Is Social Media a Fad?

Social Media energy is sweeping through businesses large and small. Is it a fad? Does it have relevance for businesses around the world? According to a recent survey by Regus published in July 2010, the answer is a resounding yes! 40% of companies surveyed successfully leveraged social media for new customer acquisition. Dell credits their Twitter presence with generating $6.5 million in revenue last year; Starbucks gains valuable product ideas by encouraging consumer suggestions; Pepsico has created significant positive brand image through its Refresh Project, which makes grants based on consumer votes. Brands that do not pay timely attention to social media have experienced negative repurcussions. Dave Carroll's song about failing to get United Airlines to pay for damaging his guitar was viewed by over 4 million people worldwide on YouTube, negatively impacting their brand. More recently, the Twitter spoof account @BPGlobalPR with nearly 10 times the following of BP's official Twitter acccount, BP_America, has undoubtedly done its bit to whip negative brand sentiment. Curious about which brands are leveraging social media effectively? Wondering how your brand is doing? Check out which global brands are most engaged from this report by wetpaint and Altimeter Group.

Social Media and Actual Change in Humans

Image by webtreats via Flickr

There is an enormous amount of discussion around academia and the Internet about how and/or if social media is changing the way people think and perceive the world around them. Tac Anderson's post today on his blog New Comm Biz discusses some of the current thinking on the topic, as well as posits that social media is a bit easier to work with if you have (or tend toward) ADD, but if you are more of a Low Media Multitasker, and experience greater costs in context switching between content streams, you may have trouble.

I have been doing some research about multitasking and the studies seem mixed. So much has to do with an individual's working memory capacity, not to mention the somewhat fuzzy definition of multitasking (do you mean the ability to prioritize the work and projects on your plate or do you mean actually doing two or more things exactly at the same time?). For an additional study to weigh in, read this study by Eyal Ophir, Clifford Nass and Anthony D. Wagner entitled Cognitive control in media multitaskers and do some searching yourself, as well as post what your experiences have been multitasking. Draw your own conclusions, add to the conversation....perhaps at the same time!

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Censorship of DIGG

Below an interesting article about efforts at censorship of the social media website digg. Although this doesn't relate specifically to the UW program, it demonstrates the influential nature of social media.

http://blogs.alternet.org/oleoleolson/2010/08/05/massive-censorship-of-digg-uncovered/