Image by TJ Scenes
Speaking today at the Canadian Social Media Summit, David Alston of Radian6 pointed out to the audience that the decision to get involved in social media is not yours to make – it ’s a fait accompli. Your customers signed you up.
“Why aren’t you answering the social media phone – it’s already ringing. It’s probably hidden in a closet so you can’t hear it.”
A new report from Nielsen, “The Global Online Media Landscape: Identifying Opportunities in a Challenging Market”, shows that active Internet users prefer sites that contain more specialized content, such as video and social networking sites- the two fastest-growing categories this year.
Social network usage exceeded web-based e-mail usage for the first time in February. The number of Americans frequenting online video destinations has climbed 339% since 2003, with the time spent on video sites up almost 2,000%.
PR Lesson:
People want relationships, they don’t want corporate messages pushed to them
“The Internet has changed dramatically as people seek more personalized relationships online,” says Charles Buchwalter, Nielsen Online senior vice president of research and analytics.
We are in the business of public relations. Social media is about relationships
Check out the examples on this blog post from jason Cohen of how companies who jumped in to the conversation are reaping the benefits:
NIke
Zappos
RubberMaid
MarketingFM
Be prepared when you pick up that phone. Do your homework now and find out
- what is being said
- who is saying it
- how much is positive vs negative
- are there real issues to handle
- do we have brand evangelists
- what are our competitors doing
- what’s our share of the voice in this conversation
- what are the threats and the opportunities
- what resources will I need to pick up that phone.
Meet me in NYC May 16 – 19 at the Media Relations Summit
