To hear some people, you’d think business should abandon traditional communication channels and dive into social computing to deliver its messages and address its issues.
The audience, we are told, has no interest in being talked to; we must, at all costs, accommodate a growing desire among the audience to be engaged in conversation.
I do believe in the conversation and the shift to a social computing environment and all the consequences for business and communications. However, nothing changes everything and I’ve maintained for years that the new tools should be added to the old, not replace them.
Validation came while I was reading my hard copy of the March 20 BusinessWeek. (That’s right, I still get a dead-tree copy in the mail every week. It’s easier to read that way, particularly in the bathroom.) The article that struck me: “Why the Web is HItting a Wall” (paid subscription required). The article by Roger Crockett reports on a Parks Associates survey that reveals 39 million American households do not have Internet access-meaning only 64% of households do. (And only a small percentage of these read blogs or listen to podcasts!)
The study broke down the reasons why so many Americans are avoiding the Net. It’s a knee-jerk reaction to assume they’re all just getting what they need at work. In fact, that rationale accounts for only 31% of nonusers, according to the study. Sixty percent of people over 65 aren’t connected. There are 6 million homes with PCs but no Internet connection, and most of them wouldn’t subscribe to Net access at any price. Another million say they’re not interested in “anything” on the Net.
Analysts anticipate the total online US population will only reach 67% by 2009. The bottom line is simple: Abandon traditional methods of communication for social media and you also abandon 36% of the total consumer market. Sadly, rather than shift all your efforts to social media, you’ll just have to allocate the resources to do both.
Add to DiggThis | Yahoo! My Web
Shel Holtz is principal of Holtz Communication + Technology which focuses on helping organizations apply online communication capabilities to their strategic organizational communications.
As a professional communicator, Shel also writes the blog a shel of my former self.
