How social media is changing our lives
Social Media is indeed making changes in our lives. Even Time Magazine, a bastion of old media, hailed user generated content as the single most influential change in 2006.
I caught Katie Paine’s session at Executing Social Media in Atlanta yesterday – here are some indicators that your world is changing forever:.
- You spend more time on Facebook than on email
- Deadlines don’t exist anymore – it’s a 24 hour news cycle
- You don’t need the media to get your messages out
- It’s possible to create your own podcast or video for just a few hundred dollars and reach more people than you would with mainstream media
- Companies like P & G are learning to let go control and co create marketing material with customers
- People believe what’s in Wikipedia and it gets page one position in Google for practically any search term
- Google has replaced dictionaries, the thesaurus, encylopedias and yellow pages – it’s become much more than a search tool
- Measurement is easy – in a digital wolrd you can track most anything
- Size no longer matters – it’s who you reach, not how many
- Screaming at your audience no longer works. You have to start listening.
Her take away tip: the most important thing you can do to succeed with marketing and PR today is listen and build trust. Be transparent, don’t lie and don’t fake it.
The one theme that was heard throughout the day was learn to listen. It’s no longer a mass media. one way dialogue. Markets are conversations. The new media landscape is littered with campaigns that used old PR and marketing methods and failed.
But if you get it right the rewards are astounding.
See Also
- Learn how to listen to the online conversation
Online public relations success depends on tapping into online conversations. Read the November issue of The PRoactive Report. Request a complimentary copy.
