In a social media world everyone is a content producer- even your business
April 30, 2008
Throughout history their have been gatekeepers to the media space. If you didn’t pay up you didn’t have any access. Business was completely at the whim of organized media to get their messages out to large audiences. That mindset has become ingrained into standard business practice so thoroughly that even today businesses focus almost exclusively on traditional advertising.
Why is that remarkable?
Because the gatekeepers haven’t blocked the internet yet. Anyone with an internet connection and something to say has access to large audiences of people without the constraints that traditional advertising has.
So why haven’t businesses jumped in and taken advantage of this opportunity?
Good question. When you figure it out please tell me. The ability to directly reach your prospects in numerous forms of media is ground breaking. It’s like free money for life. In the digital age everyone is their own media outlet.I think what holds businesses back from taking full advantage of web 2.0 are three things:
1) Fear of losing control of their message.
2) A lack of knowledge and understanding of the medium.
3) Fear of giving away too much information.
Fear of losing control is understandable, but online, rational minds prevail when you are honest and forthright. Sure there are bad apples, but its a small price to pay to engage so many people. Being online and under the watchful eye of your audience can make you a better company. A lack of knowledge is not surprising because of the rapid change in social media. There are resources and companies that specialize in this space to help you get your media plan working. Fear of giving away too much information is based on a scarcity mindset. There is no scarcity of information in an information economy. In fact their may be too much random information. By answering your customers questions you save them valuable time and energy sifting through the internet trying to get at what you already know. When you become a resource, you are building a relationship. You establish familiarity, repetition, rapport, and reciprocity. These are all powerful triggers in people that will make your sales process much easier.
If you aren’t a producer yet; where do you start?
Start simple with a blog. Get the feel for the conversation online and understand RSS. RSS is a method of subscribing to online content that allows you access to it in real time. It powers podcasting which will be your next step. You can get a free blog by going to www.wordpress.com. Podcasting is easy. Sites like www.blogtalkradio.com let you call in and record audio podcasts by phone. They already have an audience that you can tap into. Podcasting is very easy and very inexpensive to do. The next step is video. Video is the hottest thing in media. Video allows you to fully engage your audience. According to Comscore, there were 10 billions videos played by U.S. consumers in December of 2007. That represented 144 million people. Thats a majority of the U.S. population. Your customers are online in a big way. If you aren’t there for them to find, who is?
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