Power Distance (A primer for passion)

Social media are shrinking to new lows the power distance-- the extent to which the less powerful members of institutions and organizations expect and accept that power is distributed unequally.

Examples:

• Both the Pope and the President of the United States have YouTube pages.
• Doritos allows user-submitted content to appear as a Super Bowl commercial.
• My local newspaper features user comments as high as the byline.
• Mothers angry about a Motrin campaign Tweeted the ads right off the air.
• You can read the Bible in any language-- free online.
  

I can hear the Schoolhouse Rock song as I write: "The shot heard around the world was the start of the revolution."

Power distance is low . . . time to respond!

How, you ask?

1. Get your cause right.
2. Figure out who wants to hear it.
3. Fire.
4. Aim.
5. Fire again.

If you hit something, you'll know. People are naturally passionate; even apathy is a passion, ya know . . . your job is to find out where their passion lies and how to harness it in practical ways.

CAUTION: Using the old rules of broadcast media do not work with social media-- a noted cult of generosity. To get, ya gotta give. A lot. This is what we call "value-based offerings."

I have noticed the Facebook chatter begin to build as:
1) More users join. Opening the "Book" to non-university students catapulted FB into a clear #1.
2) Applications add functionality.
3) Causes mobilize the bourgeois to movement.

How do you cut through the clutter? Give! Recognize people are naturally selfish, and give them what they want.

That's all for today. Shalom, my revolutionary brethren.