Four Fundamentals of Effective Communication

Picture adopted from "10 Communication Secrets of Great Leaders" on Forbes

Are you a good communicator? How effective are you in getting your message across to your audience? Why good communication matters? It is because successful persuasion is a result of effective communication. Successful persuasion grants you success in achieving your goals and objectives. The best salesperson is, without doubt, an effective communicator. A successful marketer is a strategic communicator. Further, successful politicians also employ various communication tools in their political campaigns. In this post, learn the four steps of becoming an effective communicator.

1. Be Willing to Learn

Image adopted from damianmarksmyth

If you audience are not listening, you are just talking to the wall - it is true, even if you have great ideas to share! Be sure to listen to your audience and learn what they care about. The key to effective communication is to get your audience's attention before you even start talking. By knowing what interests your audience, you will be learn to catch their attention better and deliver your message more effectively. Also, pay attention to trending topics and monitor if any of them has been mentioned by your audience recently. Hot issues are great conversation starters! Besides that, you can also find out about your audience if you ask them. Do not hesitate to ask because asking question shows that you care to learn. Therefore, start listening to your audience and learn about things that they care about.

2. Be Respectful

Image adopted from picforparents

Always respect your audience! Use respectful language when communicating with them. Also, be positive; always try to find a point that you can agree on with your audience. Being agreeable increases your chances of being accepted by the group. Sometimes, you might find that your audience have a different opinion than yours. Even so, be respectful - acknowledge that your audience's point of view has been heard. Then, present your argument; best if it is supported by facts. Never insult anyone! Degrading others will only hurt your image; worst if your statement is solely based on your personal opinion and not factual data. Presenting a false claim can hurt your credibility and diminish the trust of your audience.

3. Add Value

Image adopted from Beyond Niche

Don't talk about yourself all the time! If you are only talking about yourself, you are not adding value! Further, people don't care about what you are doing, what you are eating, or where you are going. Understand that people want to learn and be entertained. What you should be doing is adding value. There are many ways you can add value; for example, sharing humorous contents and useful information. Educating and entertaining other people are great ways to add value. However, bear in mind that you should always get your facts straight before sharing them to your audience. Think before you speak! Shall you make a mistake, apologize and correct the mistake. After all, no one is perfect. Don't be afraid and start giving!

4. Be A Thought Leader

Image adopted from ReputationXchange

Be an advocate for a good cause! Show that you are trying to make a difference in this world. Thought leadership increases your importance in a community. Over time, you will gain more followers, who support you and your cause. Leadership is incomplete without authenticity and transparency. You should always be authentic and honest about who you are and why you are advocating for a cause. Please do not attempt to "fake it" because people can see through that easily. Also, be transparent - let your audience know what you are doing and how you do it. Hiding information will certainly raise doubts about your truthfulness. Moreover, keep your tone and message consistent. Consistency creates the perception that you are reliable and trustworthy.

Thank you for reading. I hope that the tips are useful. Leave a comment below if you have any suggestion or question. If you are interested in reading more stuffs that I write, read them here. If you are interested in connecting with me, please find me on:

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Nam Yee (Fermented Red Bean Curd) Pork Recipe

Do you love to eat or cook? Do you like Asian food? I love Chinese Malaysian cooking. Malaysian foods are some of the best that I have tasted. Have you been to Malaysia? If you have not, it is time for you to plan a trip this summer. Take the opportunity to visit other Southeast Asian countries too. Neighboring countries like Thailand and Singapore have great foods too! I love to eat and COOK!

In this post, I will be sharing the recipe for Nam Yee meat, which I love so much! Nam Yee is the Cantonese way of saying fermented red bean curd. You can find it at your local Asian food supermarket. I have made this food for my American friends before and they loved it. The fermented red bean curds might smell a little weird before cooking. But, after cooking, the weird smell will turn into great smell. Moreover, after trying this, you will not be able to stop eating!

Nam Yee Pork

It is a very simple dish to make. All you need to do is marinate the meat and deep fry it! Keep in mind that it has to be marinated for hours so that all the flavor goes into the meat. So, prepare ahead of time. Some people marinate a lot of meat, keep them in the freezer, and only cook them when they feel like eating. That works too if you are a busy person. Anyway, I have tried this recipe for both chicken and pork, though pork is the common version that you will find in Malaysia. The choice of meat is yours - so, feel free to experiment! I recommend that you read the Methods to get a general idea first, before you start doing anything else.

Method

1. First of all, you need to clean and cut your meat. If it is pork belly slice that you will be using, I recommend that you cook it in boiling water for a few minutes, so that it will be easier to cut the meat into 1 in x 1 in cubes. They don't have to be in the exact size or shape; in fact, they can be in any shape and size that you like. Apparently, I found that pork can be cut effortlessly after they have been cooked a little in boiling water. You don't want to cook it thoroughly because you will be deep frying it later.

2.  Next, you need to marinade the meat for at least 3 hours. I recommend marinating the meat overnight for maximum flavor! You can marinate the meat in a Ziplock storage bag. Mix the cut meat with all the ingredients below and marinade for at least 3 hours:

• Half teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda or baking soda
• 3 pieces of nam yee (fermented red bean curds)
• 2 tablespoons of nam yee juice from the jar of nam yee
• 3 cloves of finely chopped garlic
• 1 tablespoon of light soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon of shaoxing wine or rice wine
• 1 tablespoon of sugar
• 1 tablespoon of oyster sauce
• 1 tablespoon of chinese five spice powder
• 1 tablespoon of sesame oil
• Half tablespoon of chicken stock granules
• 2 tablespoons of plain flour
• 6 tablespoons of corn flour or cornstarch
• 1 egg
• 100 mL of water

If you don't have some of the ingredients, don't freak out! It is alright because sometimes I run out of certain ingredients too. However, not having the nam yee is a big 'NO' for this dish. After marinating the meat overnight, it will look pinkish like the following:

Nam Yee pork after marinated for a day

3. After marinating the meat overnight or for at least 3 hours, you are ready to deep fry it. You will need a lot of oil so that all the meat cubes are thoroughly immersed in the oil. If you prepared a lot of meat, you can cook them in a few rounds. When frying, use medium heat. This will avoid burning the meat and ensure crispiness of the meat. Also, try to not crowd the meat cubes because they need some 'personal space'. Seriously, giving them more space will help you know when they are cooked. The meat cubes are cooked when they float in the oil and turn golden brown as shown in the following picture.

Cooked Nam Yee pork

Finally, set the cooked meat aside to let it cool a little. If you are worried about the oil covering the meat, use paper towels to absorb some of the oil. The meat will not be as crispy after that, but it will be less oily.

Start experimenting with this dish. Impress your family and friends with this dish! Leave a comment below if you have any suggestion or question. Tell me about your experiment and follow me on:

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How to Use Social Media Effectively

Are you sick of people talking about themselves on Facebook and Twitter? Are you sick of people taking pictures of their smiling face with a caption that says "super tired today"? Are you sick of people making fools of themselves? If yes, congratulations because you understand what doesn't work on social media!

Talking about yourself or talking about irrelevant contents will not help you promote your post. However, there are exceptions. If you are super hot, feel free to post photos of your sexy body - and believe it or not, it will get shared. However, if you are posting about your emotions, your daily activity, or just things that people don't care about, good luck - it won't get shared, UNLESS, you are a celebrity.

So, what works? In this post, learn how to be a useful social media user.

1. Be Useful

By being useful, I mean you should post things that can help other users learn something. Post tutorial videos, news, safety information, or just anything that will help people. Stop posting things that will not add value to other users. The following is an interesting video from Robeson Design that I find very useful for people who wants to learn about room design. I love that channel. You should subscribe to Robesondesignstudios for more good stuffs too.

2. Connect

Don't just talk about yourself all the time. Connect with people, tag your friends, and engage in conversations. Liking their posts doesn't mean much to them. Connecting with people is more than that. Don't be a ghost on social media, interact! Anyway, keep in mind to be nice. You don't want to be a bully on social media. Here are eight steps on "How to Communicate Efficiently through Facebook".

3. Be Creative

What attracts people's attention? Pictures, videos, colorful texts, and more. Add a little bit of effort in your post so that readers don't just skip your post altogether. Use graphics - they work really well. If you have some nice inspiring word messages, incorporate them in a picture. Photos can be shared easily and more importantly, they can be downloaded too. Some people might download it, print it, and paste it on their wall to motivate themselves. And you would have helped someone, just by being a little more creative. Here's one:

In conclusion, if you want to be useful, start sharing good stuffs; if you want to connect, start interacting; if you want your post re-shared, be creative.

If you are interested about being creative - in other words, stand out in the clutter - read my post that I posted for my Social Media for Marketing Communications class here.

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