Choose your words carefully!
Tristan Griffiths
Removing overwhelm from social media, content creation, livestreaming & social audio!
Choose your words carefully….
For those of you who don’t know me my name is Tristan Griffiths, you can find me as @ImTristanG across all the socials, so please do reach out connect with me wherever you most like to spend time, let’s have a conversation, and see how I might be able to help.
This #ImTristanGInsights series is all about sharing my own thoughts and insights to help you navigate the complex world of digital marketing, content creation and building your personal brand.
Today I want to talk to you about choosing your words carefully.
Now I know what you’re probably thinking, you’re probably thinking I’m going to go into a conversation around times when you’re arguing or heated debates or when you’re in conflict with someone. And of course it’s really important when those situations arise to choose your words carefully. But that’s not my main focus for today’s content.
I want to share with you about why it’s so important to choose your words carefully, all of the time.
Remember that the things that we say, especially now in a digital landscape through social media, through digital communications, is how we can be perceived much longer term than it would have been prior to digital communication.
When you say something;
When you publish something;
When you write something online;
…. that can be forever!
When that gets published people can screenshot it, it can be saved, even though you think you might be able to remove it things are going to remain online and that will be a direct reflection on you and your personal brand – so be really careful about the words you use, how you speak to people and how you show up online.
How do you want to be perceived?
Remembering that online can be forever!
With that advice I would say it’s always important to not snap react to things, but to take time out and to reflect on what’s the best possible way you could react in any given situation.
If that’s giving advice or whether that’s responding to a troll or some negativity online, the words you use and how you react will be very important.
I saw a great example of this from Bobby Umar through a post where he’d shared a troll attacking him for no apparent reason and how he handled it and held himself, kept him in a good light whilst shining a light on the mistakes of the person who had made those rash comments and statements on his statuses.
Remembering that how you talk online is how you’ll be perceived potentially forever, choosing your words carefully has never been more important.
That being said I don’t say it to scare you, but I say it to warn you, so that you take much more care in how you show up online.
You can reshape and redirect your brand later on and you can pivot, there is no hard and fast that posting something today means you can’t change your mind about it later. But be sure of your convictions, and be sure of what you’re talking about when you post online.
I want to give you a really good example that came up this week, while I’ve been spending some time with my incredible mum, who’s in her 70s. We were sitting down to watch a show and I literally walked in the room and as a reminder to her, I said “I bought you some apple juice” as I put an apple juice down on the side.
Now, later on she turned around and asked me about the apple juice and where it was, and why I’d drunk it when she thought I had brought her an apple juice.
What I was actually communicating was I had bought some that was available to her in the fridge, what she had heard was I had brought her an apple juice into the room for her to drink.
So it’s important to remember that people are going to hear things through their own filters and their own lens. Remember that’s shaped by a multitude of things, it’s not just the words that you speak, but the filter that they apply.
And that’s relevant to their situation and their circumstance, so sometimes the things that you say aren’t the reason that they’re heard differently or perceived differently, but you can only do so much, you can only apply to your side the words that you choose and how you deliver them to have the best possible opportunity of the best outcome.
So I want to recap and give you the lessons and the action points from this; remember, I talk about this all the time, we have two ears and one mouth, which is a good reminder and a very clear indicator that we should listen twice as much as we talk.
When you’re listening to what someone else says, are you hearing it in the way that they’ve intended you to hear it? Are you hearing exactly what they’re actually saying?
Really, really important to think about what you’re saying, how you’re saying it and how you’re delivering it. But also when you’re on the other end, listening twice as much as you speak, so that you really do hear what’s being said.
Remember that people are going to always hear everything that you say with their own life filter or perspective applied to what you’ve got to say. So think about how that might be perceived.
Think about the possible outcomes depending on the audience that you’re speaking to, how you choose to speak might differ, might change, the words, the terminology and the language that you use is relevant to the audience that you’re speaking to, so always bear that in mind when choosing your words carefully.
Are you also building breadcrumbs that are going to lead back to you all across social media that might be desirable or undesirable depending on how you’ve reacted online? The words you’ve chosen and how you’ve delivered them, or are you building what we refer to as digital assets. Those digital assets are things that are going to last and serve you for longer than the time they take to create.
The difference between those two things is one is a not thought out action that can have repercussions, the other one is a well thought out strategised approach to posting online and creating something that serves you, your business and your brand much longer term than the time it takes to create.
I’m in a great community called Espresso+ run by John Espirian and there’s a lot of conversation all the time about the importance of showing up in the comments, being part of a conversation and that revolves around listening twice as much as you talk, being involved in the conversation and adding value where you can, but only within the wheelhouse where you have knowledge and expertise.
Really, really important that you stay in your lane, and you share what you know about and you choose your words carefully so that people can show up, they can connect with you and they can interact.
It’s not just your own content but it’s in conversations and in the comments as well.
So with that being said, have you got a well thought out strategy?
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Have you thought about your do’s and don’ts for social media and your own personal brand online?
A lot of people approach social media like it’s ad hoc and it’s a spur of the moment thing.
Right now I’m literally referencing some notes that I’ve made on my screen which I’ll share a screenshot of later, but have you thought about what you want to talk about, have you thought about the implications it can have on the listener or the reader depending on the format.
We repurpose a lot of our content because that’s, as an agency what we help people to do, to produce more content online in less time, removing the overwhelm.
When you do that in written or audio or in a video format, when people are consuming it – is your message going to land correctly and be heard in the way that you intended?
So build a brand strategy, set out some do’s and some don’ts, things that you will never talk about.
I try really hard not to get involved in political conversations online for example, I have an opinion but that’s not what my personal brand is about, it’s about helping as many people as possible.
So do you know your voice?
And do you know what area your expertise lie in?
What topics you can confidently talk about?
A great question is:
‘What can you talk about for 30 minutes with no or little preparation?’
I’ve had to do it at previous networking events that I’ve attended, I’ve turned up and seen the the distraught face of the organiser receiving a phone call where the speaker wasn’t going to show up, and I’ve been able to, very short notice, pick up the baton and take over so that nobody is even aware that anything’s happened, and we can have that conversation.
So what can you talk about confidently and with authority for 30 minutes or more? Those are the types of topics that you really want to nail down and talk about when you’re on social media. Get involved in those conversations and share all around those topics.
Remember…
Don’t forget, you can follow the hashtag #ImTristanGInsights
I’m going to be sharing all my thoughts and insights to help you navigate the complex world of digital marketing, content creation and building your personal brand.
Have a great morning, afternoon or evening wherever you’re consuming this, whether it’s as a video, as audio or in a written format, and I will catch up with you all again very soon!
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If you have thoughts or insights around this topic I would love to hear them down in the comment section, as always I am a strong believer that we can all learn from one another, and this is not a one-way broadcast, but an invite to a conversation around an important topic!
Thanks for taking the time to read #ImTristanGInsights
My aim in 2022 is the publish a blog around my thoughts and insights every single day throughout the year.
You’ll be able to find these in ALL these places;
So as I always say in my live streams, please do connect with me wherever you most like to spend time!
Thanks again for your time & sharing your thoughts…
Tristan Griffiths AKA #ImTristanG
ORIGINAL VIDEO POST :
ORIGINALLY POSTED TO : https://in9.media/20220318/
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I land you a TEDx Talk Guaranteed | Keynote Speaker, Trainer & Coach | Expert in Thought Leadership, Personal Branding, Storytelling, Digital Presence | LinkedIn Top Voice | 5x TEDx & Inc Magazine Top 100 Speaker |💜Gaga
2yJust saw this today. Weird eh? Thank you so much for the kind shoutout
Relentlessly helpful® LinkedIn® nerd, trainer & speaker. Creator of Espresso+ community & UpLift Live conference. Not a douche canoe 🛶
2yThanks for the shout, Tristan. Yup, I'm always a bit self-conscious when wandering into unknown aisles of conversation. If you can't speak with confidence and authority about a subject, either preface that clearly or stay out of it altogether.