Be relevant if you want to attract attention

Relevance is now so key. Especially in our ‘busy’ lives with so much information coming at us.

I’m learning that to do this well needs a small but significant mind shift when I want to communicate to anyone I want to engage.

It’s no longer a case of  “Look at us“, me me me, but “This is something I think you will find interesting and here’s why ...”

Its not about you – it’s about them

I find by trying to be relevant  it makes me think of the person or audience I am communicating to. And by thinking of them you start to find the words to connect. It’s like saying “I saw this and thought of you“.

And if its relevant to them they are much more likely to read what you send or listen to what you have to say. And act on it too.

So when you want to engage anyone or an audience ask yourself questions like:

1. Who are they!  (obvious but often we don’t stop to think who are we communicating to)
2. What interests them?
3. How and why is what you want to say relevant?
4. Can you link it to their areas of interest?
5. Who would it be relevant for in their network?

Do the thinking for them

And when to comes to action make it easy. Do the thinking for anyone you are communicating to. People often don’t have the time to digest everything and think what action to take. So if it’s something you want people to share (which is often the case these days) – help them think who, in their world, would be interested. And prompt them. That way you’ve done the work for them and they are more likely to think – “Ahh – I’ll pass this on to …“.

It’s probably just a few choice words added to a sentence – but it will make all the difference.

And it’s so important to get it right at the outset as that way you will also leverage their ability to influence their network – where relevance is done for you. After all whose email or message are you most likely to read? One from a colleague or friend, which you often take for granted is going to be relevant, or a generic one from an organisation.

Try it out.