Getting Social

Abstract

When Michael Mendenhall, the then-chief marketing officer of Hewlett Packard, at the ANA 2008 CMO conference¹ proclaimed Twitter as one of the most influential media, I have to admit I almost fell off my chair. The social networking site back then was just starting to take off as one of the more promising players trying to emulate Facebook’s success. At that time, it had 3 million users, up from barely half a million just at the start of that year. While I’m not sure whether Twitter really lived up to Mendenhall’s billing, social media, or Web 2.0, as we were calling it back then, was starting to hit its stride. Twitter evolved from being a tool for real-time updates for celebrities and the everyman or everywoman, to broadcasting pointed comments during presidential debates and add-ons to the Super Bowl hype, to being a journalist’s best friend and a distributor of television content. Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Blogger, Tumblr, Pinterest, Instagram, Four Square, Google+, and the many social media channels have evolved in remarkable ways and become an important ally for the communications planner.