Difference between Traditional and Social Media

Media is one of the most happening and important inventions of man kind. With the advent of time and technology, there was advancement in the media field. A lot of media tools started coming up. Before going into the comparison between the traditional media and social media, it would be wise to define them first.

Traditional Media:

It comprises of newspaper, television, radio and banners or ads in public places. This of course costs a lot. For example to advertise on the velachery bus terminus would cost Rs14,000 per month. The traditional media is a static way of communication, where the communication is just one sided. When we watch a T.V or read a newspaper or listen to radio, we just listen to what they say. It is just push information, where the information is pushed on to us. We do not get to express our views or discuss with the host/presenter or the reporter. The traditional media has been in existence for a long time and hence has managed to earn a large user base. A company willing to use these mediums to advertise their products, will of course get a huge user or viewer base to showcase their products or services but it also has to shell out a lot of revenue. Traditional media is very very expensive for marketing. It also requires a huge human resource with different skill set. The effectiveness of these sources of advertisements are also gradually decreasing as user base of this media is ever decreasing.

Social Media:

With the advent of the internet a new communication channel viz, Social Media opened up. Social Media started attracting a lot of users in a short period as people felt it was easy for them to communicate to one another and also get news and information live. The plane crash on the Hudson Bay was first reported by a twitter user on twitter and not by a reporter. The most famous Social Media tools available to are Blog, Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin. However Social Media is not easy. It too needs professionals to manage these accounts. Still it is cheaper than the traditional media and also more effective. The above figure clearly describes the difference between traditional media and social  media. Traditional media consumes more money and social media consumes more time.

Blog:

People and companies blog about their likes and dislikes or their products and services respectively. This enables users or readers to get information directly from the experts. They can also get in touch with the writer through the comment section and express their views and suggestions. The company is also in a way forced to rectify its errors or consider the suggestions as they are out in the open and if they turn away from them they might attract a lot of criticism from fellow users. Blogging is also very cheap there are lots of free web based blogging tools like blogspot.com and wordpress.com and also blogging softwares like wordpress.org which enables us to host a blog easily.

Twitter:

Twitter is a web based application started by Twitter Inc. They brought twitter into the market as a SMS based social media discussion tool. For example: Imagine if we have 20 people who want to know what is happening in our lives on a daily basis or want to constantly stay in touch with us. It is not possible to send them SMS every time, Instead we go to twitter and and post the updates (tweets) there. This ensures that all our friends and family are able to  stay in touch with us and we with them. This is also a great tool for the company. Using this companies can actually pull customers towards their products and services, rather than pushing it on them. This is also being used by journalists for exchanging live news and readers or followers discuss on the happenings. This brings in a personal touch between the journalist reporting the                              happenings and his followers. This personalization forms a trust between the source and destination.

Facebook:

Founded in February 2004, Facebook is a social utility that helps people communicate more efficiently with their friends, family and coworkers. The company develops technologies that facilitate the sharing of information through the social graph, the digital mapping of people's real-world social connections. Anyone can sign up for Facebook and interact with the people they know in a trusted environment. Facebook is a part of millions of people’s lives and half of the users return daily.

LinkedIn:

LinkedIn takes your professional network online, giving you access to people, jobs and opportunities like never before. Built upon trusted connections and relationships, LinkedIn has established the world’s largest and most powerful professional network. Currently, more than 17 million professionals are on LinkedIn, including executives from all five hundred of the Fortune 500 companies, as well as a wide range of household names in technology, financial services, media, consumer packaged goods, entertainment, and numerous other industries.