As organizations create more and more blog posts, video, and other information online, it’s easy for a group’s message to get lost.

This is a point of concern for Geoff Livingston, author of the new book Welcome to the Fifth Estate and principal and co-founder of the communications company Zoetica. In a recent conversation with Mr. Livingston, he stressed the importance of creating an editorial mission for your organization to keep your content on target.

That editorial mission should outline your goals when creating content, so that your audience finds it relevant to their needs.

“People are creating blog posts and status updates and white papers and infographics and all of that, and it’s all over the place,” Mr. Livingston said. “If it isn’t useful for a stakeholder group, they’re going to turn a deaf ear on it­.”

Subscribers to The Chronicle can see the rest of my discussion with Mr. Livingston, including tips for focusing on people instead of technology, tempering your expectations for social media, and using measurement as a diagnostic tool.