[MUSIC] Welcome back. Today, we're looking at social networks and digital media. My guest is Professor Randy Hlavac, who's a real expert on this turf. So Randy, let's not start there, but let's start for a moment at 10,000 feet, above social networks and digital media. How do you just look at the whole notion of the trends in media, and what you see out there? >> Well, one of the things that's really important, if I'm thinking about how I'm going to maximize the reach of my content, you've gotta think about global aspect of what's happening here. A lot of times, I may be writing something that I think will be more important nationally, or regionally, or even locally. But the key is, once I put it out into the social cloud, it's going to go all over the world. And so I found two graphics to just kind of get into that whole topic. And the first one on the left talks about the fact that right now, there are more mobile subscriptions, than there are people in the world. And means that people all over the world have the ability to receive our content and to have it impact them. And so that's an important thing to think about. The other one on the right hand side, talks about the fact that this is happening across the world. China is growing really, really rapidly, but surprisingly the fastest growing area's in Russia. And more and more, we're getting to where everybody has a smart phone, or a cell phone, or a tablet, or access to a computer. And the key is the content is becoming more and more a part of our life. For example, most people Immediately when they get up, grab their smartphone, and get connected right away. And that people are using it 40 times a day, and it's, it's interesting to note that for young people especially, they never are more than three feet away from their, their mobile phone. It's always a part of their life. And as a content strategist, one of the things it really impacts is that more and more people are relying on peer recommendations, not to buy just products and services, but to watch videos, and to find out what they want to consume. So as we're building out our, our digital and our social strategies, to impact that, and to move our content out as far as we can to maximize its impact, we need to think about the importance of peer recommendations, and the communities that are, are linked together that are sharing content throughout the world. >> So Randy, how have these technologies developed the creation and the development of content? >> Well, one of the key things is these new technologies have allowed people to get connected and put out a lot more content than in the past. If you look at this graphic from InfoNewt, you'll see that since 1986, we were hit by the equivalent of 40 newspapers, and now we're up into the hundreds and it's going to continue to grow. >> Per person? >> Per person, and so that means content is really flooding out into the marketplace, which means people are going to be looking for good, quality, relevant content, as opposed to just content. The other thing is, that's going to continue to grow. If you look at it in terms of petabytes, which are, are huge amounts of information, we are doubling every few years. And so that means there's more video out there, there's more content, written content out there, more audio content. And so people are more and more getting inundated with content, and so it's the quote says, it's sort of like taking a drink from a fire hydrant. And we have to do then is figure out strategies that allow to us to cut through this clutter, to become really really targeted and really, really relevant to the specific market. And the better that we do that, the better we're going to be able to reach them in this highly content-rich environment that is you, you know, the, this causing a real challenge for content strategists today. >> So if I summarize it, it seems to me what you're really saying is, we all grew up around the world thinking if we said it, people paid attention to it. >> Mm-hm. >> Now, with that tidal wave, the question is who do I want to reach? How can I get to them? And can I give them something of value, not size, but the thing they most want? >> Yeah, that's really true. In the past, we could put out content and it would get to an audience. But today, the audiences are getting much more selective. And you kind of saw that with the peer recommendations. People are beginning to band together in what we call communities, and those communities have very specific interests, and wants, and desires. And so in today's world, we need to start with the audience that we want to reach, deeply understand who they are, and then develop not only the content, but the media that we're going to deliver it to them with I, in a way that's best for them. In other words, through deep understanding of the audience, we have our best chance of cutting through the clutter, and getting them relevant and timely and high impact content in today's world. >> That's really useful. [MUSIC]
