Social media has fundamentally changed the way that people discover products, services and content. It's no longer simply about the old method of product, price and placement, it's about relevance, value and virality. As the effectiveness of traditional online marketing continues to decline, how can you be sure that your message is not only absorbed, but embraced, passed along and viewed as valuable?

Thoughts have of late been percolating in my mind. Thoughts about how the internet has impacted society, what it's meant so far and where all of this may be heading. The social web has had enormous impact on everything from our social lives, to our professional lives, to how we discover, purchase and discuss products and services. Personally, I love the impact the social web has had on my life, my career and the personal and professional interactions I have. I feel like as a society, prior to the social web, we tended to compartmentalize our lives. There was the "work me" the "social me" the "parent me" and so on. The social web has broken down barriers and given us permission to be human.

I attended the Digital Media Summit in Hollywood yesterday.

Here's the pitch from the event web site:
"Hollywood and content producers are faced with a Hobson's Choice: Make your content available to all for free online - and potentially see your core business cannibalized. Or hold onto copyrighted content tightly...and watch as an amoral generation of youngsters steals it."

Is it really that dire? I saw an awful lot of head-scratching going on. No one seems to know quite what to do about this whole "social media thing." Charlene Li gave a great presentation on social media and groundswell, a primer I think many in the room desperately needed. Thanks Charlene!

Waiting for a Hit

What is a brand? Is it a logo? A tag line? A website? No, these are all a company's attempts to define the perception people have of their products or services. The brand is how people actually perceive your company, product or service. It used to be that companies were in control of their brand. They could easily attach a set of characteristics and ideals to their offerings that most people would willingly buy in to. Word of mouth of course has been around forever, it's nothing new. But the social web has created an environment of sharing and information exchange that is much more pervasive and influential than ever before. Who's in control of your brand? Individuals are. They have more power and influence than you could ever hope to have amongst your audience.