RIESTER

February 11, 2011 update

Today President Mubarek stepped down after 18 days of protests that were fueled by social networking sites, including Twitter. This post was a direct response to Malcolm Gladwell’s article: “Small Change: Why the revolution will not be tweeted.” The original title of the post was: “Strength in weak ties: Connecting with people through social networking.” Despite the revolution in Egypt, Gladwell is stubbornly sticking to his guns that things like Facebook and Twitter are worthless. Why can’t one of the great thinkers of our times admit he’s made a mistake and move on?

Amidst an explosion of communications channels, what is the best way to connect with people and really make a difference? This is a critical question at RIESTER, a company based on Brand Activism—for causes, products and services.

Are Malcolm Gladwell's "weak links" an adequate description of social networking connections? Photo by Pop!Tech on flickr.

Malcolm Gladwell, in a recent New Yorker article “Small Change: Why the revolution will not be tweeted,” asserts that social networking connections will not drive activism leading to impactful change.  But is Gladwell, one of the more innovative thinkers of our time, missing something?  He refers to the kinds of connections people have on social networking platforms as “weak ties.” It’s true, social networking platforms make it easy to build connections with people you’ve never met.  Even reconnecting with old friends and acquaintances is often an example of people you have a weak tie to.

While he emphasizes the limitations of weak ties, Gladwell also sees benefits to such connections. Crediting sociologist Mark Granovetter, he discusses some of the advantages: “Our acquaintances—not our friends—are our greatest source of new ideas and information. The Internet lets us exploit the power of these kinds of distant connections with marvelous efficiency.” He asserts, however, that the revolution referenced in the title of his piece still depends on more traditional tools to bring about real social change.

People lazily posting links and blathering away online won’t cut it.

Fair enough.

I often describe Twitter as an international cocktail party that is going 24/7. Even if you don’t drink, stick with the analogy. You meet someone at a party, you exchange chit chat. More often than not, you don’t establish a deep and lasting connection. But, sometimes you do. Think about it, most of the more successful people in this world—from many different fields—are those who are effective at turning weak ties into strong ties.

A relationship must begin somewhere. Gladwell bases his argument on a paradigm of either-or. His activists either rely solely on social networking via the Internet, or they utilize more traditional real-world organizing techniques based on “strong-tie connections.”  This is a false dichotomy and it’s why his essay is incorrect.

As a tool for people working to bring about change (or communicate any message), social networking platforms offer new and unique ways to connect. What happens with those connections is what makes all the difference. That’s just as true today as it was in the pre-Internet era.

Social networking platforms are not just stand-alone communications channels. They are new tools that need to be leveraged in any contemporary communications situation. In Gladwell’s essay, with the either-or paradigm he provides, he is likely more correct than not. Social networks are not the be all end all and by themselves they are unlikely to change the world. Yet they don’t exist by themselves. As tools in a larger toolkit, they are potent new platforms.

In over a year of active engagement on Twitter, I’ve developed connections with many people whom I would never have become acquainted with otherwise. Some of these connections have already grown from very weak ties, to stronger connections.

Tomorrow I am going to introduce one new Twitter friend. His name is J.B. Hester. He’s an advertising professor from the University of North Carolina—Chapel Hill, one of America’s top universities.