social media – where is it headed?
Social media seems to be transforming not only the internet, but the world, bit by bit. Within the last few months it seems that you cannot turn on the morning news without hearing the words tweet or Facebook. In everyday conversations I find myself referring to these technologies without even meaning to. Many times I am speaking to people who have absolutely no interaction with the internet whatsoever. As I describe my internet explorations, many people are amazed at how connected everything is and how easy it is to accomplish things with various programs. Others could care less and think that it is crazy that people would want to share as much as they do. Both my explanations of these technologies and the articles I have read lately make me wonder if we will take it too far. Most likely, I think we will.
Every time I sit down to update my networks, I am surprised at how long it actually takes. Between posting photos, posting videos, publishing blog posts, updating statuses…not too mention actually generating the photos, videos, and posts. As always, the more work something takes, the harder people try to figure out a way to make it quicker. Such is the case with the our new social media commitments.
Brian Solis, principal of an award-winning Public Relations and New Media agency writes a number of excellent articles on social media. One in particular, The Social Media Manifesto: Integrating Social Media Into Marketing Communications, is especially valid for this post. Surprisingly, even though it was written two years ago, it seems to precisely describe our current relations on the internet.
Monologue has given way to dialog…Content is the new democracy and we the people, are ensuring that our voices are heard…Those who participate will succeed – everyone else will either have to catch up or miss the game altogether. Engage or die.
Of course that is in regards to marketing. Companies will most certainly go under if they don’t grasp this new technology. But even in a broader scope, I think everyone is starting to feel this pressure, little by little. The more they have pressure, the more they will want to interact or feel left out. More and more I’ll find myself say, “Have you heard from John Doe? I saw his pictures posted on Facebook, seems like he’s having a good time.” If they aren’t already on Facebook, the reply has gone from “What’s Facebook?” to “Man, I really need to join that soon.”
But what if people don’t have the time? It takes too much effort…or it’s too confusing to them. What happens then? It seems that companies are taking care of that.
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