Over the weekend I chanced upon a discussion between industry experts on how communication professionals should evolve to stay relevant in today’s technologically driven society. The topic was discussed on the blogs of Lou Hoffman, Paul Roberts, Steve Farnsworth, Hans de Groot, Todd Defren and Don Jennings – click to read detailed blog posts.
In a nutshell, most of them agree there’s lot’s of learning to be done – no surprise there. As Farnsworth puts it, social media and digital communications are “message boards on steroids”. Because things are in constant motion, we need to be flexible, to read blogs and participate in social media every day. Look outside your comfort zone as well, there’s much to learn from anyone. Another great way of learning, as pointed out by Lou Hoffman, is to teach.
Defren puts it succinctly:
…arguably “to stay relevant,” our evolution must include everything from web development, video production, and art direction (owned media), to SEO, SEM and media planning (paid media) to enhanced targeting and influencer strategies, as well as event planning (earned media). Oh, and yes, measurement and analytics, too.
Defren also feels that to excel, agencies should then choose a few tool-related skills and create a niche out of them. The basics still stand – we need to know, on a basic level, how to implement, measure, monitor and maximize social media platforms.
Jenning emphasizes that social media should be a strategic engagement above everything else. It’s easy to jump on the bandwagon since everyone is doing it, but there has to be thought behind the actions; there has to be a reason why a certain blogger was chosen, and why a message is going out at a certain time
Paul Roberts takes the stand that social media hasn’t altered the scene drastically – the demands of a good communicator are the same – they have to be strong writers, know how to reach target audiences and have a solid grasp of communication vehicles and technology. Other tips include having a sense of humor and paying good attention to details.
So that’s a really succinct summary of what they’ve discussed, but do click on the links provided above – they’re all pretty good reads.
Steph,
You did a good job capturing the highlights from these posts.
One bit of background you might not know about–
Steve Farnsworth, known by more than 40K as @Steveology, came up with the idea for four bloggers to post on four different communication issues over a four-week period (one per week). He also extended invitation across the blogosphere for others to participate.
If you search on twitter for #444pr,you'll see a fair amount of activity.
Like the best of social media, the power of the experiment came from the collaboration and interactions.
Looking outside of one's comfort zone is fraught with lots of fears for a great majority of people. However, if you force yourself, you'll find the reality much easier than what your demons had conjured up. Great synopsis.
You captured the current state social media very succintly Stephanie. I think the analogy of social media and digital communications being “message boards on steroids”. I've been an intern at a social media company for a few months now and learning about social media has made me feel like I'm in the middle of a communications hurricane.
I really like the quote from Todd Defren that you included. I think that anyone who is interested in receiving help in the fields of: web development, video production, art direction, SEO and measurement analytics all from one place would benefit greatly by checking out this site: http://www.varvid.com/venue/
I also agree with Paul Robert's claim that social media hasn't altered the scene dramatically, as the same communication and writing skills are still required, only now people need to apply those skills in more innovative ways to have their voice heard.
Thanks for the great article
- Richard
Thanks Lou,
Kudos to @Steveology for the great idea. Have learnt much from reading your blogs, it's interesting reading the different approaches to the different topics.
Looking forward to the next!
No prob, glad you enjoyed the read!