Companies Need to Focus on Media Content in 2010
As the year and decade come to a close we enter prognostication season.
Google's Mike Shmidt kicked things off nicely a few weeks back in a Gartner interview where he stated, amongst other things that Chinese (presumably Mandarin) would dominate the web in five years. That's a doozy. Of course, what he didn't provide was the context around that comment; it's a numbers game, there will be more Chinese people on the internet in five years. What was unsaid is that this is likely Google's single largest impediment to global domination in the near future, Microsoft being a fait accompli.
I thought I would add to the 2010 chatter with a prediction of my own: 2010 will be the year that all companies become media companies. Here's why:
1. New rules – content has to be shared to be effective. Companies have to begin creating content that is intended to be shared and consumed by many people in many different ways. Your website isn't that important anymore.
2. You have to write your own story. You can't rely on media outlets to communicate your story effectively; they have their own issues and they don't care about your company. Other people are creating your story for you and you have to engage them wherever they are. That means you have to begin creating the content to influence that story.
3. The authority of traditional marketing and communication channels is greatly diminished. How important is a press release today? Who do you trust more, someone you know and trust or a reporter for a magazine that carries ads for the same products they are reporting on?
4. The disruptive advertising model doesn't work as well when there are alternatives. I want to program my own entertainment and I am now tuning everything out that is not targeted to my current interests... because I can.
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