Following is a guest post written by Marco Nunez. Marco is a Program Manager at Direct Impact, a wholly-owned Burson-Marsteller subsidiary that develops grassroots campaigns that achieve local impact for client public affairs, public education and / or corporate reputation initiatives. Marco is also passionate about digital media, both as a consumer and creator of content but also as a strategist. I haven’t met Marco in person (yet), but have gotten to know him via social media and find him to be insightful and a great sounding board for some of my zany thoughts. I hope he’ll post for us again, but in the meantime, here are some of his current thoughts…

Social Media: The Essence of Grassroots Communication

When Erin asked if I would be interested in drafting a guest post addressing grassroots strategies from a “digital perspective” (pun intended, sorry) I jumped at the opportunity.

Until recently, the majority of our relationships have been highly influenced by geography. Since relationships are dependent on the regular communication of thoughts and emotions, this makes perfect sense.

This is the way things have always been.

Chances are that as you were growing up your best friend lived in your neighborhood. As you got older and became more mobile (bicycle, car, etc.), you probably found new friends with whom you shared more in common. Maybe your neighborhood friends went to different schools now or, due to a slight age difference, were in different grades. Whatever the reason, it is likely that your closest circle of friends changed and many of them lived much further away (relatively speaking).

An example: My senior year in high school I was relegated to a “study hall” in the library—population: two. Jason, my partner in solitude (does that make it “dualitude”?), was new to the school, and since we were the only two there we quickly became best friends. Our frequent discussions revealed a common interest in basketball and certain types of music but they also revealed differences. Among many other things, our spatially enabled conversations allowed us to challenge one another’s conceptions and expose each other to new types of music. Through this process, facilitated entirely by geography, we became increasingly similar in some ways and developed a respect for a new point of view in others. (For a more entertaining example re-watch this classic.)

This is the power of proximity.

If you think of the development of relationships in terms of the concepts outlined by Chris Anderson in The Long Tail, the “head” of a relationship curve would be dominated by proximity-reliant factors, while the “tail” would be littered with a nearly infinite array of relationship-builders like passion for music, sports, video games, ideology, watching people fall off of ladders, etc. While the individuals you spend time with physically will still be greatly influenced by geographic considerations, the concepts and abilities foundational to “social media” applications will continue to expand the number of individuals with whom you develop relationships and trust.

For two decades Direct Impact has been a leader in the development of grassroots communications strategies that allow our clients to mobilize influential leaders within communities in support of key messages or goals. An understanding of the importance relationships—built on common social circles, ideologies and interests—has always been central to the grassroots model. The power of this simple concept is what first drew me to the “social media” tools now emerging. These digitally-enabled developments in the way we communicate will continue to evolve and radically alter the way we find, share and evaluate new sources of information.

As you may have seen, there have been several reports over the last few years highlighting the decline of consumers’ trust in sources of information we would consider “mass media.” Top-down, tightly controlled messages, while still powerful means of communicating ideas and information (arguably the most), are being edged off of their pedestal as more and more consumers turn to “people like them” to help mold their thoughts and opinions.

This is the power of “social media.”

Sites like Classmates.com have been around for years but they exhibit severe limitations as you find someone and begin re-acquainting yourselves through letters, phone calls, emails or similar mediums. The conversations are entirely macro-oriented—“I now have a child,” “I am an accountant,” etc. This information is great for recapping the things that have helped you become who you are but do little to shed light on who you really are.

Facebook, on the other hand, possesses the same ability to connect you with former friends or classmates but adds an important element: the ability to share endless little bits of information about yourself, each carrying the potential to strengthen the relationship that you and your former classmate are rebuilding. Along the way you will find yourself exposed to new sources of information, new types of entertainment and, as a result of the trust that has been established, alternate understandings of points-of-view or concepts that were previously foreign to you.

This is the essence of grassroots communications.

Whether you know it or not, there is a very good chance that the ways in which you take in information and develop opinions on its contents are already being altered. Are you taking full advantage of it? Is your company or organization?

This is your chance.