Three Ways to Thrive in the Age of Streams

The images above should strike fear in any one who seeks attention - be it a brand, a politician or an individual. They come from Nielsen. The first (87) is the number of domains the average American visits in a month. The second (2600) is the number of web pages the average American visits in a month. 

This funnel is small when you think about the infinite choices we have today - an era of information abundance. And given that human attention doesn't scale, I anticipate these stats will remain stable. So how do you break through? Here are three steps I am considering in my work as a communicator ...

1) Limiting all writing to 400 words or less - that's what Leo Baubata is doing and I think he's on to something. (You can do the same with email.)

2) Doing more with visuals - most of my PowerPoint decks don't have bullet points and I am doing more with mindmapping. (According to the book Brain Rules, if information is presented just verbally orally, people only remember about 10 percent. This jumps to 65 percent if you add a picture.)

3) Embracing a hub and spoke approach - it's difficult to expect anyone to come to you. This is why I like Posterous. I can start something here and engage with it everywhere via their auto-posting feature

Is your message being heard? And if so, how are you coping

Defining Media, Cross-Mating Elephants and Zebras

Five years ago there was media and social media and the two were distinct. You know what was what. It was like there elephants and zebras. You knew the difference. 

Today all media is social, all social is media. It's impossible to separate the two. 

The media all actively use social technologies to innovate, converse and collaborate with their audiences. Meanwhile, social content from friends - be it tweets or status updates or videos - all should be considered media. Yes, the elephants and the zebras have cross-mated.

My colleague overheard me say this and he drew this little doodle for me a few months ago. I keep it handy and refer to it often when thinking about big topics, like this one: just what is media? I don't have an answer any more. But it's important we have one. Google has a bunch of definitions here, but none of them seem to apply any more.

The reason we need a new definition for media (as opposed to a definition for new media - a topic for another day) is because entire industries depend on it. People say "I work in the media business." There are "media buying" agencies. And so on.

So in asking this question, I turn to you. How would you define media today? Maybe we can begin to crowdsource a definition.

Julio Ojeda-Zapata on the Potential for Newspaper Storystreaming

via Posterous powers "storystreaming" at the Pioneer Press

Julio Ojeda-Zapata explainsl how the St. Paul Pioneer Press used Posterous to solicit photos from readers in reporting the Packers-Vikings game over the weekend.

Interviews on Blogging and Productivity

Here are two fresh interviews that might be of interest. The first covers blogging's place in a microblog world. The second captures the essence of my productivity system, how I work and the tools I use

Why Email and Phones Still Rule

Adam Engst on why email rules:

"It all comes down to two simple facts: email is based on open standards, and it's the lowest common denominator for Internet communication. Any communication system that wishes to supplant email will need to offer both openness and ubiquity, and nothing available today comes even close."

Gina Trapani says there's a time when shutting down email makes sense:

"If you're looking for a quick answer to a question, a phone call (when the person on the other end picks up) yields an immediate response, but an email could languish unread in ten inboxes. When an exchange involves several back-and-forths, days' worth of email could be avoided with a five-minute call."

Twitter and Facebook might be how many of us communicate these are good reminders that two old stalwarts - email and the phone - are not going away.