Professionally speaking, I work in communications, and since that is the realm where my alleged expertise resides, it is sad when I am reminded of how shitty I can be at my own personal communications. Anyway, a few things I’ve learned from work can perhaps translate over. Or maybe I’m just recycling bullshit because I can’t think of anything else to blog about. Whatever.
The basic outline of a communications plan is clearly not rocket science, but does contain of a few important factors to keep in mind nonetheless:
• Develop your objects: Think long and hard about what you want. Are you looking for The One? Or are you looking for The One to Take You Out to Dinner Next Thursday?
• Know your target audience: If your objective is to find a boyfriend, then maybe going after a giant womanizing Norwegian is not be your best bet. Look for someone who is giving you signals that he is available and interested in monogamy. From what I’ve seen out there, most guys in the city put finding a relationship fairly low on the priority list so don’t get your feelings hurt if he doesn’t feel the same way. Find an audience that is open to the idea of settling down. I thought I was really smart by going after the early 30s crowd, but have found that I might have actually be targeting the Serial Bachelor crowd. Damn. At least I know what I want, though.
However, if you’re objective is just to find a hot guy to take you to dinner you’re in luck - the city is full of prospects - and you should be able to snag one without too much communications’ effort. Just go to MPD and look pretty.
• Create key messages: Chances are if a guy is hitting on you he already thinks you’re hot. Give him another reason to call you (e.g. that you’re fascinating). There are a million dateable girls in this city – show him you’re special. Think about the things you like most about yourself that you want other people to appreciate too. Maybe you have an interesting hobby (researching giant squid) and you can teach a guy some interesting information about it (like how they have the biggest eyes of any creature!). Or maybe pick something less weird, it’s up to you.
[Note: As you can probably tell, one of my other personal strategies is to be as awkward as humanly possible upfront. While you may think it’s a terrible idea on the first date to tell the story about eating so much at Red Lobster that you vomited on a tree, I think it’s a good plan. After that, you can go nowhere but up.]
• Determine the best channels to reach your target: Figure out the most effective means to keep in contact with your new interest. Texting is standard, but try and open up another line of communication as well. Maybe it’s emailing, Facebook messaging or gchatting. Whatever it is, it will help things progress. Plus if you’re emailing then you can send him a hilarious someecard, one of my fav things ever, as a way to say gracias for taking you out.
• Measure impact: After a few weeks/months reevaluate your methods and see what happened, what worked, what didn’t. Learn from it and tweak your strategy if need be. Eventually things will come together.
Trust me, if Corporate America can manage effective communications plans to reach their goals, you can too.
It’s the business of dating.
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