The modern information age is the proverbial genie in a bottle. Once you’ve let it out there is no putting it back.
On a global level, social media is playing a large role in cutting off dictators at the knees. Dictatorships are only possible when a regime controls the information. Once information is free it spreads and revolution is inevitable. Witness protests in Iran, Eqypt, Lybia and others.
Never before has information been so sharable. Information can be shared so conveniently that it moves globally very rapidly.
On a more personal level, a big story that broke over the weekend (other than the ending of the world) is the case of an alleged affair between Ryan Giggs and Big Brother contestant Imogen Thomas. Giggs went to court to gag the media and prevent his name being mentioned. The order was granted by the court but within hours 75,000 people named him in tweets across the world. The genie had bolted with the horse. Yet traditional media were still barred from naming him.
Like the tide – there is no holding free information back.
The point of this brief blog is not to debate the rightness or wrongness of this. It’s a fact of our world as it exists now. Social Media has changed the game of PR just as it has changed marketing and advertising and internal communication and, and, and…
Businesses and brands MUST adapt to the modern rules of engagement. It is no longer a matter of “choosing to get involved with social media”. Social media has already chosen us. And who wants to be at the wrong end of a viral story?
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