A few decades ago, history was made in television and radio live broadcasts, and in newspaper headlines. But since 2004, things have changed, and during the last couple of years, the world’s biggest events are happening and being recorded live, on the screens of our devices.
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The latest to hold a place in social media eternity, is SpaceX. The aerospace manufacturer and space transport services company founded by Elon Musk, is currently running a series of reusable rocket launches that aim bring down the cost of deploying satellites in space. That’s a short and probably flawed version of the story, however, because every successful rocket launch and landing takes the space industry light years ahead.
The latest rocket launch however, was not a success, like countless others before it. During the landing process, not all four legs were deployed successfully, resulting in the rocket tumbling and bursting into flames. This event marked once again the great importance of social media.
Elon Musk not only shared the launch and landing online, but he also posted an exclusive Instagram video of the crash, as it happened. More than 50,000 people liked the video, and almost 8,000 commented on it. This is a prime example of corporate transparency by a C-suite member of a corporation.
To top things off, Musk shared the video on Twitter as well, and at that point the creme-de-la-creme of the entrepreneurial world chipped in. Most notably, Jeff Bezos, the CEO of Amazon, found the opportunity to express his admiration for SpaceX and its founder. To whom, Elon Musk responded graciously:
@JeffBezos @SpaceX Thanks Jeff
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 18, 2016
The point here is not the gallant exchange between industry leaders. What’s most important is that organisations and corporate leaders turn to social media to inform their audience, provide transparency and provide future historians with artefacts.
Both Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk are not the first ones to do so. Facebook’s CEO, Mark Zuckerberg has been sharing with his friends and followers his musings of being a new dad. Also, during 2015, Getty images announced that it would be offering grants to Instagram photographers to record and document stories from underrepresented communities around the world.
Exciting times, indeed!
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