Social Media – How to Use it for Business Success

by James on April 22, 2009

I had planned to write a post about Social Media but then I saw Jason Baer’s presentation on Slideshare: 7 Ways to Use Social Media to Build Stunning Business and Personal Brands. I recommend you take a look.

My one disagreement with Jason’s point of view is that it is Mass Media. It is no doubt a significant media channel, one that should not be ignored, but when you consider the number of active participants, a much smaller number than those who have at some time engaged in it, I’m still not convinced or converted.

I will follow up on this with some Hip Shots on how to go about developing your own SM Strategy.

{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }

Jason Baer April 22, 2009 at 8:13 pm

James, thanks so much for the very kind words, and for taking the time to reference my presentation. I really do appreciate it.

On the “mass media” element, I always have something like that at the front of every presentation to shake up the doubters and luddites.

The truth is that there IS NO SUCH THING as mass media any more. When there are 3x more people in the U.S. using Facebook than watching American Idol, there is no mass reach vehicle out there (other than maybe Super Bowl).

Which is precisely why social media is so impactful. It gives you the opportunity to build businesses based on trust and relationships, not targeting and media dollars. And while it takes time and effort to cultivate those relationships, they pay compounding interest in ways that advertising does not, and never did.

So, I agree with you that “social media is mass media” is a bit misleading. I’ll have to think about revising my headline there, while still making the point that it’s not just kids and tech geeks.

All the best,
j

Jason Baer´s last blog post..Is Social Media Too Fast?

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