Quite a popular story in the UK at the moment is how Rage against the machine beat X-factor to number one at Christmas. What is amazing is how one facebook page managed to get so much support and realise so much influence that a main stream media X-factor winner was beaten. I am not writing this to discuss whether this is good or bad for Simon Cowell, more that what is evident is if brands thought they could ignore social media and over muscle it through traditional channels they were very much mistaken. This is a clear case of the voice of the consumer speaking through the power of social media and overwhelming and overpowering television , radio and news media.

Social media and the people that use it are not going away, infact on the contrary the number of people using social media is increasing, as are the platforms people use. If your company is not actively monitoring and analysing social media communications, they should be. Shameless plug: we can help!