Everyone talks about this being the age of content, and how the more content you can produce, the better off you’ll be. This is true in the world of sales where content doesn’t have a shelf life, and a response to something, no matter when it happens, is good for business. However, that’s not the case in advisory board and working group situations, because you’re most likely on a schedule and you need your members to stick to it. In this article, I discuss how to avoid content overload.
How to Avoid Information and Content Overload
Depending on the purpose of your advisory board or working group, you might be able to send multiple pieces every day for review. But just because you can doesn’t mean you should. Your members need time to read, consider their opinions, form their responses, and consider other members’ opinions. That can’t happen if you’re monopolizing their time with reams of content.
So what’s the magic formula? What’s an effective schedule?
It’s impossible to definitively answer that, mostly because all boards are different, but as a general rule, we’d recommend no more than one to two pieces a week, and we can help you schedule it using our Longitudinal Expert Engagement Plan™ process.
This gives your members time to consider the advice they send back, which is the whole point.
What About Content Length?
Life is busy. To ask someone to go through a novel’s worth of content is unfair and disrespectful. But what if that’s just what the content is?
In that case, it’s your job to truncate. Pull out the important pieces. Chart out figures in easy-to-understand ways. Make the conclusion simple. And don’t forget to include a call to action.
Part of our offering is strategic communications. So if you have a piece you’d like to share that you think is feeling a bit too long, we can help you with it. Just send your content to Janice at janice@impetusdigital.com and she can help you.
And Finally, Verbiage
There’s an old adage that suggests that the best way to get a response is to communicate at a grade 3 reading level. Obviously, you can aim a little higher given the people most likely to be on your advisory board or working group, but don’t aim too much higher. The value of the plain language cannot be overstated. Remember that your members are participating in their downtime so the easier and friendlier you can make it for them to participate, the more likely they’ll be to do so.