I did find it compelling and it is the new reality. Facebook was a force in bringing down the Egyptian government. If that's not compelling I don't know what is.
My nephew is an artist (paints a lot of portraits on commission) who ignored FB for a long time (it's a part time thing for him; he has a full time job as a graphic designer). He did ok but then a friend convinced him that he needed to use it. He did and his business grew exponentially. George, read this!
Anybody see the Social Network? Yes, it's somewhat fictional but fascinating: an example of how things are done.
Spot on, Brad. Working in the media area, specifically editorial photography and photojournalism, I've seen first hand how social media is being used to change the traditional landscape. Whilst some may think that apps like twitter and FB are just for social interaction, they're mistaken as it's grown way beyond that. Gone are the days when organizations (be it governments or corporations) can easily control the message/opinion.
It was one of the driving factors that helped to spread the message and bring about change in Egypt and continues to be a "problem" for many authoritarian governments. Similar situation for corporations where and there are numerous examples of businesses taking a battering because of negative comments on social media pages striking a nerve with other users and subsequently going viral. Suddenly the companies are confronted with a negative image that they can do little to control as they're ill prepared for this 'new media'. It's part of the reason why so many businesses now have their own Facebook 'fan' page and companies have sprung up whose sole purpose is to try and mitigate the risk and engage in damage control when bad PR starts to occur on the social media sites. They're not on Facebook because they want to be cool or talk to friends.
I attended a professional photographers seminar recently about the benefits of Social Media for photographers. Was presented by one of the major advertising companies in Australia and whilst a lot of the stuff wasn't really relevant to my area of photography it did provide some food for thought... particularly on the likelihood of somebody purchasing a product on the recommendation of a friend, rather than just responding to an advertisement in the paper, TV etc. Our purchasing decisions are impacted by the opinions of people we know and trust ... think about it guys. This forum is a good example of that... how many times have you taken into account the opinions posted here of manufacturers X's products when considering or making a purchase?
Don't forget, this forum is also part of the new "social media" environment... just go to the K&C thread to see how difficult it can be for businesses to control the message, whether it is justified or not. No offense to K&C btw, just one of the few threads I regularly visit and the only one I have any lengthy knowledge of... guess it may be the same with the other manufacturers too.
We can pretend the 'social media' paradigm shift is not happening and we can shake our heads in much the same way as our parents (and I daresay grandparents) did, muttering about "the youth of today" but the reality is that the world is changing and in no small part because of the social media revolution.
