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Learning to Think Small: Three Steps to Micromedia Success
By Michael C. Gilbert, July 6, 2009
I'll soon be teaching a workshop on Twitter, Flickr, and other forms of microblogging, entitled Small is Beautiful. As is often the case before a new seminar, a few of my ideas come out in the form of an article. So, here's the latest.
One of the greatest challenges to experienced communication professionals is learning to change the scale at which we think. Our thoughts about scale affect the outcomes we envision, the processes we design, our learning cycles, and ultimately, our ability to communicate effectively through new media. What follows is a brief exploration, in three parts, of how we might learn to think small.
(1) Learn How Your Networks Actually Communicate:
I continue to be amazed at how much the idea of communication inventories and workflow maps - a basic assessment of the assets and landscape of our work - is resisted by most organizations. Someone in the organization says: 'We should be using Twitter!' My first question: Who among your stakeholders is using Twitter and in what way? Unfortunately, it seems that organizations are more likely to ask: 'Are other organizations like ours using Twitter?' What are we? Communicators? Or sheep?
How long do people spend on the average piece of email? A few years ago, it was twenty seconds or less. (I can't imagine this number has gone up.) Most email newsletters are still designed in one of two ways: Either they look like they are expected to be printed out and enjoyed over a leisurely glass of port or they accommodate shorter attention spans by being filled with a list of breathless appeals written with nonstop urgency.
Find out how people actually use your existing communication tools. More importantly, find out what tools they really love to use and why. Find out where the best conversations about the things your organization cares about are happening. Find out which of your staff and stakeholders are speaking online, in whatever form. And find out who they are listening to. Map out all the little pieces and then new, larger patterns and opportunities will emerge.
(2) Think of Yourself as a Complete Communicator:
Because of the marginal costs of old media, almost every communication activity in our professional repertoire has taken on the characteristics of a publication. That is to say, it's a product (or series of products), that emerges from a kind of assembly line, with a strong focus on achieving its "done" state. This orientation leads to larger products with large editorial processes and a large visual design emphasis. It's the opposite of thinking small.
As a result, communication has come to be more and more defined as the production of these publications. When I was in school studying communication, the term was very much defined as the dynamic between listening and speaking, but for most professionals speaking (publishing) is the only thing that exists. Most mainstream professional awards are not given out for programs that listened well or for campaigns that brought hundreds of other people on board as communicators. The mindset has been encoded into every fiber of our profession.
We have to go back to our roots as communicators and learn to embrace a more complete self-concept. We must put an end to reflecting and reinforcing the publication-oriented standards that dominate our profession as a result of the exigencies of old media. If we don't, we'll never match our skills and projects to the realities of new media.
(3) Take Apart Your Monoliths:
Step One was embracing the realities of our communication landscape, making concrete the notion that our world is much more than just us talking. Step Two was redefining ourselves as complete communicators, with as much concern for listening and even for communication that isn't directly with us, as we currently have for what we say to others. Step Three is applying this to our current work.
Most of our communication is organized into monolithic programs, with deadlines, levels of editorial approval, visual design emphasis, templates to adhere to, and long lists of people to please and things to avoid. We have to take these apart. At a minimum it means resurrecting the inverted pyramid of newspaper journalism. But far better is to look at every small piece that's involved - whether a piece of content or a piece of workflow - as something with independent value and independent existence and use.
This breakdown makes the most sense when viewed in terms of the inventory and maps from Step One. Then you can see how your own content and workflows can fit into the picture. From that vision you will leverage the assets you have, reduce the cost of new media programs, and make the wisest choices about new media initiatives.
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