I always take note when something is called obsolete. In many cases this assessment is true at one time or another. If you were to say, “the Sony Walkman cassette player is obsolete.” I (and most other people) would certainly agree. But if you told me that blogs were obsolete then that would be a different story.

One media company is taking such a position. And that’s not all. No Island Media has issued a press release stating that “With of advent of media professionals entering the video podcasting milleu, we are seeing the worlds of marketing, education, customer support, sales and training collide,” says No Island’s Executive Director Trevor Andrews. “This means print advertising, standard marketing, corporate websites, even blogs are obsolete.”

Wowza! And I’m not just reacting to the grammatically incorrect first line.

Are these folks out of touch? I’d say so. First of all, the social media revolution isn’t simply about one method of communicating. RSS alone, Blogs alone, Podcasts (audio or video) alone are not the answer to anything. They are a tool to be used when appropriate.

Should companies abandon print advertising? Certainly not. As long as there are eyes on print publications it makes sense to advertise there. Ditch the corporate website? A ridiculous thought. If anything, the corporate website can be a hub of social communication between a company’s and their customers. Is podcasting going to rule the world? It will flourish when and where it’s used correctly. And it will do so in concert with other forms of social media. What of Blogs? They’re here to stay.

It’s a shame that organizations that call themselves professionals choose to utilize such polarizing language in order to attempt to generate buzz. In taking a closer look at this company’s website I could not find any evidence of a blog or a podcast for that matter. There is audio on the site, but no RSS feed to enable a podcast. Maybe they’ve decided that podcasts are obsolete since their press release. Or maybe they were just blinded by the buzz.

Either way, I don’t think that Scobelizer should shut it down anytime soon.

[tags]Blogging, Podcasting, Social Media, Video Podcasting[/tags]