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YourSidekick is always there to assist you with your Internet communication needs.

Online communication is based upon the same concepts and principles as face-to-face communication. Whether you are communicating on the Internet or in person, there is a set of responsibilities you must fulfill in order to be effective:

1. Purpose: We communicate for some reason. There is something we hope to accomplish. Our purpose is the foundation for the whole encounter. It affects how the other role responsibilities should be handled. We measure the success of an encounter in terms of its purpose.

Novice web designers, for instance, may report that they are not sure if their sites were a success or not. Often the reason for this uncertainty is that they had vague or unspecified purposes for their online efforts.

Communicators must know their immediate and long-range purposes. Some public speeches may be judged as either a success or a failure, depending upon the purpose the speaker had in mind when she gave the speech. A politician with aspirations for national office may lose a state election but win the goodwill of the electorate through her speaking. At a later time, she may run for national office and win by a landslide. Effective communicators know their own intentions.

You must achieve your purposes. Some typical general purposes of online and face-to-face communicators are information-getting, information-giving, problem solving, persuasion, and entertainment. Achieving your purpose means success in your effort.

2. Research: Effective communicators value the accuracy that research fosters. We need to research the audiences, groups, or individuals with whom we communicate in order to adapt to their wants, needs, and desires. We need to research the topics considered in our messages in order to provide valid and reliable data for our messages.

You must research your audience and topic. An effective communicator has well developed research skills.

3. Climate: In our interactions, we establish some sort of rapport or feeling between ourselves and the other participants. We are more likely to be satisfied with exchanges if participants are credible and interpersonally attractive. Credibility is the image a listener or receiver has of the sender of a message. Interpersonal attraction or speaker attractiveness refers to being perceived as personable and likable. Internet sites with a good "look and feel" create a favorable climate.

Typically, communicators want to achieve their purposes and create a favorable climate at the same time. They want both success and satisfaction. But an Internet site may get us to purchase an item using an abrasive approach. The site may be successful at the expense of producing bad feelings that deter us from making future purchases at the site.

You must create and maintain a favorable communicative climate. Creating a favorable climate means satisfaction with your effort.

4. Reception: Even when we transmit messages, we are also receiving spoken and unspoken messages from the other communicators. Receiving feedback from others allows us to adjust and adapt to others so that we may communicate more effectively.

But messages and feedback are often misunderstood. Fortunately, barriers to reception can be detected and corrected. Moreover, we can cultivate habits that help make us better listeners when we are online or there face-to-face.

You must receive effectively. An online communicator as well as a public speaker must listen to what the audience is saying. Careful listening allows you to overcome potential barriers and provides you with the gateways to communication.

5. Transmission: In a communication encounter, we are simultaneously sending both verbal and nonverbal messages. We strive to use understandable and appropriate words as well as visual and auditory signals that are meaningful. Transmissions require a harmony between the words we use and unspoken messages we send.

You must transmit effectively. The content and delivery of your message must be in sync.

6. Coherence: We arrange our messages in some order or sequence. The type of organization we use depends on what we are trying to accomplish and our audience. A sequence that is logical from the viewpoint of the listener allows the listener to follow and understand us more easily. Organization is enhanced with the use of transitions and markers or "sign posts."

You must be coherent. Internet communicators and discussants must arrange their messages in a way that is clear to other people. An effective communicator is organized.

These are the six responsibilities or role requirements of the effective online and off-line communicator. How well we handle each responsibility has an important impact upon how successful and satisfying our communication encounters are. The responsibilities apply to online sessions as well as conversations, interviews, discussions, and public speeches.

This information Portal provides an in depth knowledge of these requirements. Click the link associated with each requirement for additional information.

YourSidekick helps you design, construct, and evaluate online and face-to-face messages.

Depend on YourSidekick to guide you in making wise choices as you plan your messages for your online and face-to-face audiences. Options for the construction of message are applied to your specific circumstances. Criteria for the evaluation of your messages are explored.

YourSidekick is there for all phases of your communication projects -- from imagining them to doing them to judging them.