Answering the basic “why’s” and “what’s” in social media can take a variety of approaches. What has worked successfully in a past situation might not provide the same insights in the future, and the overall process can be overwhelming at first.
I should know. As the newest member of the Visible Technologies Insights Team, I had the opportunity of familiarizing myself with the power and versatility of the Visible Intelligence platform by examining one of my personal passions: video games.
On February 20th, Sony held a press conference in New York City to formally announce its newest gaming console, the PlayStation 4. It’s predictable that an event such as this, webcast over dozens of websites would generate an increase in discussion related to Sony and the PlayStation brand. But how great was this increase? Let’s look at some recent data spanning mid-January to mid-February.
The Socialization of Earth Day
Posted by Karen Stockert on April 22, 2013Last week, while attending an event to support an organization I volunteer for, I had the privilege of shaking the hand of Denis Hayes, the man responsible for coordinating the first Earth Day in 1970. On April 22 of that year, an impressive 20 million people were said to participate across the country. It boggles the mind to imagine how a skeleton crew of volunteers – passionate as they were – could turn out such crowds, all without the aid of the Internet, much less social media. While I didn’t get to ask him personally, I can only imagine the occasion he was so instrumental in launching must inspire a mix of pride and bewilderment 43 years later.
In 1970, students, parents, labor leaders, politicians, rich people and regular folks galvanized around a common concern for the environment and turned out for thousands of teach-ins and community events. On the most modern medium of the day, “Today” devoted 10 hours of coverage to Earth Day. Back then, remember, there were just 4 channels! The modern environmental movement had been launched.
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