Conversations about conversations
The experts agree: Listening to your customers and engaging them on their level is essential if you want to succeed in today’s marketplace.
On the Internet, anyone can become a media mogul. Unlike traditional media, the set-up costs are practically zero. Of course, gaining an audience is another matter entirely. You need to have something worthwhile to say, say it in an interesting and articulate way and know how to gain attention.
As a result, hardly any new media publishers are making serious money. The exceptions, such as The Huffington Post in the US and Crikey in Australia, have been started by refugees from traditional media. The splintering of audiences caused by the Internet makes it difficult to consolidate eyeballs, and therefore revenue.
However, this media fragmentation has led to the rise of thousands of niche publishers who bring their own personal brand of information to their specific audience.
When it comes to chronicling the development of the Internet, one of the most widely-connected independent publishers is Susan Bratton, whose Personal Life Media ‘empire’ features the weekly podcast “DishyMix: Juicy Interviews with Famous Internet and Media People”.
Susan was a founding member and vice-chairman of the Internet Advertising Bureau and launched online advertising products for companies such as AOL and Excite before starting Personal Life Media. As a result, she has met many of the big thinkers in online marketing and advertising, and she has combined her address book with her engaging interview style to produce content-rich interviews with scores of Internet entrepreneurs, CEOs and executives. DishyMix provides a great helicopter view of new media, where it’s come from, and importantly, where it’s heading.
Though the interviews cover a broad spectrum of new media, most coalesce around four interconnecting themes. Here’s a summary of the latest thinking around those themes, as espoused by DishyMix guests:
