By Renzi Stone, 2009, Courtesy of NEWSOK.COM
Does anyone really care what I’m doing right now?
It turns out, people do.
Social media, a way to engage online communities of people and organizations, have reached what noted sociologist and author Malcolm Gladwell describes as a "tipping point.” This is a "moment of critical mass, the threshold, the boiling point.” It’s when the momentum for change becomes unstoppable.
If you and your organization are not engaged in social media on some level, you are behind. Remember the debate in the late 1990s about whether e-mail and Web sites would catch on? Whether we had "time” for them? Needless to say, the skeptics lost that debate, as will those who question the value of social media.
Consider the changing face of media. Newspapers are in decline, and the average reader of printed news is now 57 years old. The nightly network news is watched by fewer people than ever. Magazine sales are off 22 percent. Consumers can filter out information they don’t want through DVR, satellite radio, do-not-call lists and RSS feeds.
However, statistics indicate people are absorbing more news and content than ever before through online communities and media sources that leverage the Internet to provide "live” news. The Oklahoman is a great example of a media organ- ization that recognizes the potential of social media and is taking full advantage of this medium to reach its audiences.
So what is all this stuff about YouTube, blogging, social bookmarking, Facebook and Twitter? Why should you pay attention?
Three reasons.
First, social media have become the best tool to connect with specific target audiences and niche communities. It can be used to increase brand awareness, communicate with customers, engage conversations about new products and services and serve as a virtual focus group. Plus, the platforms are free for users.
Second, technology and financial models are inhibiting traditional content, such as print articles and advertisements, from breaking through the clutter to reach audiences. Social media build audiences faster. It took television 14 years to reach a market audience of 50 million people. It took Facebook two years.
Finally, it’s where your audience is — and not just young people. At last count, Facebook had 250 million users and 35-and-older was the fastest-growing segment. In June, the top 10 social media sites had 480 million unique (individual) visitors. Twitter realized a 1,400 percent increase in users from 2008 to 2009. Hundreds of thousands of blogs are posted annually to complement the unending stream of video on YouTube and other sites.
Countless businesses in Oklahoma are already using social media to expand their organization’s influence here and around the world. Not all forms of social media are useful and some are useless, but when executed strategically, social media is another tool in the marketing mix that everyone should use.
Stone is the CEO of Saxum Public Relations.
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1 comments:
I'd hazard to say that for the most part people really don't care what each of is doing as an individual. However they do care about news and information that matters to them. And that is what right of all of the new communication channels (lumped into this phrase called "Social Media") gives us. I can learn about what is going on in alot more locations. I don't care what you are eating or what movie you are seeing. I do care if there is a car wreck, traffic tie up, sales on shoes, or a natural disaster.
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