I've been working in comms for 20 years, and seen the tools of the media trade come and go. The news release, should you mail it or fax it? Is three pages too long? Do you need the -30- at the bottom?
Every technological advancement or tech change, at the end of the day, simply means more work for the communicator. Ten years ago, I wrote a news release, sent it and flogged it with follow up phone calls. Now I write the release and then break it into pieces so it fits into SM. Shorten it to almost nothing for twitter, post similiar words, with a revised tone, on FB and search where else to post it. And then send a slightly longer version, more detailed directly to identified media. The flogging calls continue today, though. Is SM is a blessing or a curse? Sure a campaign can gain world wide attention, for what, a day? Then it's off the radar. A measure of comms success used to be measured in column inches, it was rough and inaccurate because it didn't consider content, but now we do the same thing with hits, links, tweets and likes. Have we really accomplished anything? Are we more efficient at reaching and hearing from stakeholders?
Vanessa thanks for writing your blog post and sharing your background with it. Interesting that you note FB posts require a revised tone - can you elaborate a bit on what that entails and perhaps give us an example?
ReplyDeleteOh, I agree -- more work for the communicator. We've added about four new mediums to the message - each requiring customized messaging, each targeted at a different audience, each requiring monitoring and analysis. And I have yet to see a method that will lead to true measurement of success. On the other hand, the opportunity to reach out directly to your audience, to engage in personal discussion and to inspire your audience to action is much greater than with traditional media. I look forward to developing grass roots campaigns using Pinterest and Facebook. So I guess it depends on your communication goals. Our are to inform, inspire and connect. Social media for us is the logical way to go. Despite my long long work days. And nights.
ReplyDeleteThanks Vanessa! I really enjoyed reading your post and the questions you raised about metrics and workloads. How much is too much? Where do we draw the line?
ReplyDelete