by Geoff Livingston
You may be strong, you may be smart, but if you cannot adapt to rapid change you won’t survive. A rather Darwinistic statement, but a truth that companies and communicators increasing must accept. Communications technology has turned our world upside down (this post owes a special hat tip to Kyle Reis, and the great conversation he had with me that inspired it).
I imagine social media wonks grinning like cheshire cats and traditional communicators groaning. But the observation applies to all. Five years ago Twitter didn’t exist and Facebook was a blip on the map. Where will we be in another five years?
Today’s communications reality: Every decade brings sweeping challenges to the industry, driven by more telecommunications bandwidth and computing power. Consider the following:
- 70s: Broadcast TV dominates, while metro newspapers consolidate to fight off the evening news. Cable TV is born.
- 80s: Personal computing takes off, cable becomes widespread, commercial adoption of the Internet begins
- 90s: The decade of email and Web 1.0 (.com), satellite rivals cable, wireless takes off
- 00s: Web 2.0 rises to the fore, 1.0 community properties like Prodigy, AOL suffer; wireless Internet services blow up. Print pubs start failing en masse, while electronic books become available.
The rate of change accelerates with each new decade. As we conclude this one, we have seen the birth of next generation email (Google Wave), the virtual reality network Second Life (rise and fall, in this case), the beginning of a pitched battle for the mobile Internet between Apple and Google, and Verizon’s recent declaration that it’s done investing in it’s landline business.
We focus on how organizations use these tools to communicate with their stakeholders, but bit and bytes have become so disruptive communicators can no longer afford to turn their backs on media advancements. The only certainty is flux and change.
A core competency for successful communicators and their companies — agencies, for profits and nonprofits alike — must be adaptability. Our media world will continue to move like a river, relentlessly flowing over any barrier until it reaches the see. Now more than ever we must think liquid.










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Moving from Siloes to Hives:
Showing Love Increases PR Influence:
Facebook Fan Page Best Practices:
Social Media May Be The Media Darling, But E-mail Is Here To Stay:
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