By Roger Martin
May 23, 2012
If you doubt Martin Waymire’s devotion to and expertise in social media, let me tell you about a wedding we attended on May 20.
In urban chic loft space above San Chez in downtown Grand Rapids, our Rose Tantraphol and Scott Swanson exchanged vows before friends and family, including their Martin Waymire colleagues.
Rose and Scott make a cute couple. As different as they are is as alike as they are in some ways that really matter. They both dig terrific music — Radiohead (sorry, I’ve tried but don’t get it), Steve Earle (who I totally get), Lucinda Williams (I’m there too), legendary American slide and Delta blues guitarists (Scott plays slide on a resonator), and more. They love travel, food, and healthy living. Rose teaches Ashtanga yoga. Scott takes Okinawan karate. They salsa dance. How are they different? Most obvious: Scott is quiet, calm, reserved. Rose … well, not so much.
But the glue that really mates these two souls is social media. They are obsessive compulsive social media geeks.
So came the part in the wedding ceremony — following the pastor’s message, the reading of scripture, the exchange of vows and rings — when Scott and Rose fired up their iPhones to simultaneously change their relationship status on their Facebook pages.
Oh yes they did — as witnessed by the Good Lord and the people who matter most to them! After Facebook accepted the updates, Rose and Scott were pronounced man and wife. Only then, in their social media worlds, was their marriage affirmed.
Lest I forget: all information about the wedding (including the invitations) could be found on the couple’s wedding website. To access the site and other related wedding information from our tables at the reception, all guests had to do was use smart phones to swipe the QR code on each table.
Yes social media is to Martin Waymire as cake is to a wedding. And if social media is that important to us, you can bet we make it that important to our clients.
