Social Media goes legitimate

A friend of mine who used to read this blog until I took my long hiatus due to unemployment (now over, I'm relieved to say), told me he would never sign up for Facebook because he wants real friends, not virtual ones. Well sorry Zack, but social media is here to stay, whether you like it or not.

Social media, things like Facebook, Twitter, Myspace, even Blogger have dramatically changed the face of the Internet, and things will never be the same. Whereas one can make the case that porn built the Internet as we know it, these networking sites have sustained and encouraged its continued growth.

Companies who just a few short years ago were developing their first fledgling Web sites now have employees whose sole purpose and duties is to spread the word about specials, new offerings, etc., via the Web. Whether they are successful or not varies widely, but it's interesting nonetheless.

Of course this whole process relies upon the fact that there is an amazingly vast amount of information available online requiring only a small degree of ingenuity and a large amount of nosiness. Want to stalk your high school girlfriend or college roommate? Send them a Facebook friend request and more likely than not you'll find out their location, relationship status, even where they work, plus a regularly updated dialogue describing current events in their life. It's kind of scary really. Granted, lots of this information was available before, either through friend back-channels or the powers of a Google search, but now it's all available in one handy, gift-wrapped package.

But as great as this is for those of us who enjoy prying into the lives of former friends and acquaintances, the real power of social media lies in its abilities to tailor what merchants and service providers offer us. Anyone who Twitters (?Tweets?) knows all about the entrepreneurs selling their goods via that tool, but the real question is: who's buying? Like infomercials, somebody must be snapping up the deals offered, but God knows I'm not. So who is? How is it an effective tool for a agricultural magazine to pimp their latest news on Twitter? The only answer I have is that it's the shotgun approach. Much like most sales, the more people you reach, the more potential sales you have.

In all reality, the new channels that these technologies have opened up has forever altered the reality of marketing. So what does this mean? Are we going to witness the slow, yet inevitable death of traditional marketing, similar to what print newspapers are going through? Not likely, but this train is moving ahead full speed, so it's time to either get on, or else get out of the way. And if you're getting out of the way, well, enjoy your stone age, hunter-gatherer lifestyle. But know this, like the Neanderthals, you're slowly heading for extinction. Good luck