Dinner with girlfriends recently brought up an interesting subject: marketing our books and the Social Media craze. My one friend tapped her fingers as she named the different social media platforms her sixteen year old uses, Twitter, TumblR, Facebook, YouTube, Flickr. She said, “You want your book buzzed about? Give it to my daughter. She’ll have it viral in no time.”
The young ones are the fearless generation with this new technology. They’ve been born into a world with the Internet, where folks my age who just got comfortable emailing, must now warm up to the idea of communicating in 140 characters or less—by telephone!
And to think, fifteen years ago, my second grade son saw a record album turn table in a friend’s house and whispered to me, “Mom, what is that?”
It seems as if every day we open our doors to another new change in world communications. So, I did some research on this exciting buzz about social media. Here’s what I found: Socionomics. This is the new phrase being touted for the Social Media Revolution. I like it. I could go on with facts and figures about how this phenomenon is changing our world (including the political impact it’s having on Egypt these days), but nothing speaks clearer than the video below on what the future holds. The statistics are mind boggling.
Where shall we go from here?
This last weekend I attended a weekend-long karate retreat for Sanchin-Ryu karate, the style I study. At one point the Chief Grand Master was talking to the whole group (a couple hundred) and made a comment about somebody giving you guff, and a little kid in the front row raised his hand and said, “What’s guff?”
Then, during one of the black belt workouts the instructor made a comment about being able to do the technique in a phone booth, then paused, laughed and said, “For those of you who don’t know, a phone booth is an antiquated form of communication technology where you put coins into it and…”
Yeah, times changes.
Even before online social networks, a person’s social group was the most powerful influence in his or her life. Now part of that social network is going online, where it can expand significantly. Over the last six months or so, I sensed a shift in way Facebook was being regarded–for many, it went from an afterthought, to the first place people checked online. Now that FB is integrating people’s “likes” into recommendations (read: advertisements), it has tapped into a powerful marketing force. We naturally want to read what our friends are reading, dine where they’re dining, etc. We will be much more likely to follow those recommendations than to jump at some random Google ad. I’m beginning to see people post queries like, “Anyone know a great dentist in West LA?” They will get responses, not from self-promoting dentists, but from friends who can share their actual experiences.
For writers, we can now connect directly with our readers via social media and get feedback on our work. But will readership increase as a whole, or will social media, like video games, draw people away with easy distractions?
My other concern is how dependent we are upon the electrical grid with the Internet. All it would take is a giant electromagnetic pulse from space, and whammo, our devices go dead. It may seem like science fiction now, but I’d venture this possibility isn’t so far away.
All it would take is a giant electromagnetic pulse from space, and whammo, our devices go dead.
Or a mid-sized EMP device detonated by an enemy, say…China, in a major city and chaos, long term chaos, ensues.
This is why Ham operators and old-fashioned naval flag signals will never truly die away, I hope.
By the way, that’s part of the action in my current WIP. EMP shuts down Police & FBI comms, and bad guys get the upper hand…coming soon to a kindle near you….or relatively soon that is…once I finish the silly thing.
One of the profoundest shocks that continues to rock me is that people actually exist out there who strive to use good to devise bad. Someday, mal-intent will be as obsolete as telephone booths. (In my perfect world!)
In the meantime, don’t give up your telephone land lines!
Kathryn–I enjoy FB friends from Spain, Rumania, the UK, Australia, Chile, and more. I’m definitely enamored with the Social Media revolution. I can’t wait to see what surfaces next!