Wael Ghonim a Google executive and one of the key organizers of the uprising who was detained and held by Egyptian authorities for 12 days. Ghonim helped organize the revolution on Facebook by creating a government protest group and joining several other groups in addition to actively tweeting with his "group members" on where and when to meet and the importance of peaceful protest. He plans to write a book about the effect of social media on political activism called "Revolution 2.0."
Although random and individual Facebook "Likes" and Twitter "Followers" may not represent a general consensus about any given product or idea, Egypt's "revolution 2.0" has demonstrated that social media can be a very powerful tool, medium, or platform for individuals of a similar mindset to speak out in favor or against an idea, product, company, or in Egypt's case, governments. Sharon Waxman from WaxWord.com accredits the organized protests to "visionary products created by Mark Zuckerberg at Facebook and Evan Williams at Twitter" as the backbone of what is becoming a regional revolution and the modern day communications that are undoing what decades of repression wrought.
So does social media need "connections" to be effective? Yes! Beyond a doubt, no brand or organization will be able to foster the kind of cult-like loyalty that brands like Starbucks, Whole Foods, or Chipotle have been able to achieve on product alone. Connections require emotion to bear weight.
Cheers,
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