Social media is big talk these days. From news stories about the amount of money a social media site is «worth,» to firms scurrying to offer «social media services,» it’s difficult to turn your computer on without seeing or hearing something. But honestly, how do you test the power? After all, the real power of social media is nothing new, it’s word of mouth in a different form. My good buddy Dave (Wingnut) Winget of 10K Things started a neat experiement to test the power of social media about a week ago.

The idea is that Dave created a small video including a picture of the subject of the experiement (a gentleman’s picture) from some social profile. He wants others to blog/Stumble/Digg/Sphinn/whatever-you-can-do to get this video to spread. When said gentleman becomes aware of this experiment and friends (apparently this is a verb now) Dave’s Facebook account, he receives $100.

So far, not much has happened, and it may not seem to be an experiement of helping the bottom line, but it will certainly be interesting. Anything you can do to test a medium, regardless of the perception of the test’s actual «usefulness,» it will provide a greater understanding and open the door to new questions and interesting ways of using said medium.

So, blog about the experiement. Check it out and see if you know this guy. Should be fun to watch.

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