In this article on Social Media Today, Mike Frey discusses how traditional media created social media. This is a really different angle on the “traditional views” that I’m supposed to be talking about; however, I feel that it is an important topic to understand. When I refer to traditional media, I am talking about radio, television and newspaper. Social media may be interpreted as websites such as Facebook and Twitter.
In the article, Frey mentioned that “Prior to conglomeration there was a time that radio, television and print were local community outlets. At one time the big three were locally owned, and concentrated on local community. Now most decisions that are made for communities regarding their major media are made from thousands of miles away.” This means that now what the audience wants is out of the question, the decision is based on what corporate thinks the audience wants.
Conglomeration has played a big role in the social media boom. Social media provides a place where you get to choose. “We create our Facebook community to entertain and inform us. We choose whose tweets to follow to keep us updated on technology, news, inspiration and events. With social media you have no one to blame for the poor programming or not being entertained as it’s created by you.” This is what has drawn so many people to social media, the fact that they have a say in what they see and hear.
On the Utah State University campus, it is very rare to hear students talking about what they read in The New York Times, or what they saw on the news last night. Traditional media are hard to follow when you, the follower, do not feel like the stories have any value to you. If there was a way for traditional media to be linked up with social media, younger generations can be targeted easier. Instead of not knowing what is going on in the world, maybe you will step onto a college campus and hear a student say “When I was on Facebook last night, I read this article from The New York Times…”
So how is a company supposed to integrate social media with their traditional media? Tom Martin at The Social Media Examiner discusses this very topic in this article. When it comes to integrating social media with traditional media, not very many people are doing it correctly. Most people are asking how to integrate their media, while they should be asking how to think about integrating their media. How to think about integrating social media provides you with a framework, which then enables you to think on your own, instead of just trying to look for a solution right at the beginning.
There are six questions to ask when integrating media. In the article, these questions are geared towards social media and marketing; however, I feel that these six questions can go for any social media integration.
1. What is the goal? It is important to look at the business goals first to really discover what is required and expected of the integration.
2. Who is the audience? It is important to visualize your audience beyond their demographics, these characteristics may include what they look like or sound like, and who they are with when watching or listening to the traditional media.
3. Where is the audience? This doesn’t just mean where they are physically, this question extends beyond that. Where your audience is emotionally is an important factor to consider.
4. How can you connect with your audience? This means more than channels, you need to consider what will draw your audience to you, look at it from conversational perspective.
5. How do you extend the conversation? “Once you’ve made that initial contact and gained permission to have an ongoing conversation, what do you plan to do next?”
6. How can I get my audience to introduce me to others? Be sure to not skip this question. The recommendation from one individual to another is perhaps the most important part.
Integrating social media with traditional media is a smart move, and it should not just be a last minute choice. It needs to be well thought out, and I feel that this is what a lot of companies are forgetting. Integrating social media needs time to be planned and worked on, not just thrown together.
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Valuable tips on how to effectively follow a process rather than jumping to a solution.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading your blog post!
ReplyDeleteThose are good questions to ask when doing social media. It's too bad many organizations struggle with it. Also, I didn't really think of TV and radio being part of the same category as newspapers for some reason, probably because it doesn't seem to be fading out anytime soon.
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