Strategic Communication and Emerging Media

A major part of strategic communication is crafting the most effective message for the target audience using the most effective communication outlet. Research becomes a major part of the planning process when choosing a target audience and determining how to reach that target audience, but how exactly does one craft that “magic message” to get target audience members to achieve a certain goal set by the organization? The strategy to crafting the most effective message is knowing what the target audience wants or needs, and knowing how to reach them with a message that correlates to their desires. The tricky part is, however, that most people do not know exactly what they want or need when it comes to a product or service. A quote by Henry Ford explains this notion by saying, “If we asked the public what they wanted, they would have said ‘faster horses’.” Instead of directly asking the public what they want, organizations have two more effective options for pleasing their tar...

Within every successful organization, there’s an individual, or a team of people, spearheading operations. These people go by many different titles, including managers, directors, leaders, executives, etc. Despite the varying titles, the purpose of the position is to govern the organization and keep it afloat and moving forward. Every organization needs a “head huncho”, but the type of people in these positions can make or break an organization. When discussing methods for keeping an organization running in an efficient and effective matter, both management and leadership are needed. And yes, they are two distinctly different concepts with distinctly different purposes. While the terms "management" and "leadership" are typically used interchangeably or used to describe executive members of an organization, the two terms have very different meanings and functions within an organization. According to the article "Management is Still Not Leadership" ...

When discussing strategic communication and emerging media, a strategic communications professional must analyze the most effective way to communicate with various audiences. While a great amount of emphasis is often put on ways to reach external audiences such as younger demographics, target audiences, potential clients, etc., many strategic communication professionals miss an integral sector: the internal audience. Internal audiences are a major part of the organizational name, brand, and reputation. A company cannot succeed, grow, or function effectively without the support and help of its internal audiences, which is why efficient internal communication with these audiences is important. Learning effective methods for internal communication has just as much, if not more, impact as having effective methods for external communication. According to Community Tool Box (2018), internal communication encompasses the formal and informal sharing of ideas, information, and opinions ...

One of the most prevalent forms of emerging media popular in society today is social media. Webster Dictionary defines social media as “websites and applications that enable users to create and share content or participate in social networking.” Social media has become a new dimension to create and build relationships with a large audience of people in a small amount of time without face to face communication. Social media is a great tool for organizations to use to communicate a message to a large audience of people in a short amount of time. As mentioned in the Hubspot publication How to Leverage Social Media for Public Relations Success , the viral nature of social media makes it a critical tool for strategic communications professionals to use to promote the image of their organization. They are able to reach a large amount of audience members with each message in a short amount of time. Social media also gives organizations the opportunity to reach social influencers who ca...

As I mentioned in my previous post, opinion leaders, also known as social influencers, are beneficial to utilize when trying to capture the Millennial and post-Millennial generations. By using opinion leaders on emerging media platforms, such as social media and blogs, a company can reach a larger audience and influence more people to invest in their product or service. In order to effectively utilize opinion leaders on digital platforms, we need to analyze what an opinion leader is, why their opinions matter, and who are the opinion leaders that matter to your company. According to Business Dictionary, opinion leaders are “influential members of a community, group, or society who others turn to for advice, opinions, and views.” These people are not necessarily famous or wealthy, but they are influential in their communities and have a large follower base. Opinion leaders can also be defined in relation to the DIffusions of Innovations theory developed by Everett Roger...

In today's ever-changing society with evolving technology and communication channels, it can be difficult to get an understanding of, and learn to apply, emerging media while simultaneously trying to capture and keep the attention of the upcoming generations. To accomplish this goal, one must first start with an analysis of the upcoming generations and the emerging media that is growing up with the members of this generation. Let’s start with an analysis of the new “asset-light” generation. One important question that should be examined before analyzing who is in the “asset-light generation” is: why is the upcoming generation so important to capture anyway? According to Pew Research Center (2018), the Millennial generation is the largest generation in the workforce. As of 2017, the Millennial and post-Millennial generations comprised 40% of the workforce in the United States, and that number is expected to continue to grow. This means that the younger generations have...