Digital Marketing And Social Media PR – The Future Buzz

Scott Rosenberg recently wrote a piece titled: no more bouncers at the journalism club door. It’s a good read and Scott makes quite a logical case that anyone can now do journalism. I agree, it’s no longer a special skill set unique to a select few. When every company is a media company and anyone can do journalism, the strategies of pure media companies and pure content creators take needs to change.

The web is a referential medium. Bloggers and digitally-savvy journalists understand the concept of linking as a source, and instead of having to re-explain something already fleshed out, we just link as proof. It’s simple and as still as effective as ever, even in a real-time world.

Everyone collects competitive data. The web has provided a glut of qualitative and qualitative information you can quickly acquire on competitors to use to your advantage. The truth, though, is most stop at simply collecting this data or using it as a barometer for themselves. In other words: they usually just report on it. Some analyze it.

Last week an interesting situation erupted between TechCrunch and Fortune Magazine. And, it perfectly highlights the old vs. new media mindsets. I suggest you click the previous link and read Mike Arrington’s version of the story, (including emails from Fortune) but in case you’re busy here’s a summarized version of what happened:

I’m a big fan of retailers with physical locations integrating social technologies to tell their stories. And not just by adding a “follow us on Twitter” or “like us on Facebook” buttons to their store windows. That’s all well and good (and if you’re doing interesting things in those channels, great). But those initiatives by themselves are hardly creative or worth remarking on – they’re now typical.

The other day I received an email which makes me think I’m doing all the right things. What was that email? Someone sent me a message noting they didn’t like my content, it was too critical and controversial and they were unsubscribing from this blog. Now you’re thinking I’ve lost it – how can I possibly think that means I’m doing things right?