Make the Noise

The term “Litmus Test” has been colloquially used to refer to a simple / non-complex test, with a pass or fail.  For The Social Media Litmus Test, I propose (at this moment in time) a simple question to serve as the litmus paper: “Are you on Twitter?”

When social networks were all the buzz I would have recommended the question “Are you on MySpace?.”  In the 90’s, the question may have been “Are you on Geocities?” or  even a farther throw-back, “Are you on AOL?”  And next year, the litmus test for your social-media savvy level may be a completely different question.  While I realize Twitter is just the latest trend,  if you want to be successful in any industry today, you must know and be involved with the latest wave that is changing the game.

This past week I had the rare opportunity to test two different groups back to back, opposites of each other both dynamically and demographically.  On Wednesday, I spoke with a group of college students about new media, and on Thursday I attended a tech-dinner on the gaming industry with a group of individuals that were well established and had been in the industry for years.

During each of these sessions I conducted my mini experiment and the results were shocking, revealing, and proof that these two separate generations haven’t kept up with the trends.

I’ll provide a full analysis of these two groups and others in the weeks to come.

Stay Tuned!

Today I received what is becoming a very common type of  email from a blogger asking if there I had any news or products she could review as it’s been slow for her lately.   The mid-sized blogs who were once embraced (and bombarded) under the umbrella of the blogosphere have become extraneous in the minds of traditionalists.  Traditional PR is now too busy hunting the bigger fish with editorialized content and a full-time staff, and who, for all intents and purposes, are truly part of the new “traditional” media.

What is most interesting to me about this trend however is that my clients see the most click-throughs from the mid-level blog hits. Their stickiest traffic comes from sites whose writers aren’t part of the big corporate blogging machine, but have passionate and rabid readers despite their size.

One thing publicists must remember is that social media will forever be about connecting with people on a personal and meaningful level.  That is why it is crucially important to remember that our auidences aren’t neccessarily just reading the biggest and the brightest sites, but are dedicated subscribers to the smaller voices of those who write because they love what they are talking about and want to share. Remember the little guys, they are the ones who will always stand by your side and help to make the noise real.