Habit 7
Experiment with your medium
It is much harder to understand something through observation than via first-hand experience. I think that's pretty true for anything. It's certainly true of my experience with new media. Furthermore, the barriers to entry across all media -- whether plain text publishing or video production -- have fallen through the floorboards.
While corporate communications will usually differ quite a bit from personal communications, the difference between the two is shrinking. And, it's not a bad thing to view a familiar medium from a different angle.
From blogging to podcasting to video production, getting a hands-on view of a medium or vehicle will better familiarize you with various types of content. And if you lift up the hood and check out the inner-workings, like site analytics, then you can learn even more about what resonates and what doesn't. And, at the end of the day, experimenting with communication tools is a great way to connect and network with people doing interesting things.
Conclusion
These are seven things I've found to be helpful in keeping my head above water in this business -- with a major contribution from the creative directors I've been fortunate to work with. It's certainly not an exhaustive list. So I'll end the article with a call-out to anyone else, creative directors or otherwise, to comment below about anything you've found good creative directors do to make the work and the work environment around them better.
Doug Schumacher is the president and creative director at Basement Inc.
On Twitter? Follow Schumacher at @memerunner. Follow iMedia Connection at @iMediaTweet.
