Our recent research into the use of social media during this summer’s civil unrest shows the medium is revolutionising breaking news, in the same way Sky News and BBC News 24 threatened newspapers back in the day.
It’s all about media speed – getting the news “now”, not later. Given social media’s rapid integration into modern life, it’s not surprising that many people are using these options ahead of other traditional news sources to keep their finger on the pulse, as well as sharing news and becoming part of the discussion. Social media is, by dint of its very nature, more local, relevant and two-way.
What’s certain is social media has become the people’s news network – the online water-cooler. They can organise riots and clean up after them. Be anti-social and very social. And its rapid adoption and integration should tell marketers something as well. Not the hoary old message that digital should be integrated into campaigns – people have been discussing this at length for years now. If that message still falls on deaf ears in the marketing community, it will never get through.
Technology has indelibly changed the way we interact with each other, our community, our planet. It’s changed our sense of belonging, the way we read, the way we shop, the way we choose holidays. “Consumers” don’t consume. They no longer sit in front of the TV believing what people tell them. Lawyers, doctors, policemen and bankers are no longer the heart of the community. Google, Twitter, Facebook et al. have replaced them. The “digital world” is not about media channels and routines, it’s about the very fabric of living.
Digital planning is fine and welcome, but still, to this day, sits alongside other channels in the amorphous marketing toolkit as a specialism. Fully integrated planning needs to be “for a digital world”, because that is the way things are – digital doesn’t sit alongside people’s lives. In some ways the same type of thinking is required, but overlaid with understanding of how technology has changed the way people (never “consumers”) think and behave. Planning for a digital world goes beyond integration.
Digital doesn’t sit nicely to the side of TV, magazines, newspapers, nor does it sit on the top and filter down. It encircles all other media and impacts the way people engage with everything.
Those who fail to recognise this and see it as a separate channel are failing to respond to the bigger picture. The only way to truly respond to our digital world is to plan in a holistic fashion and understand how people truly relate to the world around them.
James Devon is planning director at MBA
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Really? This may be the case one day but you shouldn’t think that everyone acts like a teenager, sitting at home on a laptop, while playing on their mobile! Some of us have a life you know.