You Are Your Own Advertising Platform when You Engage Customers Through Social Media: The Decline of Traditional Advertising Means Your Company May Often Have to Turn Inward when Reaching out to Music Lovers (Guest Editorial‪)‬

With the number of newspaper readers in the US declining by four percent a year, the broadcast radio industry down by roughly 13 percent over the past two years, and TV a shadow of its former self, many businesses are finding that it no longer "pays to advertise," at least not in the traditional way. Small wonder, then, that advertising spending by businesses experienced its first two-year decline in 2008 and 2009. Instead of relying on conventional forms of advertising, it may make more sense to turn inward, and implement an inside-out marketing strategy that uses your business as its own advertising platform to reach out to customers and generate an invaluable viral buzz on and off the Internet.