« Bogie Thoughts
A Quick Update from the Road
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- Duluth, MN
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- Steve on social media
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- Steve pointing
Media-relations veteran and crisis-communications expert Steve Linders and I have taken our show on the road a little lately and found that there’s a real need out there for quick, helpful, communications-centric social media trainings, especially for:
- Cities
- Counties
- Law enforcement agencies
- Emergency managers
- Anyone who owes the public important information
Our communications-first message really resonates.
I’m as guilty of this as my fellow marketing and communications people: For too long, we’ve said “give the young person the social media accounts.” If we let social media = young-person’s realm, we cede control, responsibility, and even influence over an important part of our brand voice.
More to come on this
But these are some things we’ve learned:
- A lot of people are being tasked with upping their game on social media
- These are diverse team with varied skills and expertise working in various environments
- Few have communications experience
- Their organizations need their voices and perspective on social media
- And lastly, no one else is doing this kind of training
Steve has fought the algorithms and developed both strategies and tactics that work and is teaching people to think like a writer and communicator. I’m working on creating a crash course in developing writing and graphic-design skills to give them the confidence to put Steve’s ideas into practice.
Some of this is what I’ve already been writing about on style guides and the Bryson and Smith books (which I went shopping for today since I lost my copies) and the design concepts in Universal Principles of Design that apply not only to graphic design, but human behavior and communications.
It feels like a moment when the institutional approach to social media is ready to grow up like when websites ditched animated splash screens and metaphor-based navigation for web standards.
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- Universal Principles of Design
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- Junk English
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- Bryson’s Dictionary of Troublesome Words
