The future of marketing integrates traditional and social tools, connected by successful, ongoing relationships with media, influencers, and people. That's right...it's about relationships and it's about people. Relationships serve as the foundation for everything, whether its traditional or new media, and the constant reminder that we're reaching people, and not audiences, will keep us on a path to relevance.
Almost daily I hear, "There are so many tools out there that I don't even know where to jump in" and "I don't get why any of this matters, maybe I'm just too old."
Why? Because how we do things today is long overdue for a complete overhaul and social media is only forcing the evolution that should have happened long before. Whether you jump on board or not, evolution will happen without you. And, not everyone will survive the transition...which is a good thing for our industry.
The bottom line is that we have to understand the sociology of social networks before we can either write them off as a useless tool or more importantly, participate in them. OK, so you decide to jump in. Well, STOP. Underestimating social networks is also very dangerous. I've already witnessed far too many companies attempting to spark conversations by "marketing" to "
Today, conversations are markets and markets are conversations. And the forums for these conversation cultivate an tight, unswerving and mostly unforgiving community and culture. Participation requires observation in order to understand the the sociological landscape and the dynamics that define each community. They are after all, populated by people, not audiences.
Yes, there are many networks. Yes, they're thinning our attention. And, yes, this is the new form of media and influence, and it is transforming corporate communications, traditional media, and how people communicate with each other.
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