I watch TED videos from time to time, not because everybody else is talking about it. The reason why I like it so much is because I get innovative and interesting ideas all the time by watching Ted talks. TED stands for “Technology, Entertainment, Design.” There are currently more than 450 TEDTalks available on Ted.com, with more added each week. Today, I went through some of the best social media talks on TED. Here, I’ve picked the top 5 to share. Watch them and you’ll get inspired by the ideas like I did.
1. Alexis Ohanian: How to make a splash in social media
In a funny, rapid-fire 4 minutes, Alexis Ohanian of Reddit tells the real-life fable of one humpback whale’s rise to Web stardom. The lesson of Mister Splashy Pants is a shoo-in classic for meme-makers and marketers in the Facebook age.
2. Clay Shirky: How social media can make history
While news from Iran streams to the world, Clay Shirky shows how Facebook, Twitter and TXTs help citizens in repressive regimes to report on real news, bypassing censors (however briefly). The end of top-down control of news is changing the nature of politics.
3. Seth Godin on the tribes we lead
Seth Godin argues the Internet has ended mass marketing and revived a human social unit from the distant past: tribes. Founded on shared ideas and values, tribes give ordinary people the power to lead and make big change. He urges us to do so.
4. Evan Williams on listening to Twitter users
In the year leading up to this talk, the web tool Twitter exploded in size (up 10x during 2008 alone). Co-founder Evan Williams reveals that many of the ideas driving that growth came from unexpected uses invented by the users themselves.
5. Stefana Broadbent: How the Internet enables intimacy
We worry that IM, texting, Facebook are spoiling human intimacy, but Stefana Broadbent’s research shows how communication tech is capable of cultivating deeper relationships, bringing love across barriers like distance and workplace rules.
