One of the primary seminar tracks here at the Alltech REBELation is titled, “Marketing for Business Growth.” In this track I was a panelist yesterday to talk about The Changing Face of Media. With me were moderator, Frank Mulrennan, Celtic Media Group; Peter Baniak, Lexington Herald-Leader; Matt Jones, Kentucky Sports Radio; Brian Hughes RFD-TV/Rural Media Group and Trent Loos, Loos Tales. We each had 3 minutes to make some points on this subject from our perspective. That was followed by some panel interaction and Q&A. Here’s my initial comments:
My company is ZimmComm NEW MEDIA. Why? Because we’re not old, traditional or big media. You know, radio, tv, magazines, newspapers. Anachronisms. We’re new media – blogs, podcasts, Flickr photos, YouTube videos, social media – Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn.
Let’s face it, these traditional media gents look with longing wonder at how a young new media guy like me is thriving. I don’t broadcast via terrestrial transmitter. I don’t publish anything printed. We’re online and mobile only. I carry more transmitting power in my bag here than when I owned a radio station in Florida once upon a time.
How many of you have a smart phone? Use it every day? Check news or information on it? Got the free AgWired App? Get it.
Here’s are a few statistics:
From Pew 2015
2/3 of Americans own a smartphone – was 1/3 in 2011
19% rely on on them for accessing online services and information
Almost 10% of Americans don’t have broadband service at home
Majority of smartphone owners use their phones to follow breaking news and share it 67%DMR – digital marketing stats
1.44 billion on Facebook as of 4/22/15
Daily users 936 million
31% of seniors use FacebookToday, WE ARE ALL MEDIA. How many times is a breaking story told first on Twitter by people on the ground at the right moment?
And for you business owners, the Internet has powered public relations. I hope you have more than a website. I hope you have social media accounts and are actively using them to engage directly with your customer. It’s the disintermediation of the old media and it’s moving at a historically rapid pace.
My Apple Watch is on order. I look forward to getting news updates on my wrist without even having to take my phone out of my pocket.
And let’s not forget: Search engine optimization – You heard today that there are 4 billion searches on Google daily My blogs are highly search engine optimized. We’re the media you need to be working with. Think transparently sponsored story posts, paid tweet campaigns. There is a new media in town.
Guys? Your Turn.
We had a pretty spirited discussion but in the end I think we all agreed on more things than disagreed. During the session Matt mentioned the Twitter Periscope App. I have it and started Periscoping live. I have the recording and will upload to YouTube to add here later.
In the meantime, what are your thoughts on this subject? Do publications, television and radio still have relevance? How about 5 years from now?