by Ada Nworgu
After attending the first ‘Powerful Voices’ workshop I am very enthusiastic about the project, already bursting with ideas and keen to get started with the implementation. One question myself and the rest of the group are pondering on this week is- How to use social media to make our ideas come to life? The project is all about using social media to make a positive social impact, on a local or global level. We have recently seen the influence of social media with the revolution in Egypt! Described by some as a ‘youth led social media revolution’- some articles I have come across report on the revolution like it was a 007 operation organised by the Egyptian youth via social networking sites; whilst others state that social media was a sideline tool, that may have heightened the impact of the protests but was definitely not at the centre of the revolution and others totally dismiss the involvement of social media -hmmm ‘denial is not just a river in Egypt’ (sorry couldn’t resist) . If you are interested and I do hope you are, here are a few links about the revolution, from different viewpoints:
What are your conclusions? Did the ‘power’ of social media cause Mubarak to step down??
Whichever viewpoint you support, it cannot be denied that social media does make an impact whether minute or major. Even if somebody somewhere was to discover cold hard facts that proved social media had no impact on the Egyptian Revolution...it cannot be denied that as a result of the revolution the interest in social media has rocketed. It is almost like the Egyptian Revolution rebranded social media!? The irony! - Social media almost became an academic study; it has come under some deep analysis since the revolution. There was what seems like an excitable frenzy in the blogosphere as many were eager to communicate their opinions. – I’m not here to jump on that bandwagon, this blog is in support of the Powerful Voices’ project, I just wanted to offer a little food for thought. In fact, let’s go back to basics- social media is a free form of mass communication at the finger tips of any human being who has access to the internet and with the increase in ownership of smart phones, social media is even more accessible. It allows an individual the power and the freedom to share whatever information they choose with others. It is also platform for interaction so it creates an avenue for people to be influenced, as by nature human beings are usually in some way affected by what they take in. This is the reason to why marketers moved towards social media, like it was the new craze in the world of marketing and advertising. In fact, do you remember the Cadbury’s ‘Gorilla’ advert? A little recap perhaps, why not!: Cadbury's 'Gorilla' advert
So not too long after it was regularly viewed by millions on TV, Cadbury’s put the advert on You Tube..why? ..No, they weren’t feeding their egos..they wanted to benefit from the real time interaction of social media and use it as a tool to measure the effectiveness of their campaign. It has been reported that the advert received 500,000 page views in the first week and there was even Facebook pages set up in honour of the advert (some people do take it a bit too far!). As a result of this campaign Cadburys reported a rise in sales so anyway enough about chocolate, my food for thought is: what this ‘Powerful Voices’ project is essentially about. We are going to build on this re-branding of social media so to speak, putting aside social media as a commercialist tool, as a procrastination device and a way to generate gossip and spread idle rumours etc etc. and instead, using this pretty effective tool to make a positive social impact. Now if you’re thinking, - hmmm I like the sound of that, then don’t hesitate to follow ‘Powerful Voices’ on our journey. Look out for us on every social media site known to man and check out our blogs and see what we come up with! After all what we do may be able to help you!
Thanks for reading J
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