SpaceRace Digital Inc.

October marks the release of media maven Brian Solis’ and creative agency JESS3’s 2010 Conversation Prism 3.0. A colourful, spectacular infographic, the Conversation Prism represents the plethora of online engagement channels and applications available to brands, entrepreneurs, and organizations. As anyone involved in online marketing knows, the landscape of opportunity the web presents is massive, and growing all the time. It also changes at rapid-fire pace, as services collapse and expand, and as more and more companies and initiatives fight to find where their audience is, and engage their pants off.

I love infographics such as the Prism, and not just because they’re great for embedding in presentations. Visual representations are an excellent way for communications and marketing peeps to plan, strategize, and explore. Just as mind-mapping activities are an essential teacher tool to promote lateral thinking and idea generation in students, a handy infographic of web possibilities can really bring inspiration to brainstorming sessions and campaign reviews.

Of course, a peacock with this many feathers would be far too weighted down to strut. And a marketing or online engagement initiative can suffer the same fate if careful consideration, testing, and listening protocol isn’t undertaken in the planning stages. Take a strategic and critical approach and define your goals first, before delving into the buffet. Decide what you want to measure, and ensure that your chosen channels are robust enough to deliver the analytics you need. And above all, don’t overwhelm your audience with option overload. Choose the best and go from there, and do it right. An embarrassment of riches is still an embarrassment, right?

The Conversation Prism is available for purchase here. It’s $20, and worth it.

*No birds or other creatures of flight were harmed in the writing of this post.