Whether it’s a strong company logo or a smart power point presentation, visuals are crucial for enhancing and making your business communication appealing. Just as a well-designed visual will positively impact your message, poor visuals will have a negative impact. Bluntly stated, poor visuals are downright annoying, as I recently learned! It’s the reason you need to avoid the following situations:
Ghostly Virtual Backgrounds
Virtual backgrounds in Zoom meetings are visually appealing when they work well, technically. They are even more effective if the other person on your screen has a boring, blank wall for a background. However, when your virtual background has technical issues — mainly a weird, ghost-like, jumpy effect surrounding your hands, head, or shoulders every times you move them, it’s downright annoying! If you don’t have the technical know-how to correctly set up a virtual background, I urge you: please do not use one!
Recently, I had a series of meetings with a person whose virtual background was so wonky, it actually gave me a headache. Yet, when I explained the problem to him, he actually did nothing to fix it. It made me wonder. Why wouldn’t he fix it after the first meeting. Why wouldn’t he go online for support (from Zoom or via YouTube videos)? There was no way that I would ever do business with this person or anyone else who allowed this to happen. His attitude didn’t say much about his overall approach to doing business.
Telling Not Showing
There’s a reason novelists and screenwriters say, “show don’t tell.” A barrage of information can make an audience’s eyes glaze over. On the other hand, effective visual communication will draw in and engage a person. In business, a well-designed power point slide deck offers a great way to captivate a prospective client’s interest — as long as the visuals are compelling, and the written components are minimal.
A powerful video can really help a prospective client better envision a desired outcome. And a well-designed infographic can bring statistics to life for someone who might otherwise not easily grasp the data.
Creating Un-shareable Content
Imagery helps us remember information. And, in today’s fast-paced business environment where people have limited time (and attention spans!), a strong visual can be memorable. Since the dawn of social media, shareable content has grown in importance. Some estimates suggest that visual content is 40 times more likely to be shared than content with text alone. So, don’t create un-shareable content.
In the end, it all comes back to the following strong message. Before you go to the trouble and expense of creating visual content, remember: a picture is only worth a thousand words if the story, i.e., the words, behind the picture make sense in the first place!
Schedule a 30 minute complimentary phone or video meeting to meet Dr. Sandra Folk. She’ll be happy to talk to you about your business communications challenges.