I’m a big proponent of social media but I know everyone isn’t. Some people I talk to or work with are equally bullish about what social media can do for their companies. Others are a little more neutral. They’re not against social media, but they’re not convinced it’s great either. Then there are also those who simply don’t like it. The word “blog” gives them a nervous feeling in the pit of their stomach or the idea of customer comments and feedback makes them really uneasy.

I understand these people to some degree. They may have had a bad experience or have seen blogs (or other social media) used in a way that it harms someone and have therefore equated all blogs and social media to that same instance. The end result of this thinking, however, is that these individuals are social media killers within their companies. They’re the naysayers who won’t stand to listen and try to understand all the benefits. In my observation, there are three traits I’ve seen from the social media killers. They are:

• Fear - Whether they’re afraid of what people will say, won’t say, might say, or could say, the root of their unwillingness is a fear of the unknown. They don’t know social media and they’re scared. It’s too new, too open, too conversational, too accessible, too uncontrollable, and simply too different from the way they’ve always done things.
• Mistrust - Social media killers don’t trust people. They don’t trust their employees to be good representatives for the company and they don’t trust their customers. They want control and control always draws things in. Control doesn’t release. Trust requires release and social media requires trust.
• Unwillingness to listen to customers - Social media killers don’t want to hear what their customers have to say. Like the ostrich who buries his head in the sand, it’s easier to keep doing things like they have always been done than it is to ask the customer about his/her experience. If you ever hear someone say something like, “They may something bad about us” you’re dealing with a potential social media killer. In this case you may gently suggest that people may very well already be saying bad things about you, but you just don’t know it. At least if they’re saying bad things about you where you can see it, you can respond and maybe (just maybe) learn and change if needed.

The opposite of the three killers above are trust, faith, and a willingness to listen. Every company that’s considering social media will have to decide on one way or the other. If you’re trying to implement social media within an organization with a lot of social media killers I would recommend you start small. Get some small wins and then begin to take on the big three killers.

Yesterday I saw a term I haven’t come across in a while: Mass Media. Remember that term? Yeah, we don’t hear it much these days. The context for the term came from a professor friend who teaches at a college here in Nashville. She mentioned a class for freshmen this fall called “mass media and society” but I got hung up at the mass media part of the class title.

I asked the professor why that term is still being used and it sounds like it has something to do with the book selection or something like that. Maybe it’s a historical perspective of media and our society. I’m not actually clear on what it’s going to be but the term got me thinking…isn’t mass media dead?

Mass media was all about the big TV networks, major newspaper outlets, and terrestrial radio, but how massive does something have to be to be considered mass media these days? With the numbers declining in all three of those areas can we even still call them mass media? Is the term even relevant today? Mass media died as it related to television years ago around the time cable TV really took off.

One might say mass media is about the number of people you reach, meaning you reach “the masses” (which I assume we translate into millions of people) through the mediums. Yet, that doesn’t really work because there are blogs, podcasts, and even YouTube videos that reach millions of people and we wouldn’t classify them as mass media. They’re the opposite of mass media: user generated, freely accessed, open to everyone, micro media.

Mass media is just a term that used to mean something that we don’t even think about anymore. It’s like the 8-track tape. It had a good run for a while but simply has no use to us today. Perhaps mass media didn’t actually die but simply disappeared in the shadow of so many other things that we use today.

The bottom line is that we kind of know that mass media doesn’t really stick like it used to. It doesn’t have the teeth it did even ten years ago. The real question as a marketer then, is do you still act/plan/execute like the mass media is still massive? There’s a new “MASS” you should be thinking about if you’re not already.

Incidentally, the mass media and society class at the college will have a blog. How’s that for irony?

I just found out this morning that a client I work with answered their social phone for the first time a few days ago. They have been monitoring keywords in Twitter via Tweetscan’s (UPDATE: he used Summize, not Tweetscan) RSS feeds and when a customer complained about a particular product, the listening employee responded (even though the product had nothing to do with what he does at the company.) That response got an answer to the frustrated customer and the customer had the delight of getting a question/frustration dealt with that he didn’t expect an answer on. The customer came back around in Twitter and said thanks to the client. He noted that he was impressed, and frankly, a little surprised that they were listening and responded.

This is just another case of a ringing social phone that would have gone unanswered were it not for someone listening to it. Companies put significant amounts of money into the technology, personnel, and training for inbound customer service calls, but most companies are not even thinking about the unbound social calls that are being made for the world to see but going unanswered. Your social phone is probably ringing. Are you going to answer it?

Ok, quick tip if this applies to you…if you use Twitter, be a person. Don’t be a nameless, faceless brand. I’m seeing more of these lately and I’ve determined I’m not following them back. I know there’s someone behind the scenes, but why not introduce yourself? I can’t have a relationship with a brand. I can have a relationship with a person.

The same thing goes for social networking sites. Don’t created a Facebook profile for your organization or product without making it clear to everyone that there’s a person behind it. We know he or she is there…so why hide behind the logo?

Social media and social networking tools rely on personal interaction. This may be hard for some companies or counterintuitive to others, but at some point you’re going to have to get out from behind the brand to actually say, “Hi, I’m Jim. I’m the guy who handles this for the company.” If you’re not willing to do that, you can’t play in the sandbox…and not because I say so…but because you’re the one who put the bucket over your head. How’s anyone supposed to talk to you with that bucket on your head? Take it off and start talking.

I think the business of website development is going through a major shift. With the power of current blog platforms and the ease with which they can be used as a valid alternative to traditional websites, I believe small web shops are going to have to adapt and/or specialize in something else or their business is dead meat.

In the good old days (about four years ago) you could build a website from the bottom up if you were talented enough or you had to pay someone to build a website for you. Fact is, many of those sites amount to little more than what we see on blogs today, but it was the only way to really get a decent, well branded web presence. There were some do it yourself type of website tools with templates you could choose from, but by and large if you were serious about being online you didn’t go that route.

That’s not the case anymore. Blog platforms can be customized beautifully these days with a fraction of the development time and cost because the entire backend of the site is already done. That’s a huge shift for the web design business because traditional shops (and I’ve worked for and with some) would have their own code set for building sites or they would start from scratch. Customers got charged like crazy for sites that would really be no big deal in this day and age. The worst part is not everyone knows this and some web shops are still selling their services like always.

All I’m saying here is that it’s no longer necessary to look only to a web design firm to build your web presence. My friend Cory Miller began a venture a while back to start building on Wordpress and selling the designs so he can deliver an entire web presence on a platform he didn’t have to build. You can check it out at iThemes.com and you’ll see the designs are really sharp. Nathan Moore and the Anthology Creative crew did my blog on Wordpress and I love it. It’s clean, simple, gives me everything I could want, and it’s a full website that covers everything I need.

This web development shift is great for customers. They are generally better looking sites that are easy to manage and much cheaper than what some companies charge.

If this feels a little too doom and gloom for the web designers then you’re not seeing the opportunities. I actually think the future is bright in the web design/development world if they adapt to the changes or become specialized. Here are three areas that seem wide open for growth:

• Blog Design Specialists: Blogs have emerged as a great platform for a web presence that meets the needs of what many people want when they think about getting a website. The web designers who are focused on providing a great web presence with a focus on ease of use, function, and beauty will do well. Their counterparts building sites the old way, however, will still be charging clients to use some bulky, proprietary stuff their company is married to.
• The Flash/Controlled Media Specialists: Some people want to control the entire online experience for users and Flash or some other controlled online media like that is always going to be a preference for those people. Blogs won’t cut it in that regard and the specialists who can do this well will likely be in demand for a long time.
• The Big, Bad, Complex Website Specialist: There are some websites that are just too big and bad to warrant being built on a blog platform. You’re not going to see Amazon.com or anything like that switching over to a blog so there will always be a need for the large and highly complex site specialists.

I should note if anyone is wondering…I don’t build websites. I know enough HTML to get into trouble and  my design skills are mediocre at best. This entire perspective is based on the opportunities for consumers and my observations about how the market is changing. It’s as simple as this: the days of paying more than five or ten thousand dollars for a website are gone except in some select scenarios. In many cases you can get more than enough for what you need for under $1000. Just be aware of that next you want a website.