When you consider the context of your media, one thing you’ll have to decide implicitly or explicitly is “how long will this content be relevant?”

For example, if you are simply communicating the details of an event which will be over in a month, then you want it to be top of mind for that month and then it can get lost in the internet ether, no problem.

But if you are communicating the core mission of your business, you probably want that to be presented in a form that will last much longer.

This brings us back to the idea that context informs form.

If the context of your communication is social media, then, by nature of that context, it will have a pretty short shelf life, regardless of what form it takes (video, image, text, etc).

However, you also have the option to combine a circular communication approach with a little-q (high-quantity) output strategy.

On the other hand, if the context will be more static, like the homepage of your website, you can plan a longer shelf-life for a single piece of content, in which case maybe a big-Q (high-quality) and linear communication approach is best.

When you start to get the hang of how context and form impact the effect and application of your media, you can get creative with your communication strategy, and the best part is, you’ll know the why behind those creative decisions.