Social Media: Strength in Numbers

How powerful do you believe Social Media is? Can a single post reach millions of people in a matter of seconds? Can it aid the ability to speak one’s mind and provoke others? Yes. In regards to recent news in Egypt, social media played a defining role.

The people of Egypt, under Mubarak’s power, no longer wanted the autocratic way of government. They wanted democracy, and the only way to get what they wanted was if Mubarak stepped down from power. Thus, a revolt was planned. But how could the people of Egypt initiate a revolution powerful enough to make their own leader resign? This is where the influence of social media steps in. The easiest way to get a thought out into the world is to make it public via news and other media. The people of Egypt had the same idea. With their posts on Twitter and Facebook, Tahir Square was quickly flooded with people revolting against Mubarak. Their will and strength in numbers pushed them on, but that one Twitter post initiated the revolution which ended in Mubarak’s resignation this past week.

In a way, Facebook and Twitter can be seen as democracy in themselves. It’s the thoughts and views of the people to provoke and change others and situations around them. So, what’s to come next? Will Egypt block Facebook and Twitter to users like China to try and prevent any kind of future revolution against power? Even if this occurs, uprisings can occur without the help of social media anyway so Facebook and Twitter are not completely to blame here, yet did have a significant impact.

As a promoter for USTREAM, at Response, we realize the significance of getting live news to the world quickly and efficiently. USTREAM does a great job broadcasting videos live to the world. This added to the spread of the uprising in Egypt. USTREAM followed the revolution and provided frequent updates and much coverage of the revolt. Naturally, they caught on to how this uprising occurred and noted the significance of social media in their coverage.

So, do you believe in the power of social media?

For more information, visit the CNN article at http://bit.ly/euc9Mv