The final session I attended for the day was a cozy discussion, covering how to make the May-September relationship work for you. Led by Rick Toone, Maria Evans, and Cookie Biggs, here’s what the session taught me.

“TOOLS HAVE CHANGED. COMMUNICATION HAS CHANGED, OR HAS IT?” When it comes to merging old and new media methods, you have to go back to the beginning and think of your audience and your purpose. These two things will determine the way you communicate and which channels are appropriate for your message.

“THE CONSUMER CONTROLS THE MESSAGE” There was a discussion of the importance of tone of voice in social media. Sometimes a message can be decoded in a negative way when that was not the intention. So, as a business using social media, you’ll need to be smart and purposeful in selecting the language you use to connect with your audience. Knowing the best days and times to send messages to your audience will help as well, so someone is always hearing what you have to offer.

“SOCIAL MEDIA USE IS SIMPLER, YET HARDER AT THE SAME TIME!” Messages send more quickly and easily with social media then with former technologies, but the message delivery can be a bit more complicated. TV broadcasts, for example, were easier years ago than today. People had time to think and prepare before. Now, once a story gets out, people are responding in an instant and things can get out of control very quickly for a company. Also, the abundance of new technologies today can make things difficult. With the growth of social media, it’s impossible to know everything about every platform and to use them all to your advantage. Sticking to sites that will reach your key audience will lighten your load and leave room for improvement and new knowledge along the way!  

Many guests present in the session concluded that communication methods have not changed, only the technologies have changed! Ultimately, bringing the benefits of face-to-face communication into your social media use will be the perfect way to merge old and new media,  and it will make for a great social media experience for your business!