Together with PRSA, Marketwire hosted “The Shift of Advertising and the Creative Renaissance: Leverage Digital Trends to Reach Your Audiences” on Tuesday, September 29, 2009. The hour-long webinar was presented by Rebecca Lieb, vice president of North American operations for eConsultancy and former journalist.

Lieb’s presentation served as an introduction for professional communicators or marketers who are just starting to explore the vast world of social media.

“Once upon a time,” says Lieb, “advertising was an exchange of content for time spent and exposure to an advertiser’s message.”

That was when TV and radio were our only forms of media. Now, because of the internet, social media has become possible and is quickly catching up to its media predecessors, if it hasn’t already. Consumer and advertiser alike can create, control and distribute content that can compete with the big-ticket agency creatives. Campaigns are obsolete. Media buys are a thing of the past. Content is king.

But what is content, exactly, in relation to social media? Lieb says that the three types of content aim to do the following:

1. Educate/inform (i.e., American Express’ Open Forum site)
2. Amuse/engage/play/entertain (i.e., IKEA’s Easy to Assemble website)
3. Create stories consumers can spread (i.e., Nike’s interactive billboard in Times Square)

Lieb backed up her claim with a recent study from the Online Publishers Association, which indicates that content is the primary element that attracts the largest number of online audiences, followed by search, commerce and community.

Although the presentation is over, you can still register to view Lieb’s presentation slides along with audio.