Social Media

Lunch n' Learn focuses on social networking

Some chamber members, such as West Georgia Technical College, have already gone to great lengths to connect with customers through social media. According to Kathy Johnson, social media specialist for WGTC, the technical college uses sites like Facebook to communicate timely news, recruit students, and provide a forum for them to connect with one another. She said that while the page will need some time and attention devoted to it, other sites can be utilized to cut back on the time spent on the site. She recommended sites like HootSuite to manage multiple accounts and to post updates throughout the week. In addition, she recommended other sites such as EdgeRank to measure the success of the Facebook campaign. “You have a Twitter time line and you go in and tweet, and once you do it’s public. It’s out there for everyone to see,” Sultan said. “Twitter is really about relationship marketing, relationship networking. What you’re tweeting is very valuable to your business. This is one of the reasons Twitter is very valuable to your business, it’s like currency on the web.” Sultan suggested tweeting about topics that interest your followers, and not just the followers in the same professional field. She said that much of the site can be harnessed according to preference. While some recommend keeping a personal and professional account separate, Sultan said she uses her account for both, since she is the sole employee of her company. English said the Chamber has adopted new programs to go along with the social media revolution, beginning with a Tweet and Meet at regular intervals. The marketing and technology team will hold a follow-up, hands-on discussion in the near future at the Murphy Campus of West Georgia Technical College to assist business owners with their social media questions. For more information, contact the chamber at 770-537-5594.

Social Media History: From Prehistoric Paint to Postmodern Posts ...

 to be heard. That is what is powering this supernova explosion of social media.

“User-generated content” has been around for millennia. The first evidence of “social media” was the Chauvet-Pont-d'Arc cave paintings in the Ardeche department of southern France. They date back to 30,000 BC. We’re talking Upper Paleolithic era here. Those paintings were peopleconnecting and communicating with other people. Twitter on a sandy wall.

That’s all social media is. The medium has merely changed: from prehistoric paint to postmodern posts.

A thirty-something Google executive, Wael Ghonim, was an unlikely catalyst of the revolution. In June, 2010, police brutally and callously murdered a young Egyptian named Khaled Said—who had uploaded a damning video to YouTube showing blatant police corruption. Decades of such transgressions built an aura of invincibility in the Egyptian police. Once again, they thought they would get away with it. They thought wrong.

Ghonim built a Facebook page titled: "We Are All Khaled Said." It featured graphic, striking photos of Said’s death. The Facebook page attracted roughly 500,000 members. It struck a cord. But, more than that, it provided one universal place for outraged Egyptians to go—to hear and be heard. It gave people a voice. It started to chip away at the psychological barrier of fear that had held them back for so many years.

Social media has become an engine of humanity, jet-fueled by the irrepressible drive we each have for better lives. With social media, a privileged few don’t control the levers. You do. I do. We all do. That’s what makes it so thrilling. But to work: it requires a certain set of ingredients, mixed in just right. When that happens, sit back and watch the magic.

Boyd further wrote:

There’s been some backlash in the last few days against the idea that either Tunisia or Egypt were brought on by Twitter or a “Facebook Revolution.” And certainly, it takes a lot more than the 21st century version of a communication system to persuade people to take to the streets and risk harm, imprisonment, or death. But that doesn’t mean social media didn’t play a role. It did. Given the magnitude of grievances in each country, revolt would almost certainly have come eventually. But social media simply made it come faster. It did so by playing a role in three main dynamics: organizing protests, shaping the narrative and putting pressure on Washington.