Push/pull communication is a subject of regular debate amongst my CIPR students, but a blog post by Jeremy Porter in Journalistic about this subject and ‘interruption marketing’ set me thinking about a current strategy I’m using with a client which combines both push and pull.
Porter’s premise is that push and pull, when used strategically, can both work, although pull is preferable. But, most of all, that content is king – a point I made in a recent post and have been banging on about in our business for some time.
But Porter also raises the issue of interruptions and how this form of push can be offputting unless used strategically. My recent experience would also suggest that a combination of the two can work powerfully.
Experts in their field of online learning, Akamas have recently started to address social media and web 2.0 for their own marketing communication. Helped by the fact that they have in-house, recognised experts who are also excellent writers, blogging is likely to become a positive aspect of their communication.
However, as we all know, there are millions of individuals and organisations already out there and cutting through the noise to get noticed can’t just rely on Pull. A strategy of writing for their own blog or business articles, but then notifying key online media editors seems to be paying off. The push approach is interruptive, but only as far as saying – “we’ve written something that’s interesting and relevant to you, it’s posted on our blog or an in-house article, but please feel free to use it as an article or blog post yourself.”
The response, on the whole, has been very positive so far. Let’s face it, an editor isn’t going to turn away relevant, well written content that may in itself create more traffic for a site that already has pulling power.
Eventually, any well written, relevant and engaging blogs should have enough of their own pull to make it onto the RSS readers or blogrolls of their key target audiences. But in the meantime, the power of push and pull in two-way communication clearly has its benefits.
