Media and Message

I've been reading a lot lately in various industry posts and forums about the use of social media utilities like Twitter. Personally, I don't Tweet (or blog for that matter) all that much, but, that's not to say that these tools don't have tremendous value. I suppose it really depends on the needs of the individual or company. More importantly, what's undeniable is the real-time ability to cut through social network layers that can grind correspondences to a slow crawl. Bottom line: choose your channels wisely, and whatever happens to be your preference, it's the message, the ideas, that matter most. We are witnessing a radical shift in information sharing as well as experience sharing. And that is something we can all be very excited about. 

The interesting thing in my discussions with agencies and brands alike is a general unwillingness to adapt and try these new tools. Creatives and brand marketing folks tend to think that their message and brand experience gets lost somehow. Media people fear that these platforms will affect their buys (and they do, but mostly in a positive way) and therefore their bottom line. Technology folks don't really want to hear either side and would rather push for things that support the large "robust" backend frameworks they've already built. But who suffers in the end? The consumer.

Look out in a couple weeks for an article that addresses the issue head-on with some interesting case studies on that little thing called "ROI".