You should be on YouTube.

• Author: Brandt, Kristin Sundin

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

"Should we be on MySpace?" Perhaps someone at your bank has already asked you this question. With the list of new Web sites, online services and social networks--MySpace, YouTube, Facebook, LinkedIn, Gather, Eons, Twitter, Jaiku, just to name a few--growing every day, it can be easy for a marketing officer to feet overwhelmed by the options. For many, the pressure is on to figure out bow to leverage these new technologies. But the real question is: Should we leverage these new technologies?

What is new media? Also referred to as Web 2.0, online media or digital media, new media is a way to more efficiently communicate with others, as well as to cultivate and expand existing relationships. Through the use of online services, new media is a way to communicate globally while at the same time speaking to people on a very personal level--because in many cases, they have chosen to receive your message. And, it is unpredictable. Because popularity is at the whim of the consumer, it can be hard to foresee what they may, or may not, find compelling.

More important than what new media is, is what new media is not. As both a bank marketer and a successful podcaster, one of the most common misconceptions that I run into is that new media is "free and easy." While it's true that many of the tools and sites new media professionals utilize are free (for example, Facebook and MySpace don't charge anything to set up an account), these tools require investment in time and resources to use effectively. It can take many hours each week to manage a presence on Facebook, and an investment of both time and money is required to write, produce, record, mix and distribute a podcast.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

It is also not a replacement for traditional marketing and advertising tools. Just like you can't reach 100 percent of the population through your local newspaper, TV station or radio station, you cannot expect to reach every potential customer through electronic means. When considering your target audience, new media such as blogs, podcasts and social networking should be considered as a piece of your marketing mix, and selected only when appropriate.

Blogs, podcasts, video ... oh my!

For the purposes of this two-part article, I have split the new media landscape into six categories--blogs, podcasts, video, consumer-generated content, social networks and virtual worlds. Once you understand the categories, and some of the sites that currently fall into those categories, you will be better prepared to evaluate new services and sites as they become available.

Blogs

The granddaddy of new media, a blog (short for "Web log") is "a personal journal that is frequently updated and intended for general public consumption ... The author of a blog is often referred to as a blogger." (Wikipedia)

According to Technorati's "State of...