Social media means we’re all journalists and writers, its not just for newspapers & publishers!
Anyone remember Netscape? CompuServe? Windows 95? Processors running at 333MHz?
Well if you can you’ll also remember that when the Internet started to flourish it was run by those with the information, or rather those who had the budget and the ability to publish information.
The Media (magazines, newspapers, TV, radio) could all re-present their information on their own web sites with ease. This drew us all into those sites and showed traffic levels way surpassing viewing figures or circulation numbers. It was a perfect match > The publishers had the information we all needed to know which meant they maximised their audience reach.
But in 2009 the online landscape is very different.
There are:
- over one million blog posts every 24 hours
- 346,000,000 who regularly read blogs
- 77% of Internet users who regularly read blogs
- There are 200 million blogs
- 25% of search results for the World’s Top 20 largest brands are links to user-generated content
- More than 1.5 million pieces of content (web links, news stories, blog posts, notes, photos, etc.) are shared on Facebook…daily
What this is telling us is that we are now ALL publishers. Blogs and simple web sites can be set up in minutes and hours, not days, weeks or months.
Social Media has allowed us all to involve ourselves in things which involve us. Ask yourself – what is more relevant? the single view of the newspaper film critic (as expert as he/she may be) or the reviews and votes of thousands of IMDB (Internet Movie Data Base – www.imdb.com).
Is it better to read the personal thoughts from people on product/services or even world events directly or have them fed through the traditional media? The first piece of information published about the air crash in the Hudson River, New York was on twitter (with photo’s). This is 100 times more powerful and real than waiting for tonight’s news or tomorrows papers.
The traditional media needs to incorporate user generated content in order to keep itself alive online. It is better for them to realise we’re all using forums/blogs/reviews/twitter/flickr/facebook/linkedIn ( i could go on & on & on & on…..) to engage with the whole world on what we think and say what we want to say. If we’re able to be involved with the big companies, brands and media and are allowed to engage with them then things will work out just fine.
…if we’re not then it’s my guess that we’ll just do it anyway and our way!
We want to get people together and create communication hubs for all. Our aim is to get you engaging with the people you want to talk to. Personal & business life cannot solely be played out in front of computer screens. Through social media and digital marketing Cow Bell will develop an environment where you are at the very centre of where your current & prospective customers live - on & offline
