The Power of Social Media

I am fascinated by social media, by the way. It took me a long time to understand what the deal was. I tend to be a little slow to pick up on new things -- not because I dislike them, exactly, but because I like to watch and see how they work and how they're used before I adopt them.

So, because I'm late to the game, I'm still fascinated with the impact social media has on the internet market nowadays. The internet is a powerful tool, and we're entering a new age of independent creators dominating the successful market. (Or, at least, I think so.) And if you want to survive and thrive as an independent creator, you're going to have to be good at marketing yourself as well as your product.

Hence, social media.

Anyway. Most people I meet in real life consider social media to be a continuous stream of word-vomit, and to some extent (maybe a large extent), that's true. But if I examine my own reactions to social media, I know that watching someone else's "word-vomit" makes me feel I know the person better. It makes me more apt to look at them favorably, and to see them as a person instead of a faceless entity.

Companies can do this too, but a lot of them are, frankly, bad at it. I don't want an endless stream of advertisement in my twitter feed. If that's all you've got, I don't want to hear it. But if you have someone behind the keyboard talking to your customers, replying to comments, and making conversation, well I'm much more interested.

Case in point: @SockDreams. They do a minimal amount of advertising when there's a sale, or new products. But they also retweet their customers' comments about their socks, and often reply back to you with conversation. I feel that following them is worthwhile, because I can show my support for a small Portland-based sock company that I adore, and they don't pay me back with endless spam but instead kind words.

And from a business point of view, by getting most of their advertising through being a hub of word-of-mouth compliments and comments about their products, they're increasing the likelihood people will buy from them. It's one thing for a company to say, "We have awesome socks, come buy them!" And a completely different thing for a customer to say, without prompting, "These socks are awesome and I'm glad I bought them!" And, of course, the fact that it's on something as informal as Twitter, rather than a 'testimonials' page or something, helps make it feel more valid. SockDreams didn't manufacture these comments; they just manufacture a good product. The rest seemingly takes care of itself.

But! That's not actually why I started writing this post. Actually what prompted this post is a series of incidents lately with theft, and how Twitter brings the smackdown in a very real world way. You want to know the real power of social media? Observe:

1. A few months ago, Jess Fink (@jessfink) had her designs stolen (again) by Todd Goldman of David & Goliath, a t-shirt company with notoriously cute and quirky designs. In addition, someone on Etsy had traced her designs and was selling shirts on Etsy, while flagrantly acknowledging her theft. Through the power of twitter, the Etsy shop was taken down, and legal action is being brought against D&G. While this is not a particularly mind-blowing case, it's still fresh in my mind, because I loved D&G tees. But, thanks to this, I'll never be buying them again.

2. Cut to yesterday, when holy crap, Twitter exploded over Urban Outfitters thieving an independent creator's designs.

Huffington Post and Boing Boing picked it up. It spread on Twitter like wildfire. My tweets were retweeted hundreds of times. Twitter users alerted me that former “fans” were blowing up the Urban Outfitters Facebook page.

Messages of support for Stevie and her jewelry poured in. Lots of people seemed outraged that they weren’t being sued. Many people seemed downright shocked and hadn’t heard of their previous douchebaggery in ripping off indie artists.

As a result, the necklaces were pulled from stores and UO is suffering a bad PR backlash. If you want an example of how not to handle social media as a company, read what UO did (or didn't do) in that article. You have to put out fires fast nowadays.

3. Still not real-world enough for you? Linked in the comments for that article was an instance of someone using Twitter to get their stolen bike back.

Boulder was full of helpful information, so by the time I went to the police station @WendiTV told me he was known as Dready Dave, @eatullis thought she had seen him on the bike path with a different bike, @bikestohikes had seen him ON my bike at Baseline Liquor, @CDR16 let me know he had seen him multiple times on Pearl St. previously and @thecupboulder spotted him on the bike path under the bridge on 9th.

In a six hour window, Ellis's social network single-handedly identified the culprit and tracked him down. Ellis and company caught up with the thief, flagged down a police officer, and ... she has her bike back!

These instances may not be typical. But you can't tell me that it's not impressive. The internet is providing ways for "the little people" to be heard and speak with a distinctive and powerful voice against Big Companies. The thing is, Big Companies could get in on this too, if they could just do it right. But until their marketing and PR execs are from Generation X/Y, I think they're sinking in a mire.

While the huge, unwieldy beasts of Big Companies trundle along, in my opinion, the fleeter-footed Independent Creators will overtake them and, in the long run, maybe even completely surpass them -- in large part because of social media.

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