The Real News Behind Charlie Sheen Going Live Tonight on Ustream

Regardless of what you think of him or about what is going on with him in the news right now,  actor Charlie Sheen made a powerful statement about just how game-changing social media is when he grabbd his Twitter account with 1.8 million followers and told people to meet him LIVE online tonight. The traditional press did not give him a forum, but he created his own forum. Now, he has become a story and the traditional press HAS to cover him. In a backhanded way he demonstrated the strategy that is continuing to gain traction today and is putting more people and organizations in charge of their message more than ever before. 

Again, you have to put aside the Sheen controversy and look at what he did with two simple tools -- he announced to "the world" when he was broadcasting ("meet me...") and then he did his own private broadcast ("I don't need 'real' news people...") and managed to say whatever it was he wanted to say to whoever was interested. I won't even attempt to be a judge of that. The audience at its zenith reached about 10% of the Twitter followers, which does not sound like very much. But now the whole event is a "story" all over the news and for those who did not "tune in," his message is still available to them as well.

Every day, large organizations (even smaller ones, and especially a smaller ones) with a legitimate message are getting more comfortable with this approach every day and the middle man ("the filer") continues to be cut out of the process. The upshot is that social media is not about reaching everyone. It's about reaching everyone who may be interested.  You may want to read this.