Social networking sites have become a source of instant, uncensored, free exchange of information and the impact this has had on pop culture, politics and businesses practices and marketing strategies is incredible.
The news of Michael Jackson’s cardiac arrest and ensuing death spread across the web like a wild fire. Without a doubt, Michael’s death had a huge global interest because of its impact on pop culture and its general interest appeal. It has been reported that over 30% of total Tweet volume in the hours during and after Michael’s death were related to the event and apparently Facebook, with its larger following, actually topped Twitters figures. The remarkable thing is this was all happening in real-time and before most of the major news outlets were reporting the occurrences. We knew when Michael was rushed to hospital, we then knew it was a possible cardiac arrest and then we were sadly aware that he had, indeed, passed away. But there are equally significant examples of the power of social media and how they can have an impact in politics and economics.
The controversy over the recent (June 09) Iranian election was exposed on Twitter, YouTube and other social media sites as Iranians were able to express outrage and protest concerns over voting fraud and corruption. Iranians were able to communicate to the world and organize protests (despite the Iranian government blocking text messages, cell phones and even Facebook) in an uncensored and instantaneous manner. Even the US government took notice of how important the free flow of information on Twitter was and the US state department actually made a request that Twitter reschedule their late night maintenance so that it would not interfere with the flow of information from Iran about the crisis.
Dominos Pizza felt the power and damage social media can cause when two employees made a YouTube video of themselves behaving in an unprofessional and rude manner while at work. The video showed one employee contaminating the food as they joked about it. The video quickly became viral as it was picked up by bloggers and shared across Twitter & Facebook. Even though Dominos took steps to locate and terminate and bring felony charges against the two aspiring filmmakers, the damage was done and Dominos’ image was tarnished. One of the biggest mistakes Domino’s made was to take not immediate action and to assume that the interest in the video would simply disappear.
Dominos did not have a presence on social networking sites like Twitter and You Tube so when they finally realized the damage that was happening to their brand, and in particular how fast it was happening, they had to mobilize quickly to help contain the damage. With new Twitter account and a YouTube video from their Chief Executive Dominos started to attempt to repair their brand image.
The power of social media is astounding! I think that with integrity and a solid grasp of how to use social networking sites properly businesses can harness some of that power (in a positive, non-spammy way) and to use social media as a marketing, or public relations tool.
Contact me today, to learn more about how to build a social networking presence for your business.
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Tags: facebook, Internet Marketing, social media, Social Networking, Twitter
