by New Mexico Business Weekly
Gweneth Doland of the New Mexico Independent says she gets breaking news on her iPhone before she even gets out of bed in the morning.
View Larger
Experts on social media, such as MySpace, Facebook and Twitter, say that soon the entire Internet will be transformed by these communications concepts.
“It will be much richer than what we see now,” said Sophie Martin of the online site, Duke City Fix. “We, as a community, will go much further with it in the future.”
Martin founded Duke City Fix, www.dukecityfix.com, five years ago in Albuquerque. It is a unedited community Web site about the city, moderated by volunteers.
The panel was hosted by the New Mexico Advertising Federation at the Embassy Suites hotel. Approximately 100 were in attendance. The discussion covered the growing influence and impact of social media on advertisers and consumers.
“When I wake up in the morning and roll over, the first thing I grab is my iPhone,” said Gweneth Doland of the New Mexico Independent.
Doland said she worried for years about the effect social media seemed to have on the “demise of newspapers,” but now thinks the two mediums offer a different product.
Doland previously worked for the Weekly Alibi and the Santa Fe New Mexican before taking a position with the entirely online Independent.
Panelists agreed that there are many misconceptions about social networking sites — the main one being that it’s only used by young people.
“The fastest growing demographic for Facebook is women over 50,” said panelist Greta Weiner of GWDC LLC, an Internet marketing company in Albuquerque.
“Power moms are also using Facebook. These are moms that are very busy, but want to keep up with what their kids are doing and keep up with the latest information.”
During the question and answer session, audience members wondered if social media was really the future of the Internet.
Martin said a familiar refrain she hears from clients is that they don’t have time to keep up with all the sites and constant updates.
“However, 10 years ago [clients] were wondering if they even had to have a Web site and wondered if it had to be good,” she said with a smile.
Other panelists included Nora Heineman Fleck, who runs the social media programs for the University of New Mexico, and Silvia Uribe, who administers a community news Web site, Edhat.com, out of Santa Barbara, Calif.
The New Mexico Advertising Federation was established in 1959 and serves as an “advertising voice” for the state. It is a chapter of the American Advertising Federation. The AAF is the nation’s oldest national advertising trade association, representing 40,000 professionals in the advertising industry.
No comments:
Post a Comment