Adapting Your Message to Serve Your Audience and Purpose

By now you know why you're writing, you know the audience you're writing to, and you have most of the information you need. But before actually beginning to write your message, you need to figure out how to make it serve both your audience and your purpose. To adapt your message, you may need to decide matters as detailed as whether to include a date on your Web site materials. Mainly, you need to select a channel and a medium that fit your purpose and satisfy your audience's expectations. In addition, you need to make plans for establishing a good relationship with your audience.

Selecting the best channel and medium for your message can make the difference between effective and ineffective communication.⁶ When selecting a channel, you must consider the media within each channel. For example, the oral channel includes media such as face-to-face conversations, speeches, videotapes, voice mail, phone conversations, and so on. A written channel includes media such as letters, reports, e-mail, faxes, flyers, and so on. No matter what channel and medium you choose, do your best to match your selection to your message and your intention.

Your channel and medium choices also govern the style and tone of your message. For instance, you wouldn't write an e-mail message with the same level of formality that you would use in a memo. When Glenda Anderson, a General Mills consumer services representative, responds to a customer, she is careful to maintain a tone of courtesy and friendliness (see Figure 4–4). Or if your purpose were to notify employees of a new procedure, you would probably write it in an e-mail message rather than send a formal letter or make a lengthy face-to-face presentation. Similarly, drafting a few notes for a conversation with an employee would be less formal than drafting a letter of reprimand. So before you begin writing, make sure your channel and medium match your purpose and your audience, and then tailor your message accordingly.

Figure 4–4	In-Depth Critique: A Typical E-Mail Message

Media richness is the value of a medium in a given communication situation. Richness is determined by a medium's ability to

•	Convey a message by means of more than one informational cue (visual, verbal, vocal)

•	Facilitate feedback

•	Establish personal focus

Choose the richest media for nonroutine, complex messages (see Figure 4–5). Use rich media to extend and humanize your presence throughout the organization, to communicate caring to employees, and to gain employee commitment to organizational goals. Marcus and Blank use satellite video broadcasts to educate employees and to introduce new hires to the Home Depot culture. Use leaner media to communicate simple, routine messages. Face-to-face communication is the richest medium because it is personal, it provides both immediate verbal and nonverbal feedback, and it conveys the emotion behind the message. But it's also one of the most restrictive media because you and your audience must be in the same place at the same time.⁷

Figure 4–5	Media Richness

Keep in mind that every medium has limitations that filter out parts of the message. For example, flyers and bulletin boards are nondynamic and ineffective for communicating extremely complex messages, but they're perfect for simple ones. Moreover, every medium influences your audience's perception of your intentions. If you want to emphasize the formality of your message, use a more formal medium, such as a memo or a letter. If you want to emphasize the confidentiality of your message, use voice mail rather than a fax, send a letter rather than a memo, or address the matter in a private conversation rather than during a meeting. If you want to instill an emotional commitment to corporate values, consider a visual medium (videotape or videoconference). If you require immediate feedback, face-to-face conversation is your best choice.⁸ However, if you'll need a written record, you'll probably want to write a memo or a letter.

Time is another factor you must consider when selecting a medium. If your message is urgent, you'll probably choose to use the phone, fax, or next-day mail. Plus you'll need to consider cost. There is usually a trade-off between time and cost. For instance, you wouldn't think twice about telephoning an important customer overseas if you just discovered your company erroneously sent the customer the wrong shipment. But you'd probably choose to fax or e-mail a routine order acknowledgment to your customer in Australia.

In addition to complexity, formality, confidentiality, feedback, time, and cost, you'll need to consider which media your audience expects or prefers and whether you'll need a permanent record of the communication.⁹ What would you think if your college tried to deliver your diploma by fax? You'd expect the college to hand it to you at graduation or mail it to you. In addition, some cultures tend to favor one channel over another. For example, the United States, Canada, and Germany emphasize written messages, whereas Japan emphasizes oral messages—perhaps because its high-context culture carries so much of the message in nonverbal cues and "between the lines" interpretation.¹⁰

Primary oral communication media include face-to-face conversation (the richest medium), telephone calls, speeches, presentations, and meetings. Your choice between a face-to-face conversation and a telephone call would depend on audience location, message importance, and your need for the sort of nonverbal feedback that only body language can reveal.

The chief advantage of oral communication is the opportunity it provides for immediate feedback. This is the channel to use when you want the audience to ask questions and make comments or when you're trying to reach a group decision. It's also the best channel if there's an emotional component to your message and you want to read the audience's body language or hear the tone of their response (see Table 4–1).¹¹

Table 4–1

Choosing the Most Appropriate Channel and Medium

A Written Channel is Best When An Oral Channel is Best When You need no immediate feedback Your message is detailed and complex, and it requires careful planning You need a permanent, verifiable record Your audience is large and geographically dispersed You want immediate feedback from the audience Your message is relatively simple and easy to accept You need no permanent record You can assemble your audience conveniently and economically You want to encourage interaction to solve a problem or reach a decision Written Media Include Oral Media Include Letters and memos Reports and proposals Electronic mail Faxes Face-to-face conversation, speeches, meetings Telephone and voice mail Audiotape and videotape Teleconferences and videoconferences

In general, the smaller the audience, the more interaction among the members. If your purpose involves reaching a decision or solving a problem, select an oral medium geared toward a small audience. Be sure the program is relatively informal and unstructured so that ideas can flow freely. Gatherings of this sort can be arranged quickly and economically.

At the opposite extreme are formal presentations to large audiences, which are common at events such as sales conventions, shareholder meetings, and ceremonial functions. Often, these major presentations take place in a big facility, where the audience can be seated auditorium style. Their formality makes them unsuitable for collaborative purposes that require audience interaction.

Written messages take many forms. At one end are the scribbled notes people use to jog their own memories; at the other are elaborate, formal reports that rival magazines in graphic quality. Regardless of the form, written messages have one big advantage: They let you plan and control the message. A written format is appropriate when the information is complex, when a permanent record is needed for future reference, when the audience is large and geographically dispersed, and when immediate interaction with the audience is either unimportant or undesirable.

Although many types of written communication are specialized, the most common are letters, memos, and reports.

Most letters and memos are relatively brief documents, generally one or two pages. Memos are the workhorses of business communication, used for the routine, day-to-day exchange of information within an organization. In general, memos lack a salutation. They use a TO, FROM, DATE, and SUBJECT heading to emphasize the needs of readers who usually have time only to skim messages. Good memos discuss only one topic, and their tone is conversational. Because of their open construction and informal method of delivery (e-mail or interoffice mail), memos are less private than letters.

Letters frequently go to outsiders, and they perform an important public relations function in addition to conveying a particular message. Many organizations rely on form letters (and sometimes form memos) to save time and money on routine communication. A variation of the form letter is the boilerplate, a standard paragraph that can be selected to suit an occasion or audience.

Both letters and memos can be classified by function into three categories: (1) routine, good-news, and goodwill messages; (2) bad-news messages; and (3) persuasive messages. (Chapters 7 to 9 elaborate on the function and nature of each of these message types.)

Reports and proposals are factual, objective documents that may be distributed to insiders or outsiders, depending on their purpose and subject. They come in many formats, including preprinted forms, letters, memos, and manuscripts. In length, they range from a few to several hundred pages, and they are generally more formal in tone than a typical business letter or memo. (Chapters 10 to 13 discuss reports and proposals in detail.)

Both oral and written media have electronic forms. In addition to the traditional forms of meetings, conversations, interviews, and conventions, oral media also include electronic forms such as voice mail, audiotape and videotape, teleconferencing and videoconferencing, closed-circuit television, and many more. In addition to the traditional forms of letters and memos, reports and proposals, written media also include electronic forms such as e-mail, faxing, computer conferencing (with groupware), Web sites, and more.

The trick is to pick the tool that does the best overall job in each situation. Electronic forms are useful when you need speed, when you're physically separated from your audience, when time zones differ, when you must reach a dispersed audience personally, and when you're unconcerned about confidentiality. Although no hard rules dictate which tool to use in each case, here are a few pointers that will help you determine when to select electronic over more traditional forms:¹²

•	Voice mail. Can be used to replace short memos and phone calls that need no response. It is most effective for short, unambiguous messages. It solves time-zone difficulties and reduces a substantial amount of interoffice paperwork.13

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Teleconferencing. Best for informational meetings, but ineffective for negotiation. It's an efficient alternative to a face-to-face meeting, but it discourages the "secondary" conversations that occur during a meeting of more than four or five people—which helps participants focus on a topic but prevents them from sharing valuable information.

•	Videotape. Often effective for getting a motivational message out to a large number of people. By communicating nonverbal cues, it can strengthen the sender's image of sincerity and trustworthiness; however, it offers no opportunity for immediate feedback.

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Computer conferencing. Allows users to meet and collaborate in real time while viewing and sharing documents electronically. It offers democracy because more attention is focused on ideas than on who communicates them. But overemphasizing a message (to the neglect of the person communicating it) can threaten corporate culture, which needs a richer medium.

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Faxing. Can be used to overcome time-zone barriers when a hard copy is required. It has all the characteristics of a written message, except that (1) it may lack the privacy of a letter, and (2) the message may appear less crisp, even less professional, depending on the quality of the audience's machine.

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E-mail. Offers speed, low cost, increased access to other employees, portability, and convenience (not just overcoming time-zone problems but carrying a message to many receivers at once). It's best for communicating brief, noncomplex information that is time sensitive, but its effectiveness depends on user skill.

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Web site. Offers interactive communication through hyperlinks, allowing readers to absorb information nonsequentially: they can take what they need and skip everything else. A Web site can tailor the same information for numerous readers by breaking up the information into linked pages. Writing for the Web can be a specialized skill (see Chapter 5).

Even though electronic messages offer innumerable advantages, they aren't problem-free. Consider e-mail, for example. People sometimes include things in e-mail messages that they wouldn't dream of saying in person or typing in a document. So although this new openness can help companies get input from a wider variety of people, it can also create tension and interpersonal conflict. Furthermore, because e-mail is so cheap and easy to send, people tend to overuse it, distributing messages more widely than necessary and contributing to the hundreds of junk-mail messages that some executives receive every day. Overusing e-mail can also overload company networks, resulting in lost messages or even system crashes.

Another drawback is lack of privacy. Some people negate their own privacy by being careless about screening their electronic distribution lists and sending information to receivers who shouldn't have it or don't need it. Of course, even if your message goes only where you originally intended, any recipient can easily forward it to someone else. In addition, e-mail and voice mail can legally be monitored by employers, and both can be subpoenaed for court cases.

Furthermore, employee productivity is constantly interrupted by e-mail, voice mail, conference calls, and faxes. Chat or real-time conversation windows can pop up on computer screens and demand immediate conversation. On the other hand, some employees are cutting productivity by misusing Internet privileges—surfing the Web and visiting non –business-related Web sites during working hours. In one report, 31 percent of the businesses surveyed cited financial losses from reduced employee productivity as a result of Internet misuse alone.¹⁴

The drawbacks of electronic forms are often outweighed by the advantages, so businesses are selecting electronic forms over traditional ones more and more often. But whatever medium you choose, you're not yet ready to draft your message. Once you've chosen an appropriate channel and medium, you must do more than simply convey information. You need to establish a good relationship with your audience.