On December 22, 2011, Nigel Dunn published a very insightful piece on the impact of Twitter. In his article, “If Twitter Shut Down Tomorrow, Would We Miss It?” (found in its entirety at http://www.ecademy.com/node.php?id=172004), Mr. Dunn argues that Twitter or more broadly social media, is a simple phenomenon that would not be missed too terribly if it disappeared for businesses.
“If Twitter never proposes to charge users any money then realistically all they are is a database company who will rent out the ‘space’ each user occupies to the highest bidders to attract those users to spend some money on products or services. Twitter and Facebook, in that sense are glorified TV channels with the IP addresses of all the users which is pretty good knowledge.”
He makes a good point. Right now, as we see the current use of Twitter and Facebook it is simply a whole bunch of people occupying digital space and the real value, in terms of money, has yet to be fully understood. However, his more important point comes later in the argument that what the social media channels are creating is a very, very large database of content. This is the key.
The key to social media is not the money trail–directly speaking. For me it is the knowledge and wealth of information. Way back in 1980, Alvin Toffler published The Third Wave, a follow up to his 1970′s book Future Shock. In this book, he correctly identified the shift to an information age for industrial counties. And I remember one of his more glaring predictions: The new world will not be segmented between the have’s and the havenot’s but by the those who know and those do not know. Right on!
Social media is the extreme extension of people’s quest for information, not necessarily knowledge, but information that relevant and up-to-the second current. How does this apply to communities and economic development?
In a world where information is flying around at the speed of light, business owners and entrepreneurs are able to make split-second decisions based on their Twitter feed. And with the overwhelming nature of today’s information, the bigger skill is not deciding where to do business, but where NOT to do business. Therefore, as an entrepreneur seeking to establish my product or find a site to expand, the bigger goal is to limit my choices, not expand them. The solutions, scour the social media world for information that fits the needs of the business. Communities not using social media will be eliminated, quickly.
As Mr. Dunn explains in his article, the real power of social media will be the use of the knowledge and the targeted ads. I also argue that for economic developers the real power of social media will come as networks are established and online brands are built.
Either way, social media will not go away. In fact it will grow and control more and more of our personal space. We are humans who love to share information. And as Mr. Toffler argues, those who have information will prosper. Those who do not, will struggle.
Cheers!
Ron
