Tim Matheson’s John Hoynes made the declaration jokingly on The West Wing in 1999. Ten years ago. For some reason the exchange came to mind as I fielded some questions at NCMPR this week. “Why should I get into {insert social media platform here}? It will just change in a few months.”
Should you create a campaign around the latest platform? First of all, you need people in place to find out what that platform is. Do you have someone on staff that knows enough about the social media environment to identify the Next Big Thing? Get one. Otherwise you’ll always be behind the ball. But we’ll continue that discussion on a different day.
Technologies will change, but some trends and themes will remain constant throughout the evolution. Think of these as indicators of usefulness of a new platform. If a platform addresses some or all of these, give it a second look. {Related homework assignment: Check out Mike Shaffer’s thoughts on the 5-year plan for social media. Good discussion in the comments.}
The educated consumer//Is this platform a useful and trustworthy resource? We’re not making impulse purchases as much any more. We’re not relying on the retail stores to recommend products. Before we pick out our big screens, we’re researching – not just for the best price, but for the best value. We monitor reviews online and can tell when a review is authentic. (Side note: it’s OK for a company to take part in these conversations about their product, as long as they’re transparent.)
Immediacy of the news//How “real-time” is this platform? We want to know now – and if you can’t tell us, we’re going to someone who will. During the chaos of the passing of Michael Jackson (remember how he broke the internet?) we scrambled to get information – and we didn’t care where we got it. CNN wouldn’t confirm, so we went to the gossip sites who first broke the news.
Convenience is king//Does this platform make something more convenient? While some may call our nature fickle, we don’t switch technologies because we’re bored. We switch because this new one makes whatever we’re doing more convenient. Maybe it’s integration, maybe it’s a mobile platform that we can take with us. We started with AOL accounts, got rid of them when they created AOL Instant Messenger. Then when AIM introduced away messages, we communicated only through them, bringing out the stalker in all of us. Does anyone still use AIM? Now we can sign into our gmail and access it via google chat.
Information consumption is social//Does this platform promote the sharing of information? We want to be in the know. And we want other people to know that we’re in the know. This is not going to change any time soon. The Internet is a shared experience and will continue to be in the future.
Not only do these have to be addressed in a new platform, but they have to be markedly better at it or there has to be some incentive to switch. And yes, that incentive can be as simple as “everyone else is doing it.” What are your indicators of whether a platform will last?
