Medium and message

The medium is the message, but the message fuels the medium.

To me, that’s the essence of effective communication (with, of course, a hat tip to Marshall McLuhan).

It’s also essential to how we absorb ideas that are communicated to us — online, in print, on television, person-to-person or what have you.

Yes, we have more options than ever before for finding and assimilating information. That’s a good thing.

And yes, content must be tailored to the medium. There’s a reason tweets are 140 characters and blog posts are, in theory, limitless.

But no medium can ever replace relevant messaging. Nor can messaging exist without a medium to convey it.

By all means, use every medium possible to reach your audience. But if the message isn’t meaningful, just don’t expect it to hit the target.