Like: #occupywallstreet

It's here. After the social media revolution brought us the highly praised Arab Spring, it is now bringing us its anti-capitalist counterpart: the Occupy Wall Street movement. Whether we like it or not.

Called by the Canadian magazine Adbusters.org with the post "Are you ready for the Tahrir moment?", protesters have been occupying Zuccotti Park in Lower Manhattan in New York City since September 17. As a protest against social inequality in the United States, as the voice of the 99 percent of the population "who will no longer put up with the greed and corruption of 1 percent of the population". So far so good, I assume dozens of such demos take place in NYC every day. However, this action is now in its second month and has become a model for similar actions in numerous cities in the United States and around the world: Zurich, Rome, London and Berlin are just some of the offshoots of the protest. A total of 1500 events took place in 82 countries. Why this success?

The movement is accused of having no "real" message, no manifesto, no concrete goals. My question is: "Does this make the movement more harmless or more dangerous?" What we are currently experiencing is a historic moment. Because what we welcomed in North Africa is now about to happen to us: a protest that is becoming a cultural phenomenon. A peaceful protest that is intended to bring about political change. And this without wanting to address a specific target group other than ordinary "people". My question is: "Is there still such a thing as a target group?" Take a look on the streetcar and see who owns an iPhone. #occupywallstreet appeals to people of different ages, races, lifestyles and political orientations. Just like the iPhone. Just like Facebook. Just "people".

I am not here to pass judgment on the movement or its motivations. After all, this column is about social media. And these people know a lot about it. Because although they have no structure and no organization in the true sense of the word, they make better use of social media opportunities than any traditional corporation. And regardless of the outcome: The benchmark has been reset.

A few examples. An organically grown Facebook page with over 230,000 fans and a Twitter profile with over 80,000 followers are just the starting point. The movement goes even further and plays the entire keyboard. Or rather, it uses the entire long tail of communication. Be it with the free app "Vibe", which enables demonstrators to send anonymous messages. With the content aggregator Storify (sound, text, images and video can be easily collected and shared again), with the event planning tool MeetUp (because occupations are always an event too) or with the Tumblr blog (very intuitive and easy to use), which gives a voice to the 99 percent scattered all over America. And because you should also have something to read while occupying, the organizers also launched their own newspaper. Yes, a real newspaper. Printed. Old school. Simply different. Because the newspaper was financed through the crowdfunding platform Kickstarter.com. For your information: The target was USD 12,000. However, almost 1700 supporters donated more than USD 75,000. Do you know of a company that operates so consistently in social media without a CEO?

It's no longer about finding the lowest common denominator (as is the case with the mass media), but about talking to those who are really interested. And that you provide them with content that is relevant. The demonstrators have understood this. And your company?