When comparing social media with traditional media, it can be said that traditional media
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Traditional media refers to forms of mass media that focus on delivering news to the general public or a targeted group of the public. Traditional forms of media include print publications (newspapers and magazines), broadcast news (television and radio) and, in recent years, the digital version of those media outlets, such as digital newspapers and blogs. Show
What is social media? The term “social media” is used a lot these days to describe a variety of different digital platforms. For the purpose of this piece, social media refers to social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, YouTube, LinkedIn, etc. The differences between traditional media and social mediaWhere traditional media generally offers a wider audience pool, social media allows for more targeted distribution Social media on the other hand, gives PR pros the opportunity to really target their messages, selecting everything from the demographics and geography of an audience to the time of day the post will go live. Social media is immediate, while traditional can be delayed due to press times Traditional media tends to have a longer timeline than social media. Not only can press times slow you down, pieces for traditional media tend to take longer to put together (think of all those hours drafting and distributing a pitch, connecting reporters with sources and providing useful imagery). Social media posts are generally shorter, usually meaning they take less time to put together, and can be published immediately. Traditional media pieces are more final, where social media is dynamic For the most part, once a story is published on a traditional form of media, it’s final. If you’re lucky, the reporter you worked with on a story may be willing to make changes after the fact to an online piece, but if your story hit newsstands or went live on television or radio, chances are it’s too late. Because social media is a form of owned media, you have the control to make updates whenever you need to.PR pros have the freedom to issue retractions, edit posts after they’re pushed live or even delete messages entirely. And since social media happens immediately, there is absolutely no delay between the time a change is needed and when it reaches audiences. Social media offers more control over the message than traditional media Similar to the above, where the PR pro controls the publication date and time of a social media post, social also offers greater control over the message. Although you can’t control how the public will respond once the message is out there, you do have the opportunity to control what is said in the first place. Social media is a two-way conversation, and traditional is one-way The typical flow of a traditional piece looks a lot like this: the PR pro pitches the story, the reporter publishes the story and the public reads the story. The cycle ends there, until it begins again. With social media, the public has the opportunity to voice their opinions. Not only does the public expect to be heard when they share their opinions on a story or current event, they also expect the brand to respond. PR pros using social media in their day-to-day should be prepared to act fast and respond appropriately. The best of both worldsAs you can probably see from the above comparison, traditional media and social media both have their pros and cons. Depending on the situation, the goal or the strategy, one method may work better than another for your brand. Traditional media include radio, broadcast television, cable and satellite, print, and billboards. These are the forms of advertising that have been around for years, and many have had success with traditional media campaigns. Even within traditional media, however, there is some debate over which form is best. The answer really depends on who you talk to– your broadcast TV rep, for example, may swear there is no way to achieve the same level of reach and frequency with print advertising. Your radio rep may tell you that radio is actually superior because it interacts with consumers while they are in the car or store, potentially when they are deciding on their purchase. The reality is that there are advantages of traditional media, and disadvantages– no matter which forms you choose. The right type for you depends on the demographic you’re trying to reach, your message, your budget, and personal preference. You may want to advertise on TV, but TV has an average CPM of $28. Radio is less prestigious, but at a CPM of $10, it’s much more attainable for many businesses. Billboards are even more accessible, with a CPM of $5. These differences between traditional media and social networking aren’t just interesting — understanding how social media is different from traditional media has a major impact on whether you’re successful with social media. Run your social media campaign like your traditional media campaign and you’re likely to see more damage to your brand reputation than benefit and you’ll waste a lot of money doing it. A lot has changed since I originally wrote this post way back in 2012, so it makes sense to update it now with some new understandings of the two communication channels and how to use each one successfully. In fact, so many changes impacted this post, we republished it to reflect the changes. Differences between traditional media and social networkingTo summarize the differences between these two communication channels, check out the table below that I think outlines key differences in the way to succeed with each particular channel. When I originally wrote this content, I identified 16 differences, although, over time, new operational and functional differences emerged and some differences disappeared. For instance, social networking is no longer truly free as organic reach declined with changes in the algorithms determining how messages spread across social platforms. Hence, I removed this element from the table. Social Media Two-way conversation Open system Transparent One-on-one marketing About you Brand and User-generated Content Authentic content FREE platform Metric: Engagement Actors: Users/ Influencers Community decision-making Unstructured communication Real-time creation Bottom-up strategy Informal language Active involvement Deep Analytics Paid, Owned, Earned Traditional Media One-way conversation Closed system Opaque Mass marketing About ME Professional content Polished content Paid platform Metric: Reach/ frequency Actors/ Celebrities Economic decision-making Controlled communication Pre-produced/ scheduled Top-down strategy Formal language Passive involvement Poor analytics Paid Highlights: How Traditional Media and Social Networking DifferHow traditional media supports contentIf you think about it, it’s pretty obvious that there are vast differences between traditional media and social networking, like those listed in the table above. Traditional media provides value through subsidizing content — free TV and radio programs, lower-cost magazines, and chances to win prizes. In exchange for this content we want to see, we ALLOW advertisers to interrupt our day to tell us about their products. In fact, soap operas get their name from historic trends in sponsorship that were overwhelmingly cleaning products. Of course, technological changes now allow us to avoid much of the advertising paid for by content sponsors. Streaming services offer ad-free content on both TV and radio, while more and more users record programs for later viewing, which allows them to fast-forward past commercials. Increasingly, consumers prefer to pay for content rather than subject themselves to advertising. In part, at least, this preference comes from advertising that’s termed “spray and pray” meaning ads are shown to wide audiences in hopes of reaching a target market without a clear targeting strategy. That’s the nature of traditional media. Sports sponsorship offer an opportunity for brands to capitalize on content to ensure viewers see their commercials because, for the most part, viewers choose to watch sporting events in real-time, eliminating opportunities to screen out commercials and, since streaming services don’t carry sporting events, sports enthusiasts have limited opportunities to avoid commercials. The value difference between traditional media and social networkingThe difference between traditional media and social networking is that social platforms — Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc — are already FREE and the content is provided by other users, hence content doesn’t require sponsorship to ensure continued content is available to users. So, advertisers can’t expect us to allow them to interrupt us with commercial messages since they provide no value in exchange. I mean, face it, no one really LIKES commercials! So, the key to making social media work is to provide some other type of value — be it entertainment, information, support, or other types of rewards — in exchange for exposure to your commercial message. And, the ratio can’t be 1:1. You HAVE to provide about 90% value to 10% commercial messages. A good example is Taylor Swift. She shares cuts from her albums before they’re available in stores as well as insider information about music and bands in exchange for joining her network. Hence, you sometimes get messaging about buying her album or tickets to a concert (at least in the pre-pandemic world where concerts existed), but you remain a Facebook fan because you get value in other ways through your relationship with her page. On social networks, we should see something called native advertising. According to Outbrain:
In a social world, social media provides value through targeted advertising that fits our interests. Hence, after visiting a website, I might see a discount code shared with me on Facebook [this is implemented through Pixels linking your website with your Facebook profile]. That’s value and I don’t mind getting such offers. How social media value changed since 2012Since 2012, there’s been a movement transitioning conversations to digital media, instead of social media or social networking. This change, rather than just reflecting semantics, celebrates the integration of digital strategies including blogging, social media, and email marketing with a stronger commitment to driving ROI, including strategies involving lead generation, tracking movement through a website, etc. These changes further enhance the difference between traditional media and social networking by creating metrics to measure results and provide insights focused on improving market performance. Metrics are woefully absent from traditional media due to the nature of the communication channels. In the intervening years since this article was originally published, social platforms, like Facebook, placed a more significant effort on monetizing their platforms so users see more ads. Although Facebook and other social platforms enhanced their targeting to ensure users saw mostly relevant ads, users still don’t like advertising, hence the growth of ad-free platforms such as Snapchat, which grew rapidly, especially among younger users. Paid, earned, and owned media on digitalThe notion of paid, versus earned, versus owned media drew marketers’ attention in recent years. In the past, marketers focused on owned media — posts to social networks on their own pages, profiles, etc. Now, they must integrate across owned media, paid media (Facebook ads, Ads, affiliate links), and earned media (sharing behavior that amplifies the brand message). As highlighted in the graphic below, this amplification offers a more profound increase in ROI from digital strategies than a focus on building platforms of owned media. In this example, we follow a message through 3 “generations” of engagement to see how quickly the message’s reach expands as the message moves from user to user through the network of connections created by the user. The integration of email marketing into your digital strategy means more effort spent on collecting subscribers and managing your email marketing through platforms such as Salesforce, as well as using email marketing autoresponders to alleviate the workload. Social media is ALL about communitySocial networks increasingly replace more traditional communities (with individual activities crowding out team and group activities even before the pandemic shut down entire swaths of people) and the ease of communication in these virtual communities draws billions of people into social networks and convinces them to spend significant time engaging in the social network, especially during the pandemic. The trick of social media marketing success is to JOIN this community and harness its power rather than engage in traditional marketing communication. So, rather than disrupting the conversation, join the conversation. Become an integral part of the community — someone everyone recognizes and welcomes because you share fun and interesting things with them. Guy Kawasaki is a master of this and employs a staff to find and share interesting images, videos, and news at Alltop, and really interesting stuff is posted as “Holy Kaw” across several social platforms and websites. Use the community. Studies and experience show people engage more when they’re a part of something. So, ask the community to contribute content such as a cool video or suggestions for a brand name. This crowdsourced content draws new members to your community. For instance, I built a brand community on Facebook called my Social Media Marketing Tribe. Anyone can join and we share interesting tips we find, ask questions, get support for projects we’re working on, etc. One-on-one marketingWhile most advertising (traditional media) is designed for mass consumption, social media involves one-on-one marketing. That means messages are highly targeted at specific groups, often called personas that offer rich insights into your various target markets. Hence, marketers need to understand their target market ON EACH NETWORK so messages appear tailored to the individual. While you may have a broad target market, the ones on Facebook may be entirely different from the ones on YouTube, and adapting your approach in each network is key to your success. Neal Taparia, who runs FreeCell Challenge, explains, “When we promote our FreeCell games, our messages are always different across channels. For instance, with TikTok, you have to have unique short-form video content that is catchy and quirky to work well. That same video might not work as well on Facebook or Instagram.” Real-time marketingOne aspect I didn’t focus on in the post from 2012 is the role of real-time marketing on digital media. When I worked with a big-time advertising agency, we’d spend months preparing a campaign — crafting a message, shooting footage, editing images, carefully planning our media spend, etc. There’s no time for that in today’s rapidly changing digital landscape where you have to produce fresh content on a consistent basis, not a few times a year. And, that changes how a campaign comes together. No longer do you have an art department, a music department, and a post-production department. You need folks who bring multiple skills to the campaign. That means content marketers need not only writing skills, but the ability to craft images on the fly (edit existing images or create images using Photoshop, Canva, or other tools) and they need a little HTML/CSS so they can make the content look awesome online. Video is the same way. You create a number of videos without the benefit of scriptwriters, storyboarding, and editing. There’s no time for that. Instead, you need folks who can create videos on a tight budget and upload them to YouTube, which might require some HTML/CSS. Managing the process of crafting unique content on a consistent basis is challenging since speed and flexibility are essential. At the same time, you need an approval process to ensure your content fits your brand in terms of style and messaging, while not offending or damaging your brand image. For instance, check out this Tweet from ASUS that brought the wrong type of attention to their brand. An appropriate approval process would have caught this blatant mistake. AnalyticsProbably the biggest change from 2012 is the emphasis on analytics, which reflects a major difference between traditional media and social networking. With traditional media, we know next to nothing about how successful our campaign was because the tools for tracking performance, with the exception of direct media, are inferential. With digital media, the marketer is inundated with data. Now, the challenge is making sense of it all. Here are just a few of the metrics available:
What Do YOU Think?
Need marketing help to support business growth?We welcome the opportunity to show you how we can make your marketing SIZZLE with our data-driven, results-oriented marketing strategies. Sign up for our FREE newsletter, get our FREE guide to creating an awesome website, or contact us for more information on hiring us. Hausman and Associates, the publisher of MKT Maven, is a full-service marketing agency operating at the intersection of marketing and digital media. Check out our full range of services. How will you compare traditional media from new media?Traditional media includes print media, such as newspapers and books, and broadcast media, such as television and radio. New media includes digital media, such as the Internet and social media. Throughout history, there have been major changes in the way that media is produced and consumed.
What is the difference between media and social media?Difference Between Social Media and Traditional Media
Mass media refers to media technologies that reach a mass audience while social media refer to computer-based technology that enables users to create and share content or to participate in social networking.
What is the difference between traditional media and new media in form of functions and effectiveness?Traditional media allows businesses to target a broad target audience through billboards, print advertising, television commercials, and more. In comparison, new media allows companies to target a narrow target audience through social media, paid online ads, and search results.
What makes traditional media traditional?Traditional media includes all outlets that existed before the internet, such as newspapers, magazines, TV, radio and billboards.
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