Digital Marketing And Social Media PR – The Future Buzz

In previous case studies here at The Future Buzz, I have analyzed examples of

• Building a blogging network
• Building buzz in the blogosphere
• Building popularity by teaming up with an exceptional content creator
• Using an internet meme for fun and profit.

Next up, I’m going to show you a great example of what a popular blogger has done to successfully dominate the landscape in a relatively short amount of time by developing a unique brand at his blog, Dosh Dosh.

But first, let’s start with some background…

A recent survey from PEW Research Center for the People and Press confirmed what most of us already know: the net beats newspapers as a source for news:

Other interesting points from the survey:

• For the first time in a Pew survey, more people say they rely mostly on the internet for news than cite newspapers (35%).
• Nearly six-in-ten Americans younger than 30 (59%) say they get most of their national and international news online; an identical percentage cites television.
• The percentage of people younger than 30 citing television as a main news source has declined from 68% in September 2007 to 59% currently.

It is blindingly obvious that the future of communication belongs to the web – to believe otherwise would be to look backwards, not forwards. Despite a few reporters still pining for the “good old days” the rest of us are moving forward into a more free and open information society.

If you are involved in media, communications or your job description involves spreading ideas and you are not participating on sites such as Digg and Reddit you are at a huge disadvantage compared to those who are.

There is so much you can learn from the open socialization of news, content and ideas that these communities are unmissable from a sociological perspective. Success in social media is more than knowing how to market – it is understanding society. At its core, the social web is merely all of us having a giant digital conversation anyway.

Especially interesting to me and why I want to focus on Digg and Reddit specifically and not others in this post is the community fostered. The Digg and Reddit communities are far more vibrant in the discussions, opinions and vocalizations than others such as StumbleUpon and Delicious due to their layout. I won’t say they are “better” or “worse” at sharing content, that is entirely subjective – just different.

image credit: lastbeats

If you’re a blogger, marketer, designer or any type of creative, your best ideas probably hit you when you’re not actively looking for them. Rather, they strike when you’re engaged in another task, or sometimes quite randomly. That is why it is vital to carry a pad and pen (or the digital variety) with you everywhere you go.

What happens to me in many cases is my best ideas strike while in the shower, driving my car, at the gym or while running/rock climbing/swimming — times when I can’t just stop what I’m doing and write down an idea (hey inventors, here’s an idea: a water-proof white board for the shower).

Anyway while working out the other day, it struck me how going to the gym is highly analogous to blogging. The analogy is as simple as: going to the gym is good for your body, as blogging is good for your brain.

There’s a bunch of buzz lately in tech and marketing circles with an ever-increasing disdain for self-imposed titles. The one which stands out in the marketing niche is some incantation of “social media (or new media) consultant (or expert or specialist).” Mix and match as you please.

As an aside, there is a backlash across the web with an ever-increasing disdain for the word entrepreneur as literally everyone who has created some sort of .com is slapping the title on themselves.

Literally throngs of individuals (and even agencies) are dubbing themselves with impressing-sounding titles and claims without much evidence to prove they’ve had success doing much of anything.

image credit: pbo31

It seems like every other week, we see articles, blog posts and other observations about Gen Y. And usually, they are written by people who aren’t even a part of the generation. It always makes me cringe to read these, especially when they try and offer “advice” for managing people in my demographic.

As I have spent essentially my entire life watching/studying this demographic as an observer and participant, I thought I’d be able to give you some qualitative analysis that would be more interesting than what people outside of the age group can provide. After all, do you really think a younger generation behaves in their true form around an older generation?

Here’s my observations that may run counter to what you read by those in older generations: