by John Lonsdorf, President
It drives me crazy when I hear people pronounce with complete (but wildly misguided) confidence that “the mainstream media is dead” or that “social media is the ONLY platform that marketers need to pay attention to today.”
Hogwash.
The good folks at HP just did an in-depth and very revealing study of how big social media trends get started, and what or who initiated the conversations. And guess what?
According to Bernardo Huberman, HP Senior Fellow and director of HP Labs’ Social Computing Research Group, more often than not, it was actually the mainstream media that initiated and fed the biggest and most celebrated viral trends. According to Huberman, “We found that mainstream media play a role in most trending topics and actually act as feeders of these trends. Twitter users then seem to be acting more as filter and amplifier of traditional media in most cases.”
Yes, the mainstream media is still driving much of what we talk about, care about, and engage around. And while nobody can deny the power and the immediacy of the social media revolution (with recent events in Egypt being the poster child for that power and immediacy), it is clear that traditional media sources still initiate and steer much of what we are all talking about.
The advent of radio did not kill print. Television did not make radio obsolete. And while social media is transforming the communication landscape, it will not make these other media platforms irrelevant at any time in the foreseeable future.
The point is simply this: good, comprehensive marketing today – just as it has always been since the day the cavemen combined cave drawings with word-of-mouth – should be a multi-platform effort. Choose a combination of communication vehicles based on what will best help you to tell your story and deliver your key messages in the most visible, relevant and credible manner – and not simply on a “flavor of the month” basis.
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