TEETH CHATTERING TWITTER TATTLING TALE

In a chat at a gathering of Western Cape dentists well-known Joburg-based media man Mixael de Kock said that the time has come to make peace with the fact that social media is here to stay. The professions can only benefit from participation and engagement on social sites, provided it is done in an appropriate and planned manner.

This past weekend, Mixael spoke at the Summer “Chattering” of the South African Dental Association (SADA) Western Cape Branch, hosted at a Cape Town City Bowl hotel which was themed the “Star Wars of Dentistry”. Despite this upbeat take on social media, he remains of the opinion that the mainstream media will retain the edge in leading public opinion for many years to come.

“Specifically in Africa, traditional newspapers, television and radio will continue to show positive growth until such time as mobility connects the majority of Africans to the web”, said Mixael. “Also, until bloggers’ posts are perceived to be as credible and responsible as that put forward by qualified journalists, the mainstream media will retain its pre-eminence in the shaping of worldviews.”

“While conventional advertising is being displaced by social media, it will never replace informed and educated opinion which, for now, largely remains the preserve of the time-honoured traditional media.”

Mixael made reference to his colleague Anton J van Rensburg’s views expressed in the December issue of the marketing industry’s mouthpiece, Advantage and said: “I fully concur that the social media mix is an extremely important and a relatively low-cost option that can have a direct impact on public perception but at the same time, I must stress that it is not the silver bullet that many makes it out to be.”

Mixael is of the opinion that there is a tendency to over-value opinion expressed in social media. “In the good ol’days, organisations did not rush to public lavatories every morning to refute the previous night’s graffiti. Cyberspace today fulfils the role of the toilet walls of yesteryear and a lot of reaction to these social media scribbling boils down to overreaction by over-zealous public relations and marketing practitioners.”

But he also stressed that there are many pitfalls awaiting the unwary and stated that one should never underestimate the downside of the social media. Mixael used as a case-study, the huge public fall-out that followed the recent Duren debacle when a junior ad agency employee twitter-tattled on God’s intention with male private parts.

“Another one of the key problems with cyberspace is that it creates virtual and surreal worlds which serve as the hide-outs for the mentally disturbed and the socially inept and where unsuspecting users may easily fall prey to cyber criminals.”Mixael concluded his chitchat by stressing the importance of erring on the side of the conservative when evaluating social media and warned that one should be realistic as to what may be reasonably achieved through time spent on the net.

“The most important thing to remember is that when on the web one should take special care in meaning what you say and saying what you mean and that you should always do so accurately, in good taste and mindful of impeccable manners and common sense.

If this is done, the chitter-chattering can’t go wrong!”

Johannesburg, 6th December 2011