Social media applications are great for personal status updates and celebrity gossip, of course. They can also alert you to events, topics, and products that you might find interesting. What’s more, they are increasingly influential in world events.
How do we mobilize support within our country and raise awareness for our cause outside the nation? They turned to social media, and the results were groundbreaking.
Demonstrators used Facebook to schedule protests, Twitter to coordinate protests and share real-time updates, and YouTube and TwitPic to visually broadcast their cause to the world. Support for the movement spread like wildfire through social-media communities. Similar protests began popping up in other countries throughout North Africa and the Middle East. The revolutions became known as the Arab Spring. To date, oppressive government regimes in Tunisia, Egypt, and Libya have been replaced with democratic leadership.
The story above exemplifies the evolution of social media from a new way to connect with friends into a vehicle for social change, business marketing, brand development, and much more. As social media continue to evolve, new ways to connect with and make an imprint on the world will emerge.
Your Turn What does this story reveal about social media? What lessons can you take from this story for your own social-media use?
Web page: The Brief History of Social Media
Infographic: The Complete History of Social Media
Infographic: How Social Media is Changing Traditional Journalism
Web page: Changing the Face(book) of Social Activism
Web page: How the Arab Spring Was Helped by Social Media
Podcast: Social Media's 'Journalism Revolution'
Web page: The Cyberactivists Who Helped Topple a Dictator
Web page: Social Media Use Evolving in Egypt
Web page: Twitter and Other Services Create Cracks in Gadhafi's Media Fortress