Next Steps

Iranian Election Coverage Proves The Power of Social Sites

June 16, 2009 @ 2:46pm

by Mason Razavi

Politics are neither my forte nor my preferred topic of discussion, however as a new media marketer it’s impossible not to realize the impact that social media sites – particularly Twitter - have had on the happenings surrounding the Iranian election.

According to CNN, the U.S. State Department asked Twitter to reschedule maintenance in order to keep the social network alive and pumping information out to the web during crucial election-related moments. Furthermore, sites like YouTube and Flickr have become great resources for getting video and pictures for those who want more insight, and, unsurprisingly, blog posts from individuals on the scene are providing more useful than the media when it comes to providing up-to-date coverage to the public.

Despite the Iranian government’s attempts to shut down social media sites including Facebook and others(do a quick Google search), relentless bloggers, Twitterers, and other social networking site fanatics have been posting away.

All of this amounts to what could become an incredible case study in the value of social websites to the public. When the U.S. State Department is banking on Twitter users to relay important political information, when foreign governments attempt to shut down social websites in order to control how their image is presented to the world, and when there is global attention paid to seemingly amateur bloggers, it is time to admit that social media sites have begun to transcend traditional media.