Social Media: The Mothership for Local content

For many years, I used to prepare my local radio show using information I found in newspapers, television shows I watched and stories I learned from my friends. This was many years before the home computer and the world wide web. For many years, the traditional media employed similar methods to locate and source content for their respective operations.

In case you have not noticed, we are not in Kansas anymore!

You do not have to wait for content to be delivered to you via radio, television or newspaper. We have rapidly become reliant on the high speed access to content at our fingertips.
You want pizza delivery, order online from their website.
You want to find a review from last nights concert that was not in the newspaper, check to see what your friends are saying on Facebook.
You want to find if your friend arrived home safely, send them a text message.

Social Media is the 'mothership' for local content. Social media has empowered each and every user with the ability to communicate and broadcast a message without time or editorial restrictions like traditional media. I agree there is a lot of content being published on social media that I constitute as rubbish, but one persons trash is another persons gold. And just like traditional media, we have the ability to flip the page or change the channel if we find something we are not interested in.

Am I suggesting that the new on-line Social media will replace all current forms of media and make radio, television and newspaper extinct? No.

The new on-line media is creating interesting new challenges for traditional media but they, too, are faced with a unique opportunity for rebirth and continued life.

Imagine; your 'daily newspaper' delivered fresh to your desktop or smart phone but instead of just one paper, you are able to view many real time updates from news organizations you have preselected. This is a reality.

Imagine; your favorite radio station not only plays what you want but creates on-line engagement by responding and reacting to topics being published by their fans (like you) on Facebook or Twitter. This is a reality.

Imagine; you can contribute a story to the television news by recording a video on your smart phone from a local community event and emailing it to the television station. This is a reality.

Traditional media outlets are looking for new ways to find engagement with their audience. Might I suggest taking a serious look at the impact of social media. There appears to be a lot of engaged people around the world...all broadcasting and rebroadcasting local content each and every day.

Social Media = two words
Social - to create two-way communication
Media - the ability to broadcast to the masses

-Darren

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Marketing and Promotion on a shoe-string budget

How can you create a successful event with very little budget?
I recently attended a fundraising event in my small hometown in central Saskatchewan. For a once thriving community that supported the local farming and ranching families has been reduced to only about 100 residents. The grain elevators are gone, the skating rink has disappeared and the school I once attended is now the community grocery store. But one thing that has not changed is the small town spirit of "community".

While I have always stayed in contact with my family and friends in this small community, I witnessed an event that would make Marketing, Promotions and Public Relations specialists proud. The success of this event was not the result of a major advertising campaign. Not at all. In fact this sold-out event was the result of 10% advertising and 90% old-school social marketing; the telephone.

What I have failed to mention so far is the fact that in this quiet town of approximately 100 residents, many were engaged by the fundraising initiative and picked up the phone to tell their friends and family. Many of those contacted also talked with other friends and spread the word to a more far reaching group of engaged family and friends. After the home cooked meal, the speaches, video presentations and music, more than 200 people attended this small town fundraiser - a sell-out event. Money raised will be provided to purchase a piano and other musical instruments for the residents of a local Seniors Lodge.

Why was this a success? Good old fashioned two-way communication...the telephone.

When planning your next event or promotion, take a page from my friends back home:
-the event must have a worthy cause,
-the event must have a solid base of supporters who believe in the event,
-the event can be 'advertised' through conversation and networking,
-follow up with guests prior to the event to remind them the importance of their attendance,
-do not give up the cause.


In memory of my Uncle, Don Lynch.
"Any day that you don't laugh is a wasted day."