Think. (please)
Oh my, I feel a rant coming on!
I’m ready for a productive day of work with a client meeting late afternoon. S’all good. Quick morning scan through some things and we’re off, yes!
Apparently not. What is happening to this morning?
- I received a targeted email from an organization thrilled that they have new content on their ABOUT webpage. (really?)
- Flipped through a recent issue of Canadian Fire Chief magazine and skimmed an article by an Ontario Fire Chief about social media. Apparently kids increasingly prefer communicating with online friends through social media, and “any fire department” can make a simple video, post it to YouTube and if it generates “word of mouth buzz” and “goes viral” it will be viewed by millions. (relevance alarms going off everywhere)
- Vereburn, a large medical supply company sent a 1 page, 2 sided flyer across the country announcing boldly “NOW SHOP ONLINE!” with nary a reference to their web address on the entire flyer.
- In my email Inbox this morning there is a new Twitter follow from Tick Ripper. Apparently a gadget you should have in your wallet and use to remove ticks. The Twitter page for Tick Ripper doesn’t display images and the linked website defaults to a godaddy domain park page.
Please, before you publish, send, text, launch or even phone, consider who your target audience is and be clear about your message.
If the goal is engagement, please endeavor to inspire confidence. Maybe this can be accomplished by outsourcing the communication task, choosing a message worthy of the reader’s time and attention, simply closing your loops and sometimes, just not communicating until you know you’re ready. And hey, how about a proofer? Now there’s an idea!
