Gil Scott-Heron’s classic 1970 hip hop song The Revolution Will Not Be Televised has proven weirdly prophetic. The revolution, as it turns out, will not be televised so much as it will be tweeted. The 18-day protest that ousted Egyptian dictator Hosni Mubarak from office was televised all right. Just not in Egypt. Unless an Egyptian family had a satellite dish they would have never have seen the student-lead revolution that filled their capitol’s square. But thanks to Social Media, the streets of Cairo were filled every day with thousands of anti-Mubarak protestors. Eventually, Mubarak folded.
Even though the government eventually succeeded in shutting down both Facebook and Twitter, it was too little too late. Mubarak had lost the war. And not a shot was fired. So what can you and your brand learn from the demise of a Middle Eastern despot? Tons. Here are three things to consider:
1) You Can Never Control All The Information
It used to be having enough marketing dollars meant your brand could dominate a medium like TV or newspaper. Like the Egyptian government, you could control how the public viewed your brand. Yet, those days are over. People are forming opinions about your brand and they are going one step further. They are sharing their thoughts online. There is no way to stop it. Look at the restaurant reviews. It’s no longer the food editor at the local paper weighing in. It is every Tom, Dick and Harriet––democracy at its purest.
2) Response Must Be Quick and Spot On
Mubarak waited too long to respond, hoping things would blow over. That may have been his undoing. Responses need to come quickly and the message had better be on target. Your customers need to know they are being heard. Get the response wrong and it will come back to bite you.
3) Every Picture Tells a Story
International news crews documented key moments of the protest. Protestors marching across the Kasr al-Nil Bridge actually made the corrupt police forces and their armored tanks back up. So who’s winning now? An impactful visual can quadruple the effectiveness of your marketing dollars. Never forget that.
Bottom line, Social Media is a powerful thing. It is reshaping the world. It is more precise than smart bombs and more effective than tanks. Take it from Mubarak. Don’t ever let it sneak up on you.
