Social Media and The Big Picture

A question comes to ne about “the importance of social media in the greater scheme of things in the world of media.”That’s such a big question, I may be missing the intention behind it. Taking that risk, here are a couple of thoughts.There’s a constant subtle ju-jitsu between marketers and consumers. Marketers seek a kind of crowd control — to influence behavior to their own benefit. Consumers seek to escape this control and make choices free of influence.TiVo was a huge win for consumers: watching TV programs without the ads. Social media looks like another huge win: unbiased discussion on the merits and failings of products. But social media is a two-edged sword. The more consumers talk, the more they reveal themselves, and the more they reveal themselves, the more easily they can be targeted by marketers.The recent hoo-hah about Facebook’s Beacon technology (sharing with advertisers the offsite behavior of members) shows how rapidly the forces switch back and forth.If you grasp this dynamic, you will never expect anything to stand still for long. As soon as the marketers seek an advantage, the consumers will seek to overturn it. And when they do, marketers will discover in that very reversal the seeds of new marketing advance.Marketers are challenged in two quite different ways as this process accelerates (and it will). First, you need to stay nimble. Second, you’ll have to watch your ethics, which will be put on the line like never before.