The internet landscape has changed so much in the last decade. I networked with people all over the country back then; emailing lists and individuals… and lots of phone calls, but it was not to the scale it is now.
Today there are not only more methods of communication, both individually and socially, but there are more platforms for engaging with people. This opens the doors to meeting more people, and having more conversation, but it also forces us to realize we must have a strategy for managing this environment or become shallow and ineffective.
There are three main aspects of communication to include in your digital strategy:
- Broadcast Messaging: this is proactively communicating with large groups of people with like interests who are truly interested in your message. This is where facebook pages/groups, corporate twitter accounts, discussion forums, blogs, marketing website, etc. play a key role.
- Mass Engagement: responding to the open dialog created by groups of interested individuals. This is reactive involvement through, many of the same initiatives above, but segmented into subsets of people.
- Personal Conversation: relationships are grown at this level; understanding both person’s needs, desires, challenges and opportunities, and working together for mutual benefit.
These three “levels” of communication can be applied to any digital strategy for internal and external corporate growth, or personal branding and marketing, and are necessary to engage on a deeper level. Depending on the goals of your strategy the value of any particular level will change, but if not identified you will be left spinning a lot of wheels and wasting a lot of time trying to find meaning in the social media noise out there.
I’m always helping companies and individuals develop their digital strategy so they know where to focus their energy, and identify their most valuable relationships. The methods of communication has changed dramatically in 10 years, I would love to hear your experiences and feedback.