Hello,
for any new readers to this blog, my name is Jerrid Olmstead. If you found this
blog via a search engine or some other similar website, my URL for this blog is
http://jolmstead84.blogspot.com/.
I am student at Troy University and I am
studying to receive my Master’s in Strategic Communication this upcoming July.
In addition to being a student I am also a youth director at a church in Troy.
This means that I get to learn some really interesting ideas and concepts about
strategic communication and emerging media and I have my own personal lab to
try the ideas out…ethically, of course. Throughout these next couple of weeks I
will be doing some serious studying on the topics of leadership in
communication and effective strategies that organizations can use to help
manage issues that may arise. I will also be addressing new and emerging media
and how they can help with strategic communication. I will be posting weekly
and I encourage any comments or criticisms that you may have. One of the topics
that I have been interested in is how communication is a group process. These
means that ideas are much better when they are the result of multiple people’s
input. With this in mind, it is my hope that each posting will be made better
through healthy dialogue and discussion so that my readers and I will have a
better overall understanding of the topics being discussed.
So,
an obvious starting point in a discussion on communication is to try to address
why we communicate. Usually, most communication has some sort of end in mind
whether it is to try to persuade, or inform, or move people to action but the
common thread in all of this is that there is an idea that is trying to be
communicated. Not only is the idea trying to be communicated but an idea is
usually trying to be spread and accepted by a particular public. There is a
scholarly book entitled Diffusion of
Innovations that was written by Everett Rogers. In the book, Rogers is
discussing why a particular idea takes hold and why others seem to falter and
fail. According to Rogers, there are four groups that are important when it
comes to the acceptance of an idea. These groups are:innovaters, early
adopters, early majority, late majority, and laggards. The thing to keep in
mind with this list is the fact that the focus is not on the idea that is being
brought forth but on the groups that are receiving the communication. This may seem
like an obvious place to look, however, we often focus on the person giving the
information. In a recent interview with NPR, horror author, Stephen King,
talked about the aspect that he most enjoyed when it comes to his acceptance of
an idea. He said, “Then I want the
preacher where the guy's going to walk back and forth and not just stand like a
stick behind the pulpit. He's going to, you know, shake his fist a little bit
in the air and then he's going to smile and throw his hands up and say, 'God's
good! God's great! Can you give me hallelujah?' I just adore that.” In
his interview, King is talking about how we, in America, like a big show put on
for us whenever we are taking in a message. However, if Everett is right, that
is nowhere near as important as the followers of, in this instance, the
preacher.
In a TED talk, Derek Sivers notes the importance
of followers when trying to start a movement. He talks about the importance of
the first follower because the first follower turns the leader from a “lone nut”
to a “leader.” This is important in the aspect of communication and the
diffusion of an idea because, if no one is following, how can you be a leader?
So, it could be argued that the first follower is more the leader of an idea
where as the first person to talk about an idea is the innovator. As the
innovator of an idea it is important to nurture those who wish to follow you. As
a communicator, it is important to keep this in mind because it is so easy to
want to hold on to an idea, especially if it is a good idea but it is more
important to celebrate those who join you in the idea.
Now, this helps give us an idea of how a movement
is started but this does not really discuss how a movement reaches the “tipping
point” where it has graduated from idea to movement. Knowing that there are
several groups (early adopters, early majority, late majority, laggards) that
have to be reached it is also important to know that they are not likely to
move out of their particular group. These groups are usually defined by personality
traits and so the idea should be to find a follower out of each of the groups
that can communicate with them on their level. In this, I find that it is
important to take the longevity of an idea into account. For the innovators of
an idea, the farther down the group ladder they go, the more difficult I
imagine it will be for them to effectively communicate with each group. This is
because the innovators are closer to the early adopters in personality than
they are with the laggards. So, to help with the spread of an idea so that it
can gain momentum and eventually become a movement, it is important to have a
plan for peer to peer communication for the idea. Make it easier for the
followers to help lead because they are more likely to do it effectively with
the groups that are closer to their particular adoption group than the
innovator is.
NPR interview of Stephen King
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