The Social Media Revolution

Last summer, while working at SAS Institute in Cary, NC, I had the pleasure of attending at seminar on social media. I did not know much about the subject, aside from my personal use and general unfocused clicking on Facebook and LinkedIn; I certainly did not know that there were so many social networks out there or that they were all so different and so extensive. The point of the seminar however was not only to simply discuss social media; it was, in fact, to discuss the impact social media makes on not only individuals as consultants/experts in their fields and as average consumers but also on large corporations and companies, like, for example, SAS. Wayne Sutton of http://socialwayne.com/, the seminar's guest speaker, opened my eyes about the capabilities of social media. The man made a successful business out of the modern-day development and popularity of social media, and he is also the expert on the subject. A YouTube video (insert ironic joke here) on the social media revolution linked here summarizes some of the things he talked about in this presentation.
Per our class discussion the other day, do you still think that social media is ruining our lives and corrupting our minds? I do not think so. I, like Wayne Sutton and many other modern-day business professionals, see it as an OPPORTUNITY! Surely, the way we receive information is changing (and yes, that may be scary and unfamiliar), but some many aspects of our lives - advertising, consulting, information flow, consumer behavior, business strategies, organization of the economy - have just reached a new level - due to the development of social media. It took just one seminar to convince me, and like many others, I have now stopped fearing the internet and agonizing over all the facts that are too personal for me to reveal to the public, and I have now started embracing my digital dossier and actively controlling all of that information that is out there about me. I refuse to see social media a hindrance of progress, and I choose to use it as a tool to my advantage in my career in the future. What do you think? Do you agree with this perspective? Yes? Well, then, join the Facebook group.