Think Twice, Speak Once

Kim Morrison

Yep, I’m borrowing from the old adage “Measure twice, cut once,” which is perfectly applicable in the world of PR. 

How often do we hear or read something and want to immediately react, sometimes without truly considering the implications of our knee-jerk response? In the world of PR, it’s our job to do this at lightning-fast speed, if needed, but there is always that middle point of analyzing our response before putting it out there. 

An average Joe may not have this internal check, but it is something you can develop with a little practice. A good place to start is in your written/digital communications - email, text and social media. Once you’ve completed your response, take an extra second to review it. Does it say what you want it to say? Could the recipient easily misinterpret your message? Does it carry the tone you want? Does it explain your point? Could it possibly offend the other party without intending to? Does it add anything to the conversation? And my personal favorite, edit it to make sure that everything is spelled properly, you have proper punctuation and that autocorrect hasn’t decided to make you the next autocorrect fail sensation. (There’s SO MUCH bad grammar on the web and in social media, but that’s another post for another time. ^_^)

In this age of digital communication, despite being easier to communicate, the quality of our communication has taken a bit of a nosedive, but with just a few extra seconds, you can help prevent a texting war over a minor miscommunication.