Seeing how the medium affects the message

[Reyed Mia (Apprentice, DIU)]

Seeing how the medium affects the message

Building an Integrated Online Marketing Plan. Step two of building an integrated plan is understanding the mediums that are available to you. See, when we talk about a Medium, what we're looking at is a channel of communication. You see, Facebook is social media. And that social media is considered a channel. But Facebook, is different than Twitter. And so we have to look at Facebook communication being very different from Twitter. Communication, both of those are very different from YouTube communication.

So even though they all fall under the umbrella of social media marketing, each channel needs to be seen differently, because people use them differently. And the medium through which you communicate a message influences how people receive that message. This is a very important concept. Back in the 1960s a man named Marshall McCluhan coined the phrase, the medium is the message. What he meant by that is that people perceive information differently based on how they receive that information.

Here's a great example through which he did his study and found this principle. You see, in 1960, it was the first televised presidential debate between Richard Nixon and John F Kennedy. About half of the households in America at that time, owned a television set. About half of the households were still using radio. So it was a unique time in American History where there was a new medium taking over from an old medium.

In a survey that was done after the debate, most people that listened to the debate on the radio overwhelmingly said that Nixon won the debate. Their comments ranged from he knew the issues, he was adept at answering questions. To he understood and was better at communicating his ideas, and his vision for the future. The people that watched the debate on television their comments were Kennedy looked presidential.

That he was confident, he looked smart and he was able to be confident under pressure. And he looked good in delivering his answers. You see, based on what medium people used in hearing the information or receiving the information. It influenced how they perceived that information. A couple other things that also happened that helped that debate was that. Well Nixon, was in the hospital for a few weeks prior to the debate and had lost about 20 pounds. And so visually, he looked very thin, he looked very gaunt, and wasn't comfortable, in, in being in a suit, and under the hot lights of the studio. Kennedy on the other hand, his people had called the network prior to the debate to find out what color the background would be.

And they made sure that because the background was a light grey. He wore a very dark suit so that the contrast would enable him to be better seen on the black and white television. And so many things factor into how people receive information and the value and the weight they place on that information depending upon where they receive it. And so this helps us understand that not all social media is equal. You see, when we look at the efforts of people and the efforts of companies that lead to conversions.

In the sheer number of posts to Twitter, to blogs, and to forums. Most companies that actively engage in these three methods of posting information. The majority of their efforts that lead to conversions are from their forum and blog postings. When we look at from a visitor perspective of the amount of impressions that lead to conversions. We see that blogs overwhelmingly provide the most amount of conversions.

And see, you can't measure all social media the same way. People perceive information differently, and that then, contributes to how they react to it. And so, we need to choose a primary medium. Based on the resources that we have, based on understanding how our message is best communicated and best received by our audience. And so, the first part of understanding the most effective channels is understanding that not all social media is perceived the way we think it might be.

Evaluate the channels that you use. And evaluate how people respond to you. Are you effective in promoting your company and your ideas through these channels? In which channels will be the best for you to present your company and your information.

https://www.linkedin.com/learning/building-an-integrated-online-marketing-plan/seeing-how-the-medium-affects-the-message