Why Big Media Doesn't Get "Social" |

This entry is part 9 of 20 in the series How Social Is Your Media

Fearing the obvious decline in subscriptions and advertising big media is complaining and debating about how to hang onto their old models. Of course the Big and small are all wondering how to monetize social media but that mindset is why they simple don’t understand the “value chain” of social media.

What Does The Market Say About Big Media?

John Byrne’s writes: My Tweeps offered up plenty of valid criticisms of traditional media’s approach to digital. I tend to think that Mike Duda, Michael Bigley and Chris Hardwick (see directly below) get closest to the truth. But that culture problem is a deal breaker. Others weigh in :

That online began as a stepchild and core people still are hanging on to the economics of “old” media and not embracing the reality or the opportunity of the web. @MikeDuda.
Media companies want their old business model to work online. It won’t. They are failing. Pretty simple. From @michaelbigley.
Giving away product for free is biggest mistake. How can that ever be an effective business model? From @cjhardwick.
They focus too much on hits to the detriment of usability, e.g. having to click 20x to see the “Top 20″ whatever. Usually abort after 3. From @ddudgeon.
Failure to engage the audience as peers in real conversations the way people really talk to each other. (Failure to be real.) From @jterrito.
Shoveling stories from the paper to the screen and not considering the capability of the Web to tell a more complete story. From @annatauzin.
An us/them approach vs a community approach. From @littlebrownpen.
Not listening to what’s being said in social media channels. Simply carrying broadcast mentality to a new channel. From @xybrewer.
Portals like My Yahoo offer customization. All others dump everything on us then expect us to sort it out – daily. No time for it. From @winequester.
Putting their content behind paywalls and not exposing it to search engines–and failure to take risks. From @jaybryant.
Poor reader targeting; trying to be everything to everyone; de-valuing their content by making all of it available for free. From @jeffschmitt.
They want to make rules, but they’re immigrants to an existing community with existing standards. When in Rome…, etc. From @trymaster.
Tweeting every headline they run. If I wanted RSS, I’d use RSS! From @lorakolodny.
The wholesale sacrifice of narrative in the name of being the first to break news. From @jpolicastro.
Using Facebook & Twitter but not using social media tools to reach their audiences in new, more effective ways. From @CPry.
The single biggest mistake: not engaging audience enough. From @alexlcohen.
Not engaging their readers. Pursuing a monologue rather than a conversation. Which is the exact opposite of what you created at BW.com! From @GeriRosman.

So What Should Big Media Do Differently?

The answer to this question is worth trillions of dollars. As reflected in John Byrne’s post many agree that Big Media is following old thinking and thinking wrong. As previously shared John Byrne’s seems to think he knows what Big Media ought to be doing and he intends on doing it with his new company C-Change.

I have my own ideas on what Big Media ought to be doing which would transform their old models into a C-Change that creates economic returns. Our online conversations represent a currency which can be monetized by changing the “system“. How, what, where, when, how and why would a new system create currency? Think about the “value chain“. Stay tuned and in the meantime share your own ideas and lets collaborate on building the “new system”.

Let the ideas rip!

About Jay:
Jay Deragon’s professional career includes providing strategic management consulting services to Fortune 500 companies as well as local small businesses. He has consulted with numerous industries spanning over 25 years of professional experience globally. His current professional endeavors are all centric to the disruptive nature of the social web. He writes at Relationship Economy and provides social media strategic services to businesses large and small. Jay Deragon is an avid student of the emerging landscape of all things social and the subsequent impact on business dynamics. Since 2004 Mr. Deragon has been actively studying, sharing and learning how business as unusual is changing business methods, models and relationships. Life is a journey and the experiences along the way provides learning that furthers the experiences if we know how and what to learn. for more info go here http://www.relationship-economy.com/?page_id=2

Series Navigation«Social Media Should’s And Should Not’sSocial Reality: Their Purpose or Ours?»