We all know social media is powerful. And yet, there is something even more powerful in calling us to action – social media from influencers.
For this week’s reading Impact of Social Media in Power Relations of Korean Health Activism, we see how endorsement from largely followed individuals such as politician Lee Chung Hee and actress Ku Hye-Sun was a godsend in pushing KLPG’s causes to the masses through social media. However, these endorsements were a result of much effort on KLPG’s side to get the relevant influencers to spread the message to their followers (with great results subsequently).
On the flip side, what about ideas which get organically pushed to the forefront of hot issues in social media, and result in unplanned “benefits” to the relevant organisations? I came across an article talking about how Beyonce’s latest song, Formation, which has viral videos of both her music video and her live performance on last week’s Super Bowl Sunday, unintentionally put a restaurant called Red Lobster into the social media limelight and spiked its sales. All of this was due to a short two lines in her song “When he f*ck me good I take his ass to Red Lobster, cause I slay“, out of a total of ~70 lines.
This example really highlighted the unpredictability of social media to me. Many social media strategists make calculated actions in an attempt to push for sales, awareness, etc. While Beyonce’s Youtube videos on Formation, for the most part, are being interpreted largely to be a statement about Black/ White racial tensions, on the sideline – Red Lobster is benefiting a spike in sales, and has also trended and had a record high number of likes and shares on its posts because of a small and uncoordinated mention.
How do/ should we make sense of this?
Here is the article for reference:
The lyrics of the song:
http://genius.com/Beyonce-formation-lyrics
Beyonce Formation video (contains profanities, please watch at your own discretion!)
SH
Dr. KyuJin Shim's blog 
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