Five years ago, announcing “I’m on Twitter” might mean trying a new anti-depressant. Today, Fortune 500 companies are releasing “tweet” policy guides, while CEOs create v-blogs and podcasts. Strange phrases like “tweets,” “v-blogs,” and “microblogging” began to enter the professional marketing vocabulary.
Social media marketing has evolved from a quirky Internet buzzword to a world-wide phenomenon. Nielsen Online ranks social networks and blogs as the fourth most popular online activity –ahead of personal email! Social media communities are visited by 67% of the global online population. Even the CIA is investing in social media monitoring services, PC World reports.
Are you ahead of the curve, or struggling to catch up?
Ignorance is not an option.
Two-thirds of the global internet population visited social networks in 2009, says Nielsen. This means your clients, your business partners, and your competition. Savvy businesses are scrambling to adapt in this ever-changing playing field.
We’ll be covering the basics so you can survive and learn to thrive in this new Internet ecosystem.
Alright, I’m listening. So what IS social media?
First, let’s establish a solid definition.
In the words of the immortal Brian Eisenberg:
“The biggest problem I have with the term ’social media’ is that it isn’t media in the traditional sense. Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and all the others I don’t have the word count to mention aren’t media; they are platforms for interaction and networking. All the traditional media — print, broadcast, search, and so on — provide platforms for delivery of ads near and around relevant content. Social media are platforms for interaction and relationships, not content and ads.”
This bears repeating: “Social media are platforms for interaction and relationships, not content and ads.”
Social media move and spread through social interaction. It’s all about connection. Sharing. Pictures, videos, audio, and text get blogged, bookmarked, and commented as they’re passed through the digital word-of-mouth chain. Each one becomes a potential conversation-starter.
Along the way, these media types pick up some fancy new names:
Audio = Podcast = online radio show
Video = V-blog = online TV show
Text = Blog = online magazine
Social media platforms use highly accessible, scalable publishing techniques. Social media accommodate casual and obsessive use. Laid-back users might tweet once per day, check in on their major social networks, bookmark a few websites, post pictures from events once a month, throw a podcast or v-blog covering an insider technique in the mix, and blog on their latest projects.
On the flip side of the scale, hardcore social media users get twitchy if they can’t update from mobile devices every few hours. People look for their recommendations on the hottest sites, and tag them in pictures to prove they met them in person. Huge social media fan bases watch their every move, and their retweet chains can spiral to the outer reaches of the universe.
Social media transform monologues into dialogues. How well did you do in math? Remember multiplication? Social media replace the “one to many” model of advertising and traditional media broadcasting. Now the dynamic is “many to many” as social media users tag, share, comment, and put their own personal spin on the message. Social media offer the ultimate in audience participation.
Social media are going mobile. Web is no longer limited to a cord-bound desktop. Laptops have released nomadic Internet junkies into coffee shops and Wi-Fi hotspots in every major metropolis. Now mobile phones have condensed the power of the net to the palm of your hand.
These techs show no sign of slowing down. On the contrary, they’re growing by leaps and bounds. Nielsen Online reports time spent on social media sites is growing at three times the overall Internet rate.
The revolution is underway. It’s time to find your place in this brave new world.
Round Two of the Social Media Survival Guide answers the question: “Who do social media work for?” Tune in next week!
Have a burning question you’d like answered?
I’d love to hear from you. @JessicaFCox.
Fifty-Second Field Guide: tweet
A small but powerful creature, a tweet seeks to answer the question “What are you doing?” in 140 characters or less. A species of microblog, tweets are published at Twitter.com. Like their larger cousins blogs, old and new tweets gather in flocks called “RSS feeds,” hosted on the Twitter profile.
Tweets are highly accessible. They can be viewed on Twitter.com, social apps, and websites, including the great Google and Yahoo. Widely recognized and easily searched, tweets can be seen by your mother, your clients, and everyone you have ever known. Specific categories of tweets identify themselves via “hash tags,” such as “#marketing,” “#tech,” or “#green.”
Individual tweets frequently replicate and spread through the Twitter ecosystem via a process known as “retweeting.” Some tweets even migrate into Facebook and MySpace as “status updates.” While individual tweets can be deleted, they cannot be totally eliminated from the Internet landscape. Handle with care.
*update* Tech Crunch reports deleted tweets will be removed from Twitter search results! However, it still pays to be on the safe side. A re-tweet by one of your followers can put a hasty comment beyond the reach of your delete button.
Picture by Damien Basile
