Talking to Talk

By Adam Turteltaub
adam.turteltaub@corporatecompliance.org

I first set up a Twitter account in March 2009, but I’ve only really begun using it in earnest during the last year or so.  You can find me at @AdamTurteltaub.  I tweet about compliance mostly, but sometimes about stray topics that go through my mind and the woes of the Dodgers.

The more time I spend on Twitter the more I’m amazed by how much gets Tweeted.  I can go away from it for five minutes, and by the time I return find that there are dozens of new Tweets posted.  No one could possibly keep up with all the Tweets from people they follow.

So why is it so popular?  And what lessons can we in compliance take from it?

First, we have to remember:  just because you said something doesn’t mean anyone heard it.  Twitter’s own data shows that a shockingly small percentage of messages are actually seen.

Whether it’s the endless stream of Tweets on Twitter or the endless number of emails they are sent to employees, the workforce is inundated with communications.  And just because the message got to the person, just because they may have seen it, it doesn’t mean that they actually read it, or processed the information.

When I worked in advertising (yes, 13 years in ad agencies was my preparation for a career in ethics and compliance), we knew that.  We would perform calculations to determine how many times a person would need to see an advertising message before they would actually remember it and be likely to act on it.  I don’t think I ever saw an advertising strategy that called for people to see a message less than three times.

It’s no different for compliance.   We’re giving people complex messages, and messages that they may not want to hear.  It’s going to take repeated exposure to our message for people to understand what they are expected to do, or not do, and that the organization is serious about it.

As a result we can’t ever assume that because we sent out a communication it was read and had an impact.

The second lesson I’ve taken from Twitter is related and more humbling:  sometimes the communication is more about saying something than about anyone hearing it.

It’s kind of like on Facebook.  Most everyone has a friend who has to post everything they say, do, think, feel, consider, read or even notice.   I know one person who posts a selfie of virtually everything he does.  I’ve seen more pictures of him than I have of my own kids.

I’m sure it’s very rewarding for him to share this information, and likewise for the people who post on Twitter constantly.  I have to admit, I’ve come to enjoy Tweeting out my own random thought.  But, I have to remind myself that the point of any communication, whether on Twitter, Facebook, email, a poster or a talk, isn’t just to say something.  It’s to say something that people will listen to and act on.  And feeling good about saying something is rewarding for yourself but may not be doing anything of value for the intended recipient of the message.

And with that last bit to consider, see you on Twitter.

[bctt tweet=”The point of any communication is to say something that people will listen to and act on @AdamTurteltaub” via=”no”]

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