A Few Examples Of Technology Going Mainstream

Two things caught my attention this week on how technology (especially social networking) is making its way into the mainstream.

In today’s USA Today, they compare this year’s Heisman winner (Sam Bradford) with last year’s winner (Tim Tebow).  As it runs through their statistics – age, year, records, first place votes, one jumped out at me – Facebook friends.  They actually compared how many friends the two quarterbacks had in Facebook.  Really…how does that matter?

A few days ago, Michigan’s GOP Chairman Saul Anuzis announced his interest in leading the Republican Party via Twitter.  Who was subscribed to his Twitter feed would be my question?

“It would be suicide for the Republican Party and conservatives to not aggressively embrace technology,” said Matt Lewis, a writer for the conservative Web site Townhall.com. “The world is dramatically changing in the way people get their information and the way they communicate — the party needs to change with it.”

Both examples make the point that these technologies are here to stay and are revoluntionizing the way we think about communications, marketing, personal branding, etc.  Where is healthcare?  When is the last time you saw the CEO of a major insurance plan providing his Twitter feed to the members?  In most cases, you can’t even find contact information for a lot of companies anymore.