A packaging change by PepsiCo illustrates social media’s growing influence on corporate marketing. Just another example of how consumer behavior is changing the world. With a huge stage called the internet to voice opinions, upload video content and share with friends and foes the opinions they harbor, the citizen journalist can be a dangerous enemy to make.

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The subject of Social Media seems to be a hot topic at the moment. I recently read an interesting blog posting where Peter Shankman CEO of The Geek Factory made some very remarkable comments about Social Media and where it all may be going in the future. He said that someone always has a camera or a laptop switched on and everything you do or say could end up online. That will mean that everyone is now a citizen journalist with a camera and a means to publish.

I found this very interesting especially in light of YouTube’s appointment of a News Manager along with their CitizenNews channel that launched in May. This channel is encouraging ordinary citizens to report on events in their communities and countries, but its ultimate goal is to become a go-to news destination on the web. If you consider this along with estimates from research companies like Forrester Research in the United States, that 40% of all programming will be viewed through the web by the end of 2008, it seems that Peter Shankman’s remarks are not as far off into the future as some would like to believe.