The Word Media is Throwing People Off [11/10/09]

hey everybody this is Gary vinchu and uh want to talk about the word social media as many of you guys have heard me say before you know was called Web 2. 0 last year it's going to be called media next year and I was giv a lot of thought you can pop the champagne ker okay um I was make a loud sound that wasn't that loud um I was giving it a lot of thought and I've been talking to a lot of brand managers and AD people and I've realized the word social media is really hurting um people in the traditional space people that are very brilliant have been amazing at creating and ex in media for a long time but what's happening is the word is social media and they really still believe that they control the message that we've got to come up with creative and then through social media we're going to put it out there we're going to sell it we're going to force it down the throats of the consumer because that's always been the games my friend that's been the game and so that word media I think is really hurt um besides the fact that people are making personal decisions don't want it to succeed making decisions financially for themselves and are worried about their underst studies there's another reason it's not totally being adopted as quickly as it could and that's because the word media is screwing this whole thing up because what social media really is customer service it's really getting into trenches and caring and so if the word was Social Service though I know that gets weird and you start thinking about different things or social caring which doesn't really make sense but I know the word media is throwing everybody for a loop because the way we always did media before was we control the story we came up with the story and we sold it this whole game is backwards you listen to the consumer it's more like running a retail store it wasn't really about the ads that brought them in the store it's once they're in the store what do you do with them the players are now in play my friends they're all there you don't need to sell them on being on Twitter or Facebook or engaging with your brand that's already happening it's what you do once you get them in there you actually have to care now work now you have to get dirty now time to roll up the sleeves now that's what's really going on and so I think the word media is throwing a lot of people off I don't want to necessarily call it social service but the fact of the matter is that the word media one last time is throwing everybody for a curveball and it's really the pin that I've seen a lot of people in traditional advertising struggle with guys you don't control the game you're not going to sell them on anything it's how you engage with them and that's the game