Since we are here in Winnipeg, I decided to
get back to school. I have a Bachelor Degree in Social Communications from Brazil.
I also have a diploma in Teaching. But I realized that if you don’t have
Canadian education and/or Canadian working experience, being an immigrant, would
be hard to get a good job here.
So I decided to take Public Relations,Marketing and Strategic Communications at PACE (Professional, Applied and Continuing Education) at University of Winnipeg. It is an amazing program; I am in love with my
choice.
One of the courses I am doing now is
Digital and Social Media. Great opportunity to think about what is going on in our
world in terms of communication, both personal and commercial.
When I graduated, back in 2000, everything
was about the message. We should deliver good messages. As we had, by the time,
a pretty standardized type of media to reach some type of audience, we weren’t
worried about the media, just about the message. Everything was the same, and
the message itself was the difference.
We barely had Internet access. The
smartphones weren’t a big thing until the late 1990s and just in 2007 Apple
introduced the IPhone. I guess it was from the time when internet went into
smartphones that everything started to change.
New
media, same old messages?
The ways we communicate with each other
have changed dramatically. Also the ways companies communicate with us have
changed.
I would dare to say that the majority of
this new generation of people couldn’t even imagine life without connection –
and social media.
So, messages are still very important to
us, obviously. But today, the way we deliver the message seems to be the most
important thing. The presence in a social media channel is crucial to any
company out there. And is also important to us, if we want to make part of this
new generation and be truly updated.
In addition to the channel where the
message will be delivered, we have a new strong component on the media mix:
time. We can communicate today in a matter of seconds. Literally seconds.
But there is something that is still true
in terms of communication: we still want authenticity on our relationships.
Actually, we want relationships rather then just connection. It is all about
people. It is not about the technology.
We still want to connect with people and be
part of something. We still want to feel appreciated and show appreciation too.
That’s haven’t changed at all.
And that’s the challenge of being
connected. Find a way to maintain the authenticity either on our personal or
even commercial relationships.
Disclaimer: although this post is not
directly related with the main topic of this blog, which is my experience being
an immigrant, is a relevant topic for my program at University, which
subsequently is part of my immigration process.
Hope to see you soon!
Carol
