Have you taken steps to Master New Media?“New Media & Web 2.0” are the talk of the town. You hear about it and experience it everyday. Even “Traditional Media” outlets are jumping on the band wagon to capture their piece of the “electronic pie”. It is becoming the next “dot-com” boom with all of its hype and excitement. That being said, a lot of small to mid-sized businesses are still not exactly sure what is involved in "New Media" tactics; or how this technological know-how could be used to benefit them. Well, to answer that question, let us first look at a few examples of what makes up “New Media & Web 2.0”.
Blogs: To write entries in, add material to, or maintain a web blog.
Podcasts: To deliver a web-based audio broadcast via an RSS feed over the Internet to subscribers.
Vodcasts: To deliver a web-based video broadcast via an RSS feed over the Internet to subscribers.
Webinares: Conduct live meetings or presentations over the Internet in conjunction with a conference call.
Viral Marketing: Marketing techniques that use preexisting social networks to produce increases in brand awareness through self-replicating viral processes.
Forums & Discussion Boards: A web application for holding discussions and posting like-minded user content.
Wikis: Often used to create collaborative websites and to power community websites.
Social Networking: A social structure made of nodes (which are generally individuals or organizations) that are tied by one or more types of interdependency.
Webcasts: A media file distributed over the Internet using streaming media technology (live or recorded).
Mobile Marketing: Marketing on, or with, a mobile device such as a mobile phone i.e.; text messaging (SMS), multimedia messages (MMS), mobile websites.
RSS Feeds: A family of web feed formats used to publish frequently updated content such as blog entries, news headlines or podcasts.
The "New Media" tactics listed above are all very good marketing tools, but it is important you keep in mind that there is no silver bullet. You still need to maintain a strategic marketing mix. It is becoming more important today than ever before. This new marketing mix is now called “Convergence Marketing”. It ties "Traditional Media" and "New Media" together to maximize your marketing impact. (If you are in marketing you have heard a lot about this term.)
The rules of "New Media" and "Traditional Media" are not the same. With "Traditional Media", companies advertise their branded products in order to sell you on how their products/ services are the best on the market. They show off all of the features and benefits it will bring you, the customer... Traditional Media talks at you.
With "New Media", the rules are very different. The new savvy customer is very educated. The customer is now seeking the truth about the product or service that they are going to purchase. It is a “Consumer to Consumer” world now. Consumers are now relying on the web and other sources to get up to speed on what they are looking for. Blogs, forums, social networks, and other modern information gathering tools are being employed to keep tabs on the latest and greatest. In some ways, I guess you could consider "New Media & Web 2.0" usage as the new Consumer Reports. Consumers are trusting other consumers and businesses that do not get involved with the new movement will be “unplugged” from the marketplace.
I am obviously not saying that traditional media and marketing tactics are not important, because they are very important. However, in this new day and age, it is becoming more and more important to tie the two worlds together.
Make sure you understand the differences between the two media types and build your strategies accordingly.
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Norman Wright Jr., President/ Chief Creative Officer at Dimension X, talks about the latest trends in New Media, Convergence Marketing, Mobile Marketing & other important issues that impact businesses and the Advertising & Marketing industry. 