"If you're not appearing, you're disappearing," said legendary jazz musician, Art Blakely. Absolutely true. No matter what your "thing" is - engineer, marketing exec, or French Literature professor, whatever! - standing on the merits of your great work alone is not (usually) enough.
People have got to know about you and your great work. They have got to hear you, see you. If you want people to know about the wonderful things you do, then you must give them the opportunity to experience you.
In today's world this means leveraging your presence on the web. You are the media which means you have to go beyond simply having a profile on a social network. With all the tools of expression the opportunity to "brand yourself, your company or your cause" is only limited by you, your time and your knowledge of the tools. If you don't engage you just may miss your market.
What is Your Market Looking At?
The most recent BIGresearch Simultaneous Media Survey shows that, while traditional media still rank on top in the influence of purchases, many are declining in influence and some are showing double digit losses over the previous year. At the same time, says the study, many new media options are showing double digit growth. For example, when compared to a year ago, Instant Messaging and Blogging experienced double digit growth for purchase influence of electronics while Broadcast TV and Cable showed a double digit decline. Key word here is decline.
So just what is your audience viewing? According to BIGresearch the table below tells the story.
Percent of Media Influence on Electronics and Year over Year Growth | |||||
All Adults 18+ | Yr/Yr Growth | Hispanics 18+ | African Americans 18+ | Caucasians 18+ | |
New Media | |||||
Instant Messaging (Computer) |
7.5% |
22.0% |
11.3% |
14.1% |
5.1% |
Blogging |
6.1% |
21.5% |
9.2% |
7.8% |
4.8% |
Web Radio |
6.2% |
14.4% |
9.2% |
11.2% |
4.2% |
Email Advertising |
21.5% |
9.2% |
24.7% |
24.4% |
20.3% |
Internet Advertising |
22.4% |
-1.4% |
25.8% |
26.4% |
20.6% |
Satellite Radio |
8.4% |
-6.9% |
9.9% |
13.2% |
6.7% |
Video on Cell Phone |
6.9% |
-10.6% |
8.6% |
14.6% |
4.4% |
Traditional Media | |||||
Product Placement |
13.9% |
10.2% |
19.2% |
16.7% |
12.2% |
Direct Mail |
22.5% |
4.6% |
30.0% |
29.7% |
19.9% |
Coupons |
23.1% |
1.6% |
25.5% |
23.4% |
21.9% |
Yellow Pages |
7.9% |
1.5% |
8.8% |
10.5% |
6.9% |
Radio |
19.7% |
0.8% |
26.1% |
30.3% |
15.7% |
Read Article on Product |
34.3% |
0.6% |
30.8% |
28.4% |
36.7% |
Instore Promotion |
27.4% |
0.5% |
28.8% |
28.6% |
26.9% |
Word of Mouth |
42.6% |
0.0% |
42.0% |
38.3% |
44.1% |
Outdoor Billboards |
6.7% |
-0.9% |
10.4% |
10.9% |
4.8% |
Newspaper |
21.8% |
-1.2% |
22.1% |
24.8% |
21.1% |
Magazines |
24.7% |
-3.7% |
28.8% |
25.8% |
23.6% |
Newspaper Inserts |
30.5% |
-4.5% |
28.0% |
27.0% |
32.1% |
TV/Broadcast |
27.9% |
-13.9% |
31.3% |
32.7% |
26.6% |
Cable |
18.9% |
-14.4% |
22.8% |
23.1% |
17.5% |
Source: BIGresearch, February 20 |
Gary Drenik, President of BIGresearch, concludes that "It's no longer enough for marketers to advertise only a slogan... (they) need to better understand the changing dynamics of the consumer media market and develop new marketing plans that integrate new media to replace the erosion of traditional media for influence to purchase... " Please visit BIGresearch here for more detail on their research.
As the social web evolves and new functions and features emerge the relationship dynamics shift even further from traditional media to you if you have created your own media. Your background, experience has an affinity to certain brands. Your presence and your media attract those with common affinities. Together you and your relationships represent influence, purchasing power and reach to specific markets, existing and future. Social commerce will introduce a whole new set of economic factors and opportunities for those engaged and whom have a presence.
Some of the best opportunities may come from quite unexpected places, but you will never know unless you get out there and mix it up.
What say you?