Three Cycles of Technology Communications

I’m spoiled, I’ll admit it in front of all of you. I enjoy the new bells and whistles of life here in 2008. Oh sure, it’s nothing like the Jetson’s, but to be honest I don’t trust that Elroy. I don’t need a flying car and a vac-tube that whisks me to the other side of town…right now I need a vehicle that has power locks and power windows. A simple request. It is only when faced without something familiar that you truly appreciate the minor technologies that make life a bit more simple.

This week I’m in our offices in Austin and therefore have a rental car, a slick 2006 Kia Rio. When picking up my car the kind rep at Enterprise asked if I wanted to upgrade, as they always do at point-of-sale, for a few bucks a day. Scoffing, I turned away and walked towards my red beacon of hope (that’s what I’m calling my Kia). Did I really look like I couldn’t handle manual windows? Was my mind so clouded that I would simply forget to lock my car now that I could not do it from a distance of forty feet?

The answer is simply yes. Perhaps it is a sign of my overall weakness, however, I like to see it as a result of how a good technology can impact your life. The technologies that impact life are the ones that come in with a roar, level off to become part of your scenery and when they are gone you truly understand their importance. Sound familiar? The typical result: “How did I live before Xxxxxx entered my fairly pathetic attempt at a life?”.

As a technology communicator we adhere to the same, what I call, “Three Cycles of Impact”:

1) Introduction of Technology

  • Introduction is not simply the day a new product is announced, it may be the first few years the technology starts to have an impact on its users. During this time frame it is critical to message correctly, talk to the right people, engage your users and react to their needs.

    • 2) Acceptance of Technology

  • Again for many products this, hopefully, will last several years. Oh sure, there are new updates, but it ultimately becomes a function of some part of the users life. This time period is often difficult for marketers, particularly old-school folks who want to put a direct mail piece and a news release out every week. Fortunately now this is the time period when your online and offline community engagement not only helps to further promote the technology, but keeps your product on the cutting edge, thus lengthening this cycle.

    • 3) Lack of Technology

  • This cycle can come in a few phases; the technology disappears all together, a service goes down temporarily or you try and save a few bucks renting a car. Each of these scenarios share the moment when you ask yourself “How did I live before this technology?”. Depending on the situation this is the cycle where a company that has already established a strong community and communicate more effectively with this group of people in order to get back to cycle #2.

    • Funny what a Kia Rio can make you think about.

    –Kyle Flaherty

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    This entry was posted on Thursday, May 8th, 2008 at 5:10 am and is filed under Social Media. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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