Corporations Driving Social Media?

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+ Could Corporations Be the Real Push Behind Social Media?

July 29, 2008 — by Steven Hodson

So which comes first? It’s an age old question – which came first? The chicken or the egg?

This could very well be the same sort of question future historians could be asking when they look back to the period when social media and the tools to use it became an integral part of our society. Was it the people who dragged the corporations into a more social world or was it the corporations who brought the people into a more social world?
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As a basic – very basic – primer for those who might be confused about what social media is it is the concept of creating a level playing field for everyone within our world by utilizing the Internet as the method by which people can talk with others regardless of economic, gender or geographical differences and achieve change within our society. Lately though this has also moved to include more and more the companies that are also a part of our society.

While traditionally one would consider the companies most interested in this would be those that require the Web in order to have an economic base, but more and more we are seeing non-Web, or as some one say – the brick and mortar establishments, companies stepping into the social media world.

The commonly held belief is that it is the people – the crowd – that is the driving force behind the growth of this idea called social media. While much of this crowd might currently be the folks called early adopters the fact is that social media tools like Twitter and Plurk are making that crossover into the mainstream of Web users.

At this point much of the traffic is being driven by the early adopters who have been using services like Twitter since it started but slowly more and more regular Web users are discovering it – and others. As well, corporations are dipping their toes into this new social media sea; therein lies the one thing that could really push social media beyond just being a niche sector.

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