I was listening to Science Fridays (also known as Sci Fri) on NPR last Friday. They were talking with a group of professional journalists about social media (an other things related to science reporting today. One of the members of the audience asked the panel how to increase the signal to noise ratio of what is reported in the media. Huh?
It took me awhile to get it. I felt better when I realized that some of the panelists were having trouble keeping up as well. Signal to noise ratio is used in electronics engineering (short description), and generally refers to the ability to hear the “real” signal over the other “noise” in the radio or other media transmission. I am not using all the formal and correct terminology here, as it would only bury the point in further definitions. Basically her question was how to communicate in such a way that the scientific message (signal) is heard amid all of the other perhaps more popular voices (noise) that are not substantiated by good science. You know what you have to say is critically important, but you can’t get heard above the other voices that don’t know as much as you do about the subject. Interesting question….
In social media campaigns you can often feel like you are sending out your signal only to have it drown in all the other noise going on in social networks today. The conversation made me stop and think. There are a number of things I believe we can do to increase our signal to noise ratio.
- Be clear about your goal. The most important thing for any social media campaign is to know what you are trying to accomplish with your online communication strategy. If you know the goal, the rest follows naturally.
- Target your audience. Your message is much more likely to be lost in the din if you try to craft a message that fits everyone and then send it out to the entire online universe.
- Engage your community. If you aren’t the only one communicating the message – if your supporters and advocates are out there talking for you – there is a dramatically higher likelihood that you will be heard.
- Use many voices. Social media is a viral medium. Use all the platforms available to you to communicate. You should be standing on all your platforms and using all your voices – tweet, tell your Facebook fans, put up photos on your YouTube channel, sing your song on your MySpace page, and then get all your friends to tell all their friends by bookmarking everything you do.
I promise if you pay attnetion to these things, you will beheard.
