Week 2 - Orientation and Introduction to Social Media

The author of The New Rules of Marketing and PR, David Meerman Scott, is right in saying "to throw the baby out with the bath water" because as he states, "The web has opened a tremendous opportunity to reach niche buyers directly with targeted information that costs a fraction of what big-budget advertising costs" (Scott, 2015, pg. 19). With more people searching on the web for knowledge and information it is the right thing for companies to marketed themselves online. For example, a business can run a Facebook ad by selecting their target audience by age, category, gender, and zip code. It  provides analytics as to see how well their ad did with the number of likes, shares, comments, follows, and click through from potential customers that considered purchasing their product or service. Social media sites allow you 24x7 access to be an expert in your field, to participate with potential customers, and like-minded groups. 
 

The Diffusion of Innovations Theory corresponds with this acceptance of social media because people have or will adopt it time. It is more beneficial for individual and businesses to accept social media than to reject it, because mobile usage is growing rapidly and is dictating how we communicate with others in our everyday lives. As long as society sees social media as helpful tool to find or share information with others it will thrive until the next big thing is invented. Society needs to accept Web 2.0 because social media is here to stay. The two old rules of marketing that that I would throw out would be the following:

• Advertising needed to appeal to the masses.    
• Advertising was one-way: company to consumer. (Scott, 2015, p. 20).

The two old rules of public relations that I would throw out would be the following:

• The only way to get ink and air time was through the media.
• Companies had to have significant news before they were allowed to write a press release.  (Scott, 2015, p. 24).

By removing the old concepts, individuals and companies can relate with others by having two-way communication in real time instead of just one way. Businesses no longer have to wait on journalists or reporters to tell their story. It can be accomplished when and how they want to reveal their new product or services through various social media platforms for a fraction of traditional advertising costs.

Anyone can create content that is informative via blogs, videos, e-books, and more cost effective by sharing it online. People want reliable, trustworthy information quickly, so by being able to read online content and customer's reviews for feedback, it allows them to make their own educated purchase decisions. More than half the world's population is under 50 shopping via mobile devices. So, we either get on board to swim or sink due to the loss of adaptability. 

References: 
Scott, D. (2015). The new rules of marketing & pr. New Jersey: Wiley

University of Twente, (2012), Overview, Communication and information technology theories. Diffusion of Innovations Theory. Retrieved from

https://www.utwente.nl/cw/theorieenoverzicht/Theory%20Clusters/Communication%20and%20Information%20Technology/Diffusion_of_Innovations_Theory/