Month: February 2014

Let’s Get Somewhat Real

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Engagement through social media, or e-engagement, as we may call it, is not just a way to build new contacts now, but also a way to voice your opinions in a time when people want to know your thoughts, but do not have the time to stand and share them with you.

Social contact, through social media or real relationships, is essential for a healthy living. A new study by John Cacioppo, psychology professor at the University of Chicago, reveals that social contact and regular exercise contribute to healthy aging, and also increase life span.

A blaring question here is that social contact now is dominated by social media. And when virtual life dominates the real one, how do you maintain moderation? On the other hand, internet addiction disorder (IAD) is on the rise. North America’s first inpatient clinic for Internet Addiction opened last year at Bradford Regional Medical Center in Pennsylvania. Social media is encompassing everything, but like other technologies, this exciting tool is slowly revealing its dark side.

Saying “I am very social” today has a different connotation from what it had, may be, 10 years ago. At that time “social” meant meeting in-person and sharing physical space. It included enlivening all five sensory functions of our body: touch, smell, sight, and hearing. The “new social” still lacks touch and smell. (I am not counting taste so significantly because I believe this sensory feeling still has personal boundaries to it.)

The social media space is growing each day and posing threats to real relationships. But are these really threats? May be yes, if we forget moderation. If it’s forgotten, we may slowly slip under the IAD scanner. But I fail to understand at times, how should an active social media person draw the line? Is it really a one-person effort?

Once we start using social media, we cannot avoid it. And even if we don’t want to start using it, there are many influencers to get us started. It’s addictive. No wonder why IAD is on the rise. The bottom-line is everyone has to set his/her own personal limits. We need to distinguish the “new social” from “real social”, we need to share physical space, and we need to exercise moderation.

You remember we teach kids about moderation when eating junk? Now we ourselves need to refrain from eating junk: the internet junk. It’s time to re-plan our days with more time for real people.

Let’s get somewhat real! Let’s take out time for the real social. Will you also take out the time to get real or do you prefer sticking to the “new social”? Or will you, like me, try to get, at least, somewhat real?

Video: http://bit.ly/1mtbvh4

Sources referred:

http://bit.ly/1jM7PFd

http://bit.ly/1gxoCIX

http://bit.ly/O9FWtK

http://bit.ly/1h6fj18

http://bit.ly/NaihZ7

Marketing and PR: Competing or Completing?

Merging lines
(Pic courtesy: http://bit.ly/1fjyTV7)

Public relations and marketing professionals are in a love-hate relationship since ever. With the growth of IMC, the hatred seems to boil down every now and then. If we compare the definitions, the theoretical base, of both the professions, we see an obvious overlap.

The Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) defines PR as: “A strategic communication process that builds mutually beneficial relationships between organizations and their publics.”

The key here is relationship-building.

The American Marketing Association (AMA) defines marketing as: “Marketing is the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large.”

And what can be a similar key here? It’s the exchange of valuable offerings.

There is a hint of commonness in both these definitions. We can join the two keys and say that relationship building occurs when there is an exchange of something that is valuable for the giver as well as the taker.

So how do the two complete each other?

PR and marketing lie on the same continuum, they complete each other. While marketers fulfill the needs of the consumers by offering services and products, the PR professionals communicate to build brand credibility that motivates using or buying those services or products. While marketers give the company measured figures of sales, the PR professionals work on the intangible aspects that account for generation of tangible data that is used by marketing. And while marketers load the social media with exciting ads and product-deals, the PR professionals gather third-party reviews to add authenticity to those deals.

Whose method is it?

It is interesting to note how similar some of the methods that PR and marketing professionals use are. For example, PROs use third-party spokespersons, while marketers use paid endorsers, and PROs use publicity events, while marketers use trade shows.

It might take years for all the academic curriculums to realize that they cannot teach PR or marketing alone. But in the real world, the changing market demands this. The lines between the roles and responsibilities of the two fields are blurring. With multiple periods of recessions and growth in economies, now the companies strive to reach out and make a mark in every possible way. Even if the conflicting PR and marketing teams pass each other with only a grin, in most cases they now realize that it’s not possible without each other.

These are just my views, but what do you believe? Do you think that marketing and PR are shunning borders? Are lines between the two fields blurring, or do they still fall into clearly defined silos?