How Different Media Reaches Us Differently

October 11, 2008 · Comments

Harold as Zoolander Violette as Little Red Riding Hood

This morning, I felt like taking a walk. So, I grabbed my iPhone, to use it like an iPod, but ended up taking pictures along the way. I snapped all kinds of shots of my beautiful small town in New England, because it’s autumn, and the leaves are changing, and this is the prime time to show why people live their lives in New England (never mind that this lasts only 2 weeks usually).

I decided to share these photos on Twitter using Twitpic, which is integrated into Twitterific on the iPhone, but is easy enough to use on smartphones that have email capabilities and cameras. So, as I walked along, I’d snap a photo and write a quick blurb about it:

Morning Walk in New EnglandMorning Walk- Downtown

One interesting point: someone that I’d been “courting” lately, with comments and other touches to try to get “top of mind” for a moment dropped me a reply in twitter to the pictures. Never once to a blog post. Never to a comment on that person’s blog. But instead, this person responded to a photo of my beautiful New England town.

Think hard about that fact. Reaching people isn’t a linear business. Connecting isn’t a single effort. It’s a web of effort.

When wondering why your efforts aren’t having enough impact, think about this point: could you try a more multi-faceted approach? Are there other means to connect than the ways you’ve already tried? What else might you find in common with someone?

Home Next door neighbor

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  • Well said... Different media effect different people but know what kind of media will attract the audience more to whom you want to attract is still a myth...I am getting very Bussiness minding ahhh:)
  • Completely agree Chris.

    I've had contact before from people who have looked at photographs on my Flickr account, checked out my blog/site because of them, then added me to Twitter and began a conversation.

    Like anything in life, you get out of it what you put in.
  • great point chris...you have this great blog that tons of people respect and follow you at, yet the person you were after connected with you from an image

    you cant predict when that will happen but you made yourself available...and you got what you wanted. well done.
  • Hi Chris -

    I have not commented on your blog posts lately (sorry!) but will comment on these pictures. It's at times like this when I miss New England terribly.

    Is that n. andover?

    --Marco
  • Chris - just found your blog last night - it's phenomenal.

    I once participated in an internal communications focus group. Despite the fact that it was a small sampling, we had two demographically identical people in the group with radically differing preferences regarding communication. One had recently cancelled his internet account because it was a waste of $20 a month; the other no longer tried to phone his daughter in her college residence but IM'd her instead since it was far less frustrating than waiting for the phone to be free.

    Printed corporate newsletters? Killing trees to one person, basic civility to another (if you wanted me to know this, you should have made the effort to get the information to me in portable form that I can access at my leisure).

    Too often I see clients wedded to the concepts that mirror their own preferences for information gathering and retrieval rather than those of their target market. It's probably the biggest marketing and communications mistake anyone can make.
  • You had me at "New England in the Fall!"
  • I think that people become so focused on marketing that they have little or no time for anything else. Everything seems to be geared towards that end. If indeed you do connect with someone with images from this lovely town, then you have made progress that you aren't even aware of. sometimes this makes me a bit sad. thanks for sharing, Chris...

    Peace,

    Charlie~
  • First of all, cool pics. One of the things I miss most about the US right now is this beautiful season. Thanks for sharing it with us.

    Secondly, I have a hard time explaining these things to non-bloggers, but I've made a quest out of spreading the wonderful ways in which we can share information. 6 degrees of separation is the old rule and it is on its way out the door.
  • Interesting experience. I am drawn to photos too, so could easily have chosen to do the same thing, though I'm not a person of influence;-) Gorgeous photos regardless, so glad you shared them.
  • Your phone took those pictures? Beautiful! I began my college days in Hanover, NH, which is my only experience with New England living (I'm Southern born and bred :); this takes me back there.
  • Great shots, Chris. I gotta go visit a friend of mine in your neck of the woods, and they make me want to move that trip up :-)

    As to a web of effort, that's exactly how I've found the most success. Carrying over a "traditional" media idea from my days in broadcast TV, the most effective campaigns were the ones who hit people on multiple channels. So far, some of the most effective online is driven across multiple media types.

    So therefore, your conclusion makes perfect sense - if not a concept that came together before you or I were on this earth (after all, everything old is new again, right?).

    One of my friends that is a master networker gets this, too. She's a genius because whether it's networking events, her blog, her LinkedIn participation, when she speaks, when she's buying groceries, having coffee - they're all potential connection points and you can't say that any one thing is the "silver bullet" for her success.

    It's that she does them all with gusto and positivity, and knows the hidden truth: that you don't know where the next connection is going to come from or who through.

    Hopefully, that little case study helps you too, Nathan, because that's how I explain it to the people I work with. A blog is simply a tool; the person is the value. The blog extends that value to more people and creates more connection possibilities.
  • Chris, thanks for peeking into a different box. I think I can sum it up:

    A picture is worth a thousand blogs, if you snap it well.

    And you do.
  • I wonder if any of this is what Alexander Grahm Bell had in mind with his first attempt at a phone

    Gary McElwain
  • Offering pictures to folks who are constantly reading is like offering a visual recess. I think most people will respond favorable, unless the pictures are offensive. You mentioned others ways to connect. I recently connected with a gentlemen because he at one time lived in a very remote town that I happened to know about. You just never know...
  • First of all, my iPhone doesnt take pictures that good!

    Secondly, you have a lot of threads out there. flickr, facebook, upcoming, twitter, the blog, conferences, tweetups, etc. Lots of opportunities for people to find you and lots of connections to people who dig what you say & do. These people create additional opportunities for people to find the ideas you are sharing.

    Its a big net. And this is key. You are sharing - its an active, positive, forward effort. The saying "all roads lead to Rome" comes to mind. While folks may find you by accident, its because you have a made a lot of roads for them to find their way.
  • Marcia Albert
    I wish I could be in New England right now. The photographer in me would love to be running down the battery in her camera.

    Trying different means to reach your audience? It reminds me of the phrase, "Keep doing what you've done and you will get what you've always gotten." You're right either way you phrase it.
  • Being new to marketing online and social media, everything is a learning curve and I'm constantly managing a sense of overwhelm... while trying to shove as much information in my brain as I can. Reading your blog opens up new ways of thinking that I haven't considered yet and don't have time to learn by trial and error. Without your blog... my learning curve would take ALOT longer in learning how to make money online using social media. Thanks again for the brain tweak. I really resonate with your general perspective on building online community. Thank You!

    ~John Michael Cannon
  • Yes, I agree. This is akin to going to work everyday and talking to your co-workers and your boss *only* about work. You miss the main opportunity to build a professional relationship if you ignore the opportunity to build a personal one.
  • Chris, thanks for sharing the point, and the pics! I've made some wonderful connections with people on flickr, twitter and my blog by sharing photos of Scotland. It's partly the 'you' that emerges from the taking of the photos (your frame), the sense of connection with place, the desire to learn and share about other parts of the world. Plus in my own case a lot of people have a love and fascination for Scotland - which is lucky for me!
  • Lovely pictures Chris. Looks a beautiful place to live. The post resonates - I got back from the UK last weekend and posted just 4 pictures of the UK in an album on Facebook: a country cottage with loads of flowers, beach secene etc. Got lots of comments. I write something pertinent in my status or ask a question and I just get a couple of comments.
    Have a great Sunday !

    Gillian
  • thoes are some great looking pictures.
  • You know, I hadn't thought of it much within the realm of social media, but we've always recommended to our clients that you have to create several touchpoints for people to get your message across. You have to have a great website and you have to mail them things (snail mail) and maybe you need and e-newsletter and maybe you need to throw a live event.

    I think various forms of communication get processed by people at different places and at different times of the day -- maybe mail gets opened at home after dinner, while email gets processed first thing in the morning and twitter gets a flip through while stuck in traffic. You never know when someone's going to be open to you or your ideas. So it makes sense to try to approach in a number of [non-aggressive please] ways.
  • I'm really into Flickr and Ustream.Tv when I am too busy travelling or there is something else in my life happneing to post regularly on my blog. As soon as I go into what I call "picture blogging" zone, I realise how I am stretching out into a new and different network than my usual pure blogging one.
  • Beautiful, is that Amesbury, MA?
  • Reaching people isn’t a linear business. Connecting isn’t a single effort. It’s a web of effort. Chris Brogan

    That's wisdom for the ages you have put something that I have always thought into 2 sentences. Its a truth that relates to everything online and offline. We are just beginning to tap the potential via the internet and web 2.0 technologies.
  • thanks for the advice chris, it is exactly what i needed to hear as i hit a brick wall with my personal blog and trying to re-energize the effort.

    looks like i need to do some different things.

    jc
  • Anyone interested in management or marketing should read this post! People see from their perceptions not yours. Acknowledging that other's perceptions may be different from yours is an important step in understanding and building relationships with other people.

    John P. Kreiss
    MorganSullivan, Inc.
    http://www.johnpkreiss.com
  • I found your comment about the "courting" to be interesting because I recently experienced the same thing. I had attempted to connect with someone several times through various methods. Then I responded to a single question that was more of just an opinion, yes/no answer and viola...that was the comment that got me connected.

    By the way, the photos are gorgeous. I love Fall in this area. Driving into work I come over a hill where I can see a valley of all of the trees in their beautiful shades. :)
  • Chris,

    Should give Everytrail app a try on your iphone. Maps your walk, geo-tags photos as you take them. Its kind of neat.
  • You have a great point Chris. How people consume social media is similar to how people learn - all different ways. I'm definitely visual so I could see how this approach would work. Great idea. Just wish my blackberry had a camera...
  • Hi Chris,

    I'm new to your blog, but not to New England. I spent a lot of years in Massachusetts, although I live in Kirkland, WA now. I love where I live, but this time of year brings back the gorgeous colors of New England. I'm not sure what town this is, but I am guessing it is just northwest or northeast of Boston. So what is your home town?
  • It's a nice blog.
    I like this type of blog.
    Thanks.
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