New Media: A Sea Change

Photo: Swansea

All around us is evidence of a shift in the way we communicate. New media, such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, are affording us all — marketers and consumers alike — more control over what we say and how we say it. By breaking down traditional walls, new media are giving us more opportunities to have direct, human interactions online regardless of regional divides. It is an exciting time to be a marketer, with many opportunities for success if we educate ourselves about these new Web tools and use them to engage our customers ethically,  compassionately and with the goal of building a brand people trust.

People are no longer dependent on traditional media to transmit their messages, and as new media rises in popularity, traditional media has begun to falter, unable to generate as much ad revenue as they once did. We increasingly hear reports of staple newspapers folding under the weight of a bad economy and subsequent reader defection. Moreover, Twitter accounts, such as  @themediaisdying, have begun to tick off grim facts about the publications many of us have come to respect and, unfortunately, take for granted.

Nevertheless, the public is making both conscious and unconscious choices in favor of new media. This in turn is giving consumers more power than ever before to express their opinions, advocate for themselves and demand the respect they deserve from businesses.

While some businesses have been hesitant to participate openly in new media for fear of giving up too much control over their messages, the most successful among them have actively engaged the community and used these online tools to foster a more humanized approach to business: one that promotes more transparency and builds trust.

New Media Review is an ongoing effort to investigate and analyze the online tools that are reshaping the way we communicate with our customers and conduct marketing and PR efforts. It is a platform to discuss best practices garnered from real-life experiences and it is a place to catalog news, observations, successes and failures. I welcome you to participate in the discussion as often as possible and share your own experiences. Ultimately, the goal should be to learn to use new media to improve business practices.

In closing, I would like to take the time to acknowledge some of the people who have supported me along the way and encouraged me to start my own blog.

Thanks to Chris Brogan, Julien Smith, Jason Falls, David Meerman Scott and Shannon Paul, whose blogs offer exceptional resources for social media strategies and words of encouragement.

I would also like to extend a special thanks to Caroline Collins, Chris Harris, Ludovic Privat and Rich Owings who have given me invaluable advice on how to get a blog off the ground.

Thanks again!

Photo Credit: Swansea

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Tagged as: New Media, pr, sea change, social media