We’re often asked to define social media either directly (what is social media?) or indirectly (we need a social media strategy), so I thought I’d provide a list of the key platforms that make up what we call “social media”:
- Article directories that publish original user generated content (UGC).
- Blogs that feature original content and allow comment from users.
- Blog aggregators like Technorati that allow members to bookmark, tag, syndicate and recommend blog content to other people.
- File sharing sites with community and comment functions like YouTube and Flickr.
- Forums that allow users to post within a special interest community such as Crackberry.com for Blackberry users.
- Microblogging sites like Twitter and all associated sites like Tweetdeck that carry and syndicate content to their users.
- Review sites for products and services (like Travelocity) that carry user generated content (UGC) and reviews.
- Social bookmarking sites like Delicious and Digg that allow tagging and tag sharing so that other people can explore the same tags.
- Social networking sites like Facebook and LinkedIn that allow communities to manifest themselves online.
- Wikis - online encyclopedias that can be edited by anyone - like Wikipedia
It’s worth noting that there are two critical components in social media, the 2 C’s: Content and Community. These are the two sides of the social media coin.
On the one side, content lies at the very heart of social media. Content populates all the components above, all of which would cease to exist without content. In the case of social media, content is often user generated (User Generated Content or UGC) as opposed to being generated by a professional publishing house. If you are thinking social media in any way, you must be thinking content; without content there is no social media.
Community is the other aspect of social media. Communities gather around people of similar types (alumni, workplace, school, product users etc) or common interests (stamp collecting, trainspotting, FX trading) in the same way that “birds of a feather flock together” in many other aspects of social sciences. Communities are also important because they create a demand for content as members seek opinions or seek to make their own views known. Without communities there would be less of the subtle “friction” that causes many types of content to be generated and consumed.
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Trevor Beattie brings PR into BMB
Trevor Beattie’s BMB agency has announced the launch of an in-house PR function and in the process one of the founders, Andrew McGuinness broadened his definition of what BMB does from advertising to ‘publicity’. As moves by one of the UK’s strongest creative agencies, these developments are worthy of reflection. I see two points of interest:
First, BMB’s move into PR could indicate the arrival a new agency philosophy. The Internet has created a new mechanism for consumers to better inform their purchasing decisions. Opinion on any product or service is now just a click away. There’s been a democratisation of product information. Communities of consumers can exchange notes on any brand. Non-users can easily access these online opinions to inform their own decision making. The formation of brand attitudes is no longer closed and personal, it’s open and communal. As a result, almost anything that costs more than about £20 is now habitually researched on the Internet before being bought. It follows that any agency in the business of helping companies sell products or services needs to understand and respond to this information rich buying model. By putting PR at the heart of their ‘publicity’ offering, BMB are recognising that brand information can be as important as brand imagery.
Second, ‘publicity’ is a great definition of marketing communications. After the 90’s shopping sprees to buy direct marketing, research and experiential agencies new terms for our industry were emerging left, right and centre. The buzz words became ‘360 degree integration’, ‘total communications’ and ‘media neutrality’. Saatchi and Saatchi’s Charlotte Street entrance signage tracked these changes nicely; the agency used to be called “Saatchi and Saatchi Advertising” proudly announcing that it was in the business of making ads and nothing else. Then I noticed the sign over 80 Charlotte Street was reading “Saatchi and Saatchi Communications” as the agency aimed to get into a wider basket of additional marketing services. Now, perhaps on the basis that less is more, the sign reads simply “Saatchi and Saatchi”, with the agency preferring to define itself by nothing more than its name.
At the end of the day we are trying to make something more famous and better thought of than it was yesterday. But we don’t seem to like simple definitions. For me, the word ‘publicity’ is unashamedly simple and so very strong. It’s also the term used by two of the greatest brand managers the world has ever seen; Brian Epstein and Andrew Loog Oldham.