Communicating through the noise
How brands can buck distractions and hit their targets
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There are so many shiny objects, new tools, hot trends, and verbose opinions flying around the marketing and communications ether, especially for those spending a lot of time on social media for their work. This can be overwhelming because it may feel like you have to be doing everything everywhere all the time. Staying consistent and coordinated transcends that overwhelm and allows you to hit your target no matter the distractions. Whether you’re just getting started, already boasting a considerable audience, or are somewhere in the middle, staying consistent and coordinated with your communications strategy will yield positive returns. But what does it mean to be consistent and coordinated?
It all starts with consistency
Before diving head first into all the writing, producing, and ideating that it takes to deploy a coordinated content campaign, decide where all of this energy is going to flow to and through. This forces you to beg the questions, who is your audience and where are they spending their time? Devising your media mix around the answers to these two questions is the crucial first step to getting consistent with your messaging. This is where the temptation to be everywhere all at once comes in, but in reality, you’re better off choosing a set of 1–4 core channels to focus on and table the rest. The second step is constructing your publishing parameters for each channel. This can oftentimes come down to budget, and your posting cadence will want to maximize the potential value for each channel you build into your mix. Each channel will demand unique content that’s the best fit for that respective channel’s formatting guidelines. Budget aside, your particular skills and interests — whether that’s just yours or those of your team — will be deciding factors. Maybe you’re a strong writer but not the best videographer, or maybe you can create compelling graphics but aren’t as keen on long-form storytelling. Focus on what you’re already good at, and if you absolutely need the things you’re not as strong in, then you know what to hire for.
Look at your consistency system like a bunch of scrambled puzzle pieces. It’ll all make sense and flow cohesively once you figure out how it…
