The Great Equalizer

Chapter 3 of Brian Solis's book Engage opens with the statement "social media is the great equalizer." The idea that social media is the great equalizer is a underlying concept for many arguments about social media today or at least is an underlying concept for many of the arguments made in my Social Media for PR class.  I think it is an important idea but it is one I have yet to talk about here. That little lapse will be solved today.

So what is meant by the statement that social media is the great equalizer? It basically means that social media has put power in the hands of the consumer. Before social media, there was a "top down" form of communication between business and consumers in which businesses said things and consumers listened. Communication wasn't really a two way street. Social media changed that and made it so small consumers could talk to big companies as well as other consumers.

When explained that way the idea of social media as a great equalizer sounds very scholarly and not applicable at all to real life. In reality people use social media as an equalizer all the time. When you purchase a product, say a TV, it dies within a year of purchase, and you go online to leave a review about it, your using social media as an equalizer.

This past Wednesday I had some friends, Christine and Melinda, who used Twitter and Facebook to express their discontent with a company named Whrrl who had a contest to give away 2 Audis during SXSW. They were upset that no one ended up winning those 2 Audis but they were lead to believe that someone would. The girls tweeted Whrrl and Whrrl responded through tweets and email. Christine and Melinda used social media to start a conversation with Whrrl and although the problem wasn't solved, they were at least able to talk directly to the company.

I sometimes think that most of the public thinks of social media as just a way to have fun and connect with others. I think that the idea that it can be used to connect with companies and express either positive or negative feelings about them often gets lost. Hopefully after reading this you will know not to write social media off as just frivolous fun, it can be useful business communication tool as well.

-M