Have you ever noticed that when you suddenly fixate on an item or idea, you suddenly see signs and references to it everywhere you look? For example, you plan a hiking trip in the Rockies and suddenly every magazine, every tweet, every TV show seems to be featuring the Rockies that week—just for you. Well, of course, they aren’t. It was just that your antennae were finely tuned to “see” these references to the Rockies everywhere. If you weren’t going to the Rockies, you would never have noticed them. That happened to me last week as well with what I call “Brain Candy.”
Brain Candy is Visual Language
Visual language includes the metaphors, analogies, stories, cartoons, and props that we use in communicating ideas. Because of the way we humans are wired, visual language is a medium that our brains crave, love, devour, and remember forever. (Think of the difference in your response to having to read the results of piles of economic data vs. hearing the phrase “Fiscal Cliff”) First, I was focused on visual language because I did a webinar for 85 Broads, a group of high powered women, on the power of Brain Candy to sell, persuade & explain anything to anyone. Readers of this blog will recognize this as the theme of my book “The Tall Lady With the Iceberg.”
Then I Saw…
With visual language on my mind, I came across the ingenious Harvard Business Review blog article, “Draw Your Elevator Pitch,” on using cartoons (link below). Cartoons have always been used on the OP ED pages of newspapers to make political points visually, so why not a “pithy” cartoon that captures a company’s value proposition?
Like metaphors, the authors, strategy consultant Deborah Mills-Scofield and cartoonist Liza Donnelly, note that cartoons work because they are quick to grasp, memorable, and powerful. Since they are usually funny, they are also very disarming. You will see excellent examples of this form of visual language in their article. (What cartoon could serve as your elevator pitch?)
And Then I Saw…
Finally, I saw new research on the growth of infographics that dramatically re-affirmed the popularity of visuals in communication. Apparently,
- Between 2010-2012, the search volume for infographics has increased 800%
- The use of visualized information in general has increased
-400% in literature (since 1990)
-9900% on internet (since 2007)
-42% in newspapers (between 1985-1994)
The World Wants Brain Candy
YouTube, Facebook, Pinterest, etc. Visual language is all around us. It is increasingly the medium of choice for effective communication. If you are not incorporating visuals strategically into your language when you speak and into your presentations when you present, do not be surprised when people either don’t get what you are saying or start to tune you out. Get with the zeitgeist—get more visual.
Anne Miller
Links in this article:
The Tall Lady With the Iceberg
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