What is the role of social media in de-railing dictatorships, and how can this inform social media marketing activity?

“#AiWeiWei’s sentence, no Tweeting for a year, underscores #China’s continuing fear of social media”. News of the artist’s release after a serious run in with the Chinese authorities has caused quite a buzz in social media over the last couple of weeks. (there have been over 7,500 mentions in the last fortnight – figures courtesy of Metrica Radar). That social media is a powerful democratising and revolutionary force has certainly been the popular view of the Egyptian uprising earlier this year; with many describing events as a ‘social media revolution’.

But how important a role does social media really play in events such as the Egyptian revolution, and what can this tell us about social media marketing?

In February, Telegraph.co.uk published an article titled “Mubarak steps down. But let’s be clear – Twitter had nothing to do with it”. This piece examines the role of protest organiser Wael Ghonim, who famously discarded mainstream media, instead opting to organise protests via Facebook, finding that it was his TV interview on release, where he wept for dead protesters that prompted large numbers to join in the protests, rather than his use of social media. This shows that while social media played a significant role facilitating communication between protesters, it was “the real human bravery – standing up to hired, camel-riding thugs – and persistence of the protesters” that lead to Mubarak’s removal from power – with Facebook playing a supporting role.

Parallels between The Telegraph’s conclusion and social media marketing are clear. Social media itself is not a strategy, argues Antony Young. It is a “venue for marketers … a set of technologies or tactics that enables us to elevate and amplify brands”. Young gives the example of the hugely successful Old Spice social media campaign. This went viral and was successful not because it was spread through social media, but because of the quality and popularity of the videos themselves. Similarly, the Egyptian revolution did not happen because of social media, it happened because of the passion and dedication of Egyptian protestors, who found social media to be useful as a means of communication.

Social media is a great way to build awareness and spread messages, but the success of this can only be helped by social media channels, and ultimately relies on the quality and sincerity of the messages themselves.

Image: Weibo.com

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