Its the Message Stupid

I was taken by this post in Shel Holtz blog and thought the comment he quotes from Phil Gomes whose blog post was titled, “Having a ‘message’ is fine, it’s the ‘messaging’ that sucks.”

Shel quotes:

In his post, Phil draws a distinction between messages (it’s important to have them) and messaging, which Phil defines thusly:

The development and cloying repetition of corporatespeak statements devoid of meaning, rendered in a language that no one uses, delivered without the benefit of listening first, and presented in venues and contexts where they are clearly inappropriate.

Phil’s absolutely right if, indeed, that were the definition of messaging. It’s not, though. It’s the definition of bad messaging. It logically follows, then, the only bad messaging is bad. Good messaging is simply the strategic use of appropriate channels to make sure the right people—the market for your message—is able to find it and hear it.