If you are a marketer and have not figured out the fast-changing landscape of social media, bone up! If you are a seasoned PR person, brand manager, or CMO and think that Twitter and other new media tools are fringe fads, wake up!
Ignoring the “memestream” is something you cannot afford to do. As the world of “old media” (a.k.a. print newspapers and magazines) is in a death spiral, the “buzz” is increasingly determined by the community of the blogosphere and the microblogosphere.
What are people saying about your brand on Twitter? If your answer is, “I don’t know,” you are lazy. If your answer is “What is Twitter?” you are incompetent and should think about career alternatives.
As the head of marketing for Plaxo, I feel it is essential that I stay on top of tools like Tweetscan to monitor what people are saying about our brand. That often leads to customer service escalations — and to reversals of opinion. A frustrated Twitterer who gets rapid remedy after tweeting a complaint can become a brand ally.
Don’t believe that this stuff matters to real companies? Check out this weekend’s drama with Michael Arrington and Comcast.
Update: A nice post over at CNET by Charles Cooper on the relationship between Twitter, breaking news, and “old media.”
The Real McCrea 