Super Tuesday’s Social Media Attention Good for Business
It’s fascinating to (literally) hear the buzz on the radio and television news about the role social media is playing in politics these days. On Super Tuesday it’s as if the people in charge are finally waking up to fact that the highways on the internet have gotten more plentiful. Surprise!
Cases in point:
- NY Times’ most emailed story on Feb. 4: Is Obama a Mac and Clinton a PC? where the battle rages over web site design and appeal to socioeconomic groups and younger voters.
- NPR’s podcast on Feb 4: Presidential Candidates Get Profile Boost Online where we’re amazed at the power of people to create ringtones and tweets for their favorite candidates - spreading the gospel cheaply and extensively themselves.
- The Annenburg School of Journalism’s prophetic panel coverage from October, 2007: Viral Politics 2008 where we wonder whether the candidates will let go of top-down control in favor of bottoms up buzz?
(JJ’s hint: Democrats will, Republicans not so much.)
Now that at least half the aisle is paying attention, I see some obvious benefits to further awareness of social media marketing in business.
Why?
Partly it’s the buzz of an election that’s engaging people at a much earlier stage than usual. It seems everyone is working for a change these days, and getting active in the early decision-making process. What a thrill to have the possibilities of three “Firsts” being elected president - African-American, Mormon and Woman. If those aren’t motivating to both supporters and fearful detractors, I don’t know what would be.
Partly it’s the buzz about social media that’s being mirrored in other business-based communications. Finally, I’m hearing and reading real use cases of RSS being leveraged in enterprise organizations to boost collaboration and team productivity, in email and posts over on Attensa and elsewhere online. And I actually read a case here of how Twitter might be used by a pharmaceutical company. Forrester and Basex have actually declared 2008 to be the year that Web 2.0 hits the enterprise and the year of information overload respectively (not that they’re related in any way!)…
(Attensa is a client of mine - here’s a shot of how they contextually map conversations to relevant folders for me… cutting down on my information overload - and helping my attention flow more naturally on my own terms.)
Partly it’s the economy, stupid. With so many free (blogging software; 1-5 user server licenses, readers, widgets, etc.) tools available and at the hands of so many users, who wouldn’t want to do what they can to leverage them? (Did anyone else notice the calls to go to MySpace and watch the commercials during the Super Bowl? Nice extensions of those very expensive media buys, guys!)
And partly it’s the writer’s strike, and people are turning in droves to the web over the boob tube. You can find drivel in both places, but with completely relevant (even persistent) search available, you’re bound to find something fairly intelligent to feed your mind online.
Which is why I personally have hope for the future - in politics, and in business.
