Circle of Fellows #48: Communicating in an Ever-changing Media Environment

The media landscape in which communicators operate is in constant flux. The various kinds of changes the environment goes through can be tumultuous, making it challenging for communicators to maintain alignment between their strategies and the channels and platforms available.

Three IABC Fellows discussed these challenges as they relate to both internal and external communication on episode 48 of Circle of Fellows, the monthly panel discussion. Topics discussed included the following:

* Strategic content curation: How is content creation/dissemination continuing to change?

* Balancing personalization of content with reaching the broadest possible audience (i.e. bypassing general channels to speak to just like-minded people – how to break out of content bubbles)

* Co-creating marketing content with stakeholders through social media

* How to make informed decisions about frequency, channels, format

IABC Fellows participating in the broadcast included John Deveney, Brad Whitworth, and Stacy Wilson. Shel Holtz moderated.

About the panel

In 1996, while on the fast track to a partnership in a growing PR agency, John Deveney opted to strike out on his own and form Deveney, a process and a practice that embraces the soundest principles, the newest media, and the most innovative technologies. Based in New Orleans, Deveney is particularly strong in the areas of crisis, healthcare, tourism, and hospitality. (After hurricanes Katrina and Rita, John led the only on-site communication operation and media center for both the City of New Orleans and the Louisiana Office of Tourism.)

Brad Whitworth is a communication manager at Hitachi Vantara.  A communication coach at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, Brad was most recently an executive communication manager at Hewlett Packard Enterprise. Before that, he was senior communication manager at Cisco Systems. Before Cisco, Brad led communication programs at HP, PeopleSoft, and AAA. He earned undergraduate degrees in both journalism and speech at the University of Missouri and an MBA at Santa Clara University. A former broadcaster, Brad has made more than 300 presentations to executives, communicators, and university classes around the world. Brad has a long history with IABC, including serving as chairman of the international board and president of two local chapters. He is one of the authors of The IABC Handbook of Organizational Communication.

Stacy L. Wilson, ABC – Stacy helps clients get more ROI from their technology investment; specifically leveraging technology for collaboration and communication. She focuses on the people and process sides of intranets and digital workplace, including strategy, governance, usability, content, and adoption. She works for global, Fortune 1000 clients, particularly those with a lot of employees who don’t sit in front of computers; for example, industries such as mining, oil & gas, healthcare, utilities, manufacturing, etc. She is an international speaker and enthusiast of bluegrass music, hiking, food, and whiskey.