Overview: Communications Strategy

On Tuesday, the American people will see a multi-platform streaming and social broadcast of the State of the Union that reflects the ways people experience live events in 2016. We’ll be reaching people where they are — and making it possible for them to engage, respond, and share the President’s speech themselves in new and different ways... vide…

bringing new technology into the newsroom to change how the outlet commissions and publishes opinion pieces ... expand the coverage beyond just text, into visual story formats that can be accessed and shared across different platforms.... the FT's comment section is a "huge source of strength and a very valuable asset".... a new Facebook commu…

A brand is a unique set of associations in the mind of a customer... Mention a luxury brand like Rolex and the associations that spring to mind are likely to include wealth, prestige, status, craftsmanship, heritage, exploration. Whatever your take on someone who sports a $30,000 Daytona, it’s probably going to be different from what you think whe…

full rollout in those markets, and elsewhere in Europe, is slated for “early 2016”.) Upday sounds as if it will be aggregating a variety of editorial content based on contextual signals available via mobile — such as user location and interests. UPDAY will offer Samsung customers access to a range of news content that combines ‘Need to Know’ in…

society had a pretty straightforward system of rewards: you give us something of value, and we’ll heap praise on you. It’s a fair trade ... that most social media gurus ... are unwilling to make ... insist on trying to “hack” the system... sheer laziness... shortcuts to notoriety rather than slowly, painstakingly, lovingly crafting something of va…

In the last post, we saw 15 different ways you can instantly boost your email open and read rates today.We looked at how you can be play ethical, use hypnotic words, create a stellar autoresponder list and a personalized welcome message, among other things.Here are 16 more ways to make sure your emails are opened and to boost your click-through ra…

The EC set up Drop’pin to help young people find training, apprenticeship and intern opportunities across Europe. I did some content marketing (blogging, enewsletter, social media support) and developed a global CRM strategy.

We are creating open-source tools and resources for publishers of all sizes to build better communities around their journalism. We also collect, support, and share practices, tools, and studies to improve communities on the web. All of our tools are open source and free... small, flexible tools that plug into each other and also work with exist…

digital natives have wised up: They’re less likely to share after they read these articles because of their lack of heft. Newsrooms who employ this tactic immediately lose the trust of users, who don’t return ...Your article can be topped with a cool headline, but you’d better back it up with something substantive In 2015, Some publishers steer…

the big media institutions knew that they really couldn’t leave their business models, they were locked in... there really is an open question to whether digital journalism will replace the profit margins of traditional journalism... one huge issue in journalism today is how a couple places, particularly Facebook, are becoming a major source of…

Text takes more thought and time. Writing is an inherently vulnerable act... numerous websites... demonstrate that long form writing can and does succeed on the internet... If text is to survive on the internet, sustainable structures need to be implemented to support it ... The next step is to have publishing and blogging platforms introduce “…

blogs and Twitter drive two-thirds of content flow. Mainstream media has become a catalyst that blogs and Twitter drive. Responsive Experience Tops Responsive Design: ... preparing for 10 types of customers ... you know who they are via their search terms ... content changes to meet their needs. We must know who they are and start building…

the notion of functionality lifting itself out of app silos and being made available as services.... pieces of micro-content and micro-functionality surfacing as cards... a constellation of screens, regardless of whether it’s a desktop, laptop, tablet, phone, watch, or whatever ... an app-based channel for cards... your conversations and the f…

If there was an idea that could ‘fix’ democracy, it would have been thought-up already... When I started working on GovTrack, I thought I was building an accountability tool. If only the American public had more information they could head-off failures in government by voting more effectively in elections. ... I was wrong. The world is complic…

Over 40 new resources ... some great longreads to enjoy as the nights grow long, the productivity tips you’ll need to find the time to read them, and a free set of steak knives. The Christmas season, after all, is almost upon us.

Photos, infographics, memes, illustrations, and videos are just a few forms of visual content that are having a huge impact on the way people consume information. All of these visual assets will only continue to grow in importance ... look at these 11 eye-popping statistics on how content and technology are changing humans Infographic: http://i…

... resembles a medieval reality show. Camera crews fan out across the caliphate every day, their ubiquitous presence distorting the events they purportedly document. Battle scenes and public beheadings are so scripted and staged that fighters and executioners often perform multiple takes and read their lines from cue cards... a media division …

This week NHSCitizen - one of the case studies I brought to myEuroPCom 2015 workshop on online communities- holds its first NHSCitizen Assembly, where the NHS Board meets citizens to ActionPlan the participants' top 5 priorities. Time to summarise the Hangout-On-Air I had on NHSCitizen with the Democratic Society's Anthony Zacharzewski,

NYTimes' “verified commenters.”... few hundred people whose comments are posted without moderation can end up dominating the reader commenting system... causes quite understandable resentment among thousands of others...Because they go up first, their comments are almost guaranteed to get the most exposure, “and hence rise to the top and be seen …

So is the world any more “outraged” than it’s always been? Nah. We’re just getting toyed with. - 5 things the media does to manufacture outrage. — Medium

The number and diversity of communications skills needed to implement a communications strategy never stops growing. How are you organising them?

focusing less on how audiences interact with content on the screen but more about how, because of stories, we engage with each other as a community. Less transaction, more relation; less on audience, more on community... in 2003 I launched the initial version of Interactive Narratives ... Finding inspiring multimedia work was one benefit. But f…

Customers today can spot a phony from a mile away, and brand success will require that companies foster real, authentic connections that mirror human relationships... The live streaming revolution will be awkward. It will be messy. It will be funny, and it will be sad. And all of that is exactly what customers want... there’s something pure an…

Take a look at any successful sales pitch, investor pitch, or marketing message, and you’ll nearly always find the Move... can make your website messaging more engaging, your positioning more powerful, and your product collateral more effective. - Want a Better Pitch? Master the “Move.” — Firm Narrative — Medium

the human communications equivalent of Murphy’s Laws. - If communication can fail, it will. - If a message can be understood in different ways, it will be understood in just that way which does the most harm. - There is always somebody who knows better than you what you meant by your message. - The more communication there is, the more difficu…

In this week’s edition, a months’ reading - some 30 posts - on social media, digital transformation, content/system design and EuroPCom2015. But first some news from me

We are fascinated with Essena O’Neill because she reveals things we could live our whole lives hiding from. In the span of a few years, she rocketed into Instagram fame, made hundreds of thousands of dollars and then decided to chase a life of meaning... We have always sold the dream and faked it to our neighbors. We’re just upset that now the …

Two-way communication, engagement, dialogue, conversations, collaboration, and participation are buzzwords in contemporary public communication practices... how well do organizations ... listen — the essential corollary of speaking in communication? An international research study ... organizations overwhelmingly create an ‘architecture of s…

Blog posts take hours to write, those great images need to be found or created and those social networks need to be managed and nurtured. It is often not done or persisted with because there are no apparent quick rewards. This is where the tortoise can beat the hare by slow persistence. It is a marathon and a journey not a sprint... you are bui…