Part 7 of "Share This," which is about (and is accordingly entitled) industry change, has a lot of insights to share about the changing nature of social media and public relations. What I want to focus on specifically here is toward the very beginning of the part, in which the book quotes Steve Jobs in asserting that "You've got to start with the customer experience and work back toward the technology--not the other way around." The book says the same applies to communication, and that in considering what a communication is going to be, the channel/tool used should be low on the list of priorities.
I won't pretend that I have any really strong feelings on this issue, but I'm inclined to agree. It does seem natural that having determined the substance and nature of a message, determining the appropriate way of communicating it would be easier. For instance, if a great deal of information needs to be conveyed, a traditional print ad may be a bad choice because it can only convey this information in a relatively non-attention-grabbing sort of way, whereas conveying it through the Internet could allow for more interactivity, making the information able to be conveyed in a more stimulating manner.
However, on the other hand, if one knows what their channel of communication is going to be in advance, irrelevant of what the message they must convey is, one must find a way to tailor that message to work well in the channel that's being used. So if, for instance, one knew they were going to be making an online video ad, they should keep that in mind in deciding exactly what message they would try to convey. This is really sort of stating the obvious, but it's a noteworthy caveat to the rule the book lays out, in my opinion.
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