From the Harvard Business Blog:
The New York Times iPhone application recently added sharing functionality which allows a user to easily broadcast an article across networks such as Facebook and Twitter. Many websites already support this functionality, but it's likely that we will see an increase in user behavior as it becomes more mainstream for people to share with networks what they used to do with e-mail lists. And content providers will be all too happy to help them distribute any way they choose.
When "broadcasting" is the business of sharing content worth sharing between individuals who trust each other, what business are YOU in?
Isn't this one reason why so many small businesses are attracted to social media? Because they can become their own media – their own "broadcasters" – to those consumers who have proverbially "raised their hand" and said "connect with me"?
I think traditional broadcasters have been so obsessed over how to market their radio stations in a social media age that they too often forget that our clients have the same challenges and the same opportunities as we do.
Our job is to help them more effectively execute those connections and to do so with the added kick that comes courtesy of the "megaphone" called the radio station and its various assets.
Time to put these pieces together in an integrated way.
"Integrated marketing," as the phrase goes, isn't about bundling a variety of marketing tactics into one campaign. It's about magnifying the effectiveness of marketing for the benefit of our clients and the consumers they covet.
It's about making the connections more effective.
If we're still counting ears rather than connections in another five years, woe unto us.