Sunday, October 12, 2008
Traditional Media Loses Lunch
RICHMOND, Va. (Oct. 9, 2008) - With social media networks such as Twitter and Facebook becoming increasingly prominent in daily lives, their influence is beginning to trickle over in areas such as public relations and advertising, resulting a huge affect of how consumers perceive brands.
CEO Geoff Livingston of Livingston Communications delivered a highly relevant lecture about the growing market for social networking systems on Thursday to an audience of about 65 students in the T. Edward Temple building.
The lecture, “PR and Social Media,” touched on subjects such as branding and emphasized on how social networks such as Twitter and Facebook are becoming more influential in corporate America now more than ever because of the recession.
In regarding the economic crisis that has plagued America, Livingston pointed out how many companies are finding traditional media outlets too expensive for advertising and are looking into social networks more.
“It’s about to hit full on now,” Livingston said.
For example, shoe company Zappos is now a one billion dollar business, but had originally started as a New York centered Twitter market. Also, Livingston acknowledged how the Obama campaign has vastly integrated with social networking, allowing them to raise millions of dollars from people all over the United States.
“They (Obama campaign) have created a grassroots mechanism that corporate America is now studying and trying to copy.” Livingston said.
In light of the political campaign strategies, large corporations are becoming more aware of how the opinion of the consumer is spread through mediums such as blogs and online reviews.
Livingston cited three different areas of creating and managing a brand:
- verbal and visual, which is provided by the company to build a promise of what the brand is supposed to be like.
- experience, which is provided by consumers through reviews and blogs.
Livingston described this triage as “a lot of little pictures that make a big picture.” Meaning consumers are getting information from a variety of sources, whether through online reviews or blogs, that allow them to build an opinion of a brand.
Livingston discussed how consumers trust third parties more than the company because consumers believe third party opinions are genuine because they’re not trying to sell anything.
Blogs are becoming ever more prominent, even in traditional media like newspapers. Livingston, being a social media guru, even feels that blogs are not a valid source to use in news stories.
“Nevertheless, the media cites them all the time,” Livingston said. “…Traditional media is losing their lunch to social media.”
# posted by Lacy @ 6:45 PM 
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