Last night I was busy watching, along with millions of other people from around the world, President Obama’s State of the Union address.  Not only was his presentation inspiring and a call to action for every American, it was also the most heavily Twittered State of the Union ever.  At one point, by my count, over 700+ tweets were rolling in every second about the speech.  Even members of Congress were in on the act.

Regardless of what you think of Obama (and for the record, I’m a big O-man fan), what took place last night – and all throughout the 2008 election – is a sign of how the social landscape has changed.  In years past it would take hours, sometimes days, for researchers and survey firms to tabulate how people felt about an event such as this.  Even then, they were highly limited in what they could measure.  It was impossible to measure second-by-second response, and you only got a few people which (you hoped) represented the masses.  It was time consuming, inaccurate and limited.

Fast forward to 2009 and the social networks have transformed how we view any event, political or not.  Almost instantaneous reaction to the different parts of Obama’s speech flew through the Twittersphere.  Facebook and CNN provided a direct link so you could not only watch online, but also provide real-time feedback of what you thought.  Responses and reactions by the masses were available within seconds, not days.  The Whitehouse blog (let’s not forget this is the first Administration with a blog!) was updated with video and transcripts of the speech within minutes of it ending.  You just know that Obama’s administration was keeping tabs on what worked – and what didn’t.

We now live in a digitally connected world in which our social networks are a part of us just as much as the networks we form with our family, co-workers and “offline” friends.  No longer is it acceptable to “wait for the data” or to claim that you aren’t sure of how something played out in the marketplace.  We no longer need the polltakers or the research firms to tell us how the world reacted – we know how they reacted, and we are a part of that reaction.

The transformation to social media is still in the early stages, but nobody can deny it has already crossed the point of no return – and let’s be honest, who would want to return to the old way?  We know the value of being active in the social media; and we know what happens if we aren’t.    This is the golden era for the 3rd generation of marketing – and it’s exciting to watch it all unfold.

Think I’m off base or right on the money?  You could leave a comment, but how about dropping me a tweet instead?