Making history with Facebook & Twitter: Why Clay Shirky’s TED talk affects YOU

Although pretty much every TED Talk is worth listening to, this presentation from Clay Shirky discussing “How Cellphones, Twitter, Facebook can make history” is full of insight and wisdom. After you watch (or listen to) the video below, check out our thoughts on the presentation and let us know what you think.

As he talks about the impact today’s current technology provides to the world, he shares some insight that online marketers should keep in mind when considering which media they want to craft their message and communicate with their audience. As Clay puts it, “These tools don’t get socially interesting until they get technologically boring. It isn’t when the shining new tools show up that their uses start permeating society…it’s when everybody is able to take them for granted.”

Many of us in the online media and marketing industry could be considered early adopters (or something relatively close to that). That doesn’t, however, mean that all of our target audience members think the same way we do.

I think, in this sense, we need to keep in mind that traditional marketing practices should always be considered and implemented in marketing plans. Sure you can set up a Twitter account, but if your product is Cliffs Notes and you’re targeting the lazy resourceful high school English students across the country (with 12-17 year olds only making up around 5% of Twitter users worldwide according to statistics in this PR-2.0 report), you’d probably be better served investing your time into a Facebook fan page or other, more relevant manner of reaching your audience of resourceful teens.

Keep in mind that, while Clay states that “the moment we’re living through is the largest increase in expressive capability in human history,” we still need to remember who will be providing that expressive capability (i.e. the target audience/market) by taking each effort on a project-by-project, campaign-by-campaign basis and ensuring a positive experience for everyone involved.

The point of Clay’s talk is this: Today, right now, in 2009, we have plenty of opportunities to connect with those we want to reach out to and they have plenty of opportunities to exponentially magnify that connection.

The point of this post is this: As marketers, it’s our job to make sure we’re using the right medium, and the right strategy, to make that connection.

So what do you think? Did you feel Clay hit the nail on the head with his TED talk? Do you feel there was an element missing or something you would change? Do you agree with our analysis of the presentation? Let us know in the Comments section below or drop us a line on Twitter at @deepbench.