Content is (Still) King

The advance of technology is a beautiful thing. Really and truly. Just ask Jen, I get as excited by Apple's new product offerings as she does when Lanvin releases its fall line. Beyond the lure of a shiny new toy, technology interests me in part because of its power to democratize the transfer of information. This is hardly a new phenomenon, of course. I won't subject you to my handy dandy little historical treatise on how this has played out from Gutenberg to desktop publishing, but suffice it to say, it's a topic I find fascinating.

The technological frontier du jour is, of course, social media. In an age of monotonous media monopolies, I'm all for knocking down the gatekeepers. And here I'll fall on the blatantly obvious example of the power of social media: the State Department asked Twitter not to shut down for regularly scheduled maintenance in June because it was a critically important source of information in Iran. (Does it get any better than that?)

But here's the thing, loyal readers: content is still king. Are you rolling your eyes and muttering "DUH!" right about now? I was afraid of that...I might be preaching to the choir here. The thing is, with each new technological advance, American society tends to forget the golden rule of communications: if you want people to listen, you must...have something to say.

We are a culture that gravitates to bells and whistles, after all. Which is why a carefully crafted communications strategy executed with all the trappings of the shiniest new technology is so singularly effective — and satisfying to create!