Question of the week: can social media change marketing?

Traditional marketing was more about broadcasting than anything else, which means that companies were pushing out content about how great their products are and why they are “leaders”, “the best”, etc. Very little interactions happened between companies and their customers, which can now change due to social media. Companies now have the ability to have conversations with customers or prospects and even though some of them are doing it, we found this conversation on Twitter which brings up a very good point: is that the rule or the exception?

@pisarose @Michael_Lytle @mfauscette is that the rule or the exception? most brands I deal with as a consumer R still broadcasting #CXOTalk

— Raluca D. (@rlcdrt) June 14, 2013

What do you think? Are companies still broadcasting, except that they now use social media channels? How many of the companies you deal with or buy from are still broadcasting vs those who are actually using social media to create conversations with you?

 

Tesla Broadcast Tower 1904

Question of the week: How do you separate fact and fiction on-line?

The hacking of the Associated Press Twitter account and the tweet “Breaking: Two Explosions in the White House and Barack Obama is injured,” reminded us once again that much of the information we can find on-line isn’t always reliable.

In this TED video, Markham Nolan, managing editor of Storyful.com, explains how he and his team verify on-line information.

How do you verify the information you find on-line? Do you follow sources (e.g.: people, websites, etc.) which you trust so much that you don’t verify the information that they share? Do you sometimes double check by looking at several similar sources (for instance, the attack on the White House was not mentioned by any other news agency)?

What about the information that you use at work or in business? Do you verify it before making decisions based on it?

Question of the week: Why are we afraid to make mistakes?

We recently read this article and found the following paragraph: “In science, you make your mistakes in public. You show them off so that everybody can learn from them. This way, you get the benefit of everybody else’s experience, and not just your own idiosyncratic path through the space of mistakes.”

This made us think about why we’re afraid to make mistakes at work, for instance? Is it because we are told that mistakes are not tolerated at work? Could it be our education, from our family and school, that mistakes should be avoided at all cost or hidden when they happen?