The Power of Social Media
For anyone who still has doubts about the power of social media, I recommend reading the story of James Karl Buck.
Twitter, the micro blogging platform, turned out to be his ‘get out of jail free’ card after he was arrested by Egyptian policemen.
On April 10th James Karl Buck, a UC Berkely graduate, was arrested in Egypt for taking photographs at a demonstration, Techcrunch reports. The first thing he did was utilise his Twitter network by texting the word ‘arrested’. Whether or not he was expecting Twitter to come to the rescue or it was just him telling the world what he was ‘doing’, it did prove to be the reason why he was a free man the very next day.
His followeres decided to raly for his cause and contact UC Berkely, the US embassy in Egypt along with several press outlets. The combined pressure from these organisations led to the release of the young photographer.
This shows the importance of creating relationships and networks on social media sites. Without them they are meaningless. This is also often the reason why marketers, after having tried a platform such as Twitter for a few days, decide it’s not worth the time and effort. Without a proper understanding of the inner workings of these networks and its inhabitants it’s only logical people fail to see the value.
Whilst James may not have made any money, I’m sure being out of prison is pretty valuable to him too!
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Ricardo Bueno May 10th, 2008 at 06:35
This was all over the twitter-verse when it happened. So yes, I too agree, social media is one powerful thing.
Unfortunately, for those utilizing it from a business perspective, it’s too often that we forget about the “social” in “social media.”