Is One-Way Communication Enough In The 21st Century?

Once I heard about a man who was considered an excellent communicator. He always returned letters and phone calls, and remembered to get in touch with people he had not talked to in a while. Quite impressive to accomplish that reputation without the techniques we have today. Most people did not know the keys behind his skills; discipline and continuity. Every Tuesday leaving work and spending a few hours with his family, he went to his study and did all his correspondence in one night. Sure, this might seem a bit strict and impersonal, but no one knew, they just admired him for always getting in touch.

How good are we really at communicating today?

What do you do and how well do you do it?

Could you become better at emailing old associates, contacting them more often?

What opportunities did you lose because you did not follow-up?

We have social media, email, cell phones, instant messages, and the more traditional tools as well, but how much to we really use them. When your wall on Facebook is constantly filled with information about what your friends are up to, and will blogs you get the details as well, in other words one-way communication. So, do you really email them and call them to ask them another time what you already know or do you spare your conversations for the people you meet everyday instead? Does this mean that even though technique is making communication easier, we actually drift further away from our associates?

Time is money, but lost opportunity is also an expense. In the end, how many lost contact can you afford, or will people still consider you a contact just because you are connected on Facebook?

How many letters have you send this year? I often read in marketing books that sending a letter to a person is a great way to market because it is much unexpected today. I would love to get a letter from a company instead of an advertisement, but I do not have one yet. This goes for personal situations as well, I would love to get a letter once in a while instead of a mail. Because it feels like someone actually took the time to contact me. When I moved to D.C. a few relatives and I started sending letters and pictures to each other by mail instead of the more usual email, and every time I got one it made my day. That little action that show that someone thought a little bit extra on me means so much. So why are we not doing that more often?

Maybe letters are not the way you communicate. But the issue seem to be the same with email and text messages. People do not take the time to communicate as much nowadays, and the new excuses keep coming.

Will people stop caring about nurturing relationships because they will accept that no one has the time? Or can you become a real winner in the situation by actually making an effort to communicate? And is that even possible if the person you are trying to contact with has chosen the first?

Personally, I will continue to make an effort to communicate, and if it comes to it, I will put correspondence on the agenda.

What do you think?

For more on career tips, check out these posts:

Social Media and Employment	How to Find Your Next Job Using Social Media	Stop Auditioning for Jobs!	Simple Steps to Easy Referrals

Join Us On Twitter:

Like Us On Facebook:

Visit Our Bookstore for Great Values and Instant Download!

101 Tips Every Seeker Should Know	Ultimate Online Job Seekers	Learn The 10 Biggest Interview Mistakes	Avoid These 10 Resume Mistakes

Check out these hot articles!

This makes us laugh… every time we see it	The First Step to a Job You Love	Beef up your email signature

Learning Leads to Earnings, Especially for Men	How to Ace the Job Interview BEFORE it Starts	Video Resumes May Work Wonders; But Not for Everybody

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 3rd, 2009 at 11:57 am and is filed under Career, Job Search, Networking, Social Media. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.