Mass Dissemination

Mass dissemination of information can occur on a macro or micro level. Both are important and have specific uses. Let’s explore macro mass dissemination first. It is the art and science of mass dissemination of information to the general public.

As Seth Godin pointed out in ‘No One Expected a Tornado,’ “Bottom line: the first thing to rehearse is your communication strategy. You can't predict weird events, but you can get really good at alerting people when they happen.” Macro mass dissemination contributes to your company’s public face. In Seth’s example, the emergency response system was far too slow in letting people know about problems that were going to affect them. This leaves a negative connotation for the system. Seth’s point is: manage your communications better to create a positive impact.

The same holds true for micro mass dissemination, which is private group communications. Micro mass dissemination is critical for project management and daily operations. Take a company wide email system roll out project as an example. When something goes wrong, the primary stakeholders need to know so they can arrive at a course of action. This proper course of action rarely occurs in a vacuum. Additionally, any users affected by the problem need to be alerted as well to maintain a proactive, customer friendly stance. Again, Seth’s point holds true: manage your communications better to create a positive impact.

The communications concept is easy to grasp but often hard to master. If you do not have a communications strategy, macro or micro, for whatever you are working on, create one. A little thought about who needs to know what when can go a long way.