What converging mainstream and social media means for marketing and PR

Too many people are still hung up with outdated artificial demarcations between "mainstream media" and "social media", arguing that one is more legitimate. This leads to flawed marketing and PR strategic decisions.

This is especially true of many (but not all) public relations agencies whose reps do their clients a disservice by focusing on one form of media over another.

Nonsense. The distinctions have nearly disappeared. You've got to eliminate your prejudice.

Whenever this subject pops up, I'm prompted to ask some questions:

- What is a blog?
- What is an online news site like Huffington Post?
- What is it when a print newspaper like the New York Times or a television network like the BBC publishes an online news site?
- What is it when readers can post comments to on an online story from a magazine?
- What about when a reporter for the BBC maintains a blog?
- What are the Twitter feeds of New York Times reporters?

Guess what? It's all just real time media!

The Huffington Post is a technically a blog. It is written on the Blogger platform so there is no difference technically when I write for the Huffington Post or when I write on Web Ink Now, my personal blog.

The Huffington Post is a blog, but is one of the most important news sites on the Web with a recent Alexa ranking as I write this of 77, making it in the top 100 of all sites of any kind in the world.

The Huffington Post is a blog, but won the Pulitzer Prize in the category of national reporting for senior military correspondent David Wood's 10-part series about wounded veterans, Beyond the Battlefield.

The BBC is mainstream media, but readers can comment on stories (and thousands do).

The New Yorker is a magazine, but people can share links to stories within the site using widgets for Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Google+, and Tumblr.

What the blurring of mainstream media and social media means for your business

When your buyers search Google or another search engine for information related to your business, they don't really care if the top results come from a "news site" like the BBC, a "blog" like the Huffington Post, or your own content rich Web site. So you need to eliminate the bias.

When buyers ask a question on social media they are happy when someone sends a valuable link to information on the web. They don't scrutinize what’s recommended to them and dismiss the blog content and only read the remainder. They're happy for something that educates and entertains.

The best marketing and PR strategies must include creating your own content, including text, video, and images. It should also include strategies for getting noticed by important voices so they write about you, which comes back to the content you create.

photo credit: DanAllison via photopin cc

Comments

[Edwindearborn]

I believe that you should start a reality TV show (Could be done via YoutTube), demonstrating these principles with actual SMB's. I have read your books and they have propelled my creativity for myself and in helping many others. I am frustrated over thee same questions, as if a Blog is a temporary fad. Where I have gained ground is to give them ONE stable idea to run with, such as, "Just get on LinkedIn and complete your profile. Good, now start connecting with your existing clients." Baby steps. But if a show could demonstrate this, in a real-life SMB scenario, it would gain traction.

[David Meerman Scott]

Ediwin - that's actually quite a good idea! I agree that the best ways to learn this stuff is through examples which is why I try to have several case examples a month on this blog.

[Paul Avery]

As usual David, you're right on the money.

Ironically, making connections with buyers has always been about content, whether it has been an entertaining television advert, an informative whitepaper, or evidence that a product will boost the buyer's self esteem! ;) all that has changed is the need to leverage content across different media to effectively reach your target audience, depending on where they get most of their information from.

The BBC here in the UK is a great example of the blur between offline and online media. We can catch watch live broadcasting on the television or access iplayer via a tivo box or using the web. Other great content can be found on the BBC website, much of which overlaps with what is being presented using the organisations other channels. There's also a range of audio podcasts available, using content that was originally broadcast on the radio. All this is also available via mobile devices using a range of apps. I get my content using the medium that suits me, and the BBC keeps me interested by covering as many topics as possible, available by as many channel as possible, so that I'll find one that suits my individual needs (while meeting the needs of millions of other people at the same time).

Social media has added an extra layer to all this - making the conversation two way (e.g. like this blog post!). The key is that just because I read something in a newspaper I can still tweet about it! I'm not confined to the print world.

It's all power to the people. We get our information from where we want to, and if a channel or 'vendor' (which is pretty much anyone who can type) loses credibility with us, we can drop them in a heartbeat and 'follow/connect with' someone else.

To come full circle though, it always come back to content. Certainly, I need to find it easily and on a timeline that suits me, but if it adds no value, I'm gone...

[David Meerman Scott]

Hi Paul. Thanks for jumping in. You're right of course - it all comes back to content. I find it fascinating that the BBC is getting more social while bloggers like me are going more mainstream by writing for pubs like Huffington Post - but in the end the best content gets shared and talked about. Thanks again for the thoughtful comment.

[Tim Dempsey]

How about the line between marketing and PR? Not at all convinced that's a relevant "Maginot" either. With media disintegrated to the degree they are now, we are naked before the public -- with little obvious need for a "relations" intermediary. What do you think?

[David Meerman Scott]

Hi Tim - Yes marketing & PR are converging too of course. When somebody goes to Google and researches a product they are looking for the best content regardless of source. I do think there is still room for specialists in area like media relations and analyst relations and investor relations but idea of hiring PR people to pitch for you doesn't seem viable when you can create the content yourself.

[Kent]

We need both mainstream and social media to separate fact and fiction online.

[David Meerman Scott]

Kent, so are you saying that the social media places I write (like this blog and Huffington Post) are fiction?

[Rj_c]

I guess many agencies or so called professionals who divide them are either naive or like to confuse their clients to increase revenue!

One of the main reasons I visit this blog is because You can take something that is difficult to explain and explain it in a few sentences! I have to agree people want content that either educates or entertains and they want quality! They don't care as much where it came from!

[Tom Borgman]

This latest commentary is spot on David. It's remarkable how often I just naturally direct others in our local marketing/communications community to your blog and books! Really outstanding. The tenets you so adroitly espouse are where higher education, academic/business books, the communications/marketing industry, etc. will HAVE to move towards to hang onto any kind of relevancy.

Yet, in our many dialogues with companies/agencies about content, it's frustrating how this subject is still mostly given zero to token attention. I understand that once you "get it" and commit to it, it is a huge intellectual, organizational and tactical challenge - a sea change I guess...and those take awhile. We just hope to play a small part of the change ourselves (btw, thanks for mentioning video in your post). And we sure appreciate being able to shamelessly use your musings to help us make sense and gain traction. Cheers.

P.S. Great to see you regularly interspersing the term real time media into your posts! :-)

[David Meerman Scott]

Thanks Raul. I'm glad that you value my posts.

Hi Tom - Many thanks! Yes, it can be frustrating at times for me too but everyone learns at different speeds. This communications revolution we're living through is several decades in the making.

[Ren Lacerda]

Thanks for this article David. The separation - or the lack of - between social and mainstream media have been on my mind for quite a while. It is indeed quite easy to see it all as one media when it comes to high quality blogs and modern and up-to-date mainstream media. But is the line as blurry when it comes to other aspects of social media that are not high quality blogs (like yours) and classic mainstream media channels?