As a follow up to my post last week on com.motion's polling results, I had a chance to catch up with Keith McArthur, Principal of Com.motion and Director of Media Innovation at Veritas.
Although we operate in the same new media worlds, I think we discovered that for the most part we try to tackle the word of mouth arena from two different vantage points. Here is the outtake from our java-induced conversation at a downtown Second Cup:
Sean Moffitt: So, what's this com.motion all about?
Keith McArthur: It's a specialty practice that's part of Veritas Communications. It gets involved with blogger relations, social media campaigns, online reputation management and collaborates with Grassroots Enterprise on support of movements and causes. Put simply - we try to connect companies to their fervent supporters and their fervent supporters to each other.
Moffitt: You just released a poll that we blogged about last week on Buzz Canuck (thanks for the sneak preview of results) documenting Canadian professional and consumer appetites for social media, any big "a-has" that you didn't expect to see?
McArthur: I think the biggest takeaway was that 46% of professionals see this area as becoming more important than traditional media (TV, radio, newspapers and magazines). That's surprising given the recency of blogging and social networking on the scene. I expect to see a faster rise in acceptance and adoption of this social marketing world than the ten year climb we've seen in internet-driven media.
Moffitt: As a former journalist for The Globe and Mail, you've seen the impact of citizen journalism from both sides of the fence, is the rise of user-generated media a killer threat to traditional form journalism?
McArthur: I think there will always be a place for good journalism. Although opposition (by traditional media) to the changes that are happening doesn't make any sense. Traditional media needs to embrace this new world and you see the benefits in how The Globe & Mail has enabled their community through a series of blogs recently. It's an exciting time to be in this business, there will be interesting media opportunities in the future for the innovators.
Moffitt: You've had 6 months in your newly minted role at Veritas, what acceptance levels are you seeing from companies in Canada with this nascent media/marketing world?
McArthur: Marketers are quickly understanding the potential and need for participating in this forum. They just don't have a lot of background or exposure to it. Given their busy days and engrained cultures, oftentimes most will admit they're more than a little confused about the whole space, which prevents them from participating. I guess that offers up opportunities for companies and consultants like both of ours to provide specialized expertise external to these companies to help them get comfortable.
Moffitt: I believe your com.motion study mentioned that only 12% of Canadian marketers are planning on spending more on social media in 2008 - given all the press and encouraging signs companies are willing to experiment, that seemed like a low number?
McArthur: I agree. I think people are definitely willing to have social media in their consideration set whereas they might not have been a year ago. The challenge will be for these companies to internalize the need and translate interest into action and of course, investment.
Moffitt: So where is it all headed, if you had to make a bet on where this social media movement is going 3 years from now, where might it go?
McArthur: I'm a big believer in mobile. Whether it's cell phones, computers or PDAs, the future is portable. The big movement to internet based connectivity will transition to connectivity wherever you are. Smart companies will be building online communities around these mobile users. I know it was Steve Jobs who said it best, he quoted, and I'm paraphrasing, "we tend to overestimate the change we'll see in 2 years and underestimate the change we'll see in 5 years". I think that's very much true of this social media revolution too.
Moffitt: Thanks for the chat and look forward to working with you collaboratively to see this evolution/revolution come true.
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