What are social media to broadcasters?

Social media are hot. A bit too hot one might say, referring to the 1 bilion dollar Twitter is said to be worth. Where does that leave television, print and radio? Can they profit somehow on the emerging media or are the social media a whole different ballgame?

An analysis.

Most online guru's refer to old media as 'dead' and impress the media ceo's with fuzzy buzzwords like content aggregation, syndication, and using emerging integrated technologies. Well great, I gather you will say. But HOW exactely is seldom explained by all the social media guru's.

So what is the exact impact of social media for publishers, broadcasters and radio?
The next weeks I will present a complete survey of all crucial aspects of using social media effectively, and what I think is the best strategy to apply.

These are the 10 chapters:

1. background and current situation
2. some figures
3. why are social media so powerful? memology
4. how not to deal with social media
5. pull marketing; true attention for brands
6. organising social media
7. why is'nt twitter a broadcast medium
8. authenticity, trust and reach
9. the concept of trust
10.free ideas


Background and current situation


Serendipity

Serendipity means: 'when one discovers something accidentally while searching for something completely different'. Why am I explaining this?
I am explaining this because media are changing from linear to user orientation. And I am saying that because we are about to see TV, print and radio as we know it dissapear.
They will be replaced by a entirely integrated, self enhancing on demand media center directed by trust agents. If we want so, that is.

That last question is crucial: even just for the question itself. Was'nt it simple back then, when the media owners and marketeers were the ones who defined format, concept, message and means? Today everything has changed and almost everything in media is followed by a question mark.
Is that a problem? Yes, for many people it is. For instance: what's the interest of having a self directing mediacentre for advertisers and broadcasters? The answer is: Everything and nothing. That is completely up to the ambition of the broadcast marketeers and advertiser. What we do know is that the now spoiled online mediaconsumer is not letting go of his newly collected freedom and power. So there's only one way.
To proceed on the user defined path.

TV: viewer becomes user

Judging TV as a medium today is probably more difficult than ever. TV as a clear, one dimensional medium is obviously losing terrain to be replaced by a complete different way of consuming media and content. We are now seeing the rough outlines of an ondemand, eclectic medium. To be more precise; consumers define the moment and the type of content. And that's good. Well, for the viewer that is. For the advertiser that's not such a brilliant perspective. The advertiser who funds the content is getting more and more dependent on the capricious user, whose attention is devided with the online and mobile media at his fingertips that entered the once sacred reception room. Just as you have comforted yourself mastering the new frameworks of media by making the content more dynamic there's this new thing: social media, meaning basically the complete turnaround of the content chain.
The real challenge is only about to begin.

Print: road sign or ambient?

Daily newspapers ar having a rough time everywere. Print is constantly losing ground in the battle for eyeballs. Simply put, if cable and satellite broadcasting, as well as the internet, had come along first, newspapers as we know them probably would never have existed. So obviously the advertisers are increasingly putting their eggs in the online baskets. But are they happy out there? Online display advertising is bust and in the environment of social media brands have to be very carefully not to provoke the 'zero tolerance' culture. Moreover the media fragmentation and information pace have a catastrophic effect on the possibilities of getting true attention, let alone means for branding.

Now what? How do you claim the attention of that group of people you used to call target audience if there is no audience and no means to target properly?

Radio

Radio is actually a quite typical medium that is hard to compare. Having said that we can assume radio as a push medium funded by advertising solely has had it's best times behind it.
The use of on demand, filesharing, and music services is still increasing, and the special status of authority for newsworthy issues has been gone for some time now, though some exceptions apply.
As an entertainment channel radio is still very popular. Almost one fourth of all radio listening is now via digital, up from 20.1 per cent a year ago, with almost one third of the population (32.2 per cent) tuning in to radio via a digitally-enabled set each week. Online music sharing services like LastFM have contributed to a major shift in the way people enjoy music.
Research makes clear that radio, together with cinema are the vulnerable to avoiding. Radio can also be considered one of the most 'friendly' media. For many people radio is associated with tranquility and privacy. And that's something that should'nt change in the new situation.
Online radio is a powerful instrument that is capable of addressing the right sentiment of social media users; non disturbant, eclectic and respected. It can be used in various ways by online brands.

But how?


Next week in part 2: The Numbers