NEW YORK (AdAge.com) — When European adman and author Jonathan Cahill was researching his new book, “Igniting the Brand,” he sifted through 27 years of Advertising Effectiveness Award files, searching for patterns of what worked. But the only pattern that really stood out was the inherent unpredictability of advertising strategies themselves. His findings make him more wary of the industry’s growing excitement about the new “science” of ad planning made possible by digital data.
Social media isn’t really “new.” While it has only recently become part of mainstream culture and the business world, people have been using digital media for networking, socializing and information gathering - almost exactly like now - for over 30 years:
The Phone Phreaking Era (1950’s - Early 90’s)
Early phreaks on “phone trip” to tinker with payphones - image: Mark Bernay (@phonetrips)
Social media didn’t start with computers, it was born on “line” - on the phone. Phone phreaking, or the rogue exploration of the telephone network, started to gain momentum in the 1950’s. Phone phreaks weren’t motivated by fraud, but rather, they were technophiles and information addicts trapped in a telecom monopoly long before Skype or “free nights and weekends” existed. (Calling a friend in another state could rack up a $40/hr charge.)
These early social media explorers built “boxes“… homemade electronic devices that could generate tones allowing them to make free calls and get access to the experimental back end of the telephone system. Phreaks sniffed out telephone company test lines and conference circuits in order to host virtual seminars and discussions.
When your passion is to tell stories, creating images that evoke feelings and relay compelling messages to the viewer is a pleasure. Though I’ve shot many diverse assignments, I find myself drawn to finding unique ways to tell those stories, of where we share special moments, with special people. These are challenges I look forward to every day as I strive to bring complete dedication to the details of light and composition.
Well… social media is content created by people using highly accessible and scalable publishing technologies. At its most basic sense, social media is a shift in how people discover, read and share news, information and content. It’s a fusion of sociology and technology, transforming monologues (one to many) into dialogues (many to many) and is the democratization of information, transforming people from content readers into publishers. Social media has become extremely popular because it allows people to connect in the online world to form relationships for personal and business. Businesses also refer to social media as user-generated content (UGC) or consumer-generated media (CGM).
email2friend
Early phreaks on “phone trip” to tinker with payphones - image: 
