Why try to hold back the tide?

From time to time, I shake my head in dismay at aspects of the communication industry.

 Three key lessons that I see from the rise of social media are the decline of rigidly controlled communication; the importance of transparency; and the folly of ignoring traditional media. Yet, our industry has more than its share of Luddites and the bleeding obvious  isn’t  obvious to all.

Long held management beliefs about the value of strongly controlled information are not only outdated, but are now counter productive.  Telling your story only within the confines of advertising, or similar controlled medium, simply leads to one-sided information.  And, more than ever, people are seeing through this type of communication – and looking for genuine engagement.

 The days when communicators were able to make flower arrangements of the facts, placing them so the wilted, less attractive petals were hidden by the sturdy blooms, are over. It’s now pointless to play with the truth, a fact which is a key foundation of social media.

At the same time, many traditional media outlets have put the communications industry to shame by rapidly embracing the central planks of social media – and incorporating blogs, forums, social bookmarking etc into mainstream media activity.

 The majority still gets its news and information from traditional sources and communicators who do not integrate mainstream and social media at the centre of their activities, will pay a price. Controlled media,  while still having a role to play, increasingly has less and less credibility.

 Change your way of thinking by adopting the conversational style of social media – e.g. adopt the social media style of information distribution. And, in doing so, reach a rapidly growing audience.  But, integrate this with traditional media, rather than abandoning media-centred communication plans. The alternative, my friends, is to keep banging your head against the wall, because  this tide will not be held back.

Ian