An article in The New York Times involving the decline in the average amount of time that TV is viewed in the U.S. caught my eye. This decline is particularly noteworthy with traditional TV. Not surprisingly, it largely disappears when online factors are included.
Nielsen, the ratings company best known for audience measurements involving television programs, believes that Americans are “voracious video viewers.” Or to put it another way, Americans will continue to spend many hours of their day watching videos or some form of entertainment ”“ it may just no longer be network television.
According to a 2013 Interactive Advertising Bureau study, social media and online video registered the largest growth in the amount of time spent online by consumers. (Increases in email, using search and online games were the next three largest areas of growth.) This rapid growth reflects the enormous increases in video content and social media activity that are rapidly changing the digital landscape.
Interestingly, social media is also playing an increasingly important role in the selection of what to watch both online and on TV. Recommendations, comments from social sites and advertisements have a big impact on both the TV shows people recommend and their online availability. In fact, friends, relatives and word-of-mouth were responsible for how 49 percent of all viewers learned about online shows. This is a critical facet of social media: the ability to inform and influence others.
Well before the Internet became a reality, Zagat was a trusted and well-regarded review of New York City restaurants. People put a lot of credence in these reviews ”“ which also explains why restaurants and food have the highest percentage of online reviewers. These reviews can greatly affect the number of customers and subsequent business that a restaurant does. Reviews in different areas also extend to electronics and many other products, even automobiles.
A couple of years ago, I was in the market for a new notebook. When I went to the fan page of a large manufacturer of notebooks, I read so many negative reviews and vituperative remarks about their products that I decided to purchase a notebook from another manufacturer.
When creating a social media campaign, there are a few lessons that can be discerned from my previous paragraphs.
First, make sure your social media campaigns are applicable to your audience. Recommendations and comments are only effective if they are consistent with your product or offering. If they are not, you may rapidly lose credibility.
Second, use video or snippets from a webinar where possible. Pictures can also be effective. People are greatly influenced by imagery.
Third, word-of-mouth can be very powerful. Just remember that it can be positive or negative.
Here”™s one final question and thought concerning TV and the recently reported “precipitous” drop in ratings for the major networks, even for shows that are big hits. What is one of the networks”™ biggest threats? The answer is: local markets and the easy accessibility of quality content from multiple platforms.
That”™s very similar to what most businesses regularly face: competition. While I do not equate the networks with your business, just realize that many of the solutions you utilize to market your company and services are very similar to the actions of the major networks, just on a different scale. Social media is truly one of the great equalizers of both company size and the amount of time spent online.
Bruce Newman is the president of wwWebevents.com, a division of The Productivity Institute L.L.C. in Carmel. He is a social media guru and a specialist on webinar creation and promotion. He can be reached at bnewman@prodinst.com.
