messages into their understanding. Generalizations and classifications elicit many thoughts, e.g. food is also a feast for the eye; the cold kitchen thrives on cutting.
  • The use of examples out of the experience areas of the listeners activates their presumptions and existing explanations for cause and effect and links them to the presentation. Thus, role models supply a variety of associations, e.g. the most important tool of star cooks is the sharp knife; good food becomes a successful dinner with a good knife.
  • With the definition of crucial terms, you prevent that the listeners use their imagination in the wrong direction. They create a basis as objective as possible, e.g. the knife functions in all areas of the kitchen; continuous tests did not produce any indications of wear.

These aspects are especially valid, if it comes to the abstract topics of the economy. In these areas, the danger to misinterpret a presentation is big, since the range of interpretations goes quite far. Terms, such as goals, results, satisfaction, economics etc. are interpreted differently by the listeners. It is important to understand the attitudes of the target group in advance and to incorporate indispensable explanations based on these insights. Reports, tailored to the respective target group, ensure that the results can be appreciated accordingly.

Bottom line: The profiling is a simple approach, in order to prevent the unnecessary blind spot, the fuzzy target group conception. This way, you convey more effectively your interests and results.