Broadcast is anything that is one way! TV, radio, traditional advertising, seminar, printed book, magazine, exhibition and even theatre and its been struggling to adapt to the digital world. However, we may soon witness a renaissance of broadcast if it integrates with social in a marriage of convenience. But it will need to obey the new rules of social. Social media integration will soon become a comfortable bed fellow in almost everything we do, even when we watch the TV. Its a huge opportunity not a threat for traditional broadcast media.

They say sometimes we make the best decisions when in survival mode and TV seems to have awoken albeit slowly. TV has become dull but it is beginning to change its monologue tones into a swan song of dialogue. There are a number of example applications that we soon will all be able to experience:

1.  A company called Zeebox, is due to launch an app aimed at making television a more social experience. You are able to see what friends are watching and view with them using a “companion” device. From a business point of view this is where recommendations amongst viewers with a common affinity to a programme is very powerful.

When people don’t know what to do next they just keep on doing what they have always done. In social media its spreading like a wildfire. Henry Ford is famous for quoting “If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.” Social media is starting to lack imagination and ironically take on the personality of traditional marketing; broadcast and buying customers.

There are only three reasons why you would embark upon a social media strategy, note I use the word strategy not campaign, and that is to increase revenue streams, improve communication or, better still, both. Its as simple as that.  Now marketers have swept into social media, most of them are just doing the same thing on a different channel. Baloney, bull, drivel, empty talk, futile, gibberish, hogwash and hot air characterise a lot of social media activity at the moment.

1. Gathering an audience around your brand means nothing, absolutely nihility if its not engaged and participating. Its no good giving away free iPad’s to boost your ‘likes’ if there is no creative thought behind it to bring loyalty and increased revenues. Prezzo take heed. All you have done is create yet another database not a brand community.

I remember my parents warning me that if I watched too much TV my eyes would become square! They lied! Can’t help thinking there are a lot of untruths circulating about social media too. Nowadays we alert our children to the perceived dangers of spending too much time online. The fact that TV, for the most part, is not social in the slightest and being online, even in gaming, can be socially enthralling is for later discussion.

The research is compelling, it is demonstrating that there has been a consistent decline in social engagement from the 1960′s to now Putnam (1995.) There are several reasons that determine this according to Putnam (2000):

1. Generational change – 50%

2. Television and electronic entertainment – 25%

3. Work intensity – 10%

4. Urban sprawl – 10%

His research also alludes to how, within the USA (and the UK follows similar patterns) that people who watch more TV are less trusting of others and are less engaged in their communities. Halpern, John and Morris (2002) found that the more young adults watched TV, the less they trusted others. Putnam (2000) considers that despite the other contributers “Nothing – is more broadly associated with civic disenagement and social disconnection than is dependance on television and entertainment.”

TV typically is broadcast, its one way, its not engaging. It is characterised by a lot of the nasty things in the world. We search for good news stories that promote the great things happening in the world. When was the last time you heard “And in other news, several million people had a great day today!”

We are still to measure the impact of time spent online, the possible repercussions of virtual social networking and the inevitable chain reactions that always come out of some new phenomena. Our ancestors were probably saying the same thing about the Gutenberg’s press and the telephone. Lighten up folks, what we really need to be concerned about is that we are looking, a lot of the time, at social media and social branding from the completely wrong angle!

Despite the rumours we still have to work for our supper. You don’t do social media, you are social media and that means investment. Marketing just got labour intensive and for those complaining about the lack of time, well sorry tough. The clue is in the title; social.

Building a website, constructing a blog, creating a Facebook, LinkedIn, Youtube and Twitter page all free from a cash perspective. How jolly! However, the jubilation can stop there! Social means communicative, cordial, informative, pleasant, organised, popular, polite and public. That takes time, effort and energy. Those that complain that they haven’t the time to write a blog, share content or engage are, speaking candidly, lacking in imagination, or it’s just too much like hard work and/or the fear of change factor is kicking in. As with classic marketing, we had to find the cash to pay for the advert, direct mail, brochure, website or agency to carry out the work on our behalf. Now it’s less about the cash and more about the time. Time to spend online interacting, time to curate information useful for a community, time to build an amazing community around our intellect, because our products don’t matter as much as they used to.

And for those who think they can just sub it out again to an agency. Think again and again. Social media is not about automation, we’ve complained about that enough within traditional fields of communication. For the record I’m not against automated delivery but I’m completely against automated responses! There I’ve said it!

I wish I had a £10 note for every time someone has said to me “But I still want to meet people and physically engage with another human.” I can assure you, I’d be writing this from my boat in the Mediterranean, if I had got all those £10 notes. With some emphasis us social media geeks need to articulate that only a moronic would believe that social media exclusively sits only in the online arena playing its own game.

We have inflated, defective and erratic expectations about what social media can achieve only online. In fact, we would be missing a significant ‘real deal’ opportunity if we did. Social media allows us to do what we have always done offline but just in a bigger, quicker and sometimes better way. However, like any form of marketing its never easy grabbing and holding peoples attention, its just as formidable as it ever was, particularly in a world deluged with information, content and news.

Of the many progressions social media is experiencing as it evolves there are two pre dominant ones. Despite the fact that I and a number of others are increasingly becoming uncomfortable with the term, social media is indeed splitting into categories that agencies are having an identity crisis’ over. For me we are witnessing the division into two camps:

1. Those agencies that literally see social media as a marketing tool driving campaigns through what they see simply as yet another channel to market like TV, newspapers and sales. The approach, campaigns and creativity don’t provide anything different other than a way to sell more product to a bigger audience. Its extrinsic, short term and there will be numerous campaigns in any one year. Those slightly cleverer are using broadcast and social media interchangeably. Cadbury’s is a good example. The ethos is the same though, sales first, relationship second.

2. Those companies truly using social media (perhaps that’s the wrong term now) to change culture both inside and outside the organisation. They are building brands around audiences that have become communities by authentically collaborating and co creating. Engagement and participation are about building relationships first not sales, although sales will eventually ripple out. Its intrinsic, longer term and has far more cultural impact as we move out of a possessive market society into a new one we haven’t even defined yet. This approach is far more future proofing though!

Neither is wrong, they are just different and add value in contrasting ways. Occasionally they will bump heads and bicker. Both can be about making friends and making money. By understanding this significant distinction, brands needing social media support can then decide ultimately which agency to commission. The critical issue is that they both deliver very different impacts to your brand. In fact it may go further than splitting and splinter!