Lately, I’ve come to realize my wardrobe is extremely lacking. In building it up, I’ve been letting anything that speaks to me in some way end up in my closet. Hence: these shoes. At first, I thought they were ‘too much’. Then, I decide to just give ’em a shot and see how I felt about them. So far, I’ve only warn them once, but it’s still an experiment. One that I’m giddy with anticipation over: I’m finding my THING.

As communication practitioners we’ve come to loathe the shiny. The new. The next thing. Maybe not due to their specific purposes, but because of the disdain they cause us in the office. The desire by others to jump on to the next thing before we’ve even sorted out the old one. The ‘but so and so is using it’. The ‘here’s a vendor that emailed me about using it’. The ‘let’s just do it’. Sigh.

We need to make sure that we balance the ‘WANT’ with the practical need in a way that serves us in all that we do. Little experiments can make all the difference in deciding if a new initiative is a right fit for us. A way to ensure that is to:

1. Make sure it can fit into our current strategy. As long as it does not compete with what we’re trying to do with other tactics go ahead and try that new thing, be it snapchat or letting go of your viewbook.

2. Implement it in a way that’s true to our brand. How would our brand act as a person? This is how we should consider applying new communication strategies.

3. Find a way to add value for our audience. Will this just be a repeat of other channels? How will it give the consumer more?

4. Learn something. About ourselves. About our audience. Use this experiment to find out more and deliver better, in any way.

If we can do these four things, a little ‘Oooh, Shiny’ can be a fantastic thing, instead of the two dirtiest words in our office vocabulary.

How have you balanced the old and the new in your current communications strategy?