How Does the World’s Leading Information Company Utilize Today’s New Media? Posted on October 08, 2009 Post a comment

By now, Facebook, Twitter, and even RSS feeds have made it into the lexicon of corporate America, but despite their widespread familiarity, marketers and communications professionals still have a long way to go to figure out how to best incorporate these tools into their communications and media mix.

Recently, I had a chance to sit down with Scott Key, President of IHS Global Insights, and asked him how the world’s leading business information provider views these new media platforms. “We believe that it is critical to match the currency of the information with the proper media channel. For example, a fast breaking development like Iran’s recent test firing of medium ranges missiles gets pushed out to our customers via an RSS feed and real time updates on our Jane’s Defense Weekly Web site. A more detailed analysis of the geo-political implications of the event will be published in written form, perhaps in one of our printed publications, or in the form of an IHS White paper for our customers.”

What’s critical, according to Key, is that the relevancy and lasting power of the information being disseminated (e.g. the ‘Currency’ of the information in his terms) is considered when making the appropriate media choice. The time it takes for different media to reach an IHS customer is considered as well. Recently, IHS added a viral component via Twitter to the marketing of an upcoming webinar it was hosting and saw four times the participation of a similar event held just six months ago. 

We’ll post more about how IHS incorporates social media into its overall media mix in coming weeks, including our complete Soapbox interview with Scott Key, President, IHS Global Insights.