Tuesday, April 30, 2019

Paul Richardson: Not all communication is done through social media

(Paul Richardson's The Horse I Rode In On column runs weekly in the Neosho Daily News, Seneca News-Dispatch, and on the Turner Report.)

If you missed the Bowl-A-Thon hosted by The Clay Cup or the Blessing of the Bikes on the Historic Downtown Square, hopefully you were at one of the many other events taking place in and around Neosho at the same time.

Notable events are taking place weekly along with many other smaller more personal affairs. If you encounter someone complaining about nothing to do, then either they have totally isolated themselves or they desperately need guidance. Please help them!

I understand that not everyone uses social media, so accessing Neosho Area Community Events may not be an option. Not everyone receives this publication that you are now reading. That may not be an option. Their only option may be the one where someone takes a moment, shares a cup of coffee and discusses the calendar for the upcoming week. That may be the task that has fallen on your shoulders. 








Many of the events that are occurring in the community never find their way to a television commercial or broadcast on the radio. Nor are they placed on flyers and distributed by hand throughout the community. The times are not just a changin’, the change has come and gone with the mass of the population now finding their information in a whole new way.

Having had some experience with communicating with the masses, through a business that we owned, working in sales, and working in public relations, it is difficult to determine how people obtain their information. 

In a conversation that I had recently, another individual that works in an area of sales stated that you must ask. That is a common practice taught to sales staff. Just ask the customer and their always helpful and accurate response will fulfill your needs.

Having stated that with tongue in cheek, that method will work if you have a face-to-face with a customer and if they are accurate in their response. If you are trying to bring people into an event, a face-to-face may never happen and especially not with everyone. An event drawing thousands of people in attendance will not offer the opportunity for individual contact.

Many businesses have gone the route of soliciting surveys as a follow-up method. A good survey requires special construction in the questions in order to eliminate the few that would try to play with your mind by offering weird responses. 








Once the weird is removed from the equation, then one needs to deal with accuracy and precision, or let’s state that another way, validity and reliability issues. 

On top of all these details, not everyone will respond to a survey, so then you are required to take on the process of putting lipstick on the pig and trying to get as many as possible to dance with it. 

Depending upon the survey, a number exists that must be reached for the survey to statistical viability. Many retailers offer coupons, discounts or giveaways to compel their customers to participate. This is not always or may never be a solution for an event. As you see, the complexity of surveys has taken up an entire paragraph and I only touched on the high points.

It appears that anything less than getting the entire hive telepathically connected, the only solution is to utilize every possible method and then fall back to some of the ancient ways. 

One might just need to disconnect from their devices, forget about social media, stop and smell the roses while sipping a cup of coffee during polite conversation and a discussion of what is going on in the community. 

Heaven forbid that we meet in the park to play chess or sit down for a game of dominoes or whatever your poison may be in a card game. That would require human interaction and eye contact.

As for everyone who got the word, we all came together, watched the potters and others threw some clay, while some actually made some bowls, or everyone looked at some bikes depending on which event you were at, engaged in some other fun activities and all the while ate, visited and had a generally good time. For those that didn’t make it, sorry you missed the fun! Maybe you will be there next time.


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