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How Social Networking Is Changing Our World

It’s no longer a question of if? or when? The question now is to what extent? Whether you like texting, Facebook, YouTube or Twitter doesn’t really matter anymore. Social networking is changing our world. The recent uprising by young voters in Iran (nearly 2/3 of the country’s 71 million people are under 30) has instructed the old guard on the power of instant connection and the illusion of controlled information.

Leading well involves actively listening to what people are talking about. Where are people talking? The use of the internet for social networking ranks in the top five media revolutions in the past 500 years (along with moveable type, the telegraph/telephone, recorded sound and moving pictures, and harnessing the electromagnetic spectrum to broadcast media), says TED presenter Clay Shirky. Shirky states:

These tools don’t get socially interesting until they get technologically boring. It isn’t when the shiny new tools show up that their uses start permeating society. It’s when everybody is able to take them for granted.

Watch this compelling and informative 17 minute video to see why this matters to you and your team. Show it at your next staff meeting and ask: How should this affect the ways we serve our clientele?

By Ken

Dr. Ken Cochrum (DMin, Bethel University) is Vice President of Global Digital Strategies at Cru (formerly Campus Crusade for Christ) in Orlando, Florida. An avid cyclist and aspiring guitarist, he also holds a degree in Mechanical Engineering from The University of Texas and a Masters of Arts in Biblical Studies from Dallas Theological Seminary. He recently co-founded Indigitous.org, a movement passionate about connecting people to Jesus using digital strategies. He previously served as vice president of Cru’s student-led movements worldwide. He and his wife Ann spent 13 years in East Asia where they raised their two children. Ken blogs regularly at www.onleadingwell.com.

2 replies on “How Social Networking Is Changing Our World”

Great stuff here. I pray our organization pays attention to this instead of relying on our own CCC “Maginot line” (we can reach the world one person to one person at a time)

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