In its brief history, Social Media, as called New Media, has traditionally been viewed as a place to meet new friends, reconnect with old friends and interact in an online social environment. In short, social networks were a cool place to hang out but held little applicability beyond that. There has been no shortage of funding in Silicon Valley for firms launching new media platforms. With the emergence of sites like MySpace, Facebook and Twitter, there is no question that there is value in the vast amounts of information on people that these platforms have been able to collect however, there has been no clear monetization strategy beyond bringing in advertising revenue. Arguments have been risen as to the true value of these firms some would state that their valuations are inflated and artificial, while other claim that the value of their databases alone are enough to justify multibillion dollar price tags.
More recently social media has spawned a new value proposition, which is the business applicability of the vast usernames these social networks have created. Regardless of which side of the valuation fence you sit on, it can be said that social media holds vast utility for businesses looking for a new way to reach out to customers and engage in two-way communications. This has never been done before from a traditional marketing, advertising or public relations perspective, and has given rise to a new business model The Social Media Firm. This brings forth the argument of whether or not The Social Media Firm is a good investment. social media is not going anywhere. Social media has become a staple of the lives of younger generations, and the fastest growing adopters of new media are people over the age of 30. Needless to say, the earning potential for The New Media Firm is substantial.
As mentioned earlier, new media is not going anywhere. The sites that are considered the gorillas in social media may churn however, there will always be something new to which these Internet based communities will migrate. The long-term sustainability of The Social Media Firm is largely dependent upon these companies’ ability to identify and preempt the next big shift, and to develop effective methods of leveraging both the old and new platforms for the sake of driving revenue, profitability, sales volume and identity to their clients.
It is cheaper to outsource a new media campaign to a firm that has a skilled team already in place that is intimately familiar with navigating the complex world of new media. It is more cost effective, in both monetary and administrative respects, to outsource these campaigns to professional teams that are fully adept at leveraging the potential of modern media, navigating the codes of conduct of these online communities and staying ahead of the curve when it comes to identifying the exploiting the latest new media trends.