Pop Culture Christens Social Media

I was watching the Simpson's this weekend when I saw this little gem. Mark Zuckerberg made a "cameo" appearance on the show this week. Even better, he's a cartoon character who's "Facebooking" (just made up a word). This episode appeared on the same weekend the "Social Network," which features a less likable depiction of Zuckerberg, came to theatres.

Coincidence or conspiracy theory? Who knows?

We do know the movie boasted a pretty good opening weekend draw, spawned a copycat picture, and is receiving Oscar buzz and critical acclaim.

Whether or not you believe the two are an evil marketing plot, it all confirms one thing - Facebook, and thus social media as a whole, has officially been christened as part of pop culture. It may sound crazy, but the fact someone is willing to turn Zuck into a cartoon character on a long-running and popular television show, and that the characters on that show are using Facebook, AND that the movie was number one this weekend goes to prove that social media is relevant. People care about it and it has become a fixture in our lives. It's no longer just for kids. It's a viable platform for communication and business. It's a piece of Americana. It's not a fad and guess what? It doesn't appear to be going away anytime soon.

In my business I often encounter people who say I don't want to get into Facebook or "the Twitter" (I love when people say "the Twitter"). When it comes from a business owner's mouth I'm stunned. Twitter and Facebook alone boast over 600 million users. That's just two of the hundreds of social networking sites out there. Even if you account for overlapping, that's still an incredible fount of potential customers, donors, and users of your products and services. Cutting social networking out of your online marketing strategy is essentially cutting off a very viable source of new business.

This is not an endorsement of Facebook or for Zuckerberg. Love him or hate him (and there are definitely people on both sides of that camp), he's changed the way we communicate and do business forever. I mean seriously, in 20 years how many real life CEOs have you seen on the Simpsons? Yeah, me neither. Guess its just a matter of time before we see the Twitter movie and an appearance on the Simpsons for Jack Dorsey.