Does Social Media Spark Social Change?

Social media is fundamentally changing the way people communicate and conduct their everyday lives. The political uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt are extreme reflections of this phenomenon.

From a marketing perspective, the situations in both regions amount to an earned media success story. Earned media refers to positive press garnered through free promotional initiatives – second-by-second tweets, Facebook posts and YouTube videos highlighting the mass injustices being perpetrated on the people. Social traffic driven by Twitter followers, Facebook messaging, or viral YouTube plays cannot be bought or scheduled. The results of an earned social media campaign must be organic online and offline.

Digital companies utilize social networks as virtually zero-cost user engagement tools that increase traffic, brand awareness and engagement. If these networks can be trusted to deliver highly measurable revenue for small to large scale businesses globally, why is it hard to fathom that, if properly leveraged, social media could politically unify and engage society?

There are varying opinions among regional experts, bloggers and mainstream journalists trying to quantify social media’s role in sparking each uprising. It would be irresponsible to christen Twitter as the next revolutionary hope. But to reject the notion that Twitter and Facebook effectively united and rapidly motivated Tunisians and Egyptians to act - with little else invested but a desire for change - is to deny the powerful far-reaching engagement potential of social media.