Here’s a chart of the DJIA from today after the Associated Press’s twitter account was hacked and a fake tweet about a White House attack put out, temporarily sending the markets plunging 130 points.
The Stock Market Crash on AP Tweet 4/23/2013 via @MikeIsaac @jlgolson @AlexJamesFitz
Sure it’s an extreme example and yes, the markets do jump on the slightest whisper, but if the entire investment community is that glued to social, to a single report from a third party source, isn’t it fair to say the every day individual might listen to the people they follow too?
Social is not about Facebook, Twitter, Google+ or any other network in particular. It’s not to chase the number of likes, fans or reposts that one can get. It’s about people’s trust. We follow our friends, our family, and people or brands that we find interesting, amusing, or credible. We see their comments time in and time out and from that all, we pick what we want to pursue. When someone we chose follow shares it’s more authentic than any random source’s tweet to us, more credible than what a brand ad could ever say and more memorable than just about any other medium. If social has enough influence, enough visibility, and enough trust to crash an entire market, even if just for a few minutes, it can sure get us to think about one logo, one purchase.
Sure we should continue to explore and quantify social ROI like we do with any other part of our business but to question it’s value… The question is how can anyone justify not participating at this point?
Related links:
U.S. Stocks Tank Briefly In Wake of Associated Press Twitter Account Hack – AllThingsD
