Times have changed fast over the past five years. The internet is changing the way we share our thoughts, contacts, and communication on a daily basics. Was this change always coming our way? Was it told by our pandits and guru’s centuries ago? Some say yes and some say no.
Traditional media for the time being is taking a back seat to the global audience who are not interested in reading news, entertainment, or lifestyle of any kind now if it’s not on the net. Record number of Magazines and Newspapers have shut down, as some have down sized, due to the fast growth of consumers spending time on the internet.
Companies like Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, LinkedIN, are growing in record numbers in audience. The largest social website Facebook released in summer 2009 that it was getting over 300 million users a month to their site. That is insane. That is like a third of the world population logging on to Facebook, if not more.
The challenge has been and will be for social networking compaines like Facebook is how to build a advertising strategy to connect with its users. Twitter has yet to figure that out, as companies like LinkedIn has started charging their members for premimum services. Facebook claims that it is now profitable, which is a good sign for advertisers that online advertising is working.
The Traditional Media Makeover
Magazines/Newspapers are rolling out heavy on their online sites, only to find that they are still struggling to connect with their audience. I did some research to discover how many fans on their pages does a big media company have on social networking sites. I decided to test out Facebook pages this summer by starting some pages called: Fashion & Style, South Asian Fashion, HD Trailers, Health & Wellness, Models & Actors, Billionaire Club, etc. Now before I started these pages in summer, I did research to see if large companies in Canada and the US have their branded pages on Facebook to build a fan base. My theory was that if your brand is popular it should have no problem connecting or building it’s fans on Facebook so that they can stay connected with editorial updates when they log into Facebook daily, or weekly. (See full pages and their fans, here)
In less than two months of testing my theory out, I found myself with over 90,000+ fans on Facebook for the pages that I had started. I was behind Cosmopolitan, Vogue, CNN, and New York Times. Which is not bad, and ended up beating the following companies: Vanity Fair, GQ, Maxim, Fashion, INSTYLE, Marie Claire, CTV, ELLE, HELLO Canada, and Toronto Star. All of these companies are either public or very large multi-million dollar empires. This theory showed me the following results:
- That traditional online media companies are not making use of the social network sites to connect with consumers.
- Their content is not interesting for members on Facebook to become fans of their pages.
- They are not updating their site often enough. Which is interesting, because almost all the above sites that are above my pages or below have a Facebook Connect on their comments, telling me that they are making use of Facebook, but little or very low fans to show for it.
My summary on my summer project which is still growing in fans was that there are consumers that should not be ignored. Magazines/Newspapers are always fighting for subscribers or members, well why would you ignore fans that you can connect with daily through Facebook? If traditional media does not make this shift, I can see some new players coming into the market to build new media companies.
What Advertisers Are Looking For?
Advertisers have already started spending and shifting dollars towards online media. They are also not getting the right dose of marketing plan or strategy from publishers to really connect with their target markets.
Advertisers are looking for ROI, Interaction in real time that they can see and guage with their own eyes. A social network fan page directing share link content back to the magazine site does exactly that. So whoever has the largest and most interactive online audience, will win over more advertisers in the online advertising game war.
Advertisers are looking for websites that can prove they have traffic, an online social network, which they can use to create events, and launches for a new product/fashion show, or trade show. The online social media is not being used to its full potential. It’s like the publishers are set in second gear, and advertisers are in third gear. The consumer market however is in fourth gear. But shouldn’t it be the other way around?
The Future
The future is going to be extraordinary. There are no limits on the possibilities of where digital evolution and media will take us. From technology advancements, to breakthrough in science, medicine, and space. The internet will play a large if not the most important role in the growth of our planet earth.