Utilizing Ads to Get A Message Across.

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        Welcome again to another week of Leadership and Media Strategies in communications that focus on the Power of Knowledge. Having knowledge will allow for growth that will expand your mindset and offer others pertinent information that can have an enduring effect. Over the past several week's leadership and communication had become a part of our everyday lives and change what we thought we knew but we didn't know. Let us see what information this will take us to another level in an organization.
     
        In today's society, messages can come from any source or any direction to make people listen and see what a business can offer or any organization. The most effective way to get a message across has been advertising through media or online. Many businesses are starting to utilize Google as a viable source of making sure people are noticing their product or services. Google seems to have more traffic than other websites, and that has become the focus for gaining exposure. The Chief of Google indicated that in 2012 that 50 percent of ads will go online in the next five years, which seem to come true. Every time you click on something online, what do you see popping up? Ads are popping up so much that it can get overwhelming at times. Some of the ads may come from businesses that you are currently using or have no interest in utilizing. Googles SVP Nikesh Arora (2013) indicated "there's currently about $800 billion in global advertising market". Online advertising isn't quite up to that level of earnings yet.

        Around this time of year, money seems to blow in the wind like dust in a field. The holiday spending curse that allows content to be distributed through media continually and online to get the message across. Thanksgiving and Christmas are two of the busiest holidays when it comes to shopping, and there is no other better time to flood the every outlet such as radios, media, traditional tv commercials, and online advertising. Avoiding these type of advertising can be tough when trying to spend money. When I'm online browsing the World Wide Web through Google, online ads are coming from each direction of the monitor even when you enable pop-up blocks. When the ads are popping up, they're getting the attention of many consumers which indicates the message is be heard by the number of clicks.

        Traditional ads are somewhat effective during the holidays, but the online ads are continuously flooding the internet. Holiday ad message content goes in-depth on the prices of product, limits on products, and the store hours, and some ask for consumers to download apps. The problem that may happen with online ads has the necessary phone coverage when out shopping to view, which can be a hassle. The message has already been implemented in a person mind and going to a store hearing an employee say they don't have the product can be a problem. The online ads have imprinted the message in the brain, and you're determined to get satisfaction. Let's remember that holiday shopping is tough and having an idea of what you want before dealing with traffic and the crowds is paramount.

        What is the message? The message is to gain as much exposure to an audience that will listen and go out and spend the money on a product or service. Communication plays a significant role in ads and Reese and Shoemaker (1996) reported a framework: 1) who(communicator), 2) says what through which channel(media channel), 3) to whom(audience), 4) with what effect(effects). Each one of these frameworks is used every day whether we know it or not and this information can help all to understand what we as a society never realized. Think about this framework when looking at your organization.

        The audiences are the consumers and the leaders of the organizations utilize the strategic communication strategies in the real world when it came to relaying a message. A Tedtalk video from Morgan Spurlock talks about trying to get the information out by networking and targeting the big time companies that will have an influence on the consumers. Morgan Spurlock (Ted talk) states "when you train your employees to be risk adverse; then you're preparing your whole company to be reward challenged." This statement relates in a way that businesses should have the right people in place to get a good message out. When the ads are launch online, a huge margin of profit should continue to grow. If organizations aren't utilizing ads then how will people know what a company as to offer? Ads are one of the best ways to get people involved to have happy holiday shopping.

        This week's topic focuses on utilizing ads to get a message across when trying to persuade people to purchase a product or service. Online ads and traditional ads have and will continue to be effect in our society and on the flipside, online ads will continue to flood our online searches. Google will become a forefront barrier versus the other sites sooner, rather than later. Messages from ads can be very effective when leaders in strategic communication promote an agenda. With this information, we can see why ads are being pushed online do the nature of the web searching growth. Hope that you enjoyed this weeks article and continued to follow me next week on some more vital information.

Looking forward to providing knowledge next week!!

       

Reference

Shoemaker, P.J., & Reese, S.S. (1991). Mediating the message: Theories of influences on mass media content. New York: Longman.

http://allthingsd.com/20130212/googles-ad-chief-50-percent-of-ads-will-go-online-in-the-next-five-years/

http://www.ted.com/talks/morgan_spurlock_the_greatest_ted_talk_ever_sold#t-1030455
       

Leadership Brings Success

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Welcome again to the power of knowledge surrounding leadership and media strategies. This week's article will focus on leadership and how it distinguishes from management. Many may think that leadership is the same as management and you aren't alone. The two can be confusing sometimes, but the skills sets are different. Some people are natural leaders, while others have to learn the skills to become a part of leadership. Leadership is in every organization whether it's in the government, non-profit, or corporate world and having people on the same page are what leaders can accomplish. If you are still having doubts about leadership not being management, stay with along this ride, and it will certainly become clearer as the information is being put forth.

Leadership is not management, and the differences can easily be shown. Management deals with the ability to produce a product and service without a need to build a relationship with their employees. Kotter (2013) stated, "management is a set of well-known processes, like budgeting, planning, structuring jobs, staffing jobs, measuring performance, and problem-solving, which help an organization to do what it knows how to do well predictably." Have you ever wonder why an employee doesn't have a relationship with management, this evidence shows what the job description entitles. Management focuses on getting job task complete and handle the difficult task that may follow. Imagine yourself going to a car dealership, and you're talking to a salesperson, and they get up to go to another cubical which is the manager's office, the salesperson comes back to you and indicates that the manager signed off on the sale. Management did their job in making sure the service was being handled properly.

Now let us take a look at leadership that is totally different from management. Leadership leads to create an understanding between both parties being present. Some traits that a leader possess are as follows: 1)has a vision, purpose, and direction, 2) technical/administrative, 3) thinking skills, 4) drive and motivation, 5) trust and respect, 6) teamwork and collaboration, 7) empowerment, and 8) coach, praise, and give feedback. If you consider yourself a leader do you possess the necessary skills that are mention, ask yourself that question. Many may say, but in reality, the truth sometimes will show you the light and changes will be needed on your behalf. Kotter (2013) stated, "Leadership is not about attributes, it's about behavior." This statement is so true when it comes down to being a leader whether in past, present, or future tense.

During my tenure as a youth football coach, my task in a position of leadership resembled some of these traits and when dealing with 7, 8, 9, and ten years, your behavior has to be on point. Trying to get young kids to see your vision in that no matter what the final score is, they're all still winners. Respect, trust, and empowering others will take you to another level in life. Once people can enhance their leadership in strategic communication, then things will become so easy when dealing people. Making sure that good examples are being set and giving people a chance to add to the information that can be beneficial to what's trying to accomplished. Have you heard the saying, "you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make them drink" which is very much true, in other words, you can lead a person, but it's up to the individual if they want to reap the rewards being presented?

Both of leadership and management is vital to an organization both have different agendas. Being a leader in strategic communication works when information is being provided, in a way that's clearly explained. Once the individual gets people to believe in the shared ideas or even come together on a mission is when leadership has succeeded. Leadership can communicate in a variety of ways such as; staff meetings, emails, or even phone calls that will allow participation from all parties. Leadership helps the organization to run smooth which allows management to do their job involving the business structure. After reading a few articles on leaders in strategic communication and what it takes to be a leader has clarified a lot of information on what it takes to be a leader. Once you start to find out that your leadership skills aren't what you think they are, then you will understand.

Many successful leaders had visions, such as Martin Luther King Jr., President Barack Obama, Senator Bernie Sanders, General George Patton, and Nelson Mandela to name a few. To understand leadership that brings success, look at these list of individuals from the past to present. Each one had a vision, inspired, and motivated people to believe in what they were trying to accomplish. It takes dedication, time, and hard work to be in a leadership position. Leaders will never have to management anyone but build a relationship that promotes positive behavior equalling positive results.

Leaders should have the ability to strategically communicate as I am learning through this class that has given a better understanding of leadership. Employers are highly seeking individuals with excellent leadership skills for their organization. Utilize this skill set to grow and enhance opportunities that may be present or in the near future. I hope this power of knowledge of leadership has been very helpful and many of you will be able to incorporate this information into your daily lives. Hope you will continue to enjoy this blog along with the information presented on a weekly basis.

Reference

http://blogs.hbr.org/kotter/2013/01/management-is-still-not-leadership.html. by John P. Kotter

Leadership and Internal Communication

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            Welcome to the fourth post for this nine-week period, and it continues to be interesting in understanding strategic communication that may have an impact on our daily lives. Communication and listening are something that we do whether we know it not. In every organization, there is a leader that have the skills to be an effective communicator, and then there are leaders that aren't good communicators that will listen. Sometimes people should learn how to be a leader that can listen and have good internal communication with individuals or employees. This week's post will focus on leadership and internal communication and the ability to listen.

After reading a few articles about leadership and internal communication, this information will give you a better understanding of how organizations operation. A leader with experience can provide internal communication by memos, emails, and policies and procedures that will give employees a grip on how top levels can communicate. Dr. Kline stated that a leader should encourage feedback, listen effectively, and reduce communication misunderstanding. These ideas are ways to break down many barriers that may present itself. Internal communication in an organization is the lifeline that keeps providing the necessary information for individuals.

            When I look at a leader and the internal communication aspect of this blog, this leads back to when I was coaching youth football a few years. The coaches and I as leaders had to communicate with each other through meetings and phone calls in order clarify a misunderstanding for an upcoming game. Each coach had to listen effectively to make sure everyone was on the same page. It doesn’t matter what your occupation, organization, or activity, leaders are needed to make things function. Dr. Kline also indicates “responsible leaders work hard to prevent bottlenecks and keep channels open up, down, and throughout the organization by (1) establishing an appropriate working climate and adjusting their communication behavior to fit the situation and (2) practicing techniques to improve communication in their organization”.  Being able to bring about a change in others behavior is something that many would like to accomplish, and sometimes you might not get through to a lot of people, but putting forth the effort is what makes a great leader.

            Whether a person may know it or not, internal communication is provided daily, when utilizing Facebook, emails, and Instagram to send a private message to reach an individual or group of people. Sounds familiar now once you think about it, never thought about internal communication. Good internal communication can:

• Provide people the information they need to do their jobs effectively
• Make sure they know about anything that concerns them
• Provide people with clear standards and expectations for their work
• Give people feedback on their performance
• Provide them emotional support for difficult work
• Suggest new ideas about both their work and their lives
• Allow them to take the pulse of the organization and understand its overall situation
• Help them maintain a shared vision and a sense of ownership in the organization

Listening and communication should never be one-sided and all parties should be involved and once an understanding is a reached, then the effectiveness of an organization will prosper. When you think about communicating, it can be verbal or non-verbal, but at the end of the day, they both can relay a good or bad message. It’s up to the leader to make sure everyone is always informed to avoid any negative outlook that displays a fracture within an organization.

            Just imagine when if you never check your email or never listen in staff meetings at your job that indicated all staff would be able to come in two hours late for work. Everyone else got the memo through listening at the staff meeting and checking their emails, but you were in a zone by not paying attention, then the next day you came into work while you normally do. Then you realize that you’re the only one there, looking around going to the supervisor and asking where is everyone, then your supervisor asked, weren’t you in the meeting or check your email? He states that the department heads gave him permission to let everyone come in two hours late, then you finally realize that you weren’t paying attention or checking emails. The moral of the story is, the leader did his job by utilizing internal communication to inform his employees of the schedule change. Providing information is what a good leader will do when taking more than one step to remind people of what staff meetings are.

            Every week as I expound on media and leadership strategies with knowledge that you may haven’t know before can be very useful in our everyday lives, as I have excepted the information along with you. Leaders and communication go hand in hand and to provide success within an organization you will need both to survive. No matter how much a person may think they know, there will always be something that will humble you in that aspect. Never be afraid to ask for feedback or needing help to solve a problem, a leader’s position is also to advise and to make sure the climate is right for an individual setting. Once a leader promotes internal communication the openness and flow of communication will flow smooth like a river.

If you want to continue expanding your knowledge on media and leadership strategies, then I look forward to you coming back next week and searching for more great knowledge that will change your thought process. Maybe this information can be helpful when trying to communicate within your organization or provide other leaders with better ways to listen and properly use the power of internal communication.

Listening as a Communication Tool

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      I'm Back!!! Time can fly right past us if we don't pay attention. Welcome to the third week of my blog post, and you may find some interesting things that you may or may not have known. We as people have a tendency to focus and hear things that we want to hear, and some may call it selective hearing. The focus of this piece will be on strategic communication listening skills to help improve communication that may have an effect on your decision-making process. We're living in a technological, social media society that people are adapting to, such as the laggards and we already know that the Millennium are always ahead. So the blog will focus on how we listen and the effects involving communication. When one can accept and understand what we've been missing, effective listening skills will guide you in the right direction. Lets begin.

      
      To give some insight on how significant listening skills are, let us take a look at the pie chart above. Compared to reading, writing, and speaking, listening accounts for 72 percent of communication. Without the ability to listen, then the other subject can't exist. How can a person become an effective listener when engaging in a conversation with others or from the social media or in an organization? To become a better listener, one must take the time to become one. New information on becoming an effective leader came from Dr. Kline, who wrote a book called "Listen Effectively" and upon my reading, I was amazed on somethings that I didn't know. My mindset was that I have no problems with listening and boy was I wrong. During my research of knowledge in Leadership and media strategies class topic, we've discussed how communication strategies professionals can use listening skills to help communicate internal, external, and government environments. Each one of these environments represents the lack of listening skills of a person.

      As we look at how people communicate in today's world can be very puzzling because of technology. People need to understand that listening can take you a long way, for example, when you were younger, and your mom told you not to touch the hot stove because it will burn you, what did you do, touched it without hesitation. The listening was there but not understanding. Dr. Kline (1996) stated, "among the great hindrances to effective listening are the fallacies that people hold about listening."   So people will automatically assume that they have no issues when it comes to listening. We can all agree that listening wasn't a subject in school and we had to learn the hard way, especially when it came to testing, classwork, and homework assignments. I can honestly say that I fell into this category, especially during my undergraduate years during class lectures and seminars. There weren't too many days that I listen or had to ask other classmates later about what assignments and study notes. Still to this day I sometimes don't listen, but after reading Dr. Kline's book, now I understand the what it means to be an effective listener. The process comes in five steps 1) receiving, 2) attending, 3) understanding, 4) responding, and 5) remembering. If you want to understand more about yourself, take a look at the book entitled "Listening Effectively" by Dr. John A. Kline.

      The Digital Generation has found the social media sites to be there the new form of listening when trying to communicate with another person. It seems to be a way to avoid someone by not having a face-to-face conversation and when I mean avoidance, take a look at the cellphones, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, etc. The social media sites for communication seems to work for the Millennials, but at the same time, the message and understanding can get lost as well. While working with juveniles as a youth counselor, I've used the listen to five step process in teaching kids how to become effective listeners and didn't realize it until now.

      Effective listening can also be understood by the use of viral videos when communicating. These videos can be used in organizations to promote listening skills training and promoting products. When viral videos go viral as I've learned in this week's discussion and Tedtalks, sums up how products and service can play a major role in our society. When the "hear me now" commercial came out, many people listened and trusted what is told about a product. This type of strategic communication got the attention of millions and made them listen, which allowed for Dr. Kline's five step listening process to take effect. Even though social media has taken off to the point that technology must continue to advance, we must continue to listen effectively not just by viral videos and technology.

      One thing to remember is that listening and hearing are not the same. The hearing is the reception of sound; listening is the attachment of the meaning. So when you have to go for a job interview, you should be giving your undivided attention to the speaker, looking that person in the eye, correct posture, and understanding the information being giving to give positive feedback. All the information that is being provided within this blog can be beneficial in learning a lot about yourself when it comes to listening skills. Effective listening is something that can be learned by educating yourself and learning to eliminate barriers that persist in your mind. After being brought down to reality in thinking that my listening skills are top notch, now I'm back into the education stage in making sure that I have the necessary tools to become more effective when communicating with people. I hope that this information will change your way of thinking as it has changed mind.

     Looking forward to providing information that can be powerful in everyday lifestyle, so join me again next week for a new post! Thanks for reading.

Reference

Kline, J.A. (1996). Listening Effectively. Maxwell AirForce Base, AL: Air University Press