Made to Stick
I just finished this new book, "Made to Stick: Why some ideas survive and others die". It's the goal of all communicators to get the audience to absorb and subscribe to what they are selling.I am not a communicator by profession, but I find that I spend a lot of my time trying to convince people to do something: use my program, accept an action. This book gave evidence that it's not how great the idea is, it's how you comunicate. There are oodles of great ideas out there that never took off until the someone figured out the right message.
They came up with this great acronym S.U.C.C.E.S. to help us remember the keys to great communication.
S - Simple - Get to the core of the idea. The one thing that is most important.
U - Unexpected - You capture people's attention through surprise. You keep it by making the surprise relevant to the idea.
C - Concrete - It's easier to remember concrete ideas than abstract ones.
C - Credible - Make your idea believable by referencing outside experts or providing enough details to support your idea.
E - Emotional - Focus on what matters to people. And it's more than just food and lodging.
S - Stories - Use stories. That's why Aesop's Fables works and your mom telling you so, doesn't.
I highly recommend this book. Although I outline the key elements here, the examples and stories in the book really give the concepts life. It's like they employed their own concepts or something.