Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
MICHAEL DELLI CARPINI: There is a tendency now, because the
change is happening so quickly, for marketers and for
the people that marketers work for to think that the only way
they can stay current, the only way they can keep their
message in front of people is to jump on the bandwagon of
the latest piece of technology or the latest piece of
software that involves a new media.
Social networking is a great example of that.
Social networking is an incredibly interesting
phenomenon.
I believe the Facebook now has as many visits and uses as
Google does now.
Just saw that statistic recently.
But the first thing a marketer and the people that marketers
work for needs to think about is OK, so this new medium,
who's its audience?
What is its particular structure of the way in which
communication takes place?
And how does that fit into both the product that I'm
trying to sell or idea I'm trying to sell and the
audience that I'm trying to reach with it?
So social networking sites' real strength is the
conversational aspect of it.
The fact that it forms a community and that community
interact with each other, shares information in a very
horizontal way, takes information in a very vertical
way and then shares it horizontally and is a
generator of, oftentimes, cutting edge
ideas, thoughts, practices.
It is a form of dissemination that you have only partial
control over as a marketer.
So you can attempt to enter that space.
You can put your information into that space.
But number one, if that information is not sincere and
authentic and if it doesn't resonate with the audience
you're trying to reach, it can either lie there fallow or it
can, as I said before, morph in a way that is exactly
counterproductive to what you wanted.
So the point with that example is that the first thing, which
is common sense at one level, is a marketer needs to go back
to that basic litany that I said before that is really
crucial to any form of marketing
is, who's your audience?
What's your message?
And how do you expose the audience to that message in a
way that's going to make them attentive and retain that
information in a useful kind of way?
So what's crucial is surveillance of the
information environment.
Marketers need to be abreast of every latest change.