Marketing Technology

This is a reproduction of an article originally written for the International Association of Business Communicators’ monthly CW Bulletin.

The media landscape upon which many communicators depend is changing. Social media are quickly claiming their place alongside mainstream channels, and as a consequence, disrupting the traditional process of news gathering and reporting, with implications for every communicator.

As the term suggests, the main characteristic of this emerging form of publishing (also referred to as “citizen journalism” or “user-generated content”) is its social nature. It is communal, connected and participatory – in contrast, some argue, to the increasingly patronizing nature of mainstream media (or MSM, as it is often called in social media circles).

To be honest, it’s nothing new. Personal publishing on a global scale became a possibility back in the early 1990s to anyone with the right technical skills. But it is the growth in Internet usage and, critically, the spread of simple online tools and services that has fuelled the social media trend. As the most prolific form of this craze, blogging represents the modus operandi of today’s “citizen journalist” (and indeed of many “traditional” journalists, who now keep blogs so they can write outside of their usual editorial or legal constraints).

Yet blogs are not the only fruit in the social media orchard. Other platforms such as wikis, podcasting, social networking and social bookmarking are enabling conversations to take place at a grassroots level, delivering information, opinion, argument, emotion and humor in a collaborative way. From these conversations, new forms of social organization and knowledge exchange are emerging.

The good news is that the participants in these new social media circles are the same people you already know how to reach through traditional media channels. The bad news is that as they spend more of their time interacting with social media and less time reading newspapers, watching TV or listening to radio, they are realizing that they can get much better information and support from one another than from your company. Chances are, this “networked” market (in which your own employees participate, by the way) knows more about your products and services than you do. And they tell everyone, right or wrong, good or bad. As the Missouri School of Journalism’s Clyde Bentley says, “The main difference between traditional journalism and citizen journalism is that traditional journalists are sent out to cover things they don’t really care about…. A citizen journalist is not out to cover something, but to share it.”

Mainstream media are also becoming more social as a result (some more so than others, admittedly). Media outlets like The Wall Street Journal are starting blogs on business topics in an attempt to solicit comment and connections from readers. The BBC encourages readers to send in mobile phone camera images of major events (usually disasters – they recently received 6,500 images of a fuel depot explosion in the U.K.). And Le Monde is actually offering its readers the opportunity to set up a blog on its web site.

So how are you responding? My slightly uneducated guess is that you aren’t (although I hope you will prove me wrong). You can be forgiven for thinking that this is all just another fad or something that only socially challenged geeks with too much time on their hands do. If this strikes a chord, I think you need to change your perceptions. You need to be looking at this new media landscape with a fresh pair of eyes.

The traditional way of communicating is essentially either one-to-one (press/analyst briefings, etc.) or one-to-many. The company crafts the message and chooses the most appropriate channels, and the audience receives it (and with any luck, acts on it). The new way of communicating, however, is many-to-many. Think of it as a swirling mass of different voices and perspectives, where influence is based solely on how well you can express yourself rather than who you are or how long you have been around. The currency of this new media landscape is the ability to communicate appropriately.

First, however, you need to learn that it is no longer possible to control your message. Then you need to learn that this is a good thing – companies that fail to realize this will miss the opportunity to participate in the conversations taking place. The participants in these networked markets have no respect for companies unable or unwilling to speak as they do.

So your new three-stage mantra should be:

1. Listen to what is being discussed in social media about your markets, brand, company and competitors.
2. Engage. Communicate appropriately with the people with whom you hope to create relationships.
3. Build your network. Smart markets will find suppliers who speak their own language, share their concerns and participate in their communities. Your network is your best spokesperson in social media.

This new media landscape – and particularly the manner in which companies respond – provides a unique opportunity for communicators. They are the ones who should advise their organizations on how to become connected participants in social media, not bystanders, ensuring that they communicate appropriately and at the right time. It’s time to move from command-and-control to collaborate-and-participate communication. Are you ready?

Niall Cook (ncook@hillandknowlton.com) leads Hill & Knowlton’s social media efforts in the U.K. He contributes to the agency’s Collective Conversation community at blogs.hillandknowlton.com.