Message Soup

We have recently been creating Instagram posts for Cracking Conversation combining one of our ‘square-head’ images with a statement or question on communication.

We want to provoke an ‘oh, yes, I hadn’t thought of it that way!’ response , not merely a split-second of recognition. The right wording needs to hit a sweet-spot: be engaging but not patronising and neither obvious nor obscure. We certainly do not want the words to sound like they belong on a greetings card in a curly font, superimposed on a view of the incoming tide or a misty forest.

We are aiming for an ‘aphorism’ (“ a pithy observation which contains a general truth”). We definitely don’t want a truism, while the dream would be an epigram (“a short saying that expresses an idea in an amusing way”).

Whatever the exact definition, right now it is easy to feel all sloganed-out. The favoured three-word slogans of politics trip off the tongue but their pithiness can render them meaningless or leave room for an unhelpful breadth of interpretation. We have long been inundated with on-screen advertising slogans promising great things. These now shout at us via the screen in our hand not only the tv in the corner. More recently life-quotes have appeared on cards and even on home furnishings while motivational business-quotes pop up all over training rooms. What difference does any of this soup of messaging make to what any of us actually do?

Here is a little quiz – two of these are business quotes, one is from a life-affirming greetings card, one was said by Oscar Wilde and one came out of a fortune cookie:

“Experience is the name everyone gives to their mistakes”

“If you look back, you’ll soon be going that way”

“If you don’t step forward, you’re always in the same place”

“A goal is a dream with a deadline”

“The best way to predict the future is to create it”

They are all smart sayings. They play a brief game with the brain that makes us chuckle when we ‘get it’. But does the idea stick around?

At Cracking Conversation we have a specific focus and offer practical guidance and really want the idea to register. That is why we want to connect with more than just the language-processing areas of the brain. We make the ‘game’ a little more challenging by adding a picture. For some people the image will be more striking than the words because of a strong innate preference for the visual. For everyone the processing of the information will take a little longer. Extra time increases the likelihood of its being retained and mulled over and acting as a spur to behavioural change. Extra time allows the response to percolate: “oh, yes, I hadn’t thought of it that way!’’