Week 3 - Post 2

This week's material was different in scope than I had expected.  To me the topics were widespread.  But I have been trying to identify the common denominator amongst all of the materials that I read, watched, and listened to thi week.  What stands out as the common thread woven through all of them is connectedness.

The article The Origins of Social Media mentioned a lot of various examples, but underpinning all of it was this sense of "connectedness" amongst the online communities.  The term "blog swarm" that they mention is a great example of such connectedness, and how users can rally around a notion or a cause and impart their will, at least to a degree.  And the article The Seven Segment System for Online Marketing mentions seven usage characteristics of online users, but again underpinning this is how to connect with the consumer. Even the Death of Segmentation article is about connectedness with the consumer, as it makes the point about segmentation must now be geared to the individual.  Again all of this material related to new ways of connecting with the consumer.

So now I ask myself, why is this important?

It is important, in short, because we are living in the dawning of a new age. The DIGITAL AGE.  People nowadays are immersing themselves in digital worlds...virtual worlds...and that is how they are relating to others in the "real world".  And the traditional media outlets that marketers once used are being consumed less as people move towards other channels such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, web TV, etc. This piece I find most intriguing, so I explored it further.

I came across a recent series by Boston's NPR news station, WBUR, about how the use of digital devices is changing our lives.  The first installment resonated most with me, because it discusses how personal relationships are being affected by this digital age. Therein it cites a survey by Time Inc. done in April 2012 that indicates "half of all Americans say they prefer to communicate digitally than talk in person."

That statistic is bewildering! 

It is no wonder marketers are having to change their tactics. It would seem that individuals themselves are having to change their tactics 1-on-1 with each other!  So given all of this, marketers have to educate (and perhaps reeducate) themselves on how to best utilize these communication channels and social media outlets in order to "connect" to their consumers. 

 So then I ask myself, "Well now what?"  

Well, the culmination of what I have learned this week can be summarized quite concisely.  Companies that focus on connecting to consumers via these various social media channels, and engaging with those individuals, and all the while maintaining authenticity and transperency, will have greater success with respect to improving their brand and increasing awareness thereof.