The Social Media Seismic Shift
Social media is information created to be disseminated through social interaction, created using accessible and scalable publishing techniques via the net. Now there is a mouthfull. It is an umbrella term that defines a wide range of activities that integrate technology, social interaction, and the construction of words and pictures via the web. That said, it is one of the most important ways to communicate and build relationships with people, including prospects, customers and those in a specific target market.
Social media is changing how we relate with one another, what we learn about each other and what we are comfortable sharing. The upside of this is that more people are connecting, communicating and in touch than ever before. The downside is more strangers know more about our personal lives and information. For example, when someone Tweets that their family is off to Europe, it’s not just their friends that know that they’re not going to be home for awhile. It’s often hard to remember that the information we post on the net is being viewed by people we don’t know. It feels like a normal controlled conversation, which can lull people into a dangerous complacency.
Marketing-wise, social media is opening new worlds of possibilities. Having run a public relations firm for over two decades, I’ve seen the greatest changes in marketing take pace in the past few years. It has truly been a seismic change. How we communicate and how we relate is shifting. Marketers need to take note that (more than ever) a strong campaign comes down to effectively communicating and building relationships
One of the most interesting shifts is the melding of traditional public relations and social media. By combining your social media strategy with a traditional PR campaign marketers can create a powerful two-pronged approach which results in more followers, more buzz, more customers and more business. Also social media is a great example of how people can create conversion through conversation. It is also an avenue that can be used to transform public relations into personal relationships in order to build and grow a brand and a business. In reality, this form of marketing is still in its infancy. Businesses are still getting used to the process and learning how to utilize and monetize it, but those companies that are jumping in and utilizing this powerful new form of outreach and communication, are not only finding new ways to build their business, they’re defining a new marketing paradigm.
