“For the the Times they are a changin…” The collapse of daily print journalism and traditional broadcast media spells catastrophe to some, opportunity to others.

Today, I had an opportunity to sit in on a marketing pitch being delivered to one of my clients by a radio advertising salesman. I was there for an eventual meeting about the development of my own plan for an “integrated” advertising campaign – one that would include earned media in the form of traditional press releases, coupled with a strong emphasis on the rapidly emerging forms of social network media.

In that later meeting, I would provide the following quote from Sut Jhally, Professor of Communications at the University of Massachusetts and founder of the Media Education Foundation:

“Advertisers have to go to where the audience is… if they want to sell products. They have no option but to go where the audience has gone. If the audience has gone online, gone to iPods, gone to Facebook – wherever the audience has gone – that is where advertisers must go.”

As I listened to the “old-school” radio pitchman trying to encourage my client to buy his packages of “spots,” I envisioned the sharp changes that are sweeping over the worlds of journalism and marketing, as we transit from broadcast to networked media. I saw those radio spots floating away in the breeze like the dry seeds of a dandelion blossom…

Maybe they would land somewhere on favorable ground and sprout forth as a new plant. Most of them would simply blow away like dust in the wind.

I realized that I had come to help my client plant and grow a garden. That’s the profound difference between traditional broadcast media (radio, TV and newspaper advertising) and networked social media… In the old school, we continually threw out spots, hoping someone would eventually see or hear one. In the new school we intentionally plant and cultivate a growing presence in new media resources that remains and grows larger in size the more time we invest.

I am talking about new social media tools like:

• a blog-based Web site with an ongoing stream of fresh content,
• a well-crafted business presence on Facebook (500M members),
• a YouTube channel (2nd most popular search engine) with homespun videos,
• micro-blogging your message and joining in the conversation taking place on Twitter,
• learn about sites like FourSquare and the rapidly expanding dimension of location-based technology
• pay attention to public review forums like Trip Advisor, Yelp and others,
• take advantage of the free and ever-evolving set of Google’s gardener tools.

The difference is apparent… it’s no longer a question of “if“ you decide to employ new media. As newspapers shrink and disappear right before your eyes and radio audiences now listen to what they want on iPods and smart phones, it’s now a matter  of “when” you decide to plant that garden.

How does your garden grow?

Contact Social Media Consultant, Stephen Kastner to discuss the most effective ways to plant and grow your social media garden.