Just When You Thought Social Media Didn’t Matter…

My friend Andre Blackman from Pulse + Signal goes and interviews Andrew P. Wilson (one of the prominent voices of the HHS social media team) in a post called Healthy Discussions: Andrew P. Wilson & Flu.Gov Redesign.

Talk about timing…

Andre does a great interview, and I want to be clear that I’m a big fan of the Government using social tools to assist in the governing process. I thought that the website itself had a bit of an old school static website look and feel to it, but I understand that the information is dynamic.

I’ll tell you what really got my attention, though, was the interactive Google Map that lets you track reported cases of H1N1. (Maybe I just have a thing for Google Maps, huh?)

I think that maps like the interactive flu map are a nice step toward social media mattering. Information may be nice… but information as it relates to the location we, and our loved ones, occupy is nicer. Plus, relational information can be conveyed by reporting information on a map without any extra work or explanation. I can glean where something has happened in relation to me, on a map, just by looking at where the information has been pinned

Very nice.

So how does that make social media matter? First of all, the information pinned on the map is coming from feeds and is re-purposed in an easy to consume format. Second once I understand where something is happening, I can band together with like minded or like affected people and possibly make a difference. It’s still a fuzzy answer, I know, but it’s a start to something that can be big.

I’m interested in getting your take, though. Are interactive maps nothing more than eye candy, or do they hold some kind of key to the future of social media mattering? Please let me know what you think in the comments below.

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