Strategically Communicating

It can be dizzying to see the communications circus that businesses are required to employ in order to engage consumers.  Long gone are the days of static visual bombardment as the efficacy to garner attention.  Is it now the consumers who are (albeit inadvertently and multifaceted) informing businesses how they need to be interacted with?

As Mark Suster points out, we have become wired to only pay attention to what’s relevant to us.  Audiences demand authentic engagement and experience: to interact, to use, to respond and to share.  Then the question is, does it work?

Navigating a strategy in the digital realm is no small feat as we see with the juxtaposition of some almost contradictory trends.  The 2013 Agency Report highlights that there is growth opportunity for agencies as client demand for integrated digital services increases.  Yet Wright and Hinson’s article highlights that practitioners recognize the value of social media but currently don’t spend much time on it.  They also show that there is yet to be significant measurement in the effectiveness it’s impacts on attitudes, opinions and behaviors.  Perhaps that is just to be expected as the industry steers through simultaneous discovery and activation through these complex and newly emerging trends.