APRIL 11, 2008

The Power of Social Media

The verdict is in: social media is not only here to stay, it’s empowering a new generation of voices that spans the divide of class, race, and economic status. This empowerment doesn’t simply take the shape of self-publication. Rather, it’s the sort of power that media, the corporate world, and governments alike can now ignore only at their own peril.

One of the most recent examples of this power is the information revolution happening in Cuba right now. The New York Times reported last month that the increasing availability of camera phones, flash drives, and illegal internet connections is making it possible for Cubans to not only receive information unfiltered by the government, but to broadcast their personal stories to the outside world. The Times linked to a video that surfaced on YouTube last month depicting computer science university students questioning National Assembly president Ricardo Alarcón on the restrictions Cuba has placed on travel, information services, wages and more. The Times reported that that the video spread quickly through Havana, seriously damaging Mr. Alarcón’s reputation. Incidents like this are only likely to embolden Cubans to do more.

Cuba is experiencing some of the defining characteristics of the social media phenomenon – grassroots, underground, and defying convention. Other recent examples include the massive demonstrations in Columbia organized through Facebook, and the outreach Queen Rania of Jordan is doing on Arab issues via guerilla-style YouTube videos.

While the breadth and scope of the social media revolution have reached unprecedented levels, at its core it’s not entirely new. The Bosnian war is considered by some to have been the first conflict to have on-site information broadcast by amateur journalists via the internet. China is infamous for its long-standing attempts to monitor and control its citizens’ internet usage, with varying results – and the current situation in Tibet underscores this. (The Olympics is also presenting China with an internet censorship problem.) The war in Iraq – the initial “shock and awe campaign” which I watched live on my PC through a streaming feed – continues to play out from a first-hand perspective, unfiltered, on sites like LiveLeak.com. The video comes from the soldiers themselves, many of whom cary small, handheld camcorders into battle every day. The U.S. government is being forced to develop new policies on information containment as videos of operations, patrols, and roadside IED explosions play on computer screens across the globe in nearly real time.

The inescapable conclusion is simple: information has become impossible to control, even by powerful national governments. If they can’t do it, our clients certainly won’t be able to. Instead, they must learn to adapt and respond.

The stakes are high. Sites like The Consumerist, which bears the tagline “Shoppers Bite Back”, provide gathering places for dissatisfied customers to share horror stories, swap contact information of top corporate executives, and warn a growing readership about companies who ignore good service at the risk of their reputation. It’s the power of word of mouth marketing - amplified exponentially.

For many professional communicators, this may seem a frightening scenario, but we think it should be viewed as an opportunity. Businesses and customers can now have a dialogue like never before. The bright side is that the consumers who are complaining about bad products and poor customer service to their online social networks are also likely to be happy to talk about steps taken to resolve conflicts and restore confidence. Engaging critics and supporters one at a time and finding solutions that convert them into an army of advocates is the key to turning social media’s profound influence into an asset rather than a liability.