The document discusses the significant impact of social media on politics and social movements. It provides examples of how social media helped Barack Obama get elected in 2008 through innovative online strategies. It also describes how social media played a key role in revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt during the Arab Spring uprisings in 2011 by helping spread awareness and organize protests. Further, it outlines how social media was used by the Occupy Wall Street and India Against Corruption movements to connect people and amplify their causes.

1. iCampusPart
Revolution, Politics and the Social Medianers

2. The Pieces
1. What the #@$%!)* is Social Media ?
2. Stats & Facts
a) Global
b) APAC & India
c) Facebook & Twitter
3. Significant Impact
a) Political
b) Revolutions
c) Awareness
4. Dark Side of the Moon
5. Think…

3. 1. Define

4. What is Social Media?
 Social Media are the platforms that enable the interactive web by engaging users to
participate in, comment on and create content as means of communicating
with their social graph, other users and the public.
 Social media has the following characteristics:
 Encompasses wide variety of content formats including text, video,
photographs, audio, PDF and PowerPoint. Many social media make use of these
options by allowing more than one content alternative.
 Allows interactions to cross one or more platforms through social sharing,
email and feeds.
 Involves different levels of engagement by participants who can create,
comment or lurk on social media networks.
 Facilitates enhanced speed and breadth of information dissemination.
 Provides for one-to-one, one-to-many and many-to-many communications.
 Enables communication to take place in real time or asynchronously over time.
 Is device indifferent. It can take place via a computer (including laptops and
netbooks), tablets (including iPads, iTouch and others) and mobile phones
(particularly smartphones).
 Extends engagement by creating real-time online events, extending online
interactions offline, or augmenting live events online.
Source: http://heidicohen.com/social-media-definition/

5. A few good words….

6. 2. Stats & Facts
Global View
APAC & India
Facebook & Twitter

7. Stats & Facts - Footprints
Source: http://www.digitalbuzzblog.com

8. Stats & Facts - APAC & India
Source: http://www.digitalbuzzblog.com

9. Stats & Facts - Facebook
Source: http://www.digitalbuzzblog.com

10. Stats & Facts - Twitter
140 characters say a
lot !
Source: http://www.digitalbuzzblog.com

11. Stats & Facts - Twitter (contd.)
Source: http://www.digitalbuzzblog.com

12. 3. Significant Impact
Political
Revolutions/Awareness

13. Political : The Big O Campaign !
Obama vs. McCain
2X 4X 5X 10X
Web YouTub Facebo Online
site e ok Staff
traffic Viewer Friends
 Obama was the first to s
weave technology and the Internet into the
fabric of his electoral campaign
 The Obama campaign had a core online team of 11 people with a
total staff of 30, a number that climbed even higher toward the end of
the cycle.
 Important to note that Obama was not on every social network: he
selected the most significant and important platforms in which to
participate.
 Obama limited his official presence to 15 and leveraged these
platforms to direct people to the MyBO Web site, where the campaign
had a greater ability to channel people to the specific activities and
causes that were deemed the most important to fulfilling the
campaign‘s electoral strategy.
Source: edelman.com

14. (contd.) In Numbers:
13 million people on the e-mail list
E-mail
Who received 7,000 variations of more than 1 billion e-mails
3 million online donors
Donors
Who contributed 6.5 million times
Social 5 million ―friends‖ on more than 15 social networking sites
Networks 3 million friends on Facebook alone
8.5 million monthly visitors to MyBarackObama.com (at peak)
2 million profiles with 400,000 blog posts
Web site
35,000 volunteer groups that held 200,000 offline events
70,000 fundraising hubs that raised $30 million
Nearly 2,000 official YouTube videos
Video Watched more than 80 million times, with 135,000 subscribers
442,000 user-generated videos on YouTube
3 million people signed up for the text messaging program
Each received 5 to 20 messages per month
Mobile
Phone Calls 3 million personal phone calls placed in the last
four days of the campaign
Source: edelman.com

15. (contd.) And Mobile too:
 The campaign used major announcements to drive
people to the mobile platform, such as Obama‘s
choice of Senator Joe Biden as his running mate,
which Nielsen Mobile has quantified as the
largest mobile marketing event in the United
States to date.
 The campaign sustained interest through 5 to 20
targeted messages each month.
 For instance, supporters could text questions about
polling places and receive quick responses from the
campaign.
 More than 30,000 people signed up from within
Denver‘s Mile High Stadium while waiting to hear
Obama‘s acceptance speech during the Democratic
National Convention.
 The campaign also released a free iPhone
application in October that gave people up-to-date
campaign information and organized its contacts to
highlight phone numbers for people in key
Source: edelman.com

16. Revolutions : The Arab Spring
Tunisia – the first Domino
 The protests began in December 2010 with a college-educated street
vendor‘s (Mohamed Bouazizi‘s) self-immolation in despair at the
corruption and joblessness.
 He died from the burns, but his protest, despite Tunisia‘s strict web
“Yet by late Friday night [1/7/11],fanned by online Internet tools.
censorship laws, was rapidly Tunisian
Facebook pages previously emblazoned with
the revolt’s slogan, “Ben Ali, Out,” had made
way for the name of the interim president.
“Ghannouchi Out,” they declared…. And the
protesters relied heavily on social media Web
sites like Facebook and Twitter to circulate
videos of each demonstration and issue calls for
the next one “ - NYT
―Other social media aspects of the revolution
included Twitter updates with stories of state
oppression, police brutality and unrest, and
tweet feeds of imminent street
protests…. Over 30,000 videos have now
been placed on YouTube tagged ―Sidi
Bouzid.‖ [Online Social Media, 1/18/11 story]

17. Revolutions : The Arab Spring
Egypt
―People, I'm going to Tahrir Square
today‖,
- Asmaa Mahfouz
―Freedom is a bless that deserves
fighting for it‖ – Wael Ghonim
Started the FB page: ‗ We are all
Khalid Said‘
 Emboldened by the overthrow of Tunisia‘s Ben Ali, the protests spread to Egypt over
one year ago on January 25, 2011 where opposition leaders declared it a ―Day of
Rage‖ on which protesters would take to the street against President Hosni Mubarak‘s
30-year rule
 More than 90,000 people signed up on a Facebook page for the protests

18. Revolutions : The Arab Spring
Mubarakk responded by engaging in Internet Censorship. Internet & cell phone
services were disrupted .
“[With the internet crackdown,] President Hosni Mubarak betrayed his own fear —
that Facebook, Twitter, laptops and smartphones could empower his opponents,
expose his weakness to the world and topple his regime. There was reason for Mr.

19. Awareness : From Tahrir Square to Times Square -
OWS
 The movement started in Southern
Europe, particularly in Greece and
Spain. Then the USA joined the
movement, dubbed Occupy Wall
Street.
 The protesters use social networks, blogs
and websites — such as Occupy Wall
Street, Occupy Together and Ad
Busters — to connect people all around
the country
 The Occupy Wall Street movement is
a really interesting hybrid of
―traditional‖ and social media, ―real‖
and virtual gatherings.

20. Awareness : IAC
A team of IT experts ran the India Against Corruption campaign‘s main website
along with 14 city-centric websites round-the-clock. They also monitored TV
channels and posted videos on the internet to create a buzz across the globe
A first of its kind movement in India which effectively harnessed the
power web & mobile
Launched iPhone & Android apps

21. Awareness : IAC
Another team ensured that the
latest information about Hazare
was posted on social networking
sites such as Facebook (nearly
514,000 likes by early September)
and Twitter @janlokpal, (more
than 140,000 by early September).
His video from Tihar jail has had
163,000 views.

22. Awareness : IAC
Source: http://www.afaqs.com

23. Awareness : IAC
Source: http://www.afaqs.com

24. Key Insights
Social & Political Theorist Jon Elster describes it
thus…
 A core group of committed activists get together to ―do something completely
crazy.‖
 The government cracks down, and this behavior makes people who are
sympathetic to the cause ―rally to the support of the crazy ones.‖
 As the protests continue and it looks as though they might have some
tangible effect, at some point ―it seems worth it even for just normal
reasonable people to start joining in.‖
Social media helps create an “information
 Eventually, the protests become so large that ―even their opponents pretend
cascade”
to be part of them, so as not to be on the wrong side of history.‖
helps dissent reach a Tipping Point
helps mobilize the protestors
increases National & International exposure
undermining the regime’s legitimacy

25. 5. Dark Side of the Moon
London Riots
To The Contrary?

26. The London Riots

27. To the Contrary
―The Revolution shall not be tweeted‖ – Malcom Gladwell
“Campaigns propagated by these platforms worked simply because they
didn't ask too much of participants. Worse, he believed participants tented to
act only when actions didn't involve financial or personal risk, and when they
were guaranteed social acknowledgment.”
 Successful social movements long pre-dated social media.
 East Germany overturned a government when only 13% had landline phones.
 Arab Spring uprisings are occurring in places like Yemen & Syria with low rates of
Internet penetration.
 Journalist Anthony Shadid comments on Syria that: ―It‘s not a Twitter or Facebook
revolution. The revolution is in the streets, and it smells of blood.‖
 It‘s the power of three – the Satellite TV + Internet + Social Media
 Social media spawns Anarchy … revolutions need to be followed by Evolutions.

28. Open House : Revolutions are born on the Streets, not
on Facebook !
Thank
You!