The Burning Question: Traditional or New Media?

There are many perks to "new media," or the term that we used to use in reference to social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, blogs, video sharing, interactive marketing, etc. According to Nielsen's "State of the Media: the Social Media Report" for the end of 2011 (1), 4 out of 5 active internet users visit social networks and blogs -- and most do so from their mobile device/phone (40%).

What is even more interesting is that internet users over the age of 55 (many of the baby boomer generation) are driving the growth of social networking through the Mobile internet. Although new technology can present a challenge for older generations, baby boomers are often associated with a tendency to redefine traditional values, so this makes perfect sense to me. Many adults are now using social sites for online dating, scheduling and administrative needs, cloud apps for storage, and social media sites like Facebook as a way to stay connected to family and communicate to children and grandchildren. Social media is no longer a "young person's" activity. The phenomenon is growing and becoming a very tangible aspect of every day life.

One reality remains: as our society becomes more reliant on social media, are we subconsciously replacing older, traditional media such as newspapers, magazines, and TV news? Recently, many news outlets have focused on this exact topic. Bill Moyers posted an interesting infographic (2) that supports this argument that new media is, indeed, replacing the traditional and this is the year that it becomes official. Many current media efforts are now geared towards the method of dissemination -- mainly, social media. We use the title of our press release as the subject line for our email, our tweet, and our FB post that links to the press release, living on our website. According to the Moyers article, 50% of Americans have learned of a breaking news story from social sites, rather than from TV or the newspaper. About 46% of Americans get their news online at least 3 times per week. Finally, this year online revenue surpassed that of print newspaper revenue in 2012.

I think that this is a phenomenal development; I say that as an engaged user who manages a social media platform for my brand, as well as my own personal accounts. I am on social networking sites on average 5 times per day -- for monitoring purposes and for pleasure in my free time at night. I do not see this as a negative for my personal life (I maintain strong face to face relationships, am an avid reader, and an athletic runner). However, some people do find that social media has a negative effect on our society -- making our "friendships" and communication too dependent on online relationships.

Another negative (listed in the above infographic) is the drawbacks that social media sites have when they act as a place to share important news stories. Often, inaccuracies lead to misinformation (that is shared quickly through networks to reach thousands of people in a few seconds time); amateur reporters can compromise integrity or exploit subject in a story; and length restrictions can some times take away from the depth of a piece. However, all of these arguments against social media can be true of any news outlet (traditional or new) and I don't find that they make for a compelling case. I also disagree with the argument that social media detracts from personal relationships (para above) as I find that it connects me to many more friends and acquaintances than before, and enables me to communicate with them to set up an "in-person" time to meet.

Social media has the potential to do wonders for a marketing platform, as it can be a tool for sharing info and also the glue that connects campaigns within an overall marketing strategy. As a media relations professional, I can share content via social that send traffic back to a website where I have hosted a Youtube video that can, subsequently, link people back to the brand Youtube channel. All of these efforts can happen organically, without investing budget dollars, yielding a huge return on investment. In the field of healthcare, the Mayo Clinic has proven that social media can be an effective, low-cost mechanism for recruiting patients for clinical trials (3). Social media helped recruit larger, demographically diverse populations (ideal to reduce biases)for specific studies. This is something that we are currently doing at Home Base to help recruit for our studies focused on post traumatic stress (PTS) and traumatic brain injury (TBI) research. I will post research content to social media once a week, linking back to the section of our website that explains Research at Home Base http://www.homebaseprogram.org/general-information/research.aspx. All language is pre-approved by the IRB and carefully crafted to ensure clarity and comprehension.

The challenge with social media is to keep a professional legitimacy for your brand, as there is a distinct difference between personal and professional use. For many, the social sphere is still unknown territory and people are still figuring out how to best utilize the tool to reach a targeted audience. See this article today from Boston Magazine (4) on a study that the Boston Globe did looking at Bostonians and their use of Twitter. In my mind, it is all about content. Follow people who provide good, quality links, comments, and posts. If they don't make the cut, you can remove them with one fast click of the mouse.

This article is the part of a series of posts that I will make throughout my graduate studies in Marketing and Communications. With a focus on both healthcare and interactive marketing, I hope to gain a better understanding for effective health messaging--which I think plays a key role in a happy, healthy society. Please leave your comments or write to me: camorous@gmail.com.

Sources:
1.) http://www.nielsen.com/us/en/insights/reports-downloads/2011/social-media-report-q3.html
2.) http://billmoyers.com/2012/04/23/how-social-media-is-replacing-traditional-journalism-for-breaking-news/
3.) http://blog.pharmexec.com/2012/02/13/patient-recruitment-via-social-media-lessons-learned/
4.) http://blogs.bostonmagazine.com/boston_daily/2012/09/17/boston-intellectual-twitter/

www.what the heck am I doing.com

When working in PR/Marketing, it's only a matter of time before you will be asked to help redesign a website. If you are one of the lucky few who never has this task (not to say it's not enjoyable, it's just tedious) then "Lucky you!" You still need to understand the ins and outs of a good site, in order to strategically place ad campaigns. 


Tell the Brand Story
A website serves as the "home base" for your brand. The strategy behind a website should be to create an accessible and easy-to-use website that embodies your organization's brand and legitimizes your message. When a marketer is speaking on the phone to the media, referencing his or her company to clients, or providing feedback to a board of directors, it is important to have a website that represents the entire company and highlights the significance of the work being done. In some sense, a website should tell a story on its own -- as a website visit can be a one time chance to capture the attention of the user.


Aesthetics 
Web layout and visual appeal are key. It is important to keep the branding consistent across the board for an organization or company, so the color palette for the website should align with the logo and other existing branding. A website should also use color combinations that make the text readable and easy to recognize (sometimes dark colors on dark backgrounds can make text undetectable). Consistent branding is also important as often users visit the site after tying a keyword into a search engine, such as Google. It is important that they recognize where they are and that the site branding confirms that they have come to the correct place. Otherwise, they will immediately exit the site and, thus, contribute to the "bounce rate" in your site analytics (something you'd rather keep low - trust me!)


Navigation & User Experience 
Visual appearance is only part of the equation for the perfect website. The navigation and layout of the site are also critical to creating a comfortable, easy environment for users. The "user experience" is what determines popularity of a site, the number of page visits, and the length of time that one user will spend browsing content. If a site is easy to navigate - meaning the navigation is intuitive, well marked, and fast- then the user will be happy. From that point on, good content will speak for itself. Interesting reading, helpful material such as downloadable PDFs, and interactive video will capture the user's attention. Content should be written in plain English- no clinical jargon or academic prose.


Know Your Audience
Keep in mind the unique needs that your users may have, as well as their expectations. You want their experience at your website to be a memorable, pleasant experience. Whether that means going out of you way to make online accommodations for vision or hearing impaired users; streaming news feeds or stock market updates to maintain user attention; or providing a "one stop shop" portal for users to access a list of resources, in addition to your site, that might meet their needs if they did not find what they needed at your site.  Much of the reasoning behind choosing a site layout should be to make the user experience easy for all audiences: community members, educators, physicians, students, and patients who may be accessing the site as a resource. When considering a patient, it is important to remember that some times symptoms of an illness can make everyday tasks challenging. Just another reason to tailor your user's web experience as best you can. Enabling access for people of all abilities is key to building a sustainable website.


Personalize it!
Website personalization is an area where health communicators have to proceed with great caution. Any app or login feature would need to be highly secure in order to protect patient health information and confidentiality. A login feature gives users who frequent a site the ability to participate in multiple event registrations, surveys, or webinars without re-entering registration info each time. Instead, the form would pre-populate with their info, made possible using cookies. Personalization does greatly enhance user experience. The information that users volunteer when they login, becomes an important piece of intel for marketing strategy. We will discuss this in a future post. 


Mobile Ready
Finally, in the current times it is crucial that a website be "skinned" for mobile devices. Everyone accesses the web via iPhones, Androids, iPads, eNotebooks, etc. and a company can miss out on an opportunity to engage a user if the website shows up in very poor quality on a mobile device. Nothing is more frustrating to a user then finding a website and then realizing that it is impossible to access half of the site because it goes off the screen. 


Do the work for your user - make the content easy to access. For me, this is the real message when it comes to website best practices for websites.

References:


http://www.homebaseprogram.org/ http://ask.enquiro.com/2010/a-big-list-of-user-experience-best-practices/

http://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2009/11/best-practices-for-6-common-user-interface-elements/

http://mobilewebbestpractices.com/user-experience/


This article is the part of a series of posts that I will make throughout my graduate studies in Marketing and Communications. With a focus on both healthcare and interactive marketing, I hope to gain a better understanding for effective health messaging--which I think plays a key role in a happy, healthy society. Please leave your comments or write to me: camorous@gmail.com.