Wednesday, November 5, 2008

Social Media Marketing and Communications

Paul Gillin, author of THE NEW INFLUENCERS, has a new book called SECRETS OF SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING that is is just out. This semester I am in the middle of a class on Organizational Communication here at Coker. One of my goals is to ensure that the students understand the why of communication within organizations and another is for them to appreciate that there are tools and channels out there for communication that will help them be more effective when they join an organization.

As I finished up Gillin's book this evening I was struck that he closed with some thoughts there were very similar to ones I shared this morning with a Mass Communication class. Let me quote Gillin: "Online communities will fundamentally change the way in which organizations interact with their constituents." Gillin is coming at this from the Marketing perspective in this line on page 270 but I have been discussing it with students from the internal communication point of view. Gillin's ideas, along with some others I have been reading and listening too like Shel Holtz, are the thought leaders for this technology tsunami overtaking the organizational world. I hope I am conveying to my students that the books,articles and talks by thought leaders like these are not alarms of change but signposts, signals, and semaphores for how to connect the dots, or the wires or the waves between whatever medium you are using and the crucial message you are sharing. McLuhan would have been right at home in today's global village.

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