What Would Martin Luther King Do With Social Media?

Dr. King made a huge impact on the world with his passion, revolutionary ideas, inspiring vision and charisma. That combination alone got him and his movement earned media worth hundreds of millions of dollars on network television, major weekly magazines and radio. Many of you might not be old enough to remember, but in those days, if you got on the three major networks (FOX, MTV and hundreds of other channels didn’t exist), the two major newsweekly’s and syndicated radio you reached virtually 100% of the US population.

Creating a movement today is easier in some ways and a lot harder in others. The proliferation of media channels provides a much larger opporutnity to tell your message but the fragmented audience makes it harder to reach people at scale…with earned or paid media. The big plus in building a moment today is the ability, with new technologies and social media, to engage and have a relationship with people on a large scale. We’ve created a three legged stool using paid media, earned media and now social media. Together they make a very powerful combination for a movement as President Obama demonstrated in the 2010 election.

What would Dr. King do with social media?

• Have a blog with RSS and email options to chronicle his thoughts and experiences every day as he moved through the country
• Use an HD video camera to do interviews with world and political leaders he met with, and distribute them on his own social media platforms and video distribution sites like You Tube.
• Post times and dates for events he was having on Meetup.com as well as his website, blog and other media properties he maintained.
• Use Twitter to activate his followers into action as well as read/view his latest posts, videos and articles.
• Listen to the dialogue taking place in the country to identify hot-spots, emerging leaders in his movement and hone his messaging.
• Use his followers to crowd source video, blog posts, articles and other types of media
• Build a list and keep it active with fund raising and fresh ideas

What a man. What a movement!

What else would Dr King do?