What's the strategy behind your communication vehicle? | Social Signal

Ever feel like you're working for a firm called Weneda Communications?

You know what I mean. You have an endless stream of people knocking on your office door and saying, "Hey, Weneda Facebook Page." Or "Weneda blog." Or "Weneda YouTube channel."

(At least Weneda has changed with the times. A few years ago, it would have been "Weneda leaflet" or "Weneda newspaper ad.")

Thing about Weneda Communications is, they're great at production. They know how to crank it out. They're just not terribly strong on why.

At Weneda, they don't think much about strategy. They go from problem to tactic in a single step:

"People are criticizing our customer service record." "Weneda podcast."
"Nobody knows about this issue." "Weneda Twitter feed."
"There's a crazed elephant stampeding down the hallway towards us." "Weneda web app."

What they don't do is ask a few intermediate questions, like "Who do we want to reach?" "What do we want to motivate them to do?" or "Exactly how did you get past security?"

Without those questions, there's no real way to measure success... except, inevitably, to notice that the problem seems to still be around, just as bad as ever.

It's rarely easy to be the one who puts a stick in the spokes at Weneda... but it has to be done. Someone has to say "Hold on. Let's take a step back and look at the big picture."

In other words, before Weneda vehicle - whether it's a leaflet or a mobile app - Weneda Strategy. And Weneda Plan.