Sounds outlandish I know, Social media is the solution to all of our problems. This simply can’t be true, can it? Well it really just depends on how deep in to the rabbit hole you want to look. We are all aware of the rage surrounding it at the moment, you can’t turn on the TV, pick up a paper or talk to a friend without Twitter, Facebook or Youtube being mentioned. There are so called “experts” popping up left right and centre and their is a new site almost every hour.

According to Wikipedia this is what the term “Silver Bullet” means:
The term has been adopted into a general metaphor, where “silver bullet” refers to any straightforward solution perceived to have extreme effectiveness. The phrase typically appears with an expectation that some new technology or practice will easily cure a major prevailing problem.

So how can this be related to Social Media? It is not exactly straight forward with so many platforms out there to use. But there has been a clear problem in the world, the lack of effective communication between countries, governments to citizens, companies to consumers, so on and so on.

Communication is the key. We all live fast and frenetic lives, always on the run and never a spare moment to sit down and catchup with people we haven’t spoken to in 6 months. And we always complain we never have enough time to talk to everyone in our lives. Social Media has enabled us to communicate, engage and collaborate with the wider world like nothing ever seen before.

Not only are these tools helping connect with lost friends and relatives, but also the business world is using social media to connect and communicate in ways we only dreamed of 10 years ago. I now know more people in my industry then I did 2 years ago, and that’s not locally, that’s globally, all due to social media. The fact you are even reading this article right now is full testament to that.

Without communication we have nothing. Without the ability to tell people our stories, share our wealth of knowledge and experience we do not grow as a society or as human beings.

There have been many people pitch, state and scream to the world that social media is not a silver bullet. Well in my mind your not thinking laterally enough and probably trying to protect some other revenue stream of your own, hello newspapers, job boards (although JB’s just need to get more social).

The key to using social media all comes down to your approach. There are so many methods making up the “bucket” of social media that it can be hard to know where to begin. For those who “get it”, know its a very powerful communication and engagement platform. We know that we can reach a wide audience and have our voices heard and people will in turn talk with us.

Social Media was a catalyst to help promote change with Obama, it has allowed the rest of the world to know what is going in Iran when all other media outlets have been banned. We saw lives saved in the Mumbai attacks with hostages using it to inform police of the location of the terrorists via Twitter. It has allowed communication to flow far more freely and for people to connect and engage with each other in way that we only dreamed of 10 years ago. It’s a powerful tool that can deliver powerful outcomes.

Now is that not the silver bullet that everyone has been so desperately trying to find?