This is Mona

One of my role models in business is Ivanka Trump. Her book “The Trump Card” is a valuable resource that provides personal accounts and insights from a variety of business environments and occasions. I call it a resource because its the kind of book you can revert back to for reminders and inspiration. Most of her guiding principles are fundamental, smart and down to earth. In fact I just practised what she preaches about “Reaching Out” and “Put it in Writing”. Ivanka makes notes of people who are making moves relevant to her business, or who inspire her by shaking things up in their career. Ivanka’s thinking is that if she is inspired by someone, she’ll do well to let them know about it. She does this on the theory that you never know how people will respond, but chances are it might lead to a positive connection. I’m a firm believer of this. Earlier this afternoon as I turned the final page of her book, I did what I normally do when I finish a good book or read an interesting article, I tweeted its praise. This time I wanted to put more thought into it and include Ivanka’s twitter handle so that I could send it in a form of a personalized note. Realize, I did not write it with the expectation that she would respond.  After all, i’m pretty sure someone of that kind of celebrity probably gets an innumerable amount of tweet mentions. A few hours later opportunity had it with a response from her! Yes, one would say that when someone (me) provides accolades to another (her) on Twitter, especially someone with a product (her book), its a form of Marketing (for her) that deserves a thank you or a response (to me). However, Ivanka’s book actually provided value to me. My tweet about how great her book is probably provided value on a small scale to her. Its a mutually beneficial transaction.

If you’re a fan of Malcolm Gladwell, strategy, branding, sociology and physics you’ll be familiar with the Tipping Point: ”the moment of critical mass, the threshold, the boiling point”. As Gladwell put it, “ideas and products and messages and behaviors spread like viruses do”. I’d like to draw contextual reference with the Lebanese Elections and how Twitter allowed for its tipping point in the Lebanon’s social web.

Let us start by defining an important epidemic towards a Tipping Point: The Law of the Few

Connectors.

Mavens.

Salesmen.

Twitter enabled a hub of its own for these people to exist, in context of the Lebanese elections. The hub or community led hashtag is called #lebanonelections.

The Connectors are those with a talent of just that, connecting. By connecting people through Twitter (and Facebook), the topic of the Lebanese elections spread like wildfire. You’ve got the bloggers, the Twitter and Facebook e-Vangelists who are connecting the social media dots in Lebanon when it comes to the elections, expanding the collective through dialogue and energy.

The Mavens are those Twitterers you know so well, the kind that will have a link, twitpic or any never seen before piece of news that they usually share firsthand. Let me paint you a picture: after the polls came to a close and just before the announcement of the majority vote for the Lebanese parliament, electoral district (or the equivalent in Lebanon, I speak in Canadian terms sometimes) numbers were already being announced by the Twitter community, or the Mavens to be exact. Gladwell calls them, “people we rely upon to connect us with new information.” And they did just that.

The Salesmen, i.e the charismatic persuaders, were not as evident among the Lebanese elections dialogue on Twitter. The occasional few did emerge with their thoughts, opinions and gentle persuasion towards their political values. They serve a purpose: to instigate a different channel of conversation about the elections, effective in keeping the noise level high.

A couple of events have inspired me to write this blog post, most recently the stepping down of Steve Jobs from Apple (relax, only for a couple of months while he recovers from an impending health concern) and the US Airways crash into the Hudson River, both occurred 2-3 days ago. What I realized is how quick I came to know of these events, and more importantly, how I managed to be informed in such a short period of time. In more traditional times I probably would have been privvy to such news from word of mouth, when I pick up the newspaper on my way to work (which, I have never done but i’m taking you through a typical user journey), or if I just so happen to turn on the TV for some news (which again, I *rarely* have done… work with me here though). Now, not only am I able to be in the know as it happens, I have access to a much richer library of resources to accompany the news: People, Live, Meaningful. I wouldn’t have been able to be part of a real time reporting unless I accompanied Christiane Amanpour from CNN during the siege of Sarajevo, for example. Whilst on Twitter last night, I came across a live Twitpic (a Twitter program that allows you to snap shots on your BB or iPhone, which then automatically embeds itself into a link that you can automatically send through on a Tweet/post.) Anyway, I came across a live Twitpic of someone who was part of the rescue aid for the US Airways crash. He was on a boat approaching the crashed plane, took a photo of what he was approaching and sent it to his followers on Twitter, which virally resulted in me seeing this! This picture was realtime, it was personal. Beat that New York Times!

So what’s the point? There is one. The Financial Times yesterday reported on emerging digital media trends that are prompting agencies to re-think their current brand communications and adjust to the online world. The Institute of Practitioners in Advertising, which will publish the “Social Media Futures” report compiled by Future Foundation next week, has warned that advertising agencies face growth of just 1.2 per cent a year by 2016 if the industry fails to tackle the changes to the media created by sites such as Facebook, YouTube and Twitter.

The article highlights the imminence of next generation reporting through social media, with specifics to Twitter in this case. I think this exemplifies quite nicely the power of conversations online and how this opportunity should affect brand communication agendas. Over and out.