Social+Media

= Social Media Revolution =

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The following is the speaking script used for this presentation:
It's no surprise that social media has become an important part of our lives. It can be compared to the introduction of the television. When social media has overtaken porn as the #1 internet activity, you know it’s a big thing. But just how important and how is it being used? Where is it being used? Where is it going? Before we get into that, let’s talk about how all this started.

Many of the prototypical social networking features can be found in the early days of the Internet. USENET and bulletin board services were the first social features of the Internet.… America Online and Prodigy… The birth of the instant message can be found here. Online communities such as Geocities and Tripod. These early services used chatrooms and instant messages to share information, and this was the extent of the social networking during this time.

Slowly web space became inexpensive, and there were more and more easy-to-use publishing tools available. People began sharing more about themselves. Why? Because it was easy…

In 1997, the ‘web of contacts’ model …. That is lists of friends and family…introduced the world’s first true social networking site. SixDegrees.com lasted from 1997 to 2001.

It was followed by more successful approaches to this model, with services such as Friendster and MySpace being born. During this time… around 2003 to about 2006… there was an explosion of social networking sites…LinkedIn, Last.FM, Flickr, YouTube, Wikipedia….and….Then of course, Facebook.

I’m not going to go too in depth on Facebook as I’m sure most of you are aware of its origins from the movie ‘The Social Network.’ If you haven’t seen it, I highly recommend it. But briefly, Facebook launched in 2004 as a Harvard-only network. It had a number of features that the previous social networks did not. The ‘Wall’, which allows friends and connections to share messages, pictures, links and videos. Easier photo sharing and photo tagging. And many, many others. As it became popular, they expanded to more and more schools, and it caught on like wildfire.

Today, if Facebook were a country, they would be the 3 rd largest country in the world. As of September 2011 they have 800 million users worldwide.

Shortly after Facebook, Twitter was created in 2006. For those that don’t know, and I’m surprised there are still a lot that don’t, Twitter is a micro-blogging social network. You communicate with others through ‘Tweets’, which are small messages limited to 140 characters. Tweets are ‘public’ by default, however you can restrict them if you wish. Users can subscribe or follow others’ tweets. It’s like word of mouth on digital steroids. Twitter, as with Facebook, has been huge in connecting people and brands. And by brands I mean everything from Coca-Cola to ABC News, the White House and celebrities such as Kevin Spacey to Charlie Sheen. And just because you can tweet anything, doesn’t mean you should.

Just a few months ago we were introduced to Google Plus, which is Google’s take on what a social network should be.

Google took everything bad about Facebook, fixed it and made it 10x cooler. For example on Facebook, people quickly learned that it’s not the best idea to share EVERYTHING with EVERYBODY. You need to limit your audience. So on Google Plus you put people and brands in various “Circles”. This allows you to segment your contacts into categories such as “Family” and “Co-Workers.” When sharing something, you’re given the option to share with a specific circle or circles or everyone. It has some really cool features; I encourage you to check it out.

How are we using it? FOR EVERYTHING.

When talking about the human-side: We’re keeping in touch with family.

69% of parents are "friends" with their children on social media sites.

We’re using it for dating & relationships. 1 in 5 couples meet online. 1 in 5 divorces are blamed on Facebook.

For businesses, it’s probably the most important tool you can use today. It is literally everywhere in today’s businesses.

95% of companies using social media for recruitment use LinkedIn.

34% of bloggers post opinions about products & brands.

90% of customers trust peer recommendations. Imagine what this means for bad customer experiences.

You need to have someone managing your businesses’ social media accounts full-time. My industry expert said that social media isn’t going to be a career, it’s going to be a subset of marketing, business, etc. That might be true, but it’s not something you can just create and ignore. Today’s most successful brands use Twitter all the time. World-famous Chef Gordon Ramsay… this guy is tweeting constantly. He’s responds to everyone. He tweets recipes. Fans take pictures of their meals and tweet the picture to him, and he critiques them. It’s added a whole new layer of connection to celebrities, brands and businesses.

In journalism, there is a shift happening. Journalism is now everywhere. We have citizen reporters around the globe. No longer do you hear breaking news on TV… it’s on social media first. We now have what some people are calling “Random acts of journalism.” For example, the Pakistani programmer who unknowingly tweeted about the Osama bin Laden raid. I believe this to be one of the more dangerous areas of social media, as anyone can report anything…and people believe it. Do we need to have journalists that are licensed? I don’t know…. Look for this to keep changing…

Social media is also playing an integral role in the arab revolts and uprisings. Social media has become such a critical tool in these situations that countries tried to ban and block websites like Twitter and Facebook. In the United States, federal agencies such as the FBI, the NSA, and defense department are using technology from a company called Attensity which uses natural language processing to gather intelligence from social media. There are some amazing things happening here.

Lastly, when I asked Francine what application of social media she thinks is most important, she said “by far… education.” “Social stuff appeals to young people”.

In fact, a government education study revealed that online students out-performed those receiving face-to-face instruction. Students across the nation are using platforms like Blackboard and eCollege which include their own social networking features such as group discussion boards, file sharing, group wiki’s and more. We’ve only just dipped our feet into what is possible. Pretty soon students will be utilizing their webcams more and will be participating in virtual seminars through Google Hangouts, like we saw earlier.

Social media is still new, and ASU is still developing their courses and programs around this technology. There is a new class that launched last year called Media 2.0. It’s a 400 level class, and it looks at the nuances of social media and trains students how to use these tools the best. Just a few days ago, a new Digital Culture degree was launched in partnership with the Herberger Institute for Design and Arts. In this degree there is a special focus area for social media programming. I anticipate there will be many more programs that intertwine with social media technology in the future.