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yes I'm talking about the Facebook like button! Ok, in a broader sense I'm talking about social media but Facebook is the current daddy in that world.
Watching the Tottenham Hotspur vs Manchester United game last week I noticed a Sony advert being fed around the electronic billboard.
Nothing new there.
But what was different about this particular advert was its call to action.
There was no 'visit our website to experience the new range of lcd TVs' type text, followed by a picture of a flirting corner of the new top of the range model.
No.
All there was, was the logo and a Facebook like button symbol.
That advert must have cost tens of thousands of pounds.
But the marketers new one thing.
Those at home watching the game would probably be on their laptop, visiting either eBay, Amazon, Google or of course Facebook.
Great think the marketers, click our like button and we will show you our products when we want! I am digressing from the title slightly here but I wanted to give a case study using a large company and their interest in social media.
So why do I think social media is more important than the birth of the internet? Some may argue that of course without the internet there would be no social media! That is true.
But the impact the internet had on the general population in the late 1990's and early 2000's is far out weighed by the impact of social media in the mid to late 2000's.
Think about it.
The internet brought to everybody an opportunity to see and experience everything! But that was it.
It pretty much stopped there.
You couldn't fully engage with what was in front of your eyes.
Yes you could go into dodgy chatrooms, comment on articles but the internet was really just a source of information.
Then along came social media.
Suddenly you could talk to your friends no matter where they were in the world.
You could post photos of yourself up and let people comment and tag themselves in them.
You could leave updates on your current 'status'.
Relationships with old school friends that one hadn't seen for years were suddenly rekindled, and you could belong to groups of like minded people to do with peculiar hobbies.
Facebook was responsible for the Christmas number 1 in 2009 in the UK.
Hate groups have been started, fan groups have been created.
Millionaires have been made overnight, and blockbuster movies are being produced.
All because of social media.
Social media changed everything.
It's my honest opinion that the next 5 years are going to change our lives forever.
On a personal level and a business level and everything in between.
I've made friends with people I never knew existed before I started on Twitter.
I've done business on Facebook and Twitter and Linkedin.
It's changed the way I live now.
I find it hard not to be connected for a long period of time Even when watching a film I check my Twitter account every 15 minutes or so using my phone.
Has it improved my life? No.
But I don't regret what it has done to my life.
Whatever you opinion about social media is, one thing is for sure.
When they write the history of the world, the last 5 years and next 5 years are going to be about just one subject.
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