Finding Signal in the Noise
I recently heard the phrase “finding signal in the noise”. I don’t recall where I heard it, but it stuck with me because in a day and time when we have massive amounts of information assaulting us 24/7, finding the stuff that matters is becoming increasingly difficult.
For example, searching (or “Google-ing”) has become the automatic response when we need to find information. Yet my experience has been that finding specific information on Google can be difficult if I don’t know the exact search words to narrow down the results. Therefore, I’ve started asking specific questions to my community on Twitter and Facebook. More often than not I’ll receive the exact answer I needed in a matter of minutes from people responding on Twitter. Compared to searching through 482,931 results, I’ll take the accurate answer from people I know before searching in vain. That’s finding signal in the noise.
The “noise” can be anything that’s overwhelming or poorly organized. Whether it’s e-newsletters, e-blasts, websites, blogs, videos or anything else we use to communicate with others, as communicators we’ve got to help simplify and qualify the information and decrease the signal-to-noise ratio.
Review the mediums and methods you use to communicate. Look at your website. Check out your e-newsletter. Review your announcement slides & videos. Evaluate your group e-mail blasts. How much of it would benefit from “less is more”? What are you going to do about it?
Here’s a satirical (but honest) look at why Apple & Google continue to understand this concept:
2 Responses to “Finding Signal in the Noise”
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I'm Anthony Coppedge, a follower of Jesus, a husband to my uber-bride and father to four great kids. I help ministries leverage technology and communicate with a digitally-infused culture. I'm passionate about this, so that makes me a Technology & Communications Evangelist. I attend and volunteer at Gateway Church in Southlake, TX and love it!
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This is so true. We recently decided to cut out a lot of the regular information from our video news announcements, stuff that was in every Sunday because people stop listening. It's just noise. Cutting the news down to the nitty gritty keeps their attention, hopefully!
Great post Anthony. Weather it be print design or web/interactive this is something that needs to be done. People also need to understand the importance of the "signal to noise" ratio. BTW this post caught my attention because I work closely with audio editing and production.