What's in a message?
Unlike the US state of Nevada, now celebrating its sesquicentennial year, Speak Previews® does not have 150 years under its belt. But it does have this, its 150th issue, and so qualifies for sesquicentennial status. Happy Anniversary to us all—readers and writers and speakers and presenters, a hardy lot who remain determined to reach farther, to grasp firmly, to consider, invent, and implement new ways of knowing and communicating.
Those of us who work on Speak Previews are not surprised to have reached this anniversary. When ECG hatched the idea of a bi-weekly article series, we saw a host of communication opportunities, a way of sharing the tips, strategies, and tactics we know to be effective and to facilitate response and feedback from our readers.
What we saw then we continue to see. In pharmaceutical, insurance, banking, engineering, medical, and manufacturing companies as well as in not-for-profit enterprises and other organizations, presenters, speakers, and writers aim to achieve their communication goals by improving their performance.
Specialists at every level must at times explain and inform, and, almost always, successfully persuade.
Speak Previews has helped thousands do so.
Now, more than 83,000 words later, we have readers in 189 countries across 6 continents, most of whom read Speak Previews on an iPhone or using Outlook 2010. What do they read?
By open rate, are most popular articles have been:
And the most popular articles by overall traffic and most frequently read:
While most Speak Previews articles center on practical, doable, workable ways of increasing speaker effectiveness through focused communication strategies and tactics, some address business processes that affect communication success and particular speech or presentation situations. Such was our first titled article, "Communicating Hope," published March 18, 2009, a time when many individuals and organizations around the world were swimming through the murky waters of economic distress. While the distress has lessened for many, it hasn't for all, and the central message of that article still holds. In both bad times and good, communicating clearly and purposefully remains a top priority.
In other words, never fall silent. A goal for us all.
In the Speak Previews index, you'll find our articles categorized by topic/technique/concern - all 150 of them. Some crossover exists; often one topic or technique or concern nudges up against others. But in the index you'll find:
- 45 articles related to Audience (see Attention, Audience Considerations)
- 95 articles related to Author/Speaker (see Delivery, Ethos, Performance Anxiety, Purpose)
- 101 articles related to Text (see Logos, Pathos, Persuasion, Strategic Messaging, Style, Written Communication)
- 63 articles related to Business Processes (see Email Communication, Interpersonal Communication, Meetings, Q&A Sessions, Speech Situations, Teams)
We're looking forward now to our Tercentennial.
On Sept. 2, 2020, we'll publish our 300th article. Between now and then we'll produce 150 more Speak Previews articles filled with tips, techniques, and strategies designed to improve your performance. That's our point, always.
