Deja vu all over again

In this concise epilogue to the BP spill in the gulf, Fast Company points out that:

1. "...it’s clear that in the age of social media, a company can’t spin and rebrand its way out of a mess like it used to."
2. "...it's what companies do, not what they say, that really matters."
3. "...BP is an example of how companies' misfortunes are going to unfold going forward with all the tools and weapons the Internet and social media afford."
4. "Companies screw themselves when they let perception get ahead of reality..."

Gee, where, I humbly ask, did

1. You
2. See
3. That
4. Before?
   

The Internet, in dog years

This is not your teenager's Internet.

The latest news from the Pew Internet and American Life Project will not surprise a colleague who has a 90+ year old father who regularly "Tweets" his family.

Older Americans are going online more than ever before.

According to the study, in the past three years the 'hockey stick' in Internet adoption has been in the 70+ demographic. 70+, folks. God love 'em, these are the same folks that still re-use aluminum foil. Growth in Internet use among people ages 70 to 74 increased by 19% and for those above 75 (b.1924!) growth clocked in at 10%.

Other studies concur that older demographic groups spend more time online than their younger counterparts and while many go online to get health information and visit government Websites, the growth actually stems from use of the Internet for activities such as games, watch movies, use social networking sites or read blogs.

The assumptions and biases that the Internet, social networking and digital media are all tools to reach younger demographics needs to be readdressed by marketers as in this economy particularly, no opportunity to reach out to prospective customers should go unexplored.

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Marshall McLuhan and Social Media

Skype, Facebook, MySpace, Match.com, Vonage, eBay, YouTube, Craigslist… the connection between them is the connection between us, and all rely upon the Internet – or IP protocol – to operate.

It occurs to me that a few years ago the promise of the Internet was in the democratization of content and the free exchange of ideas. So today I'm not certain the cause of the hand-wringing over the growth of Social Media. Cynically I could suggest that our collective hand-wringing is simply in the fact that we don't accept Social Media as a valid tool (or proper use of our time) because we haven't yet monetized it properly. (44% of all web visits are to Social Media sites but only 5% of all revenue from the internet is driven from them.) All things, it seems, are accepted in time as we learn to make money with them.

While I understand the concerns regarding the lack of privacy of our youth's postings and the banality of photos posted by exuberant parents, it seems to me that Social Media – and similar applications of the medium – are simply the latest stop on the train to Marshall McLuhan's Global Village. It is, after all, the goal of an increasing number of projects such as One Laptop Per Child to bring the information and interactivity of the global web to remote, more impoverished parts of the world.

A JPMorgan survey from last November revealed that half of online social networkers were there to connect with old friends, while still more were there to interact with their current friends, sharing music and photos. There is a big time-waste with Social Media, say the critics – yet it is important to note that it is at least an interactive medium, unlike television.

The ultimate realization of the promise of the internet will be in its social aspects – connecting, sharing, even buying and selling. Whether in twenty years it will look like Facebook or appear more as holographic avatars in a room of mirrors is incidental. The thing that matters is that we all continue to communicate, regardless of the media.

Now if you excuse me, I need to research how to make money with Twitter…

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