The changes in our media landscape over the last 10 years have been pretty exciting.
Accessibility, freedom and power of the people have been the pillars which have helped shape the new consumer driven age. In 2010, it’s safe to say that these technological advancements are entrenched in daily life.
Communications as an industry has turned a complete 360, even a 720. Measurement impacts every facet of the communications choices we make, yet I find measurement and its importance, often forgotten. In fact, the rules of thumb within this new paradigm of our industry are often useless and frustrating. After attending numerous conferences, I always only ever walk away with a couple of nuggets which seem to be revealed in the subtext of a case study. Case studies are great at showing how to do things correctly or incorrectly, but I never walk away with a proper solution, only dazed by more case studies and guidelines which seem to relate only to those particular examples.
Perhaps looking for the holy grail in a solutions model isn’t possible. It’s not how this game works. Every case is so specific and folding new media alternatives into strategies just isn’t that simple. A shift is required. Rather than solutions and models, we need to ask the right questions in order to reach the best outcome. Seeing that 10 years is a fairly long time in the new mediascape, it’s time to buckle up and think intelligently about what we do know and apply that knowledge to effective communications.
The real questions communicators should be asking:
How do I combine new and traditional media platforms into robust communication plans?
I often hear people talk about all the great stuff they’re doing in the digital realm, and forget their older and wiser traditional neighbours. My favourite catchphrase has become “people don’t live in a vacuum”, because quite frankly, people don’t. People consume all media in varying levels and great communications should tap into the different touch points of their audiences, leverage integration and send the relevant message.
Use the data that's available and logically find where you need to be to reach your audience.
How do I achieve my objectives and see valid results?
It’s common fodder for marketers and agency representatives to create and apparently validate a “Test execution” with no real objectives other than to get feet wet. This is no longer a valid excuse to spend budget I’m afraid. By now, we know how people are operating within new media. We know how they combine different media together, the weight of those channels and how they like to consume it. If a company hasn’t gotten their feet wet by now, it’s no longer ok to attempt a test solution without having the proper objectives and metrics in place. Use the data to help your learnings for future activations.
What is the best platform and best device for my target?
Rather than “My Competitor is on Foursquare/FB/Twitter” or “What’s the latest gizmo? I want in”, communicators should be asking themselves about relevancy first and foremost. Different industries and their audiences have completely different needs. For example, communicators in the political world have a completely different modus operandi to social media gurus and to food bloggers. They use different platforms in varying ways and this should always be factored in to any approach.
Do I need to create a long term social media initiative, or does a short term initiative meet my objectives?
The industry catch cry that social media must be for the long haul just isn’t true. Simple measurement shows that users drop out of groups or lose interest and a well managed resource can exploit those behaviours.
For example, you’ll find that Facebook may be great for an FMCG needing a short term promotional initiative which needs a quick, fast bang and a clothing label might create long term plans which build their loyal customer base over time.
Both are valid, both effective and with the correct preperation, both meet a company’s objectives.
How can I be relevant?
Activating in any media requires relevance. It’s important to understand that social media is about “passion points”, traditional media is similar but to a lesser extent.
The only way people are interested in a topic is if it’s actually interesting to them. In this day and age it’s important for companies to think how they can leverage of those passion points and enter into a sphere, rather than deliver irrelevant messages in a non-caring environment.
Measurement: How and what?
There is no doubt that new media in combination with the traditional, is steadfast. The dimension of what we need to know about our communications is no longer as simple as an eyeball count. Numerous soft (eg engagement) and hard (quantifiable numerical metrics) analytics have been established as standards. However, these metrics only get us so far. Analytics needs to come up to speed with what's happening out there, eg
- Identify the origins and timelines of different points of coverage
- Graph coverage sentiment
- What times of day coverage occurs across different channels
- Establish plausible dollar value for traditional and new media coverage
- Establish focal points for coverage jumping from one media to another
- Identify key influencers for category specific coverage
- Identify key media across your category
And right now, it seems the bulk of tools out there just can’t tell us the information that appears relevant in the new communications lifecycle. Something, we’re working on improving.
Hopefully these questions give a bit more clarity then a case study can. Understanding your business and its relevance in the market seems more useful than comparing your business to a case study.
