I found an interesting article in The Economist on social media. It does a great job at explaining why social networks have grown so fast -- and how Facebook has become so dominant. It really got me thinking how much our generation has grown with new technology. I can’t imagine the world today without computers, cell phones, and social media sites. Children today will never grow up not knowing what Facebook, Twiiter or You Tube are. Being born into this new digital world is astonishing when you truly look back at the time when none of these sites ever existed. My childhood consisted of networking with my friends by playing outside. These days, children rather network with there friends through a computer screen. Kinda scary in a way. Either way, there is no doubt that social media has truly changed the world forever.
Journalists, Michelle Hinson and Don Wright write a paper every year on the use of social media among PR professionals. For the past five years they’ve surveyed PR professionals. This year they received 560 responses from around the globe.
What they found:
Twitter and Facebook saw the greatest increases both in usage and as the prefeerred source of news. (no surprise there!)
Across the board, PR practitioners feel that whether you call it new media, social media, or blogs, their influence on the practive of public relations is growing. In 2010, 96% said they spent part of their average workday working with blogs or social media.
Social media is winning over skeptics. in 2008 just 66 percent of respondents said that blogs and social media have enhanced the practice of PR. By this year, 81% agreed that it had enhanced the practice.
81% of people feel that social media belongs under the public relations functions. (compared to just 66% in 2009).
Facebook, with over 350 million users, is the undisputed leader of social networking in the English speaking parts of the world, and has been making strides in Latin-America, Europe and Africa as well.
Facebook has not only helped people to make zillions of new connections, it has also inspired a screenplay. According to this January article in The Economist, a film called “The Social Network,” due to be released later this year, will trace the site’s meteoric rise from its foundation in 2004 to become king of the social-networking world. Wow, you know there is power here when social networks manage to shoot to such prominence that they are given the ultimate Hollywood treatment.
