Did You Get My Message?

In June of 1886 the German ship Paula took part in an experiment to test the ocean currents affecting shipping routes. Over a 69 year period they tossed thousands of amber glass bottles overboard that held small slips of paper. The messages asked whoever found them to report back to the German Naval Observatory with the location of where it washed up on shore.

Last month a woman was walking on the sand dunes on a remote beach in West Australia and found what is now the world's oldest known message in a bottle, almost 132 years after it was thrown into the sea. Let’s just say the location report didn’t do the Germans much good at this point.

When you send your messages, your in-bound content marketing, your social media communications out into the world, are you doing so just hoping that your customer target happens to come across it on their digital shores? 

Knowing how, when and where to target your efforts constitutes the difference between truly effective brand building activity and tossing a message in a bottle into the sea. Because no one wants to wait 132 years for a new business lead.

photo credit: Getty Images / Paul Barton