As Social Media becomes an increasingly integral marketing arm for businesses across the globe, its effectiveness on ‘Generation Y’ is becoming a pressing question for those trying to advertise to this technologically-savvy group.

Using research conducted by Colette Lucas, Aaron and Gould have produced a paper that documents Colette’s findings.

To read the results, please go here and here.

The last few posts have explained how New Media enable you to create content using various on-line platforms – whether they are journals, photo albums or videos. Now I am going to explain how Social Media allows you to spread your creation around the Internet quickly and effectively. 

Lesson 6: How does Social Media enable things to spread?

Social Media operates using the timeless principle of ‘Word of Mouth’. We do this every day when we say to others, “Have you heard…?” or “Did you see…?”.

As I showed in the last post, when a message is broadcast through old media channels the number of recipients is limited.

E.g. Television sends the message to viewers at home. Limited reach, little inter-personal spread.

Old Media broadcast relies on off-line spreading. I see an advert  on television and can only pass it on to others when I see them. The next day at work, on the bus or in the playground. Hence my spread is limited to my immediate social circle and my ability to contact them.

When we utilise ‘New’ media channels we are still subject to the same constraints – our immediate social circle and our ability to contact -  however the message can be passed along much much quicker. Within mere seconds in fact. Not only this, but the multi-channel aspects of New Media means the message can be passed onto a much wider circle of people. Not just our immediate sphere.

New Media allows more people to share the message to EVEN MORE people, quicker than ever...

So when you broadcast a message using a service like Twitter for example, you enact a snowball effect of spreading.

It may only reach 3496, but one of them – @chrisbrogan– ‘retweets’ it and rebroadcasts the message to his followers:

In turn, a few, many or all @chrisbroganfollowers may retweet the @hildygottliebmessage and what we have is  a snowball effect of word-of-mouth travelling around the net and spilling out into off-line conversations.

The benefits of using Social Media to reach a larger number of people are manifold, be it for personal use (“I’m having a party on Saturday”) or commercial use (“I’m having a sale on Saturday”). Whatever the reason, the effects are still the same; the message has an increased reach because of social media’s unique ability to spread in a way traditional mediums are not able to.

(All diagrams used are the intellectual property of  Scott Gould)

To answer this question, we have to appreciate the differences between OLD media and NEW media (the category in which Social Media falls into).

As I have written before, OLD media broadcasts are one-way and from traditional media such as television, newspapers or radio. In all cases, the message travels from the broadcast to the receiver.

Before the rise of the Internet, only certain individuals and organisations had the ability to create, broadcast and distribute material to an audience. It is these establishments that we tend to refer to as ‘The Media’.

An example of an established TV broadcaster

Only established newspapers had the resources to research, write and distribute news stories and articles. It was also only TV stations that were able to produce and broadcast videos through limited channels on television. Both newspaper and TV companies rely on a huge infrastructure of writers, researchers, journalists, technicians, designers, producers and editors to broadcast their content. This costs a huge amount of time, money and effort.

In the last decade however, the rapid development of cheaper higher-quality technology and the rise of NEW media sites on the internet has meant that people can now broadcast their own media – be it audio, video or print – to an ever-increasing audience of internet users. Through the various social media platforms I discussed in my last post, anyone can now publish content similar to that which was once dominated by traditional media – news stories, fiction, entertainment, music, feature-length film.

That said, an article from The Times newspaper uploaded onto thetimesonline website is not suddenly NEW media. The broadcast is still one way (computer —> reader) and remains traditional. However, if the article has hyperlinks to other articles, a comments box that invites reader-response or a button that allows you to share it with other internet-users then this interactivity makes it NEW media.

In essence, NEW media refers to the transfer of traditional media to the internet. NEW media provides many more channels – where there’s internet access, there’s a channel. NEW media is open and accessible – anyone who has access to a computer can comment or create. NEW media is also interactive – it relies on participation and involvement (be it commenting on a blog, sharing broadcasted content with other people or actively manipulating the content to form new content). NEW media speeds up the process of communication – feedback can be instant from other internet-users.

As I will be explaining in the next post, NEW media allows you to do two things more efficiently than OLD media – CREATE and DISTRIBUTE. How NEW media content spreads is where Social Media will be swaggering in confidently to flex its disseminating guns…

SUMMARY: NEW media refers to traditional forms of media which are now primarily internet-based. The effect is that content is created, shared and accessed quicker than before and with a greater level of interactivity and participation.

To read more on the subject of ‘new media’, go here

WHAT DO YOU UNDERSTAND BY THE TERM ‘NEW MEDIA’? HAVE I MISSED ANYTHING OUT?

Social Media allows people to communicate and participate. The effect of this is connectedness and community.

LESSON 4: How do people ‘do’ Social Media?

People do this through many different ways. Here are some examples:

SOCIAL NETWORKS

Social Networks allow people to create personal web pages and then connect with other people’s personal web pages. This allows people to share information and communicate. Examples of Social Networks are Facebook, Bebo and MySpace.

BLOGS

A blog is simply an on-line journal. Bloggers make ‘entries’ of their thoughts, views and opinions. Blogs can be either private or public (so others can leave comments). Examples of blogs are WordPress, Livejournal and Blogger.

Blogs can contain text, pictures and video...

FORUMS

These are websites that are specifically designed to allow people to share opinion and engage in discussion on particular subjects.

Forums are a place to discuss specific areas of interest (e.g. Football)

MICROBLOGGING

Microblogs are services that allow people broadcast short messages (updates) to other subscribers of the service. An examples of this is Twitter. Other subscribers can reply to your messages creating dialogue and conversation.

CONTENT COMMUNITIES

These are sites which focus on one particular type of content. These could be photos (Flickr) or videos (Youtube).

FLICKR - sharing photos

Youtube - sharing videos

COLLABORATIVE

Sites such as Digg and Wikipedia allow users to work together to create content. This relies on involvement and participation.

Wikipedia - encyclopedia entries are written by users and can be modified by other users

Digg - allows people to 'vote' news stories up or down. The most popular are given prominence on the site.

These are just a few of many, many different ways people can interact and share information with other people on the internet.

WHICH SOCIAL MEDIA SITES DO YOU USE AND WHY?

Revisiting the findings of my last two posts:

Social = People + Conversation

Media = Tools that deliver information

So quite simply, Social Media is about the exchange of information between people through conversation. We already do this in real-life on a daily basis. People share:

Views, news, fact and opinion…

Photos…

Music…

Video…

The only difference is that with Social Media this takes place on-line. The internet is the medium through which information is delivered to and shared between people.

SUMMARY: Social Media is all about sharing and conversing on-line. It’s all about interaction with other people.

Or as a wise man once said: It’s the two-way Web.

In my next post I will be looking at the various ways people who use Social Media share information.

WHAT DO YOU UNDERSTAND BY THE PHRASE ‘SOCIAL MEDIA’? HAVE I MISSED ANYTHING OUT?

LESSON 2: What does ‘Media’ mean?

In general, “media” refers to various means of communication. Media are the tools by which information or data are transferred or broadcast.

There are many different types of media. Some examples include:

Television:

Radio:

Print (newspapers, magazine, books etc.):

Media are used for many different reasons including advertising, marketing, education, entertainment and news.

It is through a specific medium that the MESSAGE gets to the PERSON.

SUMMARY: Media is the means by which information is delivered to a person.

In my next post, we will be putting ‘Social’ and ‘Media’ together and watching the sparks fly. Stay tuned!

WHAT DO YOU UNDERSTAND BY THE WORD ‘MEDIA’?

In today’s post I am going to focus on the word ‘social’. In my next post I’ll be examining what we mean by ‘media’.

LESSON 1: What does ‘Social’ mean?

The word ‘social’ – in its broadest sense – means the interaction between one person and another.

To be ‘social’, all one has to do is communicate with another person.

This communication can be one-sided:

A dialogue:

Between many:

Or even non-verbal!

SUMMARY:  It’s all about people.  It’s all about communicating with them.

WHAT DO YOU UNDERSTAND BY THE WORD ‘SOCIAL’? HAVE I LEFT ANYTHING OUT?

This is me not knowing anything about Social Media...

Social Media is a rapidly-growing industry and like most rapidly-growing industries it can seem daunting to those not in the know or on the inside.

I am not in the know – I write as a complete layman on the subject.  This is a good thing because I intend to research and explain this social media phenomena in a manner that is simple and digestible - as much for my benefit as for your own.

In an industry that is mired in jargon and buzzwords, it almost seems as if Social Media experts are trying to confuse us.  I won’t be writing using Social Media jargon, because I don’t know any Social Media jargon.

The questions I am going to explore over the next two months are:

What is Social Media? Why do I need it? Why do you need it? What benefits does it bring? What is its effect on local businesses? What do people think about Social Media?

These may seem like obtuse questions for those of you who “do” social media, but for those of us who are not so savvy, I hope my Social Media journey will be an enjoyable, enlightening and educational experience.

We’re thrilled to be on this list, along side other fantastic companies, most of whom we’ve worked with.

You can see on Robert’s list which company best suits the needs that you have:

• BusinessLink South West provide a free 2 hour session on Social Media which run across the South West. This is excellent for you to find out what it is about and get to know some of the ideas and possibilities.
• Bluegrass Computer Services deliver a very highly recommended Social Media half-day training course which is taken by David Thomas. We continually refer people to them, as we believe they provide the best beginners course in Social Media in Devon, for taking you from nothing, to having accounts setup and an understanding of basic tactics.
• Design Inspiration provide consulting on using Twitter uniquely for your business. They are ideal for working with micro-sized businesses and getting your Social Media presence correctly branded and integrated into your website.
• Social Traders will work with groups to provide targeted group training in your organisation. If you’ve done Bluegrass’ beginners course, this might be the right thing to follow up with if you want to target your efforts more tightly within a department in your organisation.
• Tonick Media work with companies with turnover around £100k pa, developing a Social Media strategy and then integrating it within the organisation. They have a very strong marketing background which means they focus on the digital side and have a keen eye on the numbers at all times. Director Aren Grimshaw has an exceptional reputation in Cornwall.
• Optix Solutions work with you to integrate Social Media into your marketing mix, manage your presence if required, and then provide measurement on ROI. They have delivered a lot of local success with online marketing. Director Al Banks is very well known in the Exeter marketing scene, and have delivered exceptional work for a number of local charities.
• Rokk Internet deliver targeted online marketing services to national clients which includes Social Media campaign management. Director Claire Marshall has proven success with integrating Social Media into strong digital media presences.
• Aaron+Gould is us of course. We sit at the top end of this list in terms of costs and scale, working with Nokia, Orange, Church of England, Headline Publishers and others. We integrate Social Media to do one thing: increase revenue.

Thank you Robert for putting this list together. I hope as you read you get an idea of who to work with and what needs each service provider can meet.

If you’d like an introduction to any of these companies, or our suggestion on who to go with, we’ve love to help. Give us a call.

This photo is of Linda Bennett and myself, Linda being the MD of The Best Of Exeter. They ran a short feature in their first print magazine called “The Speech Bubble” which talked about what we did the effects that the conference had on the city.

The best bit was that we were at Exeter Hospiscare at a small event, who are one of our Like Minded endeavours too. So there was a great connection all round.

I’ve been talking with Linda and Dave Barr a lot recently about how we can assist our city through their Best Of Exeter network, so hopefully more to come.