Social Media: The Water Cooler of the 21st Century - Frank Radice-Definition 6

I know I39m dating myself here but one of my favorite TV shows as a child was The Adventures of Ozzie ampamp Harriet I loved the show for several reasons the main one being music but I also really enjoyed the family dynamics It was a nuclear family with a music twist They sat around and ate dinner together They played music together They had fatherson talks Motherson talks The neighborhood kids came over to hang out Everyone was communicating facetoface all the time and there was always a lesson to be learned on every showBut when I think back to the days of Ozzie Harriet and their kids David and Ricky and compare it to how we communicate today we don39t do any of that anymoreFamilies don39t eat at the family dinner table or watch the evening news together anymore At work we don39t get off our collective butts and walk down the hall to talk facetoface anymore Even a conversation with the person in the next cubicle has become an IM experience Hell I video Skype my colleague Jon Accarrino accarrino and he39s only two offices awayAnd we certainly don39t hang around the water cooler at work and talk anymore That39s so 20th century Content context and conversation occur more and more digitally using tools like quotsocial mediaquot Let39s use the Television example shall weIn my experience beginning in the 5039s 6039s and 7039s you39d watch a TV show like The Adventures of Ozzie ampamp Harriet often with the family and when it was over everyone went to bed The next day at work or at play the conversation eventually got around to quotthat showquot last night Was it funny Did you like the music And by the way did you see that commercial for the shaving cream where the pretty girl said quotTake it off take it all offquot That was something That was also pretty much it The networks were happy if people watched the program and the sponsors were happy if the product advertised was soldWhen email started to become hot you might get up and go to your computer to quotchatquot about a TV show with a friend who was watching at the same time you were or you had a laptop handy But it wasn39t instant Maybe they would reply to your email the next dayIMing made that process simpler and took it to realtime It allowed you to have realtime conversations to anyone anywhere in the world who was sitting at a computer It was the new quotFace to Facequot but without an actual faceMobile paired with social media networks like Twitter and Facebook gave us realtime messaging without the burden of a big computer Now you could have a real conversation about things like TV shows with all your friends at the same time and do it with a portable device small enough to fit in your pocketBut what if your friends weren39t watching the same show as you Then new quotAppsquot that took advantage of mobile technology and social media like Get Glue Miso and ITV let you have realtime conversations about TV shows With quotIn to Itquot and the newest one I39ve seen ConnectTV you can chat share files comment see extra video interact engage and have what I call quotA social media water cooler experiencequot There is even one with a video chat component nowWith these tools you can create a conversation that can stimulate a multitude of reactions Beyond generating interest they let you create a platform where fans can interact You can have transmedia applications that make the viewing experience more meaningful And at the far end of the spectrum you can use the tools as an agent of change Apply the social media mantra to TV News and many doors open up as evidenced by the huge following of people for the quotOccupy Wall Streetquot movement who are nowhere near the gathered groups See how social media made the plight of the Iranian public part of the fabric of our conversation And on the opposite end of the spectrum consumers can now even engage directly with a show live like voting on the XFactor through social mediaPeople see it on TV they interact directly with the participants on the scene they share their experiences and in the end reach a new audience with a given messageSocial media is now our most effective quotword of mouth toolquotWe can reach the most people or target the right crowd with any conversation and because it39s social we can get immediate response and ultimately affect a reaction stir up a crowd watch a show rag on an actor sell a product and at the extreme get someone elected or help get a policy changedIt39s got greater reach than traditional media and it affords the luxury of greater frequency through things like retweeting and sharingAdd a layer of video audio and still imagery to your conversation and you can bring them to lifeSocial TV is the new quotnext big thingquot and social media is the new water coolerThe days of watching a TV show and talking about it around the water cooler the day after are goneNow you can do it in realtime And that holds a wealth of possibilities for you the viewer your communities the advertiser and who knows the TV show itselfYour social media network can have any number of personal quotStationsquot From Twitter and Facebook to LinkedIn and Flickr From YouTube to StumbleUpon and to Instagram and FourSquare Add them all up and you have more influence than you think Link them together and you are a force to be reckoned withNow go to the water cooler and get a drinkFrank Radice serves as ExpertInResidence for Definition 6 As ExpertInResidence Frank advises Definition 6 leadership and clients on marketing strategy and issues pertinent to the evolution and transformation of the broadcasting ampamp cable industry He can be reached at FrankRadicedefinition6comRead all Frank39s MediaBizBloggers commentaries at Defining InsightsCheck us out on Facebook at MediaBizBloggerscomFollow our Twitter updates MediaBizBloggerThe opinions and points of view expressed in this commentary are exclusively the views of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaBizBloggerscom management or associated bloggers MediaBizBloggers is an open thought leadership platform and readers may share their comments and opinions in response to all commentaries

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Social Media: The Water Cooler of the 21st Century - Frank Radice-Definition 6

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