As in Tunisia and other countries undergoing fundamental shifts in power, Egypt’s protest movement has leveraged social media’s powerful marketing to educate the world, facilitate demonstrations and help the world follow what’s happening in Egypt.
I don’t want to trivialize what’s happening on the ground in Egypt for the sake of marketing. But, I would hope the broader implications will resonate with readers; i.e. that social media marketing’s vast capabilities are helping to effect real tangible change in the world.
Egyptians are using any and all forms of social media to get the word and images out about what is happening on the ground including Twitter, YouTube, Facebook and Flickr. There are a huge number of Facebook pages devoted to the revolution (too numerous to try to count) and this one is growing at a rapid pace. Fueled by revolutionary fervor and traditional and online media’s reporting about this and other accounts.
Social Media Powering a Revolution
It’s truly amazing to many of us in the industry how powerful the social platform has become. For example, log on to Twitter and follow Egypt specific Hashtags like: #Cairo #Jan25 #Suez and you’ll see a steady stream of Tweets about the fundamental shift in power in Egypt.
The constant rapid fire “stream” is certainly unlike a standard news feed in that you’ll see a jumble of languages, comments, links to videos and images in a breathless digital array! It’s truly a digital cornucopia that defies description.
Influential Blogger/Reporters like Wael Abbas are Tweeting, posting and uploading images from his cellphone that give the viewer an on the ground feel for what is going on in real time. His Video Blog is generating tremendous amounts of traffic via an almost constant upload of on the ground videos that reflect the chaos occurring on the ground.
What’s fueling this cultural shift and how can your brand mirror this revolutionary passion:
- Passion is driving this reveloution, as it should any brand. If you aren’t passionate about what you are doing and saying then go home and call it a day.
- These “fly by the seat of their pants” revolutionaries are using any and all tools at their disposal. You should too if you want to breath life into your brand or campaign. Be it YouTube, SMS Messaging, images uploaded to YFrog via Twitter, Blogging, Tweeting, images referenced via Flickr and/or any creative way you can build word of mouth.
- No risks no rewards, as the old saying goes. Be daring and decisive in your work. Take some risks – create a broad digital footprint to generate traction for your brand in the marketplace.
- Bring the eyes of the world to your marketing campaigns. In this information clogged world we all live in that is chock full of media coming at us 24/7/365 via multiple devices you have to come up with something creative to make your brand stand out.
- Viral marketing can be a wonderful thing for your brand. Generating Followers on Facebook or Twitter is great. But, getting them to ReTweet, Like and echo your digital touchpoints via their own stream can create wonderful things for your branding and marketing activities.
- Grok that news cycles are never ending and that your brand has to live and thrive in a media eco-system that is unlike traditional marketing. There are no fixed times, boundaries or platforms – creativity drives success as never before.
We salute the citizens of Egypt and the world who personify courage under fire – their iconic actions deserve our support!
