Fingerprints are amazing, they are one of the few things that are completely unique to every individual on the planet - as far as I know, there are no two people that have lived or ever will live with the same fingerprints. Before anyone emails me I'm not including Mission Impossible movies or getting into a debate on Intelligent Design!
Communications are traditionally vertical, ie. a core, central message that's issued from the company or consultancy that then filters down through news and information channels out to people. As a result with a great idea, executed brilliantly it's relatively simple to reach a large audience with your message. But online Communications are different, there isn't a direct channel for information to flow down - people don't all tune in for the news at 6pm, or start at a news site or listen to 1 out of 5 radio stations.
The advent of Sky TV blew my teenager mind, to be honest the launch of Channel 5 was a revelation - I led a very sheltered life ! From being used and satisfied with 4 channels all of a sudden there was this amazing new world of programmes, options and variety. I was a virtual Augustus Gloop in a TV Chocolate Factory - now there were channels dedicated to sport, no longer would I have to wait until Saturday for Grandstand and endure the horse racing that seemed to be slotted in before and after all the good sporting events! Now I could choose to watch channels that were dedicated to my preferences! Today I can build my own channel. A channel that's filled with only the programmes I like and, more importantly, I can opt out of all the programmes I'm not interested in.
The internet is to communications what the launch of Satellite TV was to BBC1, BBC2 and ITV - somebody hadn't just shifted the goalposts, they'd made an entirely new playing field. The result has been that traditional or off-line communications has had to learn to co-exist or rather integrate with online - while vertical comms still works in offline media relations it doesn't in online - there are too many starting points, too many opportunities for people to 'opt-out' from the mainstream sites. Today we have to go hunting for our audience, they aren't shoe-horned into our path - this is where the fingerprints come in.
Fingerprints are a unique identifier that allows people to know we've been there and allows them to track us down. With online communications it should be the same, we need to find our audiences in the places they are the most comfortable, the places they go to regularly, the places they opt-in to. We also have to work out whether our presence would be appreciated or not. If the answer is yes then we need to leave our fingerprints in as many relevant places as possible. Then leave a trail that generates genuine interest back to source - our key messages.
The key to what the fingerprint and the trail should be is for another day, lets just say that if you lay a false trail down and people are left feeling misled at the end of it then you will be found guilty on all counts and any affinity created will be lost instantly.
The internet is a vast expanse and a massive opportunity to communicate horizontally and capture and inform a genuinely interested audience and not just a mass one. But without the help of gravity it requires a bit more thought and effort, use unique fingerprints to make the right impressions in the right places.
