Modern media: Move with the Times or Wither and Die

Modern media companies must embrace the social world of the internet to increase their readerships, revenues and chances of survival, writes Liam Bailey.

I have had an epiphany, in today's world media companies, including newspapers and television channels, need to either move with the times and embrace the social world of the internet or watch their revenues wither and die.

At the time of having this ephipany I was watching Living TV; an advert for their new online only television channel. The new channel is absolutely packed with the stuff a large proportion of 16 - 40 year old women are interested in. Celebrity news and gossip with cosmetic and fashion tips, etc etc. It is to be broadcast online at www.livingtv.co.uk, but can be viewed via YouTube or a Facebook app.

You can gauge from this that this is Living's target audience, and/or a large portion of their viewership. What a way to target them. It is no coincidence but incredibly smart marketing, that this target audience is also known to be incredibly active in the world of social media and sharing online content. One must only wonder when the channel will be shown on Bebo (another social networking favourite of the younger part of that audience).

That channel is one of the best ideas I have come across, but only when it is combined with the excellent, vibrant tv adverts that accompany the launch. Perhaps if they continue to embrace the social world of the internet as they are now they will be able to do away with TV advertising of Liv -- or maybe they already have; I haven't seen it advertised anywhere else but on Living. It will be interesting to see if the campaigning for Liv is continued.

But, I digress. The example above is of a media channel using social networking around quality content in a really excellent and inspuiring way, but for the most part online media companies are not using Twitter, Facebook and other social networking sites to anywhere near their full potential.

Too many of the large media outlets are still just using Twitter as a content aggregator; feeding their content in through API. This maybe working in some way for the likes of the Telegraph and the Guardian, but most people don't want masses of articles coming through at once.

Those people (the ones that don't want masses of content in their stream at once) are still getting to read the articles that they want, because they come in through friends who have read and shared the articles, and are engaging in conversations about them. It would be far more valuable to the outlets if they were the ones at the centre of that conversation, the traffic would be at least doubled and far more valuable.

Well I've had my say. Why not have yours by leaving a comment below.

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