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The Future of Social Media has Arrived! The War is Over!

By Tac Anderson ⋅ September 1, 2009 ⋅ Post a comment
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The Future has Arrived

We have reached the tipping point.

  • 90% of US adults are online*
  • 80% of US online adults participate in social media**

Unless you are targeting the very poor and/or the elderly, as marketers, you do not have to target those who do not participate in social media.

Everything you create has to be social.

Everything you do had better have social media at the heart of it. I am not saying it is the only thing you do. I am saying that everything you do had better be social. Your goal of all marketing communications should be to get your content into the social media conversation.

Sometimes the main stream media will accomplish that for you, but they are no longer the goal. I’ll give you a tip, the media was never the goal; the customers were, are and always will be.

“But the key decision makers I’m targeting don’t use social media that way.” Maybe not but I promise the people they get their information from - analysts, search engines, coworkers and reporters - do.

What other arguments are there? By targeting social media you will hit almost 3/4 of your users. Then how much of current news media is generated via social networks? You will still hit a significant portion of those remaining 1/4. Quit talking to the media and start talking to your customers. If the conversations are good the media will cover that. But the media, like your customers, are more interested in good conversations than your announcement.

The challenge is identifying the right social media activities to enable based on who you’re actually trying to reach.

Here’s the new process (which *shouldn’t* be that much different):

  1. Create great socially enabled content. (Is it compelling, shareable and embeddable?)
  2. Seed that content to key, social networks, conversation starters and influencers. (This can be anyone from reporters, bloggers or key customers.)
  3. Monitor and participate in the conversation as it grows. (What’s working, what’s not. Share other people’s conversation/content with above influencers.)
  4. Continue the conversation with more great content. (Story telling is non-linear and cyclical not a one time shot.)
  5. Repeat.

Yes, Europe (Forrester link) and Asia are still a little behind. But by next year-ish this should be globally true.

Why are we still having this discussion? I’m over it.

*(85-95% depending on which survey’s you choose to believe)
**(According to Forrester’s latest research)

Photo credit: HI-LITE

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About Tac

Social media anthropologist. Communications strategist. Business model junkie. Chief blogger here at New Comm Biz.

Visit Tac Anderson's Website   |  
  • ztoryteller

    As usual, informative. From where I sit it never really felt like a war, though. Instead of enemies fighting, it feels like an invasion by weeds. Pretty weeds, with nice flowers, but I'm sort of wondering whether we'll all be so overwhelmed by these vines before long, that we will wish the media were still there to frame the discussion again.

    We're losing expert, in-depth reporters; travel agents; and before long, realtors. Anyone whose job existed because they were able to know more than someone else is going to have to fight The Vine for sunlight, space, and water. Over the next decade, many colleges, libraries, book stores, and book publishers will be heavily threatened.

    Not that there's any going back.

  • http://www.jeremymeyers.com/ Jeremy Meyers

    We're still having this discussion because people who don't think the discussion is warranted underestimate the power of organizational momentum.

    Companies are made up of people who have been doing their job the same way for a long time. Some are adapting, some are not. The higher up you get, the more conservative the thinking (This is just a fact of life, as higher-up people are more accountable upward than downward). What you're talking about isn't just setting up a twitter account. It's a fundamental shift in every aspect of the value chain for a company, a cancelling out of what they've been using as success metrics for years, and the momentum of tactics that have only become less effective (advertising, mass media) in the last 3-4 years, which is an eternity in internet time but a mere blip in the history of business marketing.

    To think that this conversation is over just because statistics show that most people use a social network (whether they use it to find out about products or not is another story, with the number of people fanning/friending a business closer to 50%) is idealistic and not very realistic given the economic and business climate overall.

    It's a nice thought, though.

  • http://eTweeple.com Scott Prock

    @TacAnderson your blog post is dead on. What I see is a repeat of Internet history, but obviously this wave will pass a lot faster.

    I'm referring to the reluctance of most brick and mortar businesses to jump online 5-10 years ago. These same people are slow to adopt social media for the very same reasons they were slow to create an online presence. The problem this time around, is they will sink a lot faster, and unless they act quickly they won't have enough time to bail the water.

    I'm still amazed at home many businesses are still not online, let a lone those who refuse to embrace social media.

    Cheers … Scott (we miss you here in Boise)

  • http://www.newcommbiz.com/a-glimpse-into-the-future-of-social-media-journalism-and-advertising/ New Comm Biz » A Glimpse into the Future of Social Media, Journalism and Advertising

    [...] will the future of social media look like? You just need to look around because “The future is already here - it is [...]

  • http://www.dragonsearchmarketing.com/blog/the-future-of-social-networking-is-not-what-the-social-media-experts-would-have-you-believe/ Andrew

    Yes, social media is not to be ignored. But, at the same time, marketers should not run roughshod over the social media landscape exploiting every opportunity to connect with people that can be found. You suggest a few methods to follow in order to successfully utilize social media marketing, but I think that using social networds brand should be done much more carefully. In fact, marketing on social media should be more of an opt-in process for the user. In other words, create your social media presence and invite attention. Don't go out and grab it for yourself. If popular social media platforms get clogged with marketing, the peoples will head to greener, less cluttered pastures.

  • http://www.dragonsearchmarketing.com/blog/the-future-of-social-networking-is-not-what-the-social-media-experts-would-have-you-believe/ Andrew

    Yes, social media is not to be ignored. But, at the same time, marketers should not run roughshod over the social media landscape exploiting every opportunity to connect with people that can be found. You suggest a few methods to follow in order to successfully utilize social media marketing, but I think that using social networds brand should be done much more carefully. In fact, marketing on social media should be more of an opt-in process for the user. In other words, create your social media presence and invite attention. Don't go out and grab it for yourself. If popular social media platforms get clogged with marketing, the peoples will head to greener, less cluttered pastures.

  • http://www.newcommbiz.com/when-social-media-stops-being-shiny/ When Social Media Stops Being Shiny | New Comm Biz

    [...] made it. This is the place we all wanted to be. The social media war is over. Aren’t we all excited [...]

  • http://ensbell.net/Forgen Sean

    Great post and great comments - I will submit a chuckling golf clap when those that refuse to change go down with the information revolution! Viva la (Social)Internet! ;)

  • http://www.newcommbiz.com/the-future-of-hr-and-social-media-facebook-connect/ The Future of HR and Social Media: Facebook Connect? | @NewCommBiz

    [...] The Future of Social Media has Arrived! The War is Over! (newcommbiz.com) [...]

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