More Social Media Success Stories
If you are still harboring doubt about the viability of social media, here’s more proof directly from today’s headlines.
In an attempt to undermine the political structure of the United States, the Kremlin created a diabolical plot aimed at subverting the 2016 Presidential Elections with social media.
The plan was simple. An institution created content and information, and developed a foolproof plan of execution – the Internet. The formula is straightforward and one that I have been writing about for a while.
According to reports, Russia-linked accounts sent more than 1.4 million automated tweets about the US elections. Ultimately, to its credit, Twitter suspended these accounts. Furthermore, “fake information” posted on Facebook reached 126 million Americans – about one-third of the population.
Emphasizing how widely content on the social media platform can spread, Facebook said in prepared testimony it submitted Monday, October 30, to the Senate Judiciary Committee that while some 29 million Americans directly received material from 80,000 posts by 120 fake Russian-backed pages in their own news feeds, those posts were “shared, liked and followed by people on Facebook, and, as a result, three times more people may have been exposed to a story that originated from the Russian operation.”
Note what Facebook pointed out: share, like and follow. Content that you create and disseminate via Twitter or Facebook should be shared, liked, followed, or retweeted to win as many views and followers as possible. This means following this procedure 24 hours a day and seven days a week.
Posts from Russian-backed Facebook accounts from January 2015 to August 2017, by Facebook’s estimation, reached potentially half of the 250 million Americans who are eligible to vote. None of the 80,000 posts generated by fake Russian-backed pages includes the 3,000 Facebook advertisements purchased by Russian entities, according to others familiar with the issue.
The shared content that Facebook estimates reached 126 million Americans was likely hard, if not impossible, for users of the social media platform to identify as originating from Russia. But nonetheless it did appear in cyberspace.
Google said in a blogpost yesterday it has discovered 1,108 videos uploaded to its YouTube video site, which were viewed a total of 309,000 times in the U.S. from June 2015 to November 2016, by accounts linked to Russian operatives. The videos encompass 43 hours of content from 18 different English-language accounts, it said. In addition, Google said two accounts linked to the Internet Research Agency spent $4,700 on search and display ads during the 2016 elections.
Tech giants Facebook, Twitter and Google are expected to testify before Congress about Russian disinformation today and Wednesday.
Social media platforms are being vilified for falling prey to destructive Russian propaganda. Indeed, they weren’t careful. While oversight of their activity will not benefit the beneficial commercial and social interaction and intercourse on the Internet, their common task is to step up self-policing.
For small businesses and nonprofits, the lesson here is that social media works. As I have written, all you have to do is create a strategic plan about why you need to be involved in social media, develop content, build a community of followers, formulate a plan of execution and then fulfill it recurrently.
How will you tweet?
Join the conversation in cyberspace about boosting your business and outreach by using Twitter and social media and let me know your achievements. If you have examples of how you tweeted to boost outreach, let me know about it and I’ll help you spread the word about your success.
I’d also like to invite you to visit my Thought Leadership website:
If you’re looking for advice on recruiting, company handbooks and other human resources topics, I’d like to suggest to you this interesting website:
If you’re in northern New Jersey, I’d like to direct your attention to this timely topic: Cyber Resilience seminar at Ramapo College, Ramapo, NJ. Wednesday, November 8. All day. Sponsored by NJ Small Business Administration of Bergen County and Small Business Administration. Admission Free. Registration Required. www.sbdcbergen.com
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