Has Social Media changed the rules of the game (LinkedIn Responses)

In a previous post, I had argued that Social Media has changed the rules of the game. I had posted this question on LinkedIn to get a feel from people in the community and received several thought provoking and interesting insights.

I’ve segregated the responses FOR and AGAINST the topic to give you a balanced view.

Yes, Social Media has changed the game

The marketing rules have changed completely.

To keep it very high level, people can get everything they want when they want now. They also can be advertised in a non-invasive, perfectly targeted way. They can be engaged.

People no longer recognize your ability to interrupt what they’re doing… since most of what they’re doing is totally on demand. Standard commercials, pre-roll ads, popups, etc. Totally going to move over the next 10 years to a back-seat. They will still exist in some forms, but they won’t be serious contenders.

So, marketing is changing 100% and MOST of that change is driven by social media. [Founder at Pandemic Labs]

Yes, the rules have changed. The proliferation of social media sites across the Internet is evidence to this, but more so the shift in Web users’ mindsets. Users expect to contribute content to their favorite brand’s website. We want to create a conversation with people and companies we like (and don’t like). We want to be part of the product or service experience.

Companies that are still resistant to this are simply avoiding the inevitable. Anyone can discuss you or your company online now. There are multiple outlets, and this scares some slow-moving people and corporations, yet they do very little to compensate. [VP of Client Services at Vanguard Technology]

Its not really about the rules changing in marketing…its just that the power of expression is all set to be utilized to its fullest…and that’s lethal…you can either spend time building opinion or changing them…but not doing anything is like approaching a dead end at a high speed with no brakes….[Passionate public relations professional, Freelance writer, Livewire, Social media expert]

People want to communicate; businesses want to make money. Nothing different there I think. What social media is doing is looking at making these end-points easier to achieve; this is already happening on the first and potentially so on the second. So social media is not really a business objective in its own right, it is an enabler. A very powerful, democratizing one, but an enabler still.

Yes, it already is changing the rules of the game and I don’t think it is a passing fad any more than the phone, or business computing is. Eventually it will become a commodity and will be something that you must do / have in order to operate in business. [Programme Manager at PricewaterhouseCoopers]

No, Not Really

The essential rules, build relationships and provide value, have not changed. The vehicle moves faster and empowers more people [Founder at Total Success Teams]

The rules have not really changed. Theoretically everyone is now empowered, but for all practical purposes a few people rise to the top of the heap, just as it was before. Perhaps it’s easier to get information today – I don’t have to trudge down to the library and open a book in the reference section – but you still need to know what to do with the information you receive. [Customer-Facing Business, Technical, Requirements Expertise]

Note: These are some of the responses I received. You can visit the original LinkedIn question to view all the responses.