460 Part 4 Public Speaking
- “Friending” people, groups, and even brands and “liking”
certain posts - It’s not official until it’s “Facebook official.”
D. Social media sites let us proclaim to the world, “This is who I am.”
Transition: Even so, rate of growth surprising.
II. Growth rate of social media sites is astronomical.
A. [Show slides] Marcia Clemmit’s 2010 CQ Researcher article
on social networking, Facebook had over one million mem-
bers in 2005—just one year after its launch. - Associated Press May 2013 article put the number of ac-
tive Facebook users at over 1.16 billion members. Four
times the population of the United States.
B. Shea Bennett, editor of the Mediabistro blog AllTwitter,
in an October 2013 article, listed Twitter at 218 million active
users in June 2013.
C. People around the world define themselves socially and answer
the question, “Who am I?” on social media sites.
Transition: Social movement organizations have taken note.
III. Organizations of all kinds use social media to get their messages
across to global consumers and spur their members into action.
A. Princeton.edu defines social movements as “a group of people
with a common ideology who try together to achieve certain
general goals.”
B. Consider Occupy Wall Street and the Tea Party. - Both communicate their messages and build support
through social media sites, for example, link to petitions. - Nonprofit organization Social Movement Technologies
helps individual social movement organizations get out
their message.
C. Activists use social media to motivate like-minded people to
get into the fight.
D. Example: Austin Lee, seventeen-year-old skateboarder from
St. Cloud, Minnesota, wanted a skate park. - Facebook posting gathered 1,085 members to group,
some even went to city council meetings. - David Unze of USA Today reported that Lee won the
approval—and $500,000—for his skate park (2010).
Transition/Internal Summary: Today hope I’ve shown you skyrocketing
use no accident.
Conclusion
I. Positive sense of social identity through group affiliation drives
popularity of social media sites.
II. Social media sites allow us to communicate, express, and identify
with one another in ways that encourage affiliation as well as action.
III. Remember the impact of group affiliations when you post online.