It's not the medium--it's the message

In today’s world of information overload and constant communication (thanks to real-time networks) it is nearly impossible to stay afloat. This is especially difficult for students (like me) to break through the clutter and try to grasp what is important. Words like content marketing, social media, crowd sourcing, geotagging, ROI, etc., are thrown around at hyper speed and we barely have time to stop and breathe trying to keep up with it all. Each week like clockwork, a Mashable blog post shows up in my Google Reader graciously alerting me of somewhere between 30 and 50 digital resources I may have missed. Sometimes it seems hopeless that I will ever dig out from under the vast amounts of information out there.

In July, I wrote about how to break through media clutter. I talked a lot about different tools to use to manage your information, but have recently come to the realization that it’s not the channel that’s important.

No matter what the medium, tactic or program, there are some key components of communication that ring true no matter what. New outlets and mediums will come and go, but as long as we stick to a solid communications strategy and integral steps in the process, we can’t go wrong.

Research: My PR capstone instructor mentions research at least three times per class period, and with good reason. Chances are good that you won’t be an expert in the field your client is in, so there is always room to find out more about it. Not to mention the constant shifting of the media industry, requiring a close eye to identify or at least keep up with trends. Sound research will not only help avoid future roadblocks but can help you come up with new ideas. I try to read as much as I can about tons of different topics and have been pleasantly surprised at how a little extra effort can go a long way.

Planning: Even though some of your communications tactics may seem easy or less important, thus not requiring a plan, but that’s really not the case. I catch myself wanting to jump headfirst into social media or any new communication tool or campaign, but it’s always important to think things through strategically.

Monitoring: Once we’ve set a campaign in motion, it’s such a relief that we finally get to implement that we forget that we actually have to check up on it. While technology is great, it’s far from perfect, so constant monitoring is vital. Google Alerts are a godsend in monitoring brand discussion and keeping tabs on the online conversation about it.

Evaluating: This is something I’m sure we all put at the very end of our communications plans, but how often do we actually go back and track our results? As students, evaluation is a process that is often an afterthought, or one that we don’t do much of in the classroom until our upper level courses. Getting in the habit of constantly evaluating your campaign or program will put you in the mindset to push your communications further than you thought possible.

Do you agree or disagree? Is there anything else you would add? I’d love to hear your thoughts!

How to sort through media clutter

With the Internet at our fingertips now more than ever, the amount of information we are exposed to continues to grow exponentially. Every time you log in to Facebook or Twitter, you are inundated with information like what your best friend ate for breakfast or what song John Mayer’s latest heartbreak has resulted in. When you search for anything on Google you will probably get at least a few million results, not to mention the paid ads that show up.

With so much information at every turn, just trying to figure out what is going on in the world can be mind-boggling. Luckily, there are ways to make sense of it all. I’ve come across some useful tools to make the web a little less intimidating.

RSS: If you’re like me, you probably get most of your news online as you are drinking your morning coffee, checking e-mail and contemplating what the rest of your day will entail. I use Google Reader to aggregate all my news sites and blogs into one space. It lets me organize them however works best for me, and I get the day’s news in a much shorter amount of time than I would trying to search for news sites on my own.

Tip: Most news sites have a separate RSS feed for breaking news, so if you are just looking for the top headlines, that’s a perfect way to go.


Twitter lists/columns: According to the Twitter website, there are currently more than 100 million users on the site and about 750 tweets per second. That is a LOT of information even if it’s only in 140 character increments. If you use Twitter frequently, you are probably following a lot of users. Luckily, Twitter now allows you to organize the people you follow into “Lists.” You can create separate categories for as many things as you like and can label each followee with a “List” category. Each list can be made private or public, allowing other users to follow your list.

If you want to get more advanced with your Twitter use, you can download (for FREE) a desktop application like Tweetdeck to help you organize your information. Tweetdeck allows you to personalize your application with an unlimited number of columns and even lets you administrate several different accounts at once.

Google Alerts: If you’ve ever searched anything in an online search engine, you have experienced the endless pages of search results that appear for almost anything you could look up. This can be overwhelming, especially if you are trying to research for a client and stay on top of online discussions that include them. To make the task easier, I suggest using Google Alerts to filter the information for you. You can choose in your settings to subscribe to an “Alert” of any keyword/s you like. I have Google Alerts for individual clients as well as the student PR firm and my employer for the summer. You can set each Alert to send you an e-mail with any new search results pertaining to your keyword daily, weekly or as Google finds them. Within each Alert setting you can choose to include news, blogs, videos, discussions or everything in your Alert e-mail.

Of course, the tools I use are far from the only ones out there. I’d love to hear about other things you may come across.