I hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving. This year, while at the table, I was waiting for the conversation of the evening to some how turn towards social networking and all the new things going on in the cyber world. Guess what? It never did. It wasn't until after dinner that it even surfaced. I guess all of this talk of internet connections in class made me think that everyone was talking about this kind of stuff. Although it was refreshing to be reminded of what I used to talk about before I took on the IT classes.
After dinner I started making fun of my cousin for finally joining Facebook and telling her boyfriend to get in when he told me he refused to "sell out". That's a whole other topic for another time and if anyone is in the mood for a good Facebook rant make sure and hit me up. It was at this time that my aunt commented in how it changed the whole way we now connect with each other. The woman is absolutely right.
Things like LinkedIn, Facebook, and Delicious have changed the ways we keep in touch, look for jobs, and even find entertainment or news. While our generation may not have any physical thing to show for it, we certainly have made in impact on how the world runs. (Not too shabby for a bunch of computer nerds.) We are now out there creating content for ourselves and others, and turning to this user generated content rather than the same old advertising, agenda pushing sources from before. Sure everyone is trying to get our attention but we have much more variety than we used to. It's a new time and I'll bet the advertisers are panicking now that I can get someones attention just as fast as any of them, although I can do it on a students budget. (That would be $0, for anyone who was wondering...)
Sunday, November 25, 2007
And What do We Have to Show for It?
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3 comments:
Hey- I agree that the advertisers must be panicking like mad by now. I think they're beginning to realize that anyone can use google AdWords and get their message/site out. It doesn't surprise me that social networking didn't come up at your table though... For some reason I just don't see it as being Turkey-day dinner talk... although it could definitely make for some interesting conversation when explaining to someone what you do.
I agree with you an your aunt! UGC has changed how and where we search for information. And I imagine marketers are in a tizzy- it's no longer a one way conversation, or even a two way conversation. It's a six-billion way conversation! (well... not quite that much...) But UGC does give everyday people the same tools that marketers used to use to reach out to end-users. Somehow marketers will need to figure out how to step above the crowd to get thier message out, because traditional marketing mediums aren't going to work that well for our generation!
Oh, and I would LOVE to hear your facebook rant!
The advertisers are just turning our stuff into this thing called UGC and trying to sell it. I mean just look at all the ads you see on youtube that wasn't there before. Heck VH1 had a show just showing UGC video clips. I wonder how much they made on advertisment from that.
UGC just means us the people who makes the content gets exploited without getting much of anything in return.
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