7.3.1 | Blogs

August 14, 2008 | Why Deploy Social Media?

By Mark Ouyang
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Why should you deploy social media tools on your websites?  A recent conversation with Seth Long at Sound Publishing made me re-think my knee jerk answer.  It may not be about creating a loyal community around your website after all.

Sound Publishing is a collection of small newspapers trying to reach a younger audience segment.  They realize their long term survival may depend on getting the 18-25 year old audience to think of Sound Publishing as the place to go for news and information.  It’s a challenge because there is a lot of competition for their attention.  (Think of competing with instant messaging, phone text messages, the Daily Show with Jon Stewart and emails with embedded YouTube videos).

As Seth explained to me, going to a news website has little or no appeal for this age group.  They get most of their news through informal networks.  Without the ability to get its content distributed into these informal channels, Sound Publishing faces an uphill battle for mindshare.  For Seth, the rationale for deploying social media is more about getting the Sound Publishing’s content distributed and their brand better known, and less about building an engaged community focused on the website. 

Our conversation led to another question and raised doubts about audience participation.  “How many online communities do you think the average person will actively participate in?’’  The answer we guessed was 2-3 sites max. Why this number?  Lack of time. Unless the site happens to be focused on one of our “passions” (hobbies, sports, politics, family, etc) we probably wouldn’t commit the time it would take to participate on a regular basis.

Do you agree? If you deploy the features, will they come?

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