testing on Google Website Optimizer to hone his website into a money-making juggernaut. In September 2008, within 24 hours of Palin mocking Obama, his campaign reportedly raised $10 million.
Obama won the presidency because he built a colossal campaign fund, and he activated an army of advocates that cut across all segments of society. His theory that digital connections were in fact real ones was right. He put it to the people, and they carried him to victory. Barack Obama’s mastery of public address—and his masterful use of social media—powered him to the presidency.
This is one of the key points in this book: Obama put it to the people, and they carried him to victory. Alone, you can only do so much. Win the hearts of your customers, inspire them to get behind you—and you can make movements.
Mumbai
In November 2008, as gunmen and police engaged in a shocking three-day battle in Mumbai that left more than 100 dead, social media sites were crackling with news, rumors and pictures of the mayhem. Mainstream media outlets fell over themselves trying to catch up with social media’s coverage of the attacks—but Twitter users moved at the “speed of social,” tagging posts with information and commentary on the crisis, transforming a platform normally used to connect with friends into a real-time, human-powered news network.
While the mainstream media was saying, “We’re coming! We’ve got this,” the people were saying, “We’re here. We’re already getting this.” No organization or industry, however powerful or pervasive, can compete with humanity. The new generation of smartphones is transforming people into live print and broadcast media outlets.
That said, with power comes responsibility. The argument that “user-generated news” from untrained citizen journalists is not credible is a valid one. But, we’re still early here—and we’re headed in a new direction. Where it leads remains uncertain, but with each passing day, it favors you.
Kutcher vs. CNN
It was a modern-day David and Goliath. In April 2009, actor Ashton Kutcher posed a simple but historic challenge to CNN: “First to one million Twitter followers wins.”
With its international reach, multiple media outlets and veritable war chest, the smart money was on CNN. Kutcher was one man with a keyboard—and a few influential friends. Moreover, he was behind before the race even began. At the time of the challenge, Kutcher had 896,947 followers. CNN’s breaking news handle had 937,787.
On April 18th, Kutcher reached one million followers, hours ahead of CNN. His victory was a wake-up call to the world; social media had changed the game. The individual held power and influence the likes of which we had never seen.
“I found it astonishing that one person can actually have as big of a voice online as what an entire media company can on Twitter,” Kutcher reportedly said.
Egypt: Revolution 2.0
“The power of the people is much stronger than the people in power.” —Wael Ghonim, widely-credited as a catalyst of the 2011 Egypt Revolution
The regime was trying to hold back a tsunami with its bare hands.
Egypt is an ancient civilization with a young population. Nearly two-thirds of Egyptians are under 30 years old. After years of oppression, they reached their tipping point.
As the sun rose to warm the day in Cairo on January 25, 2011, an estimated 25,000 people gathered in Tahrir Square. This would become the time and place of the 2011 Egyptian Revolution—one of the most extraordinary in history.
The BBC reported that within five days, 25,000 became 50,000. By February 1st, the number of protesters had swelled to over one million—peacefully, yet stoically, protesting the dictatorship of Hosni Mubarak.
In the nascent stages, Mubarak seemed curious, but cavalier. After all, he’d been in power for nearly 30 years.
His unconcern would be his undoing.
The Egyptian people had been oppressed for three decades, held hostage by a psychological barrier of fear. What Mubarak—and most of the world, for that matter—didn’t grasp was that the playing field had changed. Monumentally. The power balance had shifted. Dramatically.
Mubarak’s regime didn’t understand two key points about social media: 1) That connecting people breaks down the barrier of fear, and 2) That it could move messages and mobilize masses with blinding speed.
Cell phones and email might reach hundreds of people at a time. Twitter and Facebook reach hundreds of thousands. In hours. Those hundreds of thousands can reach millions. In days.
The Egyptian government made the grave miscalculation that they could quell this rebellion just as they had done before. But this time, nothing could contain the Egyptian people. They had the desire for change—and the tools to make it happen.
As 60 Minutes later reported, “Their revolution began not with terrorism and tanks, but with Twitter and texts … an aging autocrat who ruled as a modern pharaoh fell victim to those weapons of the young—out-organized and outmaneuvered by social media, by kids with keyboards.”
A thirty-something Google executive, Wael Ghonim, was an unlikely catalyst of the revolution. In June 2010, police brutally murdered a young Egyptian named Khaled Said, who had uploaded a video to YouTube showing blatant police corruption. Decades of such transgressions built an aura of invincibility among Egyptian police. Once again, they thought they would get away with it. They thought wrong.
Ghonim built a Facebook page titled: “We Are All Khaled Said.” It featured graphic, striking photos of Said’s death and attracted roughly 500,000 members. It struck a chord, and it provided one place for outraged Egyptians to go—to hear and to be heard. It gave them a voice in a society that denied them one. It began to erode the psychological barrier of fear that held them back for so many years.
On February 11, 2011, Mubarak officially stepped down. Imagine that. The dictator who clung to power through scandalous elections, corruption charges—and six attempts on his life—could not withstand the social-driven groundswell that flat-out overwhelmed him. After being in power for almost three decades, he was out…
In 18 days.
While social media did not create the conditions for a revolution, it accelerated it. The fuel was there. Social media merely ignited the fire and fanned the flames for the world to see.
As E.B. Boyd of Fast Company wrote: “Did Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube send people out into the streets? Of course not. Did they speed up the process of protest? Absolutely.”
Boyd further wrote:
There’s been some backlash in the last few days against the idea that either Tunisia or Egypt were brought on by Twitter or a “Facebook Revolution.” And certainly, it takes a lot more than the 21st century version of a communication system to persuade
