Rethinking Business Communications Blog

We should all take stock of our progress during the year.

At work and in our personal lives, we should be grateful for both our successes and our disappointments.

This is because our ‘failures’ are just as important as our feats of progress because they sharpen our focus and force us to  re-assess our plans and make changes.

At the beginning of this year, in  this  post, I listed a few plans for the blog and proceeded to test them. Specifically: 

– I launched a  discussion forum.

– I constantly asked for feedback and suggestions at the end of articles.

– I also ventured out of my comfort zone and became receptive to the possibility of guest blogging by putting up notices in LinkedIn blogging groups.

– I set up a poll to find out the topics that would appeal to readers of this blog.

Now not all these actions have been overwhelmingly successful but that doesn’t mean that I shouldn’t aspire to continue to improve this blog.

So I am grateful for my ‘failures’ in blogging this year because now I know the ideas upon which to focus, modify or tweak.

Taking stock of notable blog posts

In case you missed reading this year’s most notable blog posts, below is a recap:

1) The Boston Bombings – What We Can Learn From President Obama’s Speech

I was honoured that for over four consecutive weeks, soon after it was posted in April, this article  ranked in first place on the first page on Google under the search description: “Boston bombings, what we can learn“, on 16 June as  seen below:

It also ranked well in a variation of the search term on 23 September as provided below:

As I write this post, the article is still visible on the first page of Google, although it is often relegated to one of the top five spots. On Yahoo and Bing, it appears on the first page under a similar search description. I am truly humbled by this validation.

The feedback I received from viewers was also encouraging and heart-warming.

So go read the article. The event on which it was based (the Boston bombings) may not be breaking news any more but lessons learnt from President Obama’s masterful speech delivery will always be relevant to professionals.

2) Overcoming Our Phobia Of Formal Writing

This article was posted last month and is, in my opinion, the most useful article yet.

It’s the third longest article written on the blog at 2,500+ words. I really went out on a limp by sharing tips and secrets of formal writing gained from my previous work experience drafting numerous letters to government officials, CEOs, industry leaders, bank executives, and VIPs.

While writing the post, my goal was to conquer the ‘Goliath’ of all communications woes – the absolute dread of formal writing. For this purpose, I provided free letter templates for different recipients. These formats could easily be tweaked and used in practical scenarios. One letter sample, written to a minister of energy, could be used when writing to the president of a country, simply by changing the subject of the letter and by substituting the protocols of one office for another!

So if you haven’t read the article yet, I strongly recommend that you do so. I guarantee that you would find the templates so useful that you would immediately save a few for future use.

Be kind, however, to credit the letter formats to the author or this blog.

Please take the poll

May I make an important appeal?

In order to continue to deliver evergreen and hard-hitting content, please take the poll which can be found on the right sidebar of the homepage.

Please note that if you regularly read this blog via a mobile device, in order to see the poll, you’d need to use the web/desktop version to access the blog’s URL. It may be easier to use a laptop or desktop computer instead.

The poll takes about five seconds to complete and no personal information is requested. It expires in a couple of weeks so kindly choose the articles you’d like to see on this blog.

A little note

I am now available for some consulting work in communications, coaching sessions in formal writing and freelance writing assignments. 

Therefore, for assistance in drafting speeches, letters and for content creation, kindly:

A) Send an email to Lucilleossai@gmail.com

B) Call for a free consultation:

Nigeria:                0704 631 0592    

International:      +234 704 631 0592

Conclusion

As 2014 approaches, things may change or evolve on this blog.

However, you can be assured that one constant would be evident: the commitment to high-quality content.

So if you have suggestions about how I could improve this blog, please do not hesitate to let me know via telephone, email, Twitter etc.

Given that my goal is to enrich your experience here, I would really appreciate your feedback.

Goodbye, 2013.  It’s been swell. 

P.S – Merry Christmas to you all and a very happy New Year! I hope you enjoy the holidays with friends and family. Don’t stay away too long though as I’d be kicking off 2014 with a truly interesting article. So watch this space…

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N.B–  First image courtesy of Idea Go, via freedigitalphotos.net. Second and fifth images courtesy of Stuart Miles, via freedigitalphotos.net. Third and fourth images are provided by author.