Back when I was more active in music, I spent a great deal of time "chalking the walks", if you will, with regards to getting the word out about shows, or general marketing about the band. Back then, it was literally chalking the sidewalks on college campuses and putting out flyers. In the recent past, I was back in a band, and I found that with my knowledge of social media and it's use on an everyday basis, I didn't have a clue on how to market the band online. I obviously found this rather frustrating.
Enter this class. While band marketing is a little off topic, it brings up a very valid point: not using social media correctly gets you nowhere. One can post to Facebook all day long and only really reach a few hundred people. I learned that the idea is not about beating one outlet to death, but to be smart about how and when you spread the word.
When we started working on GUSU, we realized that there were more important things to life than posting lolcats to Facebook or pictures of your awesome dinner on Twitter. These things, along with YouTube, blogs, press releases, and other outlets can really be used to bring about not only social change, but a movement of increased awareness and a call to arms by the masses. Take, for instance, the bus monitor that got bullied. Someone shot it on their cell phone, and because one person felt so badly about it, they started a campaign to raise money to send her on vacation. $500,000 later, she can just go buy a vacation home somewhere.
I think the main takeaway is that if someone believes enough in something, change will happen. Social media is an awesome tool, but only when wielded correctly. With the right person fighting for the right cause, and using the right tools at his/her disposal, anything is possible.
No comments:
Post a Comment