Media Rules!: Mastering Today's Technology to Connect With and Keep Your Audience

Chapter 9. Be Part of the Best Team

Nobody can be good at everything. But, as we discussed in Chapter 3, your audience expects you to be all things. Many organizations are formed with the belief that they know more, are better suited, or can figure out whatever they need to know to succeed at any level. Why wouldn't they? Nobody wants to go into business to be mediocre or launch an organization that doesn't have an impact. Operating in isolation, however, only serves to limit the contribution you can make to your audience. To meet their expectations, even the experts need to be a part of a team.

That doesn't stop people from claiming they can go it alone. Corporations think that they offer the best product or service—think of the New York Times saying they provide "All the News That's Fit to Print" (though we know a print newspaper can only do so much with the available column inches, and the New York Times offers only one limited perspective). Nonprofits believe their solution to a particular social issue is the most innovative—the ASPCA says definitively that "We are their voice," though dozens of organizations offer support to abused and neglected animals just like them. Even educational institutions believe they provide the best guidance and support to all who step foot on their campus—knowing full well they can't match the interests or needs of every student, all the time.

Your customer knows, however, that no person can do it all and no organization can go it alone. We don't ...