U2’s Bono aka paul_hewson recently said on Twitter: “The emergence and refinement of social media could be one of the greatest and quietest cultural revolutions in history.”
The important thing to remember in all of this Social Media talk is that we are not talking about tools that “needs” to exist. Mankind, for thousands of years, has existed without computers, the Internet, email, international flight, the telephone and social media tools like twitter and facebook.
So when these things hit the scene and gain some momentum with a critical mass of the online population, it may stir up some great conversation and allow us to find long lost school friends – but it’s nothing more than a communication tool (and a great one at that!).
Our need for love, acceptance, relevance and knowledge are still at the heart of humanity – and social media is just another tool to help us get those things.
Where I tend to agree with Bono on all of this is that it’s still very much in the refinement and emergent phase. Which to me is exciting. It’s digital, organic, consumer driven and we are still very much at the stage where, unlike telephone and email, you can very comfortably exist without knowing anything about it or being signed up to twitter, facebook, linked in or myspace…
because it’s social…
and it’s a medium…
and I prefer coffee face-to-face than facebook or myspace…
but then again, I might have met you first online… which brings us to the revolution that is happening.
On a commercial level, the most exciting things I see being developed are wonderful communication tools. Fantastic, fast, live, fresh, dynamic and flexible ways to interact, communicate and listen to people, staff, customers and fans. Everyday there’s something new, exciting and crazy developed.
What are you thoughts? Feel free to leave a comment or ask me a question on social media on www.thebusinessadvicepanel.com