Moving….
My blog has moved to my NEW WEBSITE — www.savinggracemedia.com how exciting!
Please check out my blog at http://www.savinggracemedia.com/blog/
See you all there!
Satellite Radio
I’m conducting a short survey on satellite radio. Please post your comments, I want you opinion. Satellite radio — Do you have it? Do you use it? If so, how much of your radio time is spent listening to satellite vs. “terrestrial” radio.
I love my satellite radio, but it does’t give me my local news, local weather, local traffic, etc. How important is the localness of your am/fm radio?
How loyal are you to your favorite station and is it an am/fm station or a satellite channel?
Right back at ya!
We are bombarded by the media every day; as a matter of fact we have been for many years, the big difference is that now we can talk back!
How many times have we sat in our living rooms yelling at our TV either about a news story, an ad or at someone’s outfit (or outburst) at an awards show. Today, the difference is that we have a vehicle to vent our opinions to others besides the people sitting in the room with us. We can leave a comment on the news site, respond to a blog, write our own blog, twitter our comments, even facebook our hundreds of friends. Ah the power of the media… now it goes both ways.
Give a little bit
Social Media is two-way communication. Give and take. Whether you are a business or an individual, you need to give something of yourself. For businesses this means you need to give your fans and followers something of value, whether this is helpful information or a special deal for your fans.
Social Media is not an advertising medium in the traditional sense of the word. It is a communication vehicle allowing a business to speak directly with their fans or followers, it is not intended to be a direct sales vehicle. We don’t want businesses to tease us with a headline then find out they are simply selling a seminar or DVD.
For individuals, yes, there are some people out there who post way too much information, but there are others (you know who you are) who never post at all. You are our friend, we follow you, we want to know what you are up to.
To be honest, I have been guilty of this myself, keeping up with my friends by reading their posts, but not offering anything of me to the conversation. We are being the equivalent of social media voyeurs! Well all that has changed My friends on Facebook and followers on Twitter will be hearing more about me — but not too much….
When used to encourage communication and dialogue, social media is a valuable tool for businesses and individuals, otherwise it may deteriorate into a vehicle for mindless dribble.
Is this the party to whom I am speaking?
We can think of social media like the old time telephone party line. A party line was when two or more customers shared the same phone connection. (Prior to World War II most residential telephone service in the US was through a party line.) If someone was having a phone conversation, another customer could pick up the phone and join in the conversation, or just listen in. As we can imagine, a favorite pastime was eavesdropping on the other parties phone conversations. Party lines provided a lot of fodder for gossip. I’m sure privacy issues were the main reason party lines fell out of favor.
Social media has resurrected the party line! I post my status and everyone in my network (on my party line) can see it (listen in). Not only that, when they write on my wall, everyone in my network and their network can listen in. We are throwing our personal business out there into cyberspace with little regard for privacy. We are posting and tweeting our actions, thoughts, desires, etc. and inviting others to eavesdrop and gossip. We are giving out information to virtual strangers, hmmm I wonder if that is wise…..
Join Us
To really learn something you have to actually experience it.
This is certainly true in the world of social media. I hear many marketing people say, I don’t have time to waste on Facebook (or My Space, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc). My response is always the same, you don’t have time NOT too!
All businesses agree that social media is becoming a vital part of the marketing mix. However, you cannot market effectively with social media if you don’t understand it. (Back in the 50′s, how could businesses understand the power of television advertising if they didn’t own a TV set?)
To truly understand the potential power of social media, you have to experience it as a user. You will find social platforms you enjoy and others you don’t (for me that’s Twitter!) You will truly understand the viral nature of social media, and its power as a communications vehicle. More importantly, you will see first hand what is effective marketing and what is not!
So set up a Facebook page, a LinkedIn profile and a twitter account, connect with friends, classmates, and colleagues. Join groups, read the comments, add to the dialogue. The more you interact, the more you will come to understand how the world of social media is shaking up how we communicate and is here to stay!
So many ways to reach out
I want to have lunch with a colleague, do I send her a message via LinkedIn? Facebook her? Send her a tweet? IM her? Send her a text? e-mail her? The answer, I guess, has to do with your generation and techno savvy. I’m of the demographic that prefers to pick up the phone (cell phone) and call!
Can we talk?
With all the communication technology available to us, are we losing the ability to actually talk to each other? People have no trouble posting every detail of their lives on facebook for their 436 friends to read, “Taking the kids to the dentist, then making dinner for hubby”, “Picked up a new client today”, and yet can’t seem to communicate face-to-face.
Some recent examples I’ve come across in the past week are:
An employer calling an employee on vacation to tell her not to bother coming in on Monday, because she was laid off.
A hair dresser, seeing strangers walking around the salon, began to wonder if the owner was selling the business.
Employees hearing through the grapevine, that their employer was closing the company.
And let us not forget the ubiquitous break-up email. A magazine article I read actually advised readers not to change their facebook status to available; before they tell the other person that they want to break up! Do we need to be told this?
Our interpersonal communication skills are important. There is nothing like one-on-one, face to face communication. This week, I’m going to give it a try!
Too much!
All this social media is indeed fun. We can connect with long lost classmates, distant relatives, colleagues and even share ideas with total strangers.
But what about all of this thinly veiled advertising? Does anyone out there like it when a “friend” posts something that is clearly promoting their business? When your twitter account is full of links to buy services, or when you join a fan page only to be bombarded by advertising from the business? Is anyone fooled? Is anyone else annoyed?
Will advertising in its disguised form, survive on social media or will users simply tune it out as they have learned to do with more traditional media?
Why blog?
To quote the 60′s communications guru, Marshall McLuhan, “The Medium is the Message”. The truth of this axiom is certainly apparent today. Case in point, I’ve started this blog! I don’t have anything particularly new to say, it’s just that I have a new medium in which to say it.
The medium, in and of itself, has become the message. As more and more businesses have discovered the selling power of the web, and have become enamored with social media, they want to be part of it. Regardless of whether or not they have anything to add to the discussion, businesses are joining in this brave new world of communication. Is it good? Will it be productive? How soon before we reach saturation?
