Today, I spoke with Susan RoAne, who is a bestselling author and speaker. Her latest book is called Face to Face: How to Reclaim the Personal Touch in a Digital World. In this interview, we spoke about online communication versus offline communication, and the differences in technique. Susan also mentions how to manage your own online identity and how to manage the dreaded office politics that many of us are already accustomed to.
Will the internet ever replace face-to-face communication? Why or why not?
No. Although the internet affords us so many ways to connect, meet, communicate, we are still humans who require relationships (professional or personal). It’s how our species is wired. This is why even twitter sponsors “gatherings” in some of the urban areas.
How would you communicate to someone different if it were online or offline?
For online communication, we must reread what we write BEFORE we hit send. Many friendships, business communications and sadly, even marriages have been lost because we wrote something we would NEVER say to someone’s face. And there is no context, tone, visual or audible clues to our comments. We bring our “stuff” to what we read (email, text or IM) and that causes misinterpretation. (I received an email from a friend that absolutely felt like acupuncture with Knives. Three years later he never remembered what he wrote, had no clue of its tone, but I was hurt for a long time). And who wants to lose a client, job lead or biz relationship because of such miscommunication???
To quote President Obama about having to give up his “BarackBerry”:
“My policy is never to hit ‘send’ without realizing it could end up on CNN.”
(It was a CNN pre inaug interview). What I wrote in Face to Face: How To Reclaim the Personal Touch in a Digital World is NEVER send any message you wouldn’t want to see on the internet, youtube or in court.
When it comes to personal branding on the web, you are communicating messages without even talking to someone. How can you shape these perceptions/messages so you stay on-brand and are seen positively?
Considering my topic is about communication, connection and building relationships, I make sure my messages have a “personal touch”. I want the recipient to know me and feel a personal connection. But I am careful about what I share. I look at each email, text or twitter as something that could be passed around an office.
That serves me in business, marketing and in my social communication. And we all have “techno friends” (a term used in Friendship by Joseph Epstein). They are people we feel a “kinship” but have never and may never meet and that’s reflective of our global workplace. Those friendships often evolve out of email, posting comments on blogs , etc.
What is the best way to connect to someone else? How do you know when to use email, IM, etc?
Find out how people PREFER to be communicated with: phone, text, email, twitter. HOWEVER, if everyone else is digitally addicted and you want to solidify your personal brand and connections to a contact, use
the PUPÔ method. Pick Up the Phone. Again, find out what works for the receiver. It was recommended to me that if constructing an email or IM is taking more than 5 minutes of time, there must be a reason that can be solved quicker in a phone call. And we get to hear tone, inflection, etc. Avoid the volley of emails, the CCs to everyone and their brother and boss.
What are your top 3 tips for handling office politics?
Be aware. Be observant and know what’s going on. Talk to people in all types of positions as they bring another view, information and grapevine. Have a multi- layered office network. DO NOT contribute any bad behavior or damaging judgements/gossip. The SAVVY among us are in the loop. Otherwise, things happen and, if you don’t know the players, processes and events, you can be caught off-guard in the Job world.
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Susan RoAne leads a double life as a bestselling author and a sought-after professional keynote speaker. Known as The Mingling Maven®, she gives her multi-generational audiences the required tools, techniques and strategies they need to connect and communicate in today’s global business world. Her practical, informative, and interactive presentations are known for what The San Francisco Chronicle calls her “dynamite sense of humor”. Because of her groundbreaking best-seller, How to Work a Room®, Susan is considered the undisputed and original networking and communication expert.
