I talked to a client yesterday for whom I’d done a series of podcasts. This was their first venture into podcasting.
So naturally, I wasn’t just interested in how they liked the production now that it was up, posted and there for the whole world to hear. I also wanted to know what their stats were saying about traffic, what kind of feedback they were getting from other organizations in their community, supporters etc.
The client is a non-profit organization which focusses mainly on research. The biggest challenge of the assignment was that a lot of the research they generate is intended for policy makers, academics and others who are already “in the know”.
Yet they also wanted to reach a new audience. And like most communicators these days, they are still figuring out who they want to reach who they’re not reaching already.
What I had to do was help them imagine who those people might be. As the process continues, so do the questions.
One of the things that they’re wondering about is the impact on their traditional audiences … who tend to be older. This is a big question in social media … what do the traditional audiences want?
The perception is that Social Media is a young person’s game. And I think there’s something to that … but not entirely. Especially here in Canada. Interesting statistics from a presentation at Podcamp a couple of weeks ago. The presenters, Colin Smillie and Roy Pereira, did an excellent presentation on who’s on Facebook. Regardless of whether or not you dig Facebook, the trends they demonstrated say a lot about where social media is going. It’s one of those bellwether applications … Facebook really shows the way things are heading.
They compared Facebook use in Canada to the US and Britain. For the Brits and the Americans, the demographic is skewed towards the under-35’s. But not in Canada. In Canada, the demographics came out pretty evenly among the three age groups — youth, mid-career and 50-65’s.
Canada has always been a country quick to adopt new technologies (and create them too … no coincidence that our country is a world leader in both communications and transportation). We have an instinctive knowledge how to bridge distances.
The evidence shows that we are quicker to embrace new technologies. So, what I would say to my client is not to assume that none of those older folks are listening. There are probably more out there than we think. Especially if they’re trying to reach a Canadian audience.
That’s one reason to start doing social media. Because we know that there are a lot of people already participating. The other reason is to start exploring now. That’s what this is — an exploration. Social media is very new. We don’t know what’s around the corner.
But we do know that the internet is here to stay. We know it’s not the same internet as it was in 1998, and it’s not the same internet it’s going to be two years from now. The trendy applications right now aren’t going to be the same in two years either.
But here’s what we do know:
a) the internet is here to stay
b) it is changing the entire media landscape
c) it’s a “call and response” medium — think of the difference as a southern Baptist church service instead of a traditional Catholic Latin mass
d) television, radio, newspapers, magazines and the internet are converging
e) there are more people going to the internet now than there ever have been before .. and that upward trend is going to continue.
So jump on the learning curve now. It’s the best way to start to answer those questions about who you want to reach and how you want to do it.
No, we don’t have all the answers. We’re all still figuring it out. And what is really clear .. those who are figuring it out now have the advantage over those who say “I’ll do it tomorrow”.
