Book 6 – The Dragonfly Effect

The Social media that we use on our everyday life is a powerful tool. The book, The Dragonfly Effect, teaches every day people to achieve their goals in life by using social media tools that will make a positive change in our living environmental. The Internet, e-mail, texting, Facebook, Twitter, Flicker, LinkedIn, and YouTube – the list goes on – enables us to tap into these media to obtain the support of others. The intention is to create a social change or a movement that will empower others to take action.

The authors, Jennifer Aaker and Andy Smith with Carlye Adler use a new image of symbolism, the dragonfly – a symbol of change, and builds upon this concept to create a framework of how to make a change for the social good. The Dragonfly Effect creates a platform for us to embrace the true power of the social media to capture a mass audience at little or no cost. The idea is that a single goal can be accomplished by taking the necessary steps to execute a successful outcome. To be successful at using the social media, the authors introduce a model of the dragonfly’s four wings:

Wing 1: Focus / concentrate on a single out-come rather than “thinking big”
Wing 2: Grab attention / impress through originality or take people by surprise, get noticed by your target audience.
Wing 3: Engage / get your target audience emotionally involved in your cause (Engage is arguably the most challenging of the four wings, because engaging others is more of an art than a science and has little to do with logic or reason)
Wing 4: Take action / spur your audience to actually act on behalf of your cause,

To sum up, the Dragonfly Effect demonstrates that one doesn’t need money or power to cause seismic social change. With the energy, focus, and a good wireless connection, anything is possible. As an example, as we all know the demonstrates that have taken place in Middle East they were supported widely with the social media such as facebook or youtube.

Regards,
Anri