As a graduate student in Agricultural Communications, I often find myself swimming neck deep into paper after paper on theory after theory. And, while these are great and all, sometimes, I like to just take a breather and look at things from a simple perspective. For example, the tale of Sweet Tooth Sally is quite simplistic yet provides insight into the ever-changing and somewhat complicated practice of communications.

You haven’t heard the story of Sweet Tooth Sally? Well … how about a breather?

Every day, Sweet Tooth Sally skipped on down to her local market and picked up her favorite candy. It was quiet, never crowded and since the local market offered just a few kinds of special dark chocolate, Sally was never confused by numerous choices.

This is how communication looked years ago when there were only one or two television stations and one or two radio shows … and one telephone, mounted firmly on the wall.

One day, though, Sally arrived at her local market to find an overwhelming variety of treats along with flocks of other people! It was so crowded and noisy that Sally could hardly sort through her options.

This is how communication looked this morning when you and I woke up to a zillion emails and a text on our phone from Facebook saying we had a new message from Katy who just saw a YouTube video posted on Twitter about the super-cool QR tags available from Skype. Today, consumers are overwhelmed with so many information sources that it often seems impossible to sort through all of them.

Feeling lost, Sally latched onto the most convenient person in front of her and tried to do the same thing they did. It was hard to keep track of the same person though. Sally kept getting distracted by all of the different conversations around her.

This is what communication looked like during lunch today when five of the seven people around you were checking their email or perusing a social network in between bites of macaroni and grumbles about the sports game on TV. Consumers today have shorter-than-ever attention spans.

Sally even heard the woman next to her talking about how much she didn’t like the fruit section of the market. After hearing that, Sally didn’t even waste her time visiting the produce section.

This is what today’s convergence of interpersonal and mass communications looks like. All posts made to Twitter, even those directed at a specific user name, are visible to the public. That means when @ConsumerA tells @ConsumerB how much she loves or hates your product, @ConsumerC and the rest of the Twitterverse can see it. In the same way, when someone posts to your Facebook wall about how much they love or hate your business, the rest of Facebook can see it, too.

At one point, Sally grew so tired of searching for something spectacular that she threw out her arms, grabbed the first piece of candy within her reach and hoped it would be something she liked.

This is what communication looks like every time someone types their search phrase into Google.com, clicks on the first link listed and believes everything in front of them. Ever heard of the tree octopus? There is no such thing but Google would have you fooled. Can we all just agree that we have become somewhat … lazy when it comes to gathering information? I mean, the internet will tell us everything we’ll ever need to know, right?

Then, just as Sally was walking out of the market with her arms full of random, ho-hum items, she stopped when she saw something sparkle out of the corner of her eye. There it was. A shiny red apple captivated Sally’s attention as it stood out from the crowded supermarket confusion. In the next second, Sally emptied her arms of the tasteless junk she had gathered, scooped up the apple and promised never to go without an apple again.

This is what communication looks like when your company makes the extra effort to provide honest, high-quality products and is ready, at any moment, to build a direct relationship with consumers. It’s a good thing that red apple caught Sally’s attention. Otherwise, Sally would have gone home with her junk food and the apple industry would have lost a faithful customer.

So What?: With the overwhelming number of information sources and shortened consumer attention spans, communicating today is more challenging than ever. Your discussions with consumers are real-time, interactive activities that have to fight their way through the crowds and the noise in order to make an impact. The good news for us is that consumers are craving new information; all we have to do is be ready to satisfy their cravings in a memorable way.

Posted by: The Visualizer (Kelly Pritchett)