How social is social media?

Seth Godin might be a name that rings a bell.

I recognised the name upon reading it, but didn't know where from or why.

Turns out he was the author of Permission Marketing (1999), which proved to be "an all out attack on what he called 'interruption marketing', or all that traditional offline creative work" (Harrison, S. 2009. pg. 11). His argument being that society's gradual departure from the real world into Cybersphere, means that a spawning of technologically empowered consumers will sought only to let the messages into their life that they wish to receive. To put it bluntly, any form of offline marketing was a dying art.

But before getting carried away with thinking that every message we want to broadcast needs to have a Facebook group and around-the-clock Twitter feed, let look at some of the facts:

Social networking

Research conducted by Forrester Techno-graphics found that only 25 per cent of the total number of UK internet users use social networking sites once a month or more. The remaining 75 per cent use them either once a month or not at all. The majority of those using social networking sites on a daily basis are aged 16-24 and predominantly students, therefore, in the interests of media planners, pretty tight for cash.

Blogging

IPA-sponsored research (pub. Jan 2009) shows that of the UK's online consumers, a mere 2.8 per cent bother to blog. Only 8.8 per cent read them and only 3.7 per cent comment. So even though I feel my personal blog is caught like a rabbit in the headlights amidst the Blogging motorway, maybe I should stop thinking 'everyone has a blog so why bother...' when in reality most people don't. I should also be less concerned with whether people read what I write - especially when so few read them anyway  - and just be pleased that I do have something to show the people who want to read what I write.

Forums

In the same IPA-sponsored research, a lowly 6.5 per cent of UK online consumers contribute to online chat rooms and discussion forums. Again, a tiny fraction.


This goes to show two things.

1) That there is still an incredibly large un-digital market out there for what are known as the 'massive passives'. In fact, according to a book called Groundswell (Li, C. Burnoff, J. 2008) even within the digital community 53 per cent of these are still regarded as massive passives.

2) Regardless of the medium used, the most successful pieces of work always have a strong idea at their core. Alix Pennycuick, the new creative director of Publicis Modem (Publicis' digital arm) underlines this notion in Campaign magazine's 'Digital Essays' (pub. 2009),

"It's the same challenge we have always faced: how to capture the public's imagination in the first place ... We need to forget ATL and BTL, online or offline and remember that, above anything else, it is the quality and creativity of the content that creates breakthrough experiences today."

Sources:

• Harrison, S. How to do better creative work. 2009. Pearson Education LTD. Gosport, GB.
• Li, C. & Burnoff, J. Groundswell. 2008. Harvard Business School Press. US.