Do You Have Info?

I have a secret – everything that you see is not always what it seems.  This secret is probably pretty hard for some folks to stomach.  They see things like an article being edited or a change in format and immediately assume the worst.

“Oh no!  Adam is only writing the post two days a week instead of three!  He must be in trouble…..” Be sure to say “in trouble” like you did back in third grade when someone got called to the dean’s office, because that’s how I’m saying it as I’m writing this extrapolation.

This situation presents an interesting conundrum in that what is reality is far away from what the public perception is.  In the case of one of my daily columns, we’re just moving around resources to allow other talented writers chances to shine.  No evil or negative intent what so ever.  In fact, I was the one to suggest the change.

But herein lies the crux of the matter – how do you correct such a public perception without coming out and sound like, well… like a whinny little three year old?

Part of the way you can do it is provide excellent transparency in all public processes.  But often that opens up such processes for public input – people think because we’re telling them about internal workings they can influence and change them.  That’s hardly ever going to happen (infact, I can’t think of a time it has happened).  More so, it often leads to points where you have to say “But we can’t go into that, because it’s a private matter.”

So how else can public perception in the mass media world we all live in be changed?

More and more communication, even if it’s not all transparent.  Letting people know what’s happening, answering even the most mundane and ridiculous questions with the same cool and collected answer can quash even the most abusive perceptions.

In my day job it’s become apparent that this level of communication is necessary in order to keep things running smoothly in the public arena.  Daily interaction with comments and community figures allows this level of consistent communication.  Not only does this lead to better public reception of changes, but it also leads to growth of the site and overall buy in of our ideas and direction, which is a good thing (one that will eventually lead to even bigger and better things).

In my previous job, working as a manager of a symphony orchestra, my boss and I would often have to work day and night to get the orchestra and its various factions to buy into our ideas.  The group was much smaller, about 150 people at most, but the same concepts apply when dealing with numbers in the millions.  The key is not to change the nature of your decisions, which are hopefully well thought out and hopefully correct, but to change the perception of such decisions through directed communication and overall message shaping.

It takes a lot of work and practice to become proficient at that level of communication – it’s something that I am no where perfect at yet, and might never be.  But the key is to recognize this point of importance and be mindful to always take care of it.