First this morning, I read in the newspaper about a small Pennsylvania college has banned the use of social media on campus for one week. It is apparently a test to see just how hard it might be to go without facebook, twitter, AIM and texting. For me I am not so sure it would be all that difficult, I have a twitter account, but I don't really have anything to twitter about. I use texting but only to a limited degree. But then I am from a different generation than the college students of today. It will be very interesting to see how this experiment turns out.
The second thing I came across was about a blog post from a young swedish girl about her mother losing her health insurance. Sweden has a safety net for those who lose their jobs due to poor health, but some government bureaucrat decided not to believe the woman was that ill. Despite have posted only a few bolgs up to that point, with very few readers I might add, this post went viral.
Web 2.0 has created a podium for those who once had no voice. If one is disgruntled or even disgusted with some social policy, one need only post it in a blog. Readers will find it. Evidenced by the fact that my own humble blog has several readers some of whom are actually coming from a few different countries, I find it highly plausible that were I to publish anything controversial or of real note for the world, it may go viral as well.
Social media may seem like a fad for some, but as this video that social media is ubiquitous This is especially important for those of us in the advertising and marketing trade. We like to think that consumers are motivated to spend based on the ads we create, but that influence is waning and being replaced by peer influence. A failure on the part of marketers to understand and exploint this phenomenon will likely seriously hamper their ability to be successful in a world of increasing immediacy.
Is this really different? You Betcha! (sorry couldn't help the Palin jab).
Until next time.
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