Here’s an interesting quote regarding activists and their efforts to influence corporate policy:
That a one-man NGO armed with just a laptop computer, a Web site and a telephone calling card can, with his allies, influence a huge multinational corporation illustrates the role social activists can play in a world that’s going increasingly online.
This quote refers to a June 2005 WSJ article published on the GlobalPolicy.org website. To read the entire article, click here. A world that is going increasingly online. That article was written four years ago, before social media was little more than a glimmer of an idea to take the human jones for interaction into the cybersphere. And the online state of that world today looks, in comparison, very under-connected. So you can imagine the power that social activists have with social media at their fingertips.
Prior to the social web, organization was one of the roadblocks to activism. But now, with much of the developed world online and growing every day, activism has gotten a shot in the arm. The foundation of activist organization is held together by social relationships based on a common interest. Without that social glue, activism would fall apart. And it’s that social glue that’s put into hyperdrive within social media.
For corporations, social media provides a double-edged sword. Companies want people to discuss their products and services in social media. But the rise of the social web allows people, activists, the opportunity to discuss those products and services within the context of forming a political or social action against them.
That saying is really true, “You can’t have your cake and eat it, too.” Yin and yang.
