If you are a baby-boomer or beyond you grew up with traditional media.

You understand how traditional media works.

They provide entertainment or educational content (including the news) – and in exchange for their hard work you accept commercials and other forms of advertising.

That’s the deal.

Traditional Media

You and I were trained to endure commercials on network television.  It was the price for getting free entertainment, and occasionally some educational content.

You patiently waited through commercials to watch the Beatles or Rolling Stones perform on The Ed Sullivan Show.

It works the same way today with the newspapers and magazines that have survived.

You get the news, along with offerings of products and services that are targeted to you, based upon your demographics and location.

Traditional media may be dying, but you can learn a lot from it.

New Media

Now we have new media – YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and more – much, much more.

And more to come.

Would you watch television if it were 100% advertising?  Would you buy or read a newspaper or magazine that was nothing but advertising.

Of course you wouldn’t.

Media reaches out to an audience to engage it, thereby creating the opportunity for monetizing that effort.

If you want to be effective with your social media you have to understand there needs to be a reason for tuning in or subscribing.

If you want us to Like your Facebook page or subscribe to your blog feed you have to give us a reason for doing so. To accomplish that, you need to be creating valuable content that is worthy of our time and attention.

This is so basic, yet so often misunderstood.

This is how media works – including social media.

Media is a Business

Marketing and promotion in all of its forms are why media exists.  It’s why Facebook is continuously tweaking its service.

Recently, I have been reading about how many are upset about the changes with the functionality of Facebook. Why?

Evidently, they do not get that media cannot be 100% free and all about you.  Media is a business and it has to make a profit.

Facebook is making these changes to enhance their profitability.

Don’t you have a profit motive for your Facebook page and blog?  We understand and respect that – most of us anyway.

Though, to achieve profitability you have to continue to earn the attention of your audience.  You have to remember that your social media is not just about you.

We’re in this together.

As the Beatles said,

“Close your eyes and I’ll kiss you ….  tomorrow I’ll miss you … remember I’ll always be true.”

As a marketer, that’s all you want – your audience to always be with you.

Give us a reason to come back and we will.  You only have to educate, entertain, or inspire – preferably all three.

Do this and everyone gets what they want.

That’s the game.

Are you with me?

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Until tomorrow,  Jeff