The media darlings are marvelling at a speech at the recent BPCC New Media Summit by Dan Sheinman, head of Cisco’s newly-formed Media Solutions Group, who says every company is now a media company. Cisco is no longer just issuing press releases every now and then, or printing out media collateral; it is now in full media-mode, producing videos, recording podcasts, getting staffers to write blogs, taking part in social networking sites, and so on. It’s producing as much original content as any publishing company. Its News@Cisco press release site received 45 million hits in 2006, and Sheinman claims his podcasts are listen to by 100,000 people.
But it’s all marketing-driven at the end of the day, isn’t it? Vendor employees have guidelines about how much they can reveal in blogs and much of the other content is monitored or even vetted by the powers-that-be in corporate communications before it can be consumed by customers. So why would customers go to vendors for anything other than product specs?
Check out some thoughts from these industry watchers:
From Tech Trader Daily: Cisco’s Scheinman Speaks On “The Social Media Explosion”
From POP! PR Jots: The Social Media Explosion via Dan Scheinman
From InfluxBranding: Every company is now a media company
