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“Give me liberty or give me death!” Patrick Henry, 1775
Only 33 characters, with plenty left over for a Twitter feed, if Twitter had been around in the 18th century.
Technology changes, media morphs, news outlets sprout and die, but one thing remains constant: interesting messages that can be communicated in a powerful and concise way will spread.
That was true hundreds of years ago, fifty years ago and right now.
At some point, everyone has access to the same technology, but only great communicators come up with great messages packaged in tidy, memorable ways. Here is how great communicators focus their attentions:
- What are we trying to get people to actually do?
- What messages will motivate people to take these actions?
- How can I communicate that message in a concise, interesting and memorable way?
- What platforms and technologies can help me reach the people I want to reach with the messages that will resonate with them?
If you start with step 4, you are destined to fail. The sequence is important because each step fails if the previous step has not been well-thought out.
So yes, great communicators must keep abreast of every tend on how to use Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, Vine, etc. But all of that activity is useless without well thought-out answers to the first three questions above.
TJ Walker is a communications strategist. You can reach him at https://www.mediatrainingworldwide.com or by calling +1.212.764.4955.