Canuckflack

The premise, as posited by Jeremiah, Kami, Kevin and others: content generators need to develop materials and vehicles that communicate effectively with “media snackers,” those new economy animals who bounce from medium to medium picking up information and filtering it.

That means short blog posts, interactive web tools, podcasts of varying lengths, videos, Twitter streams and anything else that two guys withs seed capital can think up.

I see a strategic weakness in this premise, however: just because people want their media quick, easily digestible and interactive doesn’t mean we should abandon context and overlook longer term tactics.

That’s because I’m an old school media snacker. Not as old enough to be a Reader’s Digest subscriber, let’s get that out of the way.* But old enough to know how to follow Usenet threads. Old enough to have thought PointCast was going to revolutionize our world.

I think we run the risk of over-simplifying our tactics and under-estimating our readers/listeners/viewers: they don’t come to the dim sum buffet for the individual dish, they see ach piece as part of a larger meal.

You see, I’m not a media snacker, I’m a media aggregator. I may bounce from source to source and from one format to another, but I have one (or several) topics that I’m tracking.

I am picking up tidbits, thoughts and observations, and integrating them into internal narratives, or adding them to databases on issues I am following, or marking them as useful for work I am doing at the office.

The danger with the “snacker” meme is that we may see our readers in too simplistic a manner: as someone dropping by for a visit, or someone not really engaged in the process.

We have to make sure, as communicators, marketers, public relations hacks or community builders, that we integrate our “snack media” into a more comprehensive communications and marketing plan.

And that doesn’t mean a cool splashpage made in flash.

It means some sort of community hub, where all these snacks can be displayed on a big buffet table (or, given that most “media snacks” are ephemeral in time and place, a warming table). A touchstone for your “lifestream,” so to speak.

And then our reader, community member, stakeholder - whatever - can pick and choose the tactic that most suits them.

*You realise, of course, that Reader’s Digest was the original media snacker’s resource.

Technorati Tags: media snacker, twitter, meme, community, interstitial, lifestream

Hey folks. There’s an idea floating around in Canadian public relations circles to try a specific advertising campaign, and I’ve given it some thought. Don’t be surprised to see an ad or two appear in the next little while, but I hope the advertiser is targeted enough not to upset your regularly scheduled reading pleasure.

And, as always feel free to comment or to send me an email; colin@canuckflack.com

You’ve probably heard: Faith Hill seemed to have a diva moment when she lost the best female vocalist award at the Country Music Awards to American Idol’s Carrie Underwood. That’s not the sort of reaction we’ve come to expect from Faith - or any country star to think of it. Here’s some more likely reactions to losing a CMA award:

• Get brother-in-law/manager to order a new auto-dialer
• Retreating to Branson for a weekend of R n’ R: reflection and rotgut
• Doubling the sacrifical offerings to the Temple of Dolly in the shed
• Get married to a hot Hollywood actress, leak pictures of your seaside honeymoon
• Recording a heart-stirring and patriotic rabble-rousing song to resurrect career
• Two words: rhino - plasty
• Look into what professional wrestling championships may be open
• Record duet with hot boy band - ignore continuing doubts about their sexuality
• Hit the Busch Series tracks - HARD
• Damning Mutt Lange’s soul to eternal hell

Technorati Tags: Faith Hill, country music, CMA, career management

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Now appearing in your feed reader: free exchange, the blog from the Economist.

The pleas for author-attributed posts have begun already. While I acknowledge that personal responsibility underpins the perception of authority and trust in an online conversation, I hope that the Economist avoids the cult of personality and maintains a homogeneous online identity.

From Moistworks:

How many Rhode Island School Of Design students does it take to screw in a light bulb?

Answers from Moistworks readers:

Two. One to screw in the lightbulb and one to unpack the assumptions inherent in the joke. Dave in CO #

The whole school, one to screw in the bulb and the rest to moan they would of done it differently. frank #

Three: one to do it, one to denounce the lightbulb as a industrial monstrosity, and one to paint an abstract black-and-white canvas that calligraphically communicates a scene of the second silently judging the first. BH #

A cup of fur. Wait, this is that surrealist joke, right? Boyhowdy #

Eight - one to screw it in and seven to pick the first person apart in the critique. Dan #

Seven - One to perform the act as a transient work or art, one to write the manifesto explicating it, one to film the documentary of the act, one to write a counter-manifesto denouncing the act as jejeune, one to explain the the darkness was more pure, one to be oppressed by it, and one to rip it off for his own work. I have also spent some time in Providence. Neil #