What To Consider Before You Communicate

Like many of you, I am always trying to improve my communication. A lot of that is writing like. Yes, I usually type, but I still consider it writing.

Why do you communicate? To share with others, to learn more about yourself, to free your mind, to document so you can remember, to persuade, to apologize, to love. 

Communication is beautiful. I’m trying to find ways to make it even more enjoyable, insightful, and impactful in our lives.

A great thing to explore then is what to consider before you communicate something. 

Like many posts, this is not a comprehensive guide. This is me learning along with you. I’m going to share some insights and research into this. I am using this information to become better, and hopefully find ways to implement this using my technology at Speak Ai. 

So, without further ado, here are some my findings on what to consider before you communicate:

How are you communicating?

There are many ways to communicate. 

What Medium?

In this piece, I am going to start with audio, video and text that can be captured digitally. That primarily means speaking and being recorded either with video or without it, or typing something.

But there is much more to consider than that! You’ve got the medium, but where are you sharing it? Audio, video and text works for many platforms. Quickly, a few main ones:

Social Media

– Snapchat
– Instagram
– YouTube
– Instagram
– Facebook

Meetings

– Phone Call
– In-Person Meeting
– Virtual Meeting

Email

A classic.

There are other places too that are less likely to be recorded digitally in some format:

– Sports Event
– Family Gathering

Who are you communicating with?

Define your audience

Who are you communicating to? I’m going to go through these exercises myself so you can see the thought pattern behind it.

Yourself

This could be individually with yourself, which is definitely a form of communication. In fact, your dialogue with yourself plays an integral role in your life and the quality of it. I’ll be sharing a lot more on this but here’s a few interesting resources on improving your internal or self-dialogue:

Frontiers | Types of Inner Dialogues and Functions of Self-Talk: Comparisons and Implications | Psychology
Managing Your Internal Dialogue | SkillsYouNeed
Internal monologue – Wikipedia
Self-Dialogue as a Fundamental Process of Expression on JSTOR
The Power of Your Internal Dialogue | Psychology Today Canada
The Running Conversation in Your Head – The Atlantic
6 Tips to Master Your Internal Dialogue
Types of Inner Dialogues and Functions of Self-Talk: Comparisons and Implications

Others

In this case, I am writing to you. Who are you? You came on tylerbryden.com, which means you most likely have some awareness of who I am. You could come from an organic search result on Google but this is new so and my domain isn’t that authoritative yet so it’s unlikely. 

You could have came through a Facebook, Instagram or Google paid ad. Most likely, I wouldn’t be redirecting you here from an ad, so that means you found yourself here through curiosity or by mistake from clicking on something. Either way, thank you for making it this far. 

How can we do this? Either:

Option 1: You know exactly who your audience is  

Maybe it’s for a team event and you know everyone will be there. Or from above, that you’re communicating with yourself (if you don’t know who you are I’ll provide some resources on figuring that out too – I’m working on that a lot myself).

Google Search Results:

what do you need to take into consideration when you are writing – Google Search
https://course.oeru.org/enga101/learning-pathways/things-to-consider-before-writing/factors-to-consider/
(93) What are the factors to consider when writing? – Quora
Three Things to Consider Before You Start Writing
Important Considerations When Developing Your Writing Style | Live Write Thrive
Six factors to consider while writing an essay
Chapter 4. What Are You Writing, to Whom, and How? – Writing for Success 1st Canadian Edition
7 Factors to Consider When Writing a Speech – B2B Technology Copywriting – Kellé Campbell PR Writer
Six Things to Consider When Writing for the Internet | Nuera Marketing

Suggestions

actors to consider when writing a research report – Google Search
factors to consider when writing an essay – Google Search
factors of good writing – Google Search
four thing to consider before writing – Google Search

General Best Practices 

Simplify your message

One of the best free apps to check this quickly is the Hemingway app. It shows you what your readability is so that you can simplify your message. Help yourself understand what you communicated when you go back to review later. And help others understand what you’re communicating so it can resonate.