The Internet Revolution, Part II
POSTED ON
January 8, 2009
Last month I tackled the topic of how the internet has irrevocably changed the way we get our news, and I promised to address its effect on business communications. It can be hard to spot trends when you're in the midst of them, and predictions are tough when everything seems to be changing on a daily basis. That said, I managed to come up with a few musings on the topic (surprise, surprise).
- Business communications needs to embrace new rules for web writing - It seems like marketers have grasped this more quickly than public relations and corporate communications folks. Brevity and clarity are musts. Honesty is an imperative. And corporate speak will drive people away from your web site in droves, because they can probably find the information they want from somewhere else.
- At the same time, search engine optimization (SEO) isn't everything. Key words are important, but structuring all your web content around searchable terms makes absolutely no sense. It doesn't matter how many people are driven to your site if they don't understand what they're reading once they get there.
- Companies must learn to engage in dialogue. Ever since I've been in this industry, communications professionals have been talking about the importance of dialogue, but for the most part, its existence is a myth. Consider, for example, the weary concept of the "communications cascade," through which controlled communications are distributed from senior management down the chain of command to land neatly in the lap of frontline employees. Will this strategy work? Sure - as long as none of your workforce has access to a computer. My point is that companies have been in the business of talking at their customers and employees, not with them, for a long time, but social networking is quickly making this form of communications irrelevant. There's a conversation going on about your business, with or without you. Your only choices are to join it or sit back and watch it continue without you.
- If we let it, the medium will overtake the message. We can't let it. Everyone wants to stay abreast of the latest technological advances, hence the frenzied buzz about Twitter, Yammer, social marketing through Facebook, viral video, etc. In our haste to keep up, communicators still have a responsibility to keep our eye on the prize - the effectiveness of our efforts. And that means keeping our messages relevant to our businesses and our audiences. In other words, don't spend a million dollars to launch a new social marketing initiative, then lock an intern in a conference room for an afternoon so he can crank out the supporting content. If your words don't have meaning, none of your efforts will matter.
