It’s the beginning of 2022. Happy New Year?
What is new, anyway?
If we’re honest, or old enough, we know nothing is ever new. It’s repeated, with a slight twist on the modernisms that the world we’re living in provides us.
It reminds me that there really aren’t any new movies, just new takes on Romeo & Juliet.
It’s within this context that I wonder:
- Why do we create stuff?
- Do we think it’s new?
- Or just our own twist on the Romeo & Juliet of our lives?
In my case, I’m creating stuff that I want to see more of in the world. A focus on moving that stuff–stories, articles or explanations–from ‘what’, to ‘why’ and ‘how’.
The way I see it, especially in business and even more so in communications…
- There are a lot of topical discussions focused on look what I did!
- However, there’s not as much discussion of why it was done in the first place
- And certainly, nowhere enough discussion of the how
The responses to the whys and hows help folks try new ways of communicating. New ways to run businesses. To take the courage to change something that needs change.
Yet, without discussing the why and how of what was accomplished, we’ll continue doing the same things, in the same ways with the same results.
And that’s where I want to focus these articles and discussions.
Openly.
Publicly.
I think some folks treat this part of the discussion as some sort of trade secret.
Yet smart ideas are everywhere.
Execution, though, is taking those smart ideas, translating them for consumers, then shipping–that’s where the value is actually realized.
As Jarod Dicker says:
Which reminds me…
There’s this goofy attitude I have about giving back. I’ve taken a lot from this world – how can I give back, or at least have the feeling that I’m giving back?
This image popped up in my Twitter feed recently. It’s summed up what I’m thinking of doing here – taking my unique experience (we all have them!) and sharing with others my thought process on the whys and hows versus “just” the whats.
So that’s what these pieces will focus on…
I write about the intersection of communications and technology, especially for those looking to build new ways to communicate with their B2B clients.
While we all have some experience in communications, the digital world has increased the demand for communications expertise.
Whether through corporate branding, crisis communications, integrated marketing, product positioning or internal messaging, communications has become incredibly complex.
And that’s where technology comes in. Understanding how to leverage today’s technology to distribute communications that reach a targeted or broad audience is more critical than ever (and measuring the communications’ impact).
And understanding that technology ‘stack’ is important to ensure your communications are moving forward at the pace that’s demanded by your team, your boss, your organization and your audience.
“Everyone wants to be part of a winning stack, but even better is to be the bottleneck in a winning stack so that everyone else can join in only on your terms—and at your price.”
While there are plenty of ‘stacks’ to work on (and more coming), here’s how I’ve rolled this stack…
I register domains, including those below, through Hover:
I then route my sites through Cloudflare for additional security, analytics and other tinkering like site speed.
This site is run on Ghost, which easily ties into email for automated distribution. There’s a payment gateway integration, too (via Stripe).
That doesn’t mean I am charging for anything, although I do have a few plans if you are interested in supporting this site (that I have rights to).
I use Asana (I’m an Asana Certified Professional) for all things project management and am playing with Discord for community engagement.
So, given all that…
- The content here will be free
- I will post videos to YouTube, then embed them here
- I will turn those videos into audio, and post them here (podcast?)
- I will turn those videos into an article (like this one)
- These articles will be sent to email subscribers (join here!)
- There’s an RSS feed, too
To follow up on that audio / podcast thing above…
- I will probably end up adding these to a podcast feed
- It seems more and more folks are comfortable using podcast players (Overcast FM FTW)
- And distribution-wise, that might make finding this site (and content) easier
However, that’s another thing I have to edit and post. I have a full time job, so taking that extra step is, well, an extra step.
Tradeoffs, and such.
Then, there’s this from Nick Quah:
“There continues to be anxiety around the fate of independent podcasting, especially after one of its strongest advocates, Roman Mars, moved over to SiriusXM, but there have been solid glimmers of hope that the podcast world can support both industrial-grade and homemade products.”
Until I figure that part out, I’ll post the audio files in the related articles on this site.
I’m hoping to publish pieces weekly, on Sundays. Then spend the week promoting and distributing.
Finally, feedback is a valuable currency in the communications world. And it’s welcomed here.
Find me on Twitter or email me.
Article sources
- https://open.lib.umn.edu/mediaandculture/chapter/9-1-the-evolution-of-television/
- https://twitter.com/nocontextroyco
- https://twitter.com/jarroddicker/status/1473290612489261056
- https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2011/09/owning-the-stack-the-legal-war-for-control-of-the-smartphone-platform/
- https://www.vulture.com/article/best-podcasts-of-2021.html