The Latest New Media Movement
Posted By admin in business marketingLeading at Light Speed is a must-have leadership book by Eric Douglas highlighting the 10 Quantum Leaps to build trust, spark innovation, and create a high-performing organization.
In Chapter 8, Communicate in 12-D, Eric talks about Mobilizing the “New” Media.
If you did a Google search for “GM Bailout” during 2009 when rumors were swirling that the U.S. might force the once-mighty automaker into bankruptcy, you would have gotten two million hits. 2 million. When the dot com bubble lost its hype in 2000, you would have searched up to two hundred online references to “got com bubble.” That’s how explosively our media world has changed.
Pretend you are GM’s vice president of global communications. You will be responsible for two million media press statements, blogs, press releases, YouTube presentations, financial statements, academic reports, tweets and other media propoganda. Think about it. What would be the details of your vision? How would you respond?
The appropriate method, of course, is not the path that GM chose. GM failed to adjust to a light speed world. It continued to manage its communications with an eye toward control rather than leveraging the tools of social marketing and social networks. It provided selective press interviews; it sent reassuring letters to shareholders; it made an unsuccessful appeal to Washington for help. GM could have mobilized hundreds of thousands of current and former customers and shareholders to help its cause in Washington had it been prepared to lead at light speed. But it was not. No preparation was made for years.
In a light speed world, your organization needs to lead the conversation, because that’s how you build trust with customers, shareholders, employees, suppliers, regulators and all the other people who care about you and your organization. You accomplish that by structuring your message box, embarking on new media, and sharing in so many public forums that your voice is the one being heard by many people.
What do I refer to when I say “mobilize new media”? Depending your ability grasp the media’s resourcefulness and prospects, every media module can be your friend or your enemy. The opportunity exists for you to mobilize, whether you utilize social marketing, web pages, email mediums, blogs, e-newsletter, or tweets. The lines between “new media” and “old media” are blurring. Newspapers and magazines are investing as much energy and resources into interactive media as they are into traditional ink and paper. As every form of media pushes to be more interactive, searchable, and convertable, the lines may vanish altogether.
If used smartly, you can mobilize tens of thousands of people to your cause. One notion to implore with the revolution is that the innovate media are within your reach. You no longer have to convince an editor or reporter that your message is interesting. Through the Internet, you can connect to millions of people. If you use your website to communicate your vision, then you’re mobilizing the media. A way to leverage new media is to transmit consistent e-newsletters to your clients, shareholder, and employees. If you are taking advantage of social marketing to outreach to groups of customers and prospective customers, then you’re assertively bring about the media. If you’re combining social networks with text messaging to lobby Congress, you’re in the game. If you’re sharing your expert views via blogs and tweets, you’re mobilizing the media. To summarize, stimulating the media rests on the ability to mobilize the variable means of media to establish the conversation and build relationships with diverse groups in respects to building trust, encouraging participation and ultimately propelling your goals.
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