Chapter 15
Fusing the Me in Social Media and the We in the Social Web
The evolution of media and communications is timeless.
Once we put these lessons and insights into practice we truly graduate into apprentices of new media.
But before we do so, there's an important element in the socialization of media that can't go undisclosed: The socialization of media starts with not us, but specifically you and me. Let's spend one chapter together exploring and unraveling the butterfly effect.
The butterfly effect is an example made popular in the 1980s and taken from the chaos theory that describes how the fluttering of a butterfly's wings may be the initial source of events that result in a large storm. In reference to the Social Web, it is a potentially chaotic effect created by something seemingly insignificant, whereby a small change in one part of a complex system can have a large effect somewhere else.1 That somewhere else could have devastating or wonderful effects on you or the brand you represent or both.
It sounds alarming, but this is not science fiction. I need your attention as we move forward together, as our journey is only just beginning.
Figure 15.1 A Thought from George Bernard Shaw
CASTING A DIGITAL SHADOW: YOUR REPUTATION PRECEDES YOU
You will be googled… .
This couldn't be any truer. This might make you smirk, but go google yourself.
View the results as if through ...
