The Social Revolution

Are we in a revolution?

Revolution: “a drastic and far-reaching change in ways of thinking and behaving”

With the above definition, we most certainly are. Since the beginning of marketing and business communications, we have been lead to believe that we tell people what to do and we tell the market what it needs. Now it’s a complete shift… the consumer has taken the reigns and is focused on finding companies/brands/products that will, not only listen to what they have to say, but also mold offerings to fit into the lifestyles of those consumers.

This way of “thinking and behaving” is definitely a drastic and far-reaching change from what we were doing only 5 years ago.

Now the question becomes… Are you a part of the revolution or the resistance?

Photo courtesy of Flickr - marcel601

Is social media causing a Flu Epidemic?

Courtesy of Flickr - tioguerra

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how things go viral and how the spread of information can create action in the mass public. While reading “The Tipping Point” I’ve gotten some great theories about the spread of epidemics to help fuel my fire.  What I’ve found is, the spread of information can cause mass panic in a population, enough to create action even when there is no call to action. I personally think that people are fueled by information and emotion that we get from the media and our friends and family, enough for us to spread that very info and emotion with others. The information we receive from these sources are seen as highly credible because of the personal relationships we have with them. To better illustrate this thought, I wanted to take a look at a topical example; The Flu.

Flu Fear

I heard a statistic this morning that said there have been more people visit the hospital for flu like symptoms in the last 6 weeks than during an entire average flu season. Why is this happening? Is it truly that we are all getting sicker or is it something else?

there have been more people visit the hospital for flu like symptoms in the last 6 weeks than during an entire average flu season

We are being bombarded with information and fear about the severity of the power of the flu and the H1N1 virus which is being permeated throughout our lives by the media, friends, family, social media contacts, even the President. Overwhelming information like this creates panic in within the masses. It makes us think that each and every time we sneeze or cough, we think we have the flu. This panic coupled with the fear of the devastating H1N1 virus, forces us to visit to the hospital for something that we would typically overlook. Hence, increasing hospital visits for flu like symptoms.

What are your thoughts?

So my question again… why have we seen such an influx of hospital visits for flu like symptoms? Are we truly getting sicker or is it something else?

Conversational Adaptability

The first half of this week has really shown me that we need to be nimble and adaptable in today’s communication environment. It all started with my favorite Twitter application (Seesmic.com) not working. In order to communicate on Twitter, I had to revert back to the original Twitter web platform. Not the most user friendly experience and I felt as though I was missing out on some valuable conversations by having to hit ‘refresh’ to update my stream.

Then came the near disaster this morning; my website went down… Not sure how long it was down or if it would return any time soon, I began to freak out. I sent numerous emails to my hosting provider, spent an hour trying to figure out what was going on; all the while thinking how I would communicate with you, my valuable reader, if this site stays down. I figured that I could switch everything over to my Posterous account, maybe just focus on microblogging, setting up another website, etc… The options are many, but one thing we need is to have a communication Plan B.

My examples are very minimal compared to some that I’ve heard of, but they are very real. What if I missed some valuable conversations or chances to make that “Big” connection? What if you needed some information on this site; how would you get it with it down? All very possible, very real situations.

Are you conversation adaptable? Are you relying too much on your current communication platforms? What is your Plan B?

Where’s the book on “The Transition”?

Courtesy of Flickr - b&r art

I took a nice little trip to the area Barnes & Noble the other day when my nerd-marketing side kicked in and I found myself, as I always do, perusing the titles of the Advertising/Marketing books. It amazes me the speed on which books come out these days. I saw at least 4 books on Twitter alone. Just a year ago, Twitter was seen as a stupid tool that weirdos used. Now look at it… a viable communication platform.

As I looked through these books, I realized something quite upsetting; so many books about tactics, nothing about strategy and culture. Social media isn’t just about the communication platforms like Twitter or Facebook, it’s about “The Transition” in communication and power. Gone are the days where we, as marketers, can bombard customers with ads to gain their business. Now we must engage in conversations; work with customers for product design; build a lifestyle around our brands to integrate into each individual customer’s life…

Where’s the book on that? Just knowing how Twitter works and how to get a bajillion followers is great, but it’s not what this revolution is about. It’s about culture and communication… Give me that book…

Social Trust… Do you Trust Your Information?

I heard something on the radio today about the September 6th episode of Meet the Press that I wanted to see some other thoughts about… Below is the transcript of the conversation between Tom Brokaw and Tom Friedman…

MR. BROKAW:  Well, I’ve–one of the things I’ve been saying to audiences is this question comes up a lot, and a lot of people will repeat back to me and take it as face value something that they read on the Internet.  And my line to them is you have to vet information.  You have to test it the same way you do when you buy an automobile or when you go and buy a new flat-screen television.  You read the Consumer Reports, you have an idea of what it’s worth and what the lasting value of it is.  You have to do the same thing with information because there is so much disinformation out there that it’s frightening, frankly, in a free society that depends on information to make informed decisions.  And this is across the board, by the way.  It’s not just one side of the political spectrum or the other.  It is across the board, David, and it’s something that we all have to address and it requires society and political and cultural leaders to stand up and say, “this is crazy.” We just can’t function that way.

MR. FRIEDMAN:  You know, David, I just want to say one thing to pick up on Tom’s point, which is the Internet is an open sewer of untreated, unfiltered information, left, right, center, up, down, and requires that kind of filtering by anyone.  And I always felt, you know, when modems first came out, when that was how we got connected to the Internet, that every modem sold in America should actually come with a warning from the surgeon general that would have said, “judgment not included,” OK?  That you have to upload the old-fashioned way.  Church, synagogue, temple, mosque, teachers, schools, you know.  And too often now people say, and we’ve all heard it, “But I read it on the Internet,” as if that solves the bar bet, you know?  And I’m afraid not.

How do you “vet information” online? Do you see this shift in communication and information “Frightening” as Mr. Brokaw points out? Or do you enjoy the right to choose your information source? I’ll post my personal thoughts later about the issue…

my thoughts.

For all of us online, we have molded the way we personally gather information. We have spent years upon years reading various information sources (some good, most spam) and have  subconsciously developed an intrinsic “spam filter” that allows us to look beyond the bullshit out there and fully recognize a legitimate inforamtion source.

To be told by Tom Brokaw and all the other elitist journalists out there that the information we are gathering is false simply because they didn’t deliver it to us. To me I think this is ridiculous. We live in the crowdsourcing time where the collective whole is stronger than the individual parts. We know what sources are credible and what sources are falsified. I know from my personal accounts, that I don’t pass any information along to my friends, fans, and followers without knowing for sure, that it comes from a legitimate source.

Tom Brokaw is frightened by the way we now gather information, simply because his job is being threatened by video phones, blogs, and YouTube channels. So I say, continue my fellow information gatherers and sharers. Keep it up and don’t let them get you down.

Enjoy!