Gone Fishing
I will be taking a two week break from
blogging as I pursue some greatly welcomed rest and relaxation. I am sure the blogosphere will be none the worse with my absence. I will resume on November 20th.
But in my upcoming peregrination, I will be thinking about 2007. I am sure like me, many of you are doing budget planning for next year. The challenge, as always, is doing more with less than we think we need.
But this year, unlike in years before, many of us are ramping up to do much more with new media. When I started at EarthLink in 2000, I was thinking more about VNRs than video clips on YouTube, satellite media tours not virtual press conferences in Second Life, and press releases not blogging. My how things have changed!
The rise of new media stretches our budget planning acumen. It is not enough to understand all the new tools and technologies at our disposable. It is not even a matter of determining how much to allocate or convincing skeptical bosses you need the money for an unproven new media campaign with no real basis for measuring success. For me, the real challenge is understanding how the pieces fit together. Where do we focus our attention? How does blogging integrate with podcasts? Do we roll out a product first with bloggers or traditional media? Do I do a one-off in Second Life and tick it off my to do list?
In the early stages of the new media revolution, there seems to be a tendency to approach blogs, social media and podcasts as if we were at a giant buffet table. I will have a little of this, some more of that, and soon enough you have a heaping mound of food mixed together.
Not that a buffet is a bad thing, but I usually wind up eating more than I should on a meal that is rarely memorable.
And memorable is the name of the game. For once you begin the conversation, you need to stay at it. The power of new media is the on-going relationship, the customer engagement that stands in contrast to one way ads and press releases. Consumers are already cynical about the communications process. Abandoning the effort mid stream may be worse than doing nothing at all.
All of which makes our job exciting, if not challenging. I wouldn’t want it any other way.
For now, let me get back to you.
