social networking

Confession: I am among the 10 or 11 people in the country who failed to watch ALL the American Idol shows this season. But I did get caught up in the finale episode excitement nonetheless! It got me thinking about how traditional all these ‘new’ reality shows are now. Compared to TV dramas and sitcoms, they are relatively easy to produce, inexpensive, and yet still command pretty impressive media dollars for advertisers.

I am convinced that the public’s need for more reality TV runs parallel to the phenomenal explosion of new media and social networking – it’s the reality without the TV. And, even then, the ease of uploading videos makes it basically, well, reality TV on your computer.

As a member of the ‘older than a Gen Y, WAY OLDER than a Gen X’ group, I find it fascinating how these trends seem to quickly become a way of life, but are eclipsed by newer, better, uber trends in a matter of months. Popular business editors are now commenting that MySpace is pretty much ‘old school’. Wow. 

It is fun to observe all this from a marketer’s viewpoint – trying to figure out all the new possibilities for promotions and strategies for clients. While some bemoan the changes in our traditional media – TV, print, radio – the truth is the media and marketing universe just keeps getting bigger. You just have to know how to zero in on the ones that work for you and your client.

Now for my secret for any of you reading this that are ‘of a certain age’:  The key to being successful at navigating the new media when you are NOT part of that super-cool generation (I guess “COOL” really dates me!) is what I do – hire and work with talented ‘super-cool’ people!