Social Media and Social Circles

When discussing social media, I find it's helpful to liken it to a cliquey high school. In this case, we'll use the school from John Hughes' Pretty in Pink. For those who haven't seen it (and you've had almost 25 years) the school is divided by wealth. The upper class and the working class. However, in a shocking and entirely uncliched plot, one girl, Andie - played by Molly Ringwald - manages to break free from the oppressive social circles and find love with, get this, a boy from the other side of the tracks.

Andie is Twitter.

Photo via behindthehype.com

Although I am constantly told that it is young people who are using social media - an umbrella term which covers Twitter and Facebook - I have a hard time finding anyone my age (20) who is using Twitter. I've spoken to roughly a dozen of my high school friends - the majority of which attend the University of Winnipeg or Manitoba now - and none, that's right, none of them use Twitter. It's hard to believe.

I attribute this to the fact that, like Molly Ringwald's character in Pretty in Pink, Twitter just hasn't been accepted yet. Despite having been launched over 4 years ago, Twitter is still novel, foreign, and a little awkward to most people. In short, it's still uncool.

For example, when I first started using Twitter in September I was criticized - I mean genuinely ridiculed - by a few of my old close friends from high school. To them, Twitter was a place where you could find out what Shaggy's favourite flavour of popsicle is or listen to Ashton Kutcher chirp about how awesome hot yoga is. I'll admit, at first I was skeptical as well, but the merits of Twitter have quickly become apparent to me. But I'll leave it to the professionals to sing Twitter's praises.

Looking at Facebook on the other hand, all of the students I spoke to had an account and used it regularly. They were happy to talk about it, treating it more as an inevitability of life than an actual choice. It's assumed. In fact, when three members of my current class admitted to not "being on" Facebook, it was surprising. Facebook is just there. It's moved beyond the Molly Ringwald phase and into the Ferris Bueller.


So what does this mean for PR practitioners? Well, most importantly, it means that you can't assume that you will be able to reach a large youth audience through Twitter. Sure, you will be able to reach some people - Creative Communications students, for example - but many, perhaps the majority, are still found other places, like Facebook.

I think Twitter will eventually go the way of Facebook. But until then, it's still just Molly Ringwald getting called a "piece of low-grade ass" by James Spader. But then again, even he loves her...