Social Media, PR and Media 3.0

Social Media, PR and Media 3.0

I was hoping to leave this stuff alone for a while and get back to the issues of small business and web design, but these are just too good…

KD Paine posted this morning on the PR Measurement Blog on “When PR meets New Media” – apparently she’s been reading Sandra Duhe’s “New Media and PR“. From that, KD has come up with a list of “12 signs that this is the end of the world as we know it.” It’s a great list and I’ll excerpt a couple of my favorites here (read the full list on her site…)

11. Wikipedia is nearly as accurate and just as credible as the Encyclopedia Brittannica and a lot more people use it.
10. 1 no-budget YouTube video will be seen by as many people as watch the Superbowl
8. Your efforts to “manage your message” have about as much chance as Dennis Kucinich’s presidential campaign
6. IBM receives more leads and more exposure from a $500 podcast than it does from an entire advertising campaign

Without seeing the data, I have a hard time believing that IBM is getting better lead generation results from a single Podcast as an entire advertising campaign, but if there’s even a kernel of truth there, we need to change our thinking dramatically. And a YouTube video getting better exposure than the Super Bowl? Again, a stretch in my mind, but worthy of note.

You see, as small business people, that’s all stuff we can do, and it can be done cheaply. Podcasting is fairly easy, with a very low barrier to entry. Granted, not all of us can do podcasting. I have a few vocal ticks that I think would cause some issues for me. Then there’s the YouTube bit. Think about what it is that makes you uniquely an expert, then consider how that might lead to useful and relevant video content.

In other news, Alan Mutter’s got yet another excellent post on the future of newspapers, and this time he’s taking on “Uh-oh, here comes Media 3.0”, which is something I’d touched on last November in this post here (and I do not expect he has read it, I only point it out so that you might read it if you have not)

Again, this is one to read entirely on Alan’s Reflections of a Newsosaur Blog, but I’ll grab three of the key points:

:: Media companies can succeed in the future only by enabling their content, as well as any associated advertising, to be acquired on an individualized, ad-hoc basis by consumers.

:: As the large and “sticky” audiences traditionally enjoyed by Media 1.0 companies continue to fragment, they will become increasingly devalued in the eyes of most advertisers. Media companies must develop sophisticated systems to marry targeted commercial messages with content wherever and whenever it is consumed.

:: Mass-market advertising, which already is in the process of being supplanted by targeted and verifiable keyword advertising, will migrate to contextual systems that deliver precisely tuned messages to individuals on the verge of ordering a pizza, buying a car or booking a vacation.

All incredibly interesting points. On the first point, I’ve been macerating the separation of the product from the delivery channel of late. Remember that Arthur Salzberger of the NY Times said last year that he was agnostic on the means of content delivery, and that he could see a day when the Times was not in the distrubution business. What newspapers do well is generate and manage content, both in editorial and advertising format, and it makes perfect sense for them to try to separate themselves from the physical distribution channels, especially print. Put that bit out for bid and move on…then simply collect your end and blame any problems on the delivery contractor.

As far as advertising revenue, I definitely believe it’s time for something new. Adsense revenues on my sites have declined significantly, probably due to the readers becoming so used to seeing it. Banners haven’t really worked for us for some time. As Alan notes, the advertisers are devaluing the fragmented newspaper audience, perhaps it is time to work to start creating niche communities within the newspaper. Then again, I’m not seeing a huge pickup in niche community advertising, although it could be that those I work with are almost micro-communities, hence overlooked.

The real point here is that we’re all dissatisfied with advertising as it is today. I’m not happy as I have a hard time converting eyeballs to dollars, the newspapers aren’t happy because they’re seeing revenues decline and the more savvy advertisers are unhappy because they’re no longer even sure what they want, although they do know they don’t have it now.

Alan’s final words on Media 3.0 should be tacked up in every C-level publishing executives office:

This is their best chance to get it right. But also their last.

2 thoughts on “Social Media, PR and Media 3.0

  1. Thanks for the mention — actually, you’re right, the Superbowl is watched by more people than have seen the Chris Crocker/Brittany Spears video — its more like the audience for Monday Night Football — but STILL — on a cost per eyeball basis, it’s a pretty scary time for advertising, don’t you think?

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